Boot manager Wont work

[jaf]

I had no problem with install, but I cant get Mandrake bootloader to work. Grub says there is an error and Lilo just gives me a screen with 1 L and many many 01's on it, then trys to read a floppydrive. This is frustrating, I can not get into Mandrake to try and make a boot disk. Any Ideas? I have 2 hard drives, first 1 master with XP on it, second 1 slave with Linux. I have an Ultra controller card for my hard drives. could that be messing thing up? I have been messing with this for 4 days..I feel dumb...thanks in advance..I hope

John

[roland]

Hi

 

you can boot on the CD1, rescue mode. There you can reinstall your bootloader. try this

 

roland

[jaf]

Thanks Roland but I have installed and uninstalled boot loaders many times. Something is wrong with my hard drive configuration I think

John

[bvc]

Yes, what is the error grub is giving? Is the error at the install of grub or when you try to boot with grub? I'd say try to find out what /boot/grub/device.map says. Do you have/did you create a separate /boot partition?...or is /boot in /?

 

mine

(hd0) /dev/hda

(fd0) /dev/fd0

 

if you have 2 hd's it should be

(hd0) /dev/hda

(hd1) /dev/hdb

(fd0) /dev/fd0

or similar

 

I would imagine the controller is the prob. Is there anyway you can try to install a bootloader without it? Once installed correctly I'd think they'd work.

 

Also, grub can be installed manually using the grub shell, and it can be installed on a floppy. You can read all the info with the info command with cd1. Boot cd1>at the slpash screen press F1>type rescue and hit Enter>choose Mount your partitions under /mnt>choose Go To Console>type chroot /mnt and hit Enter>type info grub and hit Enter. Here you can also do

cat /etc/lilo.conf

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

cat /boot/grub/device.map

so that you can post them here on the forum.

 

for lilo docs/help/info;

man lilo

 

Whichever works is obviously the one to use but I use grub and have for a long time for many reasons, mostly because it has never failed and lilo has many times. Others have diff experiences. There must be a reason grub is the default for Red Hat, SuSE, Debian, Libranet, and others though ;)

 

Here's some of info grub

File: grub.info,  Node: Top,  Next: Introduction,  Up: (dir)

 

GRUB manual

***********

 

This is the documentation of GNU GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader,

a flexible and powerful boot loader program for PCs.

 

This edition documents version 0.93.

 

* Menu:

 

* Introduction::                Capturing the spirit of GRUB

* Naming convention::        Names of your drives in GRUB

* Installation::                Installing GRUB on your drive

* Booting::                  How to boot different operating systems

* Configuration::            Writing your own configuration file

* Network::                  Downloading OS images from a network

* Serial terminal::          Using GRUB via a serial line

* Preset Menu::              Embedding a configuration file into GRUB

* Security::                    Improving the security

* Images::                      GRUB image files

* Filesystem::                  Filesystem syntax and semantics

* Interface::                The menu and the command-line

* Commands::                    The list of available builtin commands

* Troubleshooting::          Error messages produced by GRUB

* Invoking the grub shell::  How to use the grub shell

* Invoking grub-install::    How to use the GRUB installer

* Invoking grub-md5-crypt::  How to generate a cryptic password

* Invoking grub-terminfo::      How to generate a terminfo command

* Invoking mbchk::              How to use the Multiboot checker

* Obtaining and Building GRUB:: How to obtain and build GRUB

* Reporting bugs::              Where you should send a bug report

* Future::                      Some future plans on GRUB

* Internals::                Hacking GRUB

* Index::

 

 

Invoking the grub shell

***********************

 

This chapter documents the grub shell `grub'. Note that the grub

shell is an emulator; it doesn't run under the native environment, so it

sometimes does something wrong. Therefore, you shouldn't trust it too

much. If there is anything wrong with it, don't hesitate to try the

native GRUB environment, especially when it guesses a wrong map between

BIOS drives and OS devices.

 

* Menu:

 

* Basic usage::              How to use the grub shell

* Installation under UNIX::  How to install GRUB via `grub'

* Device map::                  The map between BIOS drives and OS devices

 

 

Introduction into the grub shell

================================

 

You can use the command `grub' for installing GRUB under your

operating systems and for a testbed when you add a new feature into GRUB

or when fix a bug. `grub' is almost the same as the Stage 2, and, in

fact, it shares the source code with the Stage 2 and you can use the

same commands (*note Commands::) in `grub'. It is emulated by replacing

BIOS calls with UNIX system calls and libc functions.

 

The command `grub' accepts the following options:

 

`--help'

  Print a summary of the command-line options and exit.

 

`--version'

  Print the version number of GRUB and exit.

 

`--verbose'

  Print some verbose messages for debugging purpose.

 

`--device-map=FILE'

  Use the device map file FILE. The format is described in *Note

  Device map::.

