Boot Issues with FC2

Wed Jun 23 00:43:48 UTC 2004

I would be careful when deciding what the "true" CHS values are. 16384
sounds like a translated cylinder count - it's too neat. You should probably
google "chs translation" to understand the different CHS tuples; also look
at the physical hard drive, which probably has LBA CHS values printed on it
rather than BIOS-translated ones.

~mark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lonnie Santella" <lonniesantella at hotmail.com>
To: <fedora-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2004 5:32 PM
Subject: Re: Boot Issues with FC2

> Okay - so I have something to start with - thank you very much. Fdisk
> displayed 38792 cylinders, when it should be 16,383 cylinders. Now my next
> problem is: where do I declare that with Fedora?  When I choose to manual
> configure disk with Disk Druid - there's now place to edit the CHS values.
> How do I accomplish this?
>
>
> >From: Jeff Vian <jvian10 at charter.net>
> >Reply-To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> >To: For users of Fedora Core releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> >Subject: Re: Boot Issues with FC2
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> >
> >
> >Lonnie Santella wrote:
> >
> >>Can someone please take a shot at this?  seems like a fundamental
problem,
> >>but I've exhausted all my resources. All support docs seem to suggest
the
> >>same thing, which doesn't work: directories relative to /boot.
> >>
> >>Bottom line is, Red Hat 9.0 installs fine on same machine - but FC2
always
> >>produces the same problem (below).
> >>
> >>Here?s a quick review of my environment:
> >>
> >>(1) Always a COMPLETELY clean install ? using Drive Image utility to
erase
> >>all partitions and restore MBR.
> >>
> >>(2) Two machines, both Asus P4 clones with 1 GB RAM, and 1 Western
Digital
> >>20 GB hard drive each.
> >>
> >>(3) Both machines have subsequently loaded Redhat 9.0 and ran flawlessly
?
> >>no problems at all.
> >>
> >>(4) I have two different ISO image CD?s from two different mirrors ?
both
> >>with verified MD5Sum?s and both producing the exact same problem each
> >>time.
> >>
> >>So I?ve been trying to install FC2 ? I?ve just finished my 11th attempt.
> >>Following the advice of different threads and release notes, I always go
> >>back to a fresh install before trying anything new.
> >>
> >>To minimize variables, I keep the install as simple as possible. I
choose
> >>?Automatic Partition?, which creates a 100MB /boot on hda1, a 17GB ?/?
> >>(root) on hda2, and a 2GB swap on hda3. I also choose a ?minimal?
install
> >>to eliminate possible variables from the other CD?s ? this way I only
have
> >>to use CD1.
> >
> >Try doing a manual partition.  Also verify that the bios is set to lba
for
> >these drives and that fdisk shows the correct lba CHS parameters for the
> >drives.
> >
> >
> >>
> >>Each time, the install itself is flawless. But after the first reboot ?
> >>and naturally each time thereafter, immediately following the POST, I
get
> >>a black screen with the word ?GRUB? in the upper left corner. No
response
> >>to keyboard strokes or mouse movement at that point.
> >>
> >>I have to rule out hardware ? since this problem with FC2, I have
> >>successfully installed and ran RedHat 9.0 and FreeBSD 4.10. I always use
a
> >>tried and true utility to erase the hard drives of all partitions and
> >>restore MBR before installing anything new. This guarantees a pristine
> >>physical drive during the install.
> >>
> >>I compared the grub.conf files on each machine after the FC2 install.
They
> >>are identical. No big surprise there I guess. Then, just for further
> >>comparison, I isolated one machine and wiped it clean, and loaded RedHat
> >>9.0. Then I compared it?s grub.conf to that of the FC2 install. Almost
> >>identical except for the ?/? (root) and swap partitions. In each case
the
> >>/boot partition is always the first (hda1). In FC2, the ?/? root
partition
> >>is the second one (hda2) followed but the swap on hda3. But in RedHat
9.0,
> >>the swap is on hda2, followed by the / root on hda3. No big deal there,
> >>the grub.conf files compensate for this but looking to hda2 on FC2 and
> >>hda3 on RedHat 9.0 as one would expect.
> >>
> >>Both grub.conf files from FC2 and RedHat 9.0 list an entry as follows:
> >>
> >>Root (hd0,0)
> >>
> >>? I?m not sure if having different root partitions should affect this or
> >>not, but it?s the same in both OS?s.
> >>
> >>One other thing I thought was odd is that on both machines, the standard
> >>FC2 install puts a strange format or partition table on the physical
> >>drive; so much so that it takes a few extreme steps to wipe the
partition
> >>info off the drive. Normally I would just use the ?delete? function of
the
> >>utility, which works for all the RedHat dirstros and FreeBSD ? but in
FC2
> >>it generates and error stating that it can?t delete the partition. I
have
> >>to use a utility called ?bigfdisk? then put a dos partition on it, then
> >>delete the dos partition ? to get everything set back to a completely
> >>empty hard drive.
> >
> >This is the clue that you may need to check the CHS values and do a
manual
> >partiton
> >
> >I suspect you are seeing the bug related to some mobo/bios and the lba
> >parameters with the 2.6 kernel and partitoning.
> >
> >My MSI mobo had this problem and after I manually set the CHS parameters
on
> >the disk it worked perfectly.
> >
> >I thought I had the link to the fix for this bookmarked but I can't find
it
> >right now.
> >
> >Maybe someone can repost the link here.
> >
> >>
> >>I?d really like to give FC2 a test run ? been looking forward to it.
I?ve
> >>read the release notes, and browsed for two solid days through news
> >>threads and docs. I?m stuck, could you please help me out here?
> >>
> >>Thanks in advance,
> >>
> >>Lonnie
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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>
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