a FAQ that probably isn't that trivial to answer ...

a FAQ that probably isn't that trivial to answer ...

[Udo Rader]

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Hi,

for various reasons I decided to give grub2 a try and now I am caught in
the "my system doesn't boot" trap.

The problem is probably a bit more complex then it seems at first hand,
because my system doesn't even start into grub at all but "freezes"
somewhere between hard disk detection and starting up grub. Absolutely
no message is displayed after the POST is complete.

The only chance I can currently somewhat revive my system is by
unplugging the hard drive before powering up the system, inserting some
kind of boot CD (in my case a debian etch installation CD), plug in the
hard drive and then boot into rescue mode.

In rescue mode I see the the hard drive itself (and the data on it) is
completely OK and so after many hours of trying I am completely lost ...

Things were working absolutely OK before I tried to install grub2. Yet
now, reinstalling whatever bootloader does not bring my system back into
normal booting again. So far I have tried to reinstall grub legacy and
even lilo, but all without success.

grub-install/update-grub gives this:

------CUT------
% grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0)	/dev/sda
%
% update-grub
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Testing for an existing GRUB grub.cfg file ...
found: /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Searching for splash image ... found: /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-12-generic
Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin
Updating /boot/grub/grub.cfg ... done
------CUT------

The hints on http://grub.enbug.org/GettingStarted also did not bring me
anywhere, so any ideas are greatly appreciated ...

If my box hadn't worked without problems before, I would consider a
firmware issue, but I can hardly believe that to be the case ...

-- 
Udo Rader

bestsolution.at EDV Systemhaus GmbH
http://www.bestsolution.at

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Re: a FAQ that probably isn't that trivial to answer ...

[willem]

Udo Rader wrote:
> Hi,
>
> for various reasons I decided to give grub2 a try and now I am caught in
> the "my system doesn't boot" trap.
>
> The problem is probably a bit more complex then it seems at first hand,
> because my system doesn't even start into grub at all but "freezes"
> somewhere between hard disk detection and starting up grub. Absolutely
> no message is displayed after the POST is complete.
>
> The only chance I can currently somewhat revive my system is by
> unplugging the hard drive before powering up the system, inserting some
> kind of boot CD (in my case a debian etch installation CD), plug in the
> hard drive and then boot into rescue mode.
>
> In rescue mode I see the the hard drive itself (and the data on it) is
> completely OK and so after many hours of trying I am completely lost ...
>
> Things were working absolutely OK before I tried to install grub2. Yet
> now, reinstalling whatever bootloader does not bring my system back into
> normal booting again. So far I have tried to reinstall grub legacy and
> even lilo, but all without success.
>
> grub-install/update-grub gives this:
>
> ------CUT------
> % grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
> Installation finished. No error reported.
> This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map
> Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
> fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.
>
> (hd0)	/dev/sda
> %
> % update-grub
> Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
> Testing for an existing GRUB grub.cfg file ...
> found: /boot/grub/grub.cfg
> Searching for splash image ... found: /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-12-generic
> Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin
> Updating /boot/grub/grub.cfg ... done
> ------CUT------
>
> The hints on http://grub.enbug.org/GettingStarted also did not bring me
> anywhere, so any ideas are greatly appreciated ...
>
> If my box hadn't worked without problems before, I would consider a
> firmware issue, but I can hardly believe that to be the case ...
>   
So it wise to save the MBR with dd before trying GRUB 2 .

regards

>   
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Grub-devel mailing list
> Grub-devel@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/grub-devel
>   

Re: a FAQ that probably isn't that trivial to answer ...

[Udo Rader]

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On Tue, 2007-10-02 at 11:50 +0200, willem wrote:
> Udo Rader wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > for various reasons I decided to give grub2 a try and now I am caught in
> > the "my system doesn't boot" trap.
> >
> > The problem is probably a bit more complex then it seems at first hand,
> > because my system doesn't even start into grub at all but "freezes"
> > somewhere between hard disk detection and starting up grub. Absolutely
> > no message is displayed after the POST is complete.
> >
> > The only chance I can currently somewhat revive my system is by
> > unplugging the hard drive before powering up the system, inserting some
> > kind of boot CD (in my case a debian etch installation CD), plug in the
> > hard drive and then boot into rescue mode.
> >
> > In rescue mode I see the the hard drive itself (and the data on it) is
> > completely OK and so after many hours of trying I am completely lost ...
> >
> > Things were working absolutely OK before I tried to install grub2. Yet
> > now, reinstalling whatever bootloader does not bring my system back into
> > normal booting again. So far I have tried to reinstall grub legacy and
> > even lilo, but all without success.
> >
> > grub-install/update-grub gives this:
> >
> > ------CUT------
> > % grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
> > Installation finished. No error reported.
> > This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map
> > Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
> > fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.
> >
> > (hd0)	/dev/sda
> > %
> > % update-grub
> > Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
> > Testing for an existing GRUB grub.cfg file ...
> > found: /boot/grub/grub.cfg
> > Searching for splash image ... found: /boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> > Found kernel: /vmlinuz-2.6.22-12-generic
> > Found kernel: /memtest86+.bin
> > Updating /boot/grub/grub.cfg ... done
> > ------CUT------
> >
> > The hints on http://grub.enbug.org/GettingStarted also did not bring me
> > anywhere, so any ideas are greatly appreciated ...
> >
> > If my box hadn't worked without problems before, I would consider a
> > firmware issue, but I can hardly believe that to be the case ...
> >   
> So it wise to save the MBR with dd before trying GRUB 2 .

... hmm, yes, maybe. 

I am not sure the MBR is corrupt, because I can boot the harddisk when I
plug it into another box and I can boot my box with the other boxes
harddrive ...

Looks like the only chance I have is to try to completely wipe the disk
and reinstall it, but I would really like to find the reason for all
this ...

What is actually done after POST is complete (on a technical level)? If
the system freezes with the hard disk connected (and even with "booting
from harddisk" disabled in the BIOS), what could cause this? Can this
even be a GRUB/"bootloader" issue??

-- 
Udo Rader

bestsolution.at EDV Systemhaus GmbH
http://www.bestsolution.at

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Re: a FAQ that probably isn't that trivial to answer ...

[Udo Rader]

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	On Tue, 2007-10-02 at 09:11 -0500, Schaefer, Heath wrote:
> I read your message in the grub digest...quite an interesting problem.
> I don’t know of a fix yet but I’ll be on the lookout. 
> 
>  
> 
> How many hard drives are in this system?
> 
> What boot loader was on it before? (from your message it seems like
> grub legacy.)
> 
> Did you compile grub2 yourself? Do you know what kind of
> options/modules were included? Was it the same or similar to your
> previous grub?

Thanks for your reply,

there is one drive (SATA-150) in this system (a laptop).

Before things went wrong I was using the grub legacy coming with ubuntu
gutsy (0.97-29) and I played with the grub2 coming from ubuntu as well
(grub2_1.95).

About the modules I'll have to check how ubuntu compiles the packages.

What I did now however was to repartition & reformat the disk and I can
finally boot the beast again :-)

Before I did so, I backed up the MBR and had the hope that I could
reproduce the freeze again, but instead the system was booting as
well ...

Yet what I see is that the restored partition table is different from
the one I originally had (all logical partitions are lost now) ...

So can it be that grub2 is doing some magic with the partition table?

> I am somewhat new to GRUB but I’ll help where I can.

Thanks anyhow :-)

-- 
Udo Rader

bestsolution.at EDV Systemhaus GmbH
http://www.bestsolution.at

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