New Install hangs on GRUB Kernel Load

hielvc · Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2002 4:28 am Post subject:

have you tried using a grub boot flopppy?

http://hints.linuxfromscratch.org/hints/grub-howto.txt

On my first install I had probs also. By installing from a flopy and then trying the commands i was able to get things going. I also had to try different bios settings for my hd, normal or LBA. Oh ext3 is ext2 fs with a journel thats why "grub" sees it as ext2, you can even mount or boot it as ext2.

hielvc

bläk-kahr · n00b Joined: 19 Sep 2002 Posts: 8

Since my last post I have copied my suse kernel over and GRUB decompresses it and it boots until it tries my xfs root partition - my suse kernel doesn't have xfs.

This makes me think that maybe:
1. My kernel built during the gentoo install is so crappy due to my poor option choices that it won't even start decompressing, or

2. There are issues with booting kernels build with gcc 3.whatever with grub.

As I said my suse kernel built with 2.9.whatever seems to boot from grub with the same grub setup as my failed attempts with the 3.x built kernel.

Has anyone managed to boot a gcc 3.x build kernel? Would you post/send your kernel config?

--Ben

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

theplatypus · n00b Joined: 03 Sep 2002 Posts: 44

I'm having the exact same problem.

SneaZ · n00b Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 22

aargh

i'm having the same problem,
i recompiled the kernel leaving out the frame buffer options
(I thought that should fix the funky colors and blank screen)
but it's still the same.

Hope someone finds the answer soon.

yaknor · n00b Joined: 17 Sep 2002 Posts: 16

More info:

Re-installed with boot set to ext2fs to work around the grub/2.4/ext3 problem linked up on page one.

Triple checked kernel compile options, I can't see anything missing.

How would I load the kernel the CD usesto boot to the hard drive?

Also, submitted a bugzilla bug. #8158

yaknor · n00b Joined: 17 Sep 2002 Posts: 16

Alright folks, I've got a fix.

First, go to /usr/src/portage/profiles and nano -w the package.mask file.

Search for grub. Uncomment it by removing the >= before the line. Save.

emerge grub. Check to make sure it's emerging 0.92.

Do this, as overwriting the old grub won't work.

slais-sysweb · Apprentice Joined: 14 Jun 2002 Posts: 221 Location: London

Another problem here. I have just installed 1.4rc1 on a Dell GX1 PII with 128MB etc, (its taken over a day to compile from stage 1)

Everthing good until seting up Grub
hda1 /boot, hda3 swap, hda5 / (there is a BSD partition on hda2)

/boot is ext2
/ is ext3
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... no
Error 28 Selected item cannot fit into memory

Well /boot/grub/stage1 does exist and is size 512

tried uncomenting the entry for grub in
/usr/portage/profiles/package.mask as per fix above
this upgraded to 0.92
copied *stage* files as per note at end of emerge
tried again -- same result!

suggestions please
_________________
--
djc
sysweb SLAIS UCL

RickDB · Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2002 10:46 pm Post subject:

How can i get back into gentoo via the livecd ?
Because none of the commands work because it uses the cdimage as / .

drjim · n00b Joined: 19 Sep 2002 Posts: 8

This is what I've done (MANY times!) trying to get this to work:
1) Boot from the CD
2) mkdir /mnt/gentoo
3) mount /dev/hda3 /mnt/gentoo
4) mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/boot
5) mount --bind /proc //mnt/gentoo/proc
6) chroot /mnt/gentoo /bin/bash
This has let me go in and edit things. I'm now up to getting to the grub boot screen, but everything I've tried listed here, and in other forums relating to the K6-2, doesn't work. My machine just reboots back to the grub screen.
jim
_________________
#include

RickDB · Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 10:41 am Post subject:

Ok grub is working ok now, but for some reason it is giving this error when booting:

Kernel panic : VFS " unable to mount FS on 03:06

It does not load my reiserfs root

, any way to fix this without an reinstall?

St. Alphonzo · Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 1:50 pm Post subject:

The first problem I had was grub not recognising any reiserfs partition. I used the latest reiserfsprogs 3.6.3 to make the filesystem. Older versions probably don't have this problem.
After switching from grub-0.90-r7 to grub-0.92 this problem was solved.

