SOLVED Re: grub problem: cannot read from drive

[Pat Mahoney <pat7@gmx.net>]

On Fri, Aug 11, 2000 at 08:27:48PM -0500, Pat Mahoney wrote:
> I have grub on mbr of /dev/hda.  I have a new harddrive at /dev/hdc
> with Debian.  I have an older, 200meg hard drive at /dev/hdb.
                          ^^^^^
> 
> I am trying to install Debian onto /dev/hdb1.  I have done so, but I
> cannot get grub to boot it.  When I am at grub command line, I type
> this:
> 
> kernel (hd1,0)/
> 
> Then if I hit <tab> it shows a the listing of files and directories
> in /.  I type vmlinuz so command line looks like this:
> 
> kernel(hd1,0)/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb1

This command is totally valid, at least with my version of grub.  I'm
not sure what version is on the mbr.  I think there should be a space
after "kernel", but anyway...

> 
> When I press <enter> I get this error:
> 
> "Bad file or directory type"
> 
> Grub info file says it cannot handle sym links (or directories for
> that matter), but it does fine on /dev/hdc with symlinks.  When I
> type in the actual file ((hd1,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.17) I get the same
> error.  I cannot get grub to see anything below the toplevel
> directories in /.


SOLUTION:

I changed /dev/hdb to LBA mode in the bios; everything works fine
now.

It was not in LBA mode by default apparently because it is old.  Why
that made a difference I don't know.  Perhaps it's the 1024 cylinder
problem?  I don't think a 200 meg drive has 1024 cylinders.  I don't
think that was the problem though because grub didn't just fail to
boot; it failed to read the disk at all (below the toplevel). Hmm...

-- 
Pat Mahoney  <pat7@gmx.net>


"We waste so many moments standing on convention"
                -- Nick Hexum