On Sun, 2008-02-03 at 14:24 +0100, Marcus Beranek wrote: > Am Sonntag, den 03.02.2008, 12:38 +0100 schrieb Gudjon I. Gudjonsson: > > Hi again > > Thanks for the answers but there seems to be a problem with Grub. The > > device map is OK but when installing GRUB it stops with the message > > Error reading stage1 > > Just a guess: maybe the file "stage1" on the disk is corrupted? Stage 1 is the portion of GRUB that is stored in the MBR itself. When you install grub it copies stage 1 from the filesystem into the MBR. So a stage 1 error would indicate that either the file that was used for writing it is corrupt, as Marcus suggests, or that the data in the MBR was corrupted either during or after writing somehow. Most commonly this will happen if you use tools that like to mess with your MBR, most notably if you still have LILO installed, or if you happen to do certain operation from a Windows partition or a Windows install disk. I do remember hearing that software RAID uses the MBR for some things as well so this could very well be the problem, but I know very little about it as I don't use it myself. One thing that might help you with troubleshooting is a brief breakdown of the various GRUB stages and what they do. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_GRUB#Boot_process http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=63&id=10&mode=txt In a nutshell: stage1: The core GRUB functionality stored in the MBR. (512 bytes) stage1.5: (optional) stage1.5 is only written if it is necessary, and it goes into the extended area after the MBR. (30KB) If you're using a filesystem that can't be relied upon to store a file as an easily readable block on disk (i.e. pretty much every FS other than ext2/3), then you need 1.5. Loading 1.5 loads actual filesystem drivers as well as extended device drivers for things like LVM and, I would assume, software RAID as well. stage2: This is the full GRUB functionality. This is the portion that actually lives on your boot partition and needs to have the original file around. (You can, if you choose, delete the files stage1, and stage1.5 from disk after installing GRUB, but stage 2 must stay there.) This is the portion that does most of the heavy lifting, loads the menu.lst, etc. Hope that helps. Wish I knew more about software RAID in the hopes of being more helpful, but I've never had need to use it. (I use hardware RAID boards.) -- Alex Malinovich Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY! Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837
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