1:15 p.m.
Hi;
I have to run fixmbr on my WindowsXP harddisk (sda). I assume this use
of fixmbr will blow away my grub. So after running fixmbr I will go to
my Fedora rescue disk and do:
grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sdb
That is; I want grub stage1 on the mbr of sda while I want stage2 on
sdb /boot.
I am looking for confirmation that this is a correct strategy and the
proper use of the grub-install command.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
5:05 p.m.
On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 10:28 -0400, William Case wrote:
When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
besides that everything else boots normally.
Sounds like you've installed GRUB, again, to a second location. And,
now, one chainloads the other, before the computer boots.
Computer relay racing... Pass the baton... ;-)
I might guess that you've got a grub inside a grub directory.
e.g. /boot/grub/grub/grub
I avoided using the grub-install scripts, as they can make some
unwarranted assumptions.
--
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686
Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I
read messages from the public lists.
8:52 p.m.
William Case wrote:
Hi Tim;
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 07:35 +0930, Tim wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 10:28 -0400, William Case wrote:
>
>> When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
>> besides that everything else boots normally.
>>
This describes the behavior that occurs when there is a configfile
entry
in the
grub.conf file. You don't have that?
For instance, you keep your mbr on sda. However, you have another boot
partition
on sdb. You can put the entry
root(hd1,0) # boot for second OS is first partition on second drive
configfile /grub/menu.lst
in grub.conf and it will bring up the second menu that you can then
select which
kernel you want to boot on the other OS.
8:42 a.m.
Thank you D. Hugh Redelmeier;
On Sun, 2008-06-29 at 01:25 -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
| From: William Case <billlinux(a)rogers.com>
| 1) stage1 is one line that is installed on the mbr within the 64 bytes
| or 512 bits that is reserved on the disk for booting purposes.
Boot records are 512 bytes. The code must fit into about 440 bytes of
this.
Yes, one should always double check each fact as one writes something.
And, the little lesson was nice as well.
However, I think the point of my quick description of the boot loading
process was to show responders to my original question that the grub
problem I had was a little deeper and more complex than the normal grub
screw-up.
So I am not too concerned about that small inaccuracy; most people who
actually tried to help me caught the point.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
2:50 a.m.
Tim wrote:
OOS? I can't find a definition for that term that seems to fit.
lol.
please, lower case only. 'other operating system'. aka, msbsos.
you should be able to figure it out now.
i do not like or use it. oos helps me not think of it. :o)
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
2:38 a.m.
On Sun, 2008-06-29 at 07:12 +0000, g wrote:
interesting reading. if you can fully believe something written by
users of oos.
OOS? I can't find a definition for that term that seems to fit.
--
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686
Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I
read messages from the public lists.
2:12 a.m.
D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the first block on the hard drive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbr is worth a read.
interesting reading. if you can fully believe something written by
users of oos.
i do not fully agree with calling calling sector 0 of track an lba block.
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
12:25 a.m.
| From: William Case <billlinux(a)rogers.com>
| 1) stage1 is one line that is installed on the mbr within the 64 bytes
| or 512 bits that is reserved on the disk for booting purposes.
Boot records are 512 bytes. The code must fit into about 440 bytes of
this.
The Master Boot Record (MBR) is the first block on the hard drive.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mbr is worth a read.
Each partition also has a boot record.
The good-old-fashioned code in the MBR looked for the first bootable
primary partition and booted the boot record from that. "bootable" is
an attribute of a partition table entry that you can set by fdisk(8)
"a" command, for example. This was the conventional way for switching
which OS to boot.
Note: this does not allow for booting from "logical" partitions. The
extended partition's can be used -- I've sometimes put LILO or GRUB's
boot record there.
On some systems, boot loaders cannot reach as far into a large drive
as GRUB can.
7:17 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
William Case wrote:
<snip>
None of the usual file finders was showing me anything useful.
being that it is 'boot sector', usual file finders would not show it.
something like 'norton disk doctor' will, as it saved my butt many times
when i was using oos. i learned early how well it worked for saving boot
sector and partition tables to floppies for easy recovery. also used it
for rebuilding extended partitions and file directories.
