Re: grub2 and Linux software RAID devices

[Sam Morris <sam@robots.org.uk>]

On Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:43:38 +0100, Robert Millan wrote:
>> Debian's post-install script has actually been written to substitute
>> 'pc gpt' if the partmap probing fails,
> 
> Actually, this was reverted a while ago.
> 
>> manually. However, I now hit the second problem: the menu that grub
>> presents has no text! It seems to have an entry, however, as there is a
>> highlighted line.
> 
> Which version did you try?  Is it more recent than 1.96 ?  We fixed bugs
> producing this result recently.

This now works fine (and looks nice and pretty!) with version 1.96
+20080203-1. :)

>> The third problem is that if I press enter, or wait for the timeout to
>> finish, or the screen blanks, and I get the message "Booting '". The
>> system then freezes and I have to use the hardware reset switch to
>> continue (ctrl+alt+del does not work). Pressing 'e', or the up or down
>> keys also freeze the system, without the "Booting '" message.
> 
> Where does GRUB get its grub.cfg from?  What are its contents? (from the
> POV of GRUB;  use 'cat' to determine).

Version 1.96+20080203-1 behaves differently; I am simply dropped to the 
rescue shell, and I can't load any modules (because root is set to 
(hd1,2) which does not show up when I run 'ls'). I guessed that this is 
because 'pc' is not in the list of modules included when grub-install 
creates core.img.

If I add 'pc' to core.img then things are much healthier: I am still 
dropped into the rescue shell, but I can load the 'normal' module, issue 
the 'normal' command and then I get the (pretty!) menu and am able to 
boot normally. I'm still not sure why I'm dropped into the rescue shell 
in the first place, however. There's a flash of text before the prompt 
appears, but the screen is cleared much to fast to read any of it.

ISTR that when I tried Jeroen Dekkers' patch before, I was no longer 
booted into the rescue shell; but I can't remember (and I don't 
understand why, if I was kicked into the rescue shell becuase grub tried 
to read past the 'end' of my disk, why I can immediatly issue the 
'normal' command to go to the menu and have everything working). Anyway, 
I'll wait to see how things improve after a new grub-pc is uploaded. 
Thanks for your help & advice so far!

-- 
Sam Morris
http://robots.org.uk/
 
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