The next problem was a Kernel panic due to being unable to mount the FS. This only happened when choosing the Kernel from the grub menue. Using the grub command line (press 'c' when the grub menue comes up) on the other hand worked perfectly.
I then had a look at the grub.conf file. As it turned out, the lines

root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/gentoo root=/dev/discs/disc0/part2

resulted in a kernel panic, while

root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/gentoo

worked without problems.

pilla · Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 3:03 pm Post subject:

Probably because 1) devfs wasn't mounted yet and 2) you were specifying a partition in the first case, and not a image kernel like in the second case

Choda Boy · n00b Joined: 16 Sep 2002 Posts: 2

I had the same problem with grub :
"Kernel panic : VFS " unable to mount FS on 03:06"

So I decided to install LILO and now that works well.

St. Alphonzo · Posted: Sat Sep 21, 2002 4:15 pm Post subject:

aja · Posted: Fri Sep 27, 2002 8:01 pm Post subject:

Wanted to add - yaknor (orginal poster)'s problem and that of a few others here sounds to me like misconfiguration of the processor type option in their kernel, not grub or fstab. (BTW - not all of the various posts fit into this possibly erroneous diagnosis).

To check - go to menuconfig for your kernel, select "Processor Type and Features", then select "Pentium - III ... Family" -> make sure the processor type is correct. If you are compiling (for example) with PIII optimizations and your GCC flags are strict, the kernel won't boot on a 586 - it will hard crash almost immediately after Grub loads it. Which is what a couple of the posts seem to describe.

Also - I habitually copy the install kernel from the cd onto my boot partition (naming it kernel.install rather than bzImage). Then I add an entry for this kernel in the grub menu.lst. It gives me the option of booting to the install kernel without going through the whole cd/chroot thing - much nicer when troubleshooting.

bassvandijk · Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2002 1:18 pm Post subject:

I'm also getting this kernel panic:

pilla · Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2002 1:34 pm Post subject:

This has nothing to do with devfs. devfs is a substitute to a static /dev directory. VFS means Virtual File System (if I'm not wrong!).

Looks like you don't have support for your file system compiled in your kernel. Are your partitions ext3 or reiserfs or xfs or ext2? Don't forget to include support in your kernel for them, if not you won't be able to mount them and will receive these nasty messages.

bassvandijk · Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2002 1:48 pm Post subject:

Thnx, I think your right.

My root partition is XFS. The manual said that I had to enable the "SGI XFS file system support" option in the kernel configuration.

But the thing is that I didnt found that option.

Can anybody tell me where to look for that option?

pilla · Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2002 2:16 pm Post subject:

The last gentoo-sources don't have XFS support.

You must emerge xfs-sources ( I think, but I don' t use XFS).

bassvandijk · Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2002 3:45 pm Post subject:

Yep your right...

I just read this: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=15314

I think i'm going to reinstall gentoo with ext3 instead of XFS.

nngs · n00b Joined: 01 Oct 2002 Posts: 48

[quote="aja"]
To check - go to menuconfig for your kernel, select "Processor Type and Features", then select "Pentium - III ... Family" -> make sure the processor type is correct. If you are compiling (for example) with PIII optimizations and your GCC flags are strict, the kernel won't boot on a 586 - it will hard crash almost immediately after Grub loads it. Which is what a couple of the posts seem to describe.
[/quote]

This fixed my problem

gulkings · n00b Joined: 03 Oct 2002 Posts: 2

Hey everyone !

I just finished installing my Gentoo 1.2. At first i had the same problems as you have here in this topic, but after checking my kernel parameters, i found, that it was compiled for wrong cpu :roll:

after fixing this it worked !

SneaZ · n00b Joined: 20 Sep 2002 Posts: 22

apparently, i just emerged the gentoo-sources (before I used vanilla)
and discovered I also compiled my kernel for a normal pentium cpu,
Using the gentoo sources I recompiled for and amd morgan core and
now everything boots fine!