Re: new install - not booting solved - but questions remain

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman@meetinghouse.net>]

Miles Fidelman wrote:
> Miles Fidelman wrote:
> > Miles Fidelman wrote:
> > > Just did a new install of Wheezy on a server, but having problems 
> > > trying to boot.
> > >
> > > Basic setup:
> > > - PXEboot into installer
> > > - a pretty standard install
> > > - had to fiddle a little at the end to get the MBR into the right 
> > > places (RAIDed disks, USB stick mounts as /dev/sda)
> > > - now it boots, but ends up at a grub prompt on the (remote) console
> > > - attempt a boot and get the error "no kernel loaded"
> > >
> > > Diagnostics
> > > - restarted the installer in rescue mode, executed a shell in the 
> > > newly built root directory
> > > - mounted everything
> > > - looked in /boot and all I could find is /boot/grub - no vmlinuz, 
> > > no config, ... nothing
> > >
> > > Note that this is my first Wheezy install, and I understand the 
> > > installer and boot process have changed - but can't figure out how.
> > Ok.. learning a bit about grub2, from the grub prompt:
> > - discover that all the files are in (md/0)  #raided boot device
> > - try to set the paths manually and get some weird results
> >
> > ---------
> > grub> ls (md/0)/
> > lost+found/ System.map-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64 config-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64 grub/ 
> > vmlinuz-3
> > .2.0-4-rt-amd64 initrd.img-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > grub> ls (md/0)/grub/grub.cfg
> > grub.cfg
> > grub> set prefix=(md/0)/boot/grub
> > grub> set root=(md/2)
> > grub> boot
> > error: no loaded kernel.
> > grub> linux (md/0)/vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > error: file not found.
> > grub> initrd (md/0)/initrd.img-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > error: file not found.
> > grub> ls -l (md/0)/
> > DIR          20130803023241 lost+found/
> > 2115221      20130609193606 System.map-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > 128550       20130609193606 config-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > DIR          20130803042226 grub/
> > 2885152      20130609192519 vmlinuz-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > 3673059      20130803034148 initrd.img-3.2.0-4-rt-amd64
> > ---------
> after typing:
>
> set prefix=(md/0)/boot/grub
>
> set root=(md/2)
>
> insmod normal
>
> normal
>
>
> up comes the boot menu, and after the timeout, everything loads just fine
Well, after booting - ran update-grub and grub-install on all drives, 
and on the /dev/md0 (boot) and /dev/md2 (root) for good measure
rebooted - everything came up fine

So problem is solved but 2 questions remain:
- what's going on?
- why didn't the installer put things in the right places?

Miles

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra