Re: Problems installing Woody from Hard Disk using GRUB

[Michael West <quagly@mitzit.net>]

On Mon, Feb 17, 2003 at 02:56:14PM +0100, Frank Murphy wrote:
> > >   What is wrong with the following setup for Grub? I always ended up with 
> > > problems booting from hda5, which is not a partition on my system. (hda1
> > > is windows, hda2 is swap, hda3 is going to be Sarge, and hda4 is Woody.)
> > >
> > > Here's my Grub config:
> > > 
> > > title Woody install
> > > kernel (hd0,3)/boot/newinstall/linux-2.4.bin
> > > initrd (hd0,3)/boot/newinstall/root-2.4.bin
> > > 
> > > Any ideas as to why this doesn't work? I end up with a kernel panic
> > > because the root filesystem can't be mounted.
> > >
> > > Frank
> >
> >     Have you tried telling the kernel where the root device is?
> >
> >      kernel (hd0,3)/boot/newinstall/linux-2.4.bin root=/dev/hda4
> >
> >      Or go the grub command line and see if you can't boot by hand.
> >      The ability to get to a command line when having boot problems is
> >      the reason I use grub.
> 
> I have tried the root= parameter. The problem is that the kernel should be 
> using the initrd for it's initial filesystem. If I give root=/dev/hda4, then 
> it boots into my normal system, not into the Debian installer. What is the 
> required value for the root= parameter to get the kernel to use the init rd?
> 
> Or is this a limitation of Grub? I notice that the Debian install guide says 
> nothing of installing via Grub.
> 
> 
     You are right.  Ignore my silly respose.

     The kernel parameter for initrd is just
     initrd=/boot/newinstall/root-2.4.bin
     but this is just doing what you have done with the grub command so
     I would expect anything different.  Is your initrd image valid?
     Can you loopback mount it?