Grub being a rectal orifice

**LordBS** · 07-28-2006, 05:57 PM

I am having massive problems with Grub not doing its thing. I have edited the grub.conf file several times from within the chrooted /mnt/sysimage shell of the linux rescue bootup. Grub was giving me an error 15. I reinstalled and now it gives me an error 2, which as far as I can tell says it cant find the partition or there is an error with the HD. I am using fedora core4. I am reinstalling again, and will post the grub.conf when it gets installed. Is there something different with using grub with the auto parition wizard or somthing?

Ok, I had to manually copy the grub.conf file. Here it is:

default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title Fedora Core
root (hd0,0)
kernel vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4.img

As it stand right now on the new installation, you get the word GRUB and then it hangs. I am open to suggestions on this.

**pbharris** · 07-29-2006, 12:05 AM

hello,
grub troubles - ahh. okay so you are installing fedora on the 1st partition of the 1st hard drive which appears to be a LVM partition - i assume you want an LVM volume. is the file /boot/grub/device.map have an entry like
(hd0) /dev/sda ?
Also - you may wish to modify the line
kernel vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00
to
kernel vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.1369_FC4 ro root=LABEL=/
which is a convention fedora typically uses on new installs.

lets see what is in /boot/grub/device.map and make sure it makes sense. Also - the file initrd.img needs the modules for LVM. Not sure if it is in the default on or not.

**LordBS** · 07-29-2006, 11:45 AM

When did Grub get to be such a p.i.t.a? Anyway, yeah in device.map there is a line that says (hd0) /dev/hda. Which grub.conf file should I change, the one in /etc or the one in the /boot directory? I changed the one in the boot directory to read root=LABEL=/ . Thanks for the help so far PB.

**LordBS** · 07-29-2006, 11:58 AM

Ok, looking at some other sites recommended that I reinstall grub to the boot drive, So I did the command grub-install /dev/hda . Now it gets to grub stage 1.5, says grub is loading and I get an error 15 now. As far as I can tell, its saying that it cant find a file, but which one and where? Hmm. <yoda> More information need I. Search for more I will.</yoda>

**LordBS** · 07-29-2006, 01:09 PM

I tried to boot grub manually just to see if I could get it up enough to do something. The kernel command from grub worked fine. When I did the initrd command though, it came back with error 16, inconsistent filesystem structure. What the crap is that about?

**LordBS** · 07-29-2006, 05:59 PM

Interesting, I changed the Cylinder Head Sector settings in the BIOS and rebooted and grub got past the loading stage. Of course, it kernel panicked right after that, but I think that was due to changing the CHS settings after I installed everything. I am reinstalling (again) now, with the new CHS settings to see if that is indeed the problem.

**LordBS** · 07-29-2006, 08:45 PM

Yeah, its working now. Its wierd, I had to change th CHS settings to something other than what was marked on the drives for them to work. Hadn't seen that before.

**pbharris** · 07-29-2006, 10:10 PM

cool - dunno about the BIOS...

**Compunuts** · 07-30-2006, 04:15 AM

Originally Posted by LordBS

Yeah, its working now. Its wierd, I had to change th CHS settings to something other than what was marked on the drives for them to work. Hadn't seen that before.

How big is your drive and how old is your MB?