GRUB freezes system at boot - need config help

[devi0s]

Summarry:

When I power on my computer and select Linux from my Win2K bootloader, my screen \
displays 'GRUB' at the top and my system freezes.

Pertinent System Configuration:

ASUS A7v Motherboard
Normal IDE Controller on-board ("normal controller")
IDE Channel 1
Master - hda - hard disk
hda1, primary partition, ntfs, win2k install
Slave - hdb - hard disk
hdb1 - primary partition, ntfs, win2k storage dir
IDE Channel 2
Master - hdc - cdrom reader - hdc=ide-scsi
OnBoard Promise ATA-100 Controller
ATA/IDE Channel 1
Master - hde - hard disk
hde1 - pri partition, /boot, ext2, gentoo 1.4rc1
hde2 - pri partition, swap, gentoo 1.4rc1
hde3 - pri partition, /, ext3, gentoo 1.4rc1
Slave - hdf - hard disk
hdf1 - pri partition, /boot, ext3, gentoo 1.4rc2
hdf2 - pri partition
hdf5 - ext partition, swap, gentoo 1.4rc2
hdf6 - ext partition, ext3, /, gentoo 1.4rc2
hdf7 - ext partition, ext3, /root, gentoo 1.4rc2
hdf8 - ext partition, ext3, /home, gentoo 1.4rc2
ATA?IDE Channel 2
Master - hdg - cdrw - hdg=ide-scsi

Description of Problem:

In my boot.ini file in Windows, I have two entries that each point to files created \
in the following way:

dd if=/dev/hde1 bs=512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/gentoo1.bin
dd if=/dev/hdf1 bs=512 count=1 of=/mnt/floppy/gentoo2.bin

For the hde entry, everything works perfectly. The grub configuration file on that \
drive is as follows:

default=0
timeout=30
splashimage=(hd2,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 1.4 RC1 (2.4.20)
root (hd2,0)
kernel (hd2,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hde3 apm=off hdg=ide-scsi vga=791
title=Gentoo Linux 1.4 RC1 (2.4.19)
root (hd2,0)
kernel (hd2,0)/boot/bzImage-2.4.19 root=/dev/hde3 apm=off hdg=ide-scsi \
vga=791 title=Winblows 2000 (Sux)
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

When I select the hdf entry from the Win2K boot menu, IT does NOT work. The \
configuration file for THAT drive is as follows:

default=0
timeout=30
splashimage=(hd3,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux 1.4_rc2 Stage 1 Build Up
root (hd3,0)
kernel (hd3,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hdf6 hdc=ide-scsi hdg=ide-scsi apm=off \
vga=791 title=Winblows 2000
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

As you can see, they look very similar... And yet they do not work.

Here is some more information. I made a boot floppy as described in the gentoo x86 \
install document for the gentoo on hdf.

The boot floppy brings me to a grub prompt. If I type

'root (hd3,0)'

and then type

'kernel (hd3,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hdf6 hdc=ide-scsi hdg=ide-scsi apm=off \
vga=791'

and then type

'boot'

everything works PERFECTLY. Alternatively, if I type

'configfile (hd3,0)/boot/grub/grub.conf'

everything again works PERFECTLY... I even get the nice little splashimage.

If anyone could help me out on this one, please post your suggestions. I am in dire \
need of assistance here and would greatly appreciate the help.

devi0s
devios@comcast.net

[devi0s]

Devi0s wrote:

> When I power on my computer and select Linux from my Win2K bootloader,
> my screen displays 'GRUB' at the top and my system freezes.

Have you updated GRUB recently? This looks much like what happened to
me after a kernel source upgrade, here's what I did to get it back.
Probably completely OTT, but it worked:

* rm -r /boot
* mkdir /boot, copied my backup kernel to it
* Remerged GRUB
* Compiled a new kernel
* Edited grub.conf again, recreated soft link to menu.lst
* dd'ed the dummy boot sector for the NT bootloader
* Booted into XP first
* Edited boot.ini to include the fresh dummy boot sector file

Good luck
Ulrich Plate


--
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--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
List: gentoo-user
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] GRUB freezes system at boot - need config help
From: Devi0s <devios () comcast ! net>
Date: 2003-01-23 1:48:02
[Download message RAW]

**Ulrich Plate wrote:

> Have you updated GRUB recently?

This is a fresh gentoo install so it has the most recently available grub install... \
fresh stage 1 install from the git-go in accordance with the gentoo x86 install \
instructions.

In any case, thank you for your response but I am still plugging away...

Devi0s

[devi0s]

root@devios root # cat /mnt/newgentoo/etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
# $Header: /home/cvsroot/gentoo-src/rc-scripts/etc/fstab,v 1.10 2002/11/18 19:39:22 azarah Exp $
#
# noatime turns of atimes for increased performance (atimes normally aren't
# needed; notail increases performance of ReiserFS (at the expense of storage
# efficiency). It's safe to drop the noatime options if you want and to
# switch between notail and tail freely.

# <fs> <mountpoint> <type> <opts> <dump/pass>

# NOTE: If your BOOT partition is ReiserFS, add the notail option to opts.
/dev/hdf1 /boot ext3 noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/hdf6 / ext3 noatime 0 1
/dev/hdf7 /root ext3 noatime 0 2
/dev/hdf8 /home ext3 noatime 0 2
/dev/hdf5 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,ro 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0

# glibc 2.2 and above expects tmpfs to be mounted at /dev/shm for
# POSIX shared memory (shm_open, shm_unlink). Adding the following
# line to /etc/fstab should take care of this:
# (tmpfs is a dynamically expandable/shrinkable ramdisk, and will use almost no
# memory if not populated with files)

tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

[devi0s]

no one can help me with this one?

[devi0s]

On Thursday 23 Jan 2003 18:23, Joel Wright wrote:
> I had this problem last time I installed. I fixed the problem by
> installing an older version of grub (i.e. 0.90 or 0.91 rather than
> 0.92)
>
> good luck,
> Joel.
>
> Devi0s wrote:
> > **Ulrich Plate wrote:
> >> Have you updated GRUB recently?
> >
> > This is a fresh gentoo install so it has the most recently available
> > grub install... fresh stage 1 install from the git-go in accordance
> > with the gentoo x86 install instructions.
> >
>
I had this problem when I upgraded to grub-0.93.20030118. I fixed it by
chrooting from another partition, typed grub in root konsole and
reinstalled grub.
--
Gentoo-1.4.2.8 Unstable. KDE: 3.1.0 (RC6) Qt: 3.1.0
AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1900+ 512MB. Kernel: 2.4.20-win4lin-r1-pnr. GCC 3.2.1
Linux user #275590 (http://counter.li.org/). up 1 day, 5 h, 18 min

[devi0s]

It seems as if the general consensus on this one is that the version of GRUB I had emerged was broken?

Thanks for your help everyone.

- Devi0s

[Haldir]

Hi, actually i have similar problems, with a recently installed System (i fear the latest grub build is apparently somehow broken)

i hope you typed in in setup (hd3,0) as the NT Bootmenu needs the Bootsector in the first partition.

A nice tool which might help you is:
http://www.winimage.com/bootpart.htm

It's a free little tool, which generates bootsect files for boot.ini directly from windows

On my old install of grub it worked fine, I selected the partition and it edited boot.ini etc, and Linux boots up fine

On my current install it works fine until the boot command, so after Kernel selection from my grub.conf it just stops, while setting prim.bootdevice directly on this hd works fine.
that's why i guess it's a broken grub build.