I am going to let it be for a couple of days and collect my thoughts.
always best to have a good mental attitude when getting into what you are
about to face.
as a precaution;
'dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/fd0 bs=256 count=1'
'dd if=/dev/sdb of=/dev/fd0 bs=256 count=1'
to 2 separate floppies will save you if you should squirrel things.
also, have a look at http://cyti.latgola.lv/ruuni/
a great distrib for recovering forgotten passwords in oos.
it has help me save many reinstalls for oos clients. do not know if
it will do vista, but i have used it for win2k, nt and xp.
And then, give it a last try on a quiet Sunday morning.
for sure you are not of 'eastern orthodox faith', we take off from work
on sundays. but then again, i consider what i do with computers as
playing. work is car and cutting grass. :o)
hth.
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
6:19 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
Hi g;
Good question, good point.
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 21:42 +0000, g wrote:
William Case wrote:
<snip>
> As I said, the double splash image doesn't prevent me from doing
> anything, so I'll let it sit for a couple of days. If no one (including
> me) comes up with a solution, I will file a bug against it.
>
> I just had the objective of after the fresh install of F9, working on
> cleaning up all the cruft, annoyances and problems I had accumulated and
> thereby have a washed, dried and polished system.
something you have yet to mention, do you still have commercial boot loader
on sda, or did you 'fixmbr' and remove it?
It was Boot Magic. I was using it just because I was being stubborn. I
bought Partition Magic which included the Boot Magic program before I
started exploring Linux. "I paid for it; I am going to use it." I was
expecting the whole thing to out date itself any day soon, so its death
didn't surprise me.
I haven't 'fixmbr' -ed yet. But I did replace the mbr or at least part
of it with grub when I made my original mistake, if I did, in fact, make
an uncorrected mistake. This whole video mode question has thrown that
open.
something which has not been suggested to try;
'dd if=/dev/sda of=sda.hex bs=256 count=1'
'dd if=/dev/sdb of=sdb.hex bs=256 count=1'
That is a very good suggestion on checking for any lingering remnants of
either Boot Magic or a misplaced grub. None of the usual file finders
was showing me anything useful.
I am going to let it be for a couple of days and collect my thoughts.
And then, give it a last try on a quiet Sunday morning.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
4:42 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
William Case wrote:
<snip>
As I said, the double splash image doesn't prevent me from doing
anything, so I'll let it sit for a couple of days. If no one (including
me) comes up with a solution, I will file a bug against it.
I just had the objective of after the fresh install of F9, working on
cleaning up all the cruft, annoyances and problems I had accumulated and
thereby have a washed, dried and polished system.
something you have yet to mention, do you still have commercial boot loader
on sda, or did you 'fixmbr' and remove it?
something which has not been suggested to try;
'dd if=/dev/sda of=sda.hex bs=256 count=1'
'dd if=/dev/sdb of=sdb.hex bs=256 count=1'
then use a hex editor and look at 2 files. you should see microsoft, vista,
what ever in sda.hex and grub in sdb.hex.
if you see grub in both, problem solved.
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
2:26 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
Thanks Mikkel;
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 12:28 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
William Case wrote:
>
> On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 08:13 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>> Dumb question - is this a brief flash, like the video changing
>> modes, and not a longer pause between displays of the menu?
>
> Not a dumb question. The flash lasts about 1/2 second. Just long enough
> for eyes to catch a Fedora blue screen, the word Fedora at the top of
> the screen, and, the beginning of a menu box being written. Then the
> screen blanks for 2 - 3 seconds ( I have tried to count the times off)
> and finally the splash image is fully redrawn. When it loads for the
> second time the Fedora name is at the bottom. I mention that in support
> of your idea it may be the video changing: maybe in the first instance
> the splash image is not getting drawn properly.
>
> Another thing, this started in F8. I hadn't made the connection until
> now and it just might be my frustration making invalid assumptions.
> Keeping in mind I don't boot THAT often in order to always notice
> exactly when the issue started. But, two or three months ago, I
> installed a new motherboard switching from an ATI video card to a Nvidia
> on board video chip.
>
It sure sounds like a video mode problem. I wonder if grub-install
store the VESA mode to use, and it needs a different mode for the
ATI card then the Nvida card? I do not know enough about that part
of Grub to know for sure. But if that is the case, you would have
thought that the updated Grub package would have fixed that when it
installed.
Mikkel
As I said, the double splash image doesn't prevent me from doing
anything, so I'll let it sit for a couple of days. If no one (including
me) comes up with a solution, I will file a bug against it.
I just had the objective of after the fresh install of F9, working on
cleaning up all the cruft, annoyances and problems I had accumulated and
thereby have a washed, dried and polished system.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
12:28 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
William Case wrote:
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 08:13 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
> Dumb question - is this a brief flash, like the video changing
> modes, and not a longer pause between displays of the menu?
Not a dumb question. The flash lasts about 1/2 second. Just long enough
for eyes to catch a Fedora blue screen, the word Fedora at the top of
the screen, and, the beginning of a menu box being written. Then the
screen blanks for 2 - 3 seconds ( I have tried to count the times off)
and finally the splash image is fully redrawn. When it loads for the
second time the Fedora name is at the bottom. I mention that in support
of your idea it may be the video changing: maybe in the first instance
the splash image is not getting drawn properly.
Another thing, this started in F8. I hadn't made the connection until
now and it just might be my frustration making invalid assumptions.
Keeping in mind I don't boot THAT often in order to always notice
exactly when the issue started. But, two or three months ago, I
installed a new motherboard switching from an ATI video card to a Nvidia
on board video chip.
It sure sounds like a video mode problem. I wonder if grub-install
store the VESA mode to use, and it needs a different mode for the
ATI card then the Nvida card? I do not know enough about that part
of Grub to know for sure. But if that is the case, you would have
thought that the updated Grub package would have fixed that when it
installed.
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
12:08 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
stan wrote:
It sounds like you know more about grub than I do, so I can't
give you any incisive insight. But your comment above made me
wonder if this is a video driver issue rather than a grub issue.
Have you tried the opposite driver. i.e. if you are using the
closed source driver for your card, try the open source driver,
or vice versa.
The thing is, when Grub is displaying the menu screen, it is not
using either driver. It is using the VESA interface to display the
boot screen. Once you select what to boot, it will then use an X
server to show the pretty screen unless you selected the quiet mode.
I can't remember the command to change the video made in Grub, if
there is one.
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
11:28 a.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
Hi Stan;
You well might be right.
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 09:17 -0700, stan wrote:
William Case wrote:
> Hi Mikkel;
>
> On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 08:13 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>
>>
>> Dumb question - is this a brief flash, like the video changing
>> modes, and not a longer pause between displays of the menu?
>>
>
> Not a dumb question. The flash lasts about 1/2 second. Just long enough
> for eyes to catch a Fedora blue screen, the word Fedora at the top of
> the screen, and, the beginning of a menu box being written. Then the
> screen blanks for 2 - 3 seconds ( I have tried to count the times off)
> and finally the splash image is fully redrawn. When it loads for the
> second time the Fedora name is at the bottom. I mention that in support
> of your idea it may be the video changing: maybe in the first instance
> the splash image is not getting drawn properly.
>
> Another thing, this started in F8. I hadn't made the connection until
> now and it just might be my frustration making invalid assumptions.
> Keeping in mind I don't boot THAT often in order to always notice
> exactly when the issue started. But, two or three months ago, I
> installed a new motherboard switching from an ATI video card to a Nvidia
> on board video chip.
>
>
It sounds like you know more about grub than I do, so I can't give you
any incisive
insight. But your comment above made me wonder if this is a video
driver issue
rather than a grub issue. Have you tried the opposite driver. i.e. if
you are using the
closed source driver for your card, try the open source driver, or vice
versa.
I was putting off installing things like new video drivers until I had
my system working right. I have the Xwindows "nv" driver installed. I
will now replace it with the lvnia nvidia driver to see if that makes a
difference.
Thanks for your ideas. A fresh approach always gets one out of a
thinking rut .
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
11:17 a.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
William Case wrote:
Hi Mikkel;
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 08:13 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>
> Dumb question - is this a brief flash, like the video changing
> modes, and not a longer pause between displays of the menu?
>
Not a dumb question. The flash lasts about 1/2 second. Just long enough
for eyes to catch a Fedora blue screen, the word Fedora at the top of
the screen, and, the beginning of a menu box being written. Then the
screen blanks for 2 - 3 seconds ( I have tried to count the times off)
and finally the splash image is fully redrawn. When it loads for the
second time the Fedora name is at the bottom. I mention that in support
of your idea it may be the video changing: maybe in the first instance
the splash image is not getting drawn properly.
Another thing, this started in F8. I hadn't made the connection until
now and it just might be my frustration making invalid assumptions.
Keeping in mind I don't boot THAT often in order to always notice
exactly when the issue started. But, two or three months ago, I
installed a new motherboard switching from an ATI video card to a Nvidia
on board video chip.
It sounds like you know more about grub than I do, so I can't give you
any incisive
insight. But your comment above made me wonder if this is a video
driver issue
rather than a grub issue. Have you tried the opposite driver. i.e. if
you are using the
closed source driver for your card, try the open source driver, or vice
versa.
10:29 a.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
Hi Mikkel;
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 08:13 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
William Case wrote:
> My grub.conf contains the following line.
>
> splashimage=(hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
>
> I altered my splashimage line slightly by putting a single space
> between 'splashimage=(hd1,4)' and '/grub/splash.xpm.gz'.
>
The (hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz is a complete path/file name. When
you add a space, you created an invalid file name. Think of the
difference between /var/log/messages and / var/log/messages.
I realize. But in desperation, one starts trying all sorts of things.
The point of my mentioning it, was that with a bare bones menu screen
there was no double image.
> When I re-booted instead of the Fedora splash image, I got a
bare bones
> colourless square with menu items -- which in itself is not surprising.
>
> But also, I no longer saw a double flash of that menu. It was a very
> quick load, straight to the menu window. I retried it with the space
> removed but the whole splashimage line commented out. Again I saw a
> very quickly, single copy, skeleton menu load.
>
> On both occasions there was not a hint of a Fedora splash image coming
> from an extra stage2.
>
> Before I make a fool of myself by reporting this as a bug, does this
> look like a bug to you? If so, why haven't others seen it.
>
Dumb question - is this a brief flash, like the video changing
modes, and not a longer pause between displays of the menu?
Not a dumb question. The flash lasts about 1/2 second. Just long enough
for eyes to catch a Fedora blue screen, the word Fedora at the top of
the screen, and, the beginning of a menu box being written. Then the
screen blanks for 2 - 3 seconds ( I have tried to count the times off)
and finally the splash image is fully redrawn. When it loads for the
second time the Fedora name is at the bottom. I mention that in support
of your idea it may be the video changing: maybe in the first instance
the splash image is not getting drawn properly.
Another thing, this started in F8. I hadn't made the connection until
now and it just might be my frustration making invalid assumptions.
Keeping in mind I don't boot THAT often in order to always notice
exactly when the issue started. But, two or three months ago, I
installed a new motherboard switching from an ATI video card to a Nvidia
on board video chip.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
8:13 a.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
William Case wrote:
My grub.conf contains the following line.
splashimage=(hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
I altered my splashimage line slightly by putting a single space
between 'splashimage=(hd1,4)' and '/grub/splash.xpm.gz'.
The (hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz is a complete path/file name. When
you add a space, you created an invalid file name. Think of the
difference between /var/log/messages and / var/log/messages.
When I re-booted instead of the Fedora splash image, I got a bare
bones
colourless square with menu items -- which in itself is not surprising.
But also, I no longer saw a double flash of that menu. It was a very
quick load, straight to the menu window. I retried it with the space
removed but the whole splashimage line commented out. Again I saw a
very quickly, single copy, skeleton menu load.
On both occasions there was not a hint of a Fedora splash image coming