Bug#259297: All sorts of weird Grub things...
Ok, I had a chance to look into this issue further...
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=259297
I checked the output of terminal #3 while the installer was running and it
turns out that Grub is choking on the following error: "The file
/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly."
The next step I took was to try and install Grub on a floppy, so that I
could at least boot the new system and try to install Grub outside of the
installer. When specifying (fd0) as the disk to install on, I got the same
error as listed in my original bug report. That is, Grub fails to load with
a fatal error.
After choosing "Continue" in the installer, I tried to install grub again on
the hard disk. I choose "Yes" to the question, "Install the GRUB boot
loader to the master boot record?". It gave me the message "Running
"grub-install (hd0)", but in fact it was writing to (fd0)??? So this looks
like a bug in the installer. Both running the GRUB installer to (hd0) and
(fd0) gave me the error on console 3: "The file /boot/grub/stage1 not read
correctly."
I then re-ran the GRUB installer from the menu again. This time choosing
"No" to the question, "Install the GRUB boot loader to the master boot
record?". I was then able to specify where I wanted to install GRUB to. I
typed (hd0) and hit return. Same set of errors again.
1st) Progress bar appears with the title "Installing GRUB boot loader" and
the message "Running "grub-install (hd0)"...". Followed by a message with
the title, "[!!] Install the GRUB boot loader on a " and the message in the
window, "Unable to install GRUB in (hd0)/n Executing 'grub-install (hd0)'
failed./n This is a fatal error." <Go Back> <Continue> I choose
"continue". Then di gives me another message box with the title, "[!!]
Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk " and the message in the window,
"Installation step failed/n An installation step failed. You can try to
run the failing item again from the menu, or skip it an choose something
else. The failing step is: Install the GRUB boot loader on a hard disk"
<Continue> Then it brings me back to the main window. I should point out
here that when specifying (hd0) as the place to install GRUB, it AGAIN wrote
to (fd0)!?!? Indecently it gave the same error on console 3 again, "The
file /boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly."
I took the floppy disk out of the disk drive. I ran through the same steps
as above to try and write GRUB to (hd0). It again tries to write to a
floppy that isn't there. Weird.
I then choose, "Continue without boot loader", thinking this is going
nowhere. Then said, finish installation. FYI the installation media I used
was from: http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/daily/i386/current/
with a date of 7-20-2004.
When I rebooted my computer without a floppy or a CD rom in the drive the
computer booted to GRUB?!? Despite it telling me that it failed. So, I dug
up the docs for GRUB found here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html
I then ran the following commands in the GRUB shell.
grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> kernel /boot/vmlinux-2.6.7-1-386
[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x1400, size=0x104e82]
grub> boot
It started to boot the kernel then I got the following relevant errors:
VFS: Cannot open root device "<NULL>" or unknown-block(8,3)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,3)
Ok, no problem, I need to specify the correct root kernel option. So, I
rebooted the computer and repeated the steps above in grub this time giving
the "kernel" command the following:
grub> kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdc1
So I received the same error as above. Went back to the GRUB documentation
again to find out what was wrong. I then ran the same commands as above,
but giving some more command options:
grub> kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdc1
grub> initrd /initrd.img
grub> boot
This time it failed again, but with a different error:
pivot_root: No such file or directory
/sbin/init: 424: cannot open dev/console: No such file
Kernel panic: Attempted to kill init!
So that time it loaded by RAID controller driver aacraid v. (1.1.2-lk1 Jul
8 2004), but failed to open dev/console... this is far as I can go now. I
just finished downloading the di image from:
http://cdimage.debian.org/pub/cdimage-testing/daily/i386/current/sarge-i386-
netinst.iso, with a date of 7-22-2004. I'll give this a try and report
back.
Michael
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