FC10 stops at Grub> prompt after install

[Chris Tyler]

On Fri, 2008-12-05 at 09:59 +0100, jwwf wrote:
> We've just upgraded our development server at work where we host our
> IBM UniVerse database from FC7 to FC10.  An attempted upgrade went
> totally badly. (I've yet to see Fedora upgrade work, but it was worth
> a try.  PS: I've been using RedHat-something since RH4.)  I went with
> a clean install and upon reboot, the system came up to a Grub> prompt
> and stopped there.  
...
> The machine in question has an ABit IP35 Pro motherboard with two IDE
> drives (oddly, controlled by the SATA controller.  Linux perceives
> these as /dev/mapper/somebizarrogobbledygook and /dev/sdb, the same as
> it did under FC7.  Not /dev/sda and /dev/sdb, mind you; two totally
> different naming conventions.  It worked under FC7, though.


Hi Bill,

This can happen when the BIOS's view of the drives (seen by grub while
booting) doesn't match the kernel's view (seen by grub when installing).

Try booting the rescue disc and performing these steps:

(1) Run: grub --device-map=/tmp/drivemap
(2) Exit from grub.
(3) Edit /tmp/drivemap to reverse the mapping of drives that are "seen"
(4) Re-run: grub --device-map=/tmp/drivemap
(5) Re-install grub, i.e., by following steps 2-5 from this article [0]
(It doesn't hurt to install the boot code on both drives in step 5 just
in case, i.e., setup hd(0) followed by setup hd(1) -- both will point to
the partition you identified with root(hdX,Y). The bios will usually
boot from what it sees as hd(0) but there are exceptions).

(It is possible to access this functionality through anaconda, too --
there's a checkbox that lets you see "Extended GRUB options" or
something like that on the bootloader screen).

Let us know how it goes--

-Chris


[0] http://dailypackage.fedorabook.com/index.php?/archives/158-.html