 

`--no-floppy'

  Do not probe any floppy drive. This option has no effect if the

  option `--device-map' is specified (*note Device map::).

 

`--probe-second-floppy'

  Probe the second floppy drive. If this option is not specified,

  the grub shell does not probe it, as that sometimes takes a long

  time. If you specify the device map file (*note Device map::), the

  grub shell just ignores this option.

 

`--config-file=FILE'

  Read the configuration file FILE instead of `/boot/grub/menu.lst'.

  The format is the same as the normal GRUB syntax. See *Note

  Filesystem::, for more information.

 

`--boot-drive=DRIVE'

  Set the stage2 BOOT_DRIVE to DRIVE. This argument should be an

  integer (decimal, octal or hexadecimal).

 

 

`--install-partition=PAR'

  Set the stage2 INSTALL_PARTITION to PAR. This argument should be

  an integer (decimal, octal or hexadecimal).

 

`--no-config-file'

  Do not use the configuration file even if it can be read.

 

`--no-curses'

  Do not use the curses interface even if it is available.

 

`--batch'

  This option has the same meaning as `--no-config-file --no-curses'.

 

`--read-only'

  Disable writing to any disk.

 

`--hold'

  Wait until a debugger will attach. This option is useful when you

  want to debug the startup code.

 

The map between BIOS drives and OS devices

==========================================

 

When you specify the option `--device-map' (*note Basic usage::),

the grub shell creates the "device map file" automatically unless it

already exists. The file name `/boot/grub/device.map' is preferred.

 

If the device map file exists, the grub shell reads it to map BIOS

drives to OS devices. This file consists of lines like this:

 

  DEVICE FILE

 

DEVICE is a drive, which syntax is the same as the one in GRUB

(*note Device syntax::), and FILE is an OS's file, which is normally a

device file.

 

The reason why the grub shell gives you the device map file is that

it cannot guess the map between BIOS drives and OS devices correctly in

some environments. For example, if you exchange the boot sequence

between IDE and SCSI in your BIOS, it mistakes the order.

 

Thus, edit the file if the grub shell makes a mistake. You can put

any comments in the file if needed, as the grub shell assumes that a

line is just a comment if the first character is `#'.

 

after the grub shell is invoked you can do

find device.map

to find all /boot/grub/device.maps on all hd's that grub knows about. Not that you will do this. But you can....in fact, with grub, you can do about anything if you study the docs and how it works. With a ultra controller? I've never messed with them so I d/k, heh, I don't even know what one is lol.

 

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-faq.en.html

 

Let us know what you find! I think you are the second user to post here with this prob.

 

....and welcome to the board!

Edited December 22, 2003 by bvc

[jaf]

I tried the commands you told me at the console. here's my results.........

grub device map is (fd0)/dev/fd0

(hd0)/dev/hda

(hd1)/dev/hdf

 

grub installs ok but on booting I get this error message

GRUB HARD DISK ERROR

 

I have a dell 700 about 4 years old

I think I put the controller card in it because my Bios would not recognize large hard drives and an upgrade to Bios was not available.

 

If I could just get into Mandrake somehow I would be glad to just make a boot disk and forget a bootloader alltogether.

Any ideas are welcome.

[bvc]

(hd1)/dev/hdf

is that correct?

 

error? happen in Stage1?

Error messages reported by GRUB

*******************************

 

This chapter describes error messages reported by GRUB when you

encounter trouble. *Note Invoking the grub shell::, if your problem is

specific to the grub shell.

 

* Menu:

 

* Stage1 errors::            Errors reported by the Stage 1

* Stage1.5 errors::          Errors reported by the Stage 1.5

* Stage2 errors::            Errors reported by the Stage 2

 

=======================================

Errors reported by the Stage 1

==============================

 

The general way that the Stage 1 handles errors is to print an error

string and then halt. Pressing `<CTRL>-<ALT>-<DEL>' will reboot.

 

The following is a comprehensive list of error messages for the

Stage 1:

 

Hard Disk Error

  The stage2 or stage1.5 is being read from a hard disk, and the

  attempt to determine the size and geometry of the hard disk failed.

 

as far as getting into ML and making a bootfloppy? Unfortunately, for the second release in a row, that's broken :huh: .....I d/k if there has been a fix yet because

1. I don't use them

2. I'm ML-10-cooker (devel version)

[Pzatch]

What is your partition setup? How many do you have and whats on them?

[jaf]

(hd1)/dev/hdf yes this is a correct reading. I thought that hdf was wierd also.

My master drive is called C my CD-Rom is D and my slave is E. Maybe I have the drives connected wrong, but they have always worked before.

ALso, my partitions...I am installing Mandrake on its own 10gig drive, and I let the installer autopartition the drive itself.

John