Ongoing Grub Problems

[Sam Johnston <samjie@gmail.com>]

Good evening all,

I recently wrote to the list about a problem with grub: 'Error 28:
Selected item cannot fit into memory'. I am still having the same
issue, atlhough I have done more troubleshooting since then. I have
rebuilt the offending machine from scratch with Debian stable and
installed the requisite packages from testing:

gcc            3.3.5-3        The GNU C compiler
bridge-utils   0.9.5-2        Utilities for configuring the Linux 2.4 brid
python         2.3.5-1        An interactive high-level object-oriented la
python-dev     2.3.5-1        Header files and a static library for Python
python-twisted 1.3.0-8        Event-based framework for internet applicati
zlib1g         1.2.2-3        compression library - runtime
zlib1g-dev     1.2.2-3        compression library - development
libcurl3       7.13.1-2       Multi-protocol file transfer library, now wi
libcurl3-dev   7.13.1-2       Development files and documentation for libc

I still get a similar error:

grub> kernel /boot/xen.gz
[Multiboot-elf, <0x4028d000:0x3ef5c:0x360a4>(bad)

Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory

I've also tried to install the xen-2.0.5 binaries on my local
workstation - a Dell Optiplex GX280, but get the same thing:

grub> kernel /boot/xen.gz
[Multiboot-elf, <0xb7b69000:0x3ef3c:0x360c4>(bad)

Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory

# lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 915G/P/GV Processor to I/O
Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 915G/P/GV PCI Express Root Port (rev 04)
0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82915G Express
Chipset Family Graphics Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82915G Express Chipset
Family Graphics Controller (rev 04)
0000:00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 03)
0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 PCI Bridge (rev d3)
0000:00:1e.2 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp.
82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FR (ICH6/ICH6R) LPC
Interface Bridge (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6
Family) IDE Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA
Controller (rev 03)
0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family)
SMBus Controller (rev 03)
0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme
BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 01)

The following is the bug report I submitted against grub figuring it
may be a problem with multiboot, but the more troubleshooting I do,
the more I believe it to be a compatibility issue or a problem with
Xen itself.

I hope someone can provide some more information about what's going
wrong as I'd really rather use Xen than one of the alternatives.

Thanks,

Sam

I am unable to setup xen 2.0.5
(http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/) on a colo Athlon
2000+ box per the following error. The binaries were downloaded from
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xen/downloads/xen-2.0.5-install.tgz
and I have tried both with xen.gz and xen (gunzip xen.gz).

GNU GRUB version 0.95 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> kernel /boot/xen.gz dom0_mem=131072 console=vga
[Multiboot-elf, <0xb72f2000:0x3ef3c:0x360c4>(bad)

Error 28: Selected item cannot fit into memory

grub>

If I compile a more recent version (0.96 and CVS20050331) I get a
Segmentation Fault:

GNU GRUB version 0.96 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> kernel /boot/xen.gzSegmentation fault

The partition (hd0,0) is an ext3 partition currently mounted rw on an
80Gb IDE drive.

I have not yet recompiled xen from scratch but do not believe it to be
a problem with xen itself as this is a public release that is known to
work elsewhere.

I do not have access to the physical hardware as it is in another
country. Perhaps lspci is useful:

00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333]
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8366/A/7 [Apollo KT266/A/333 AGP]
00:09.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
300/305 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter (rev 90)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1
Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc.
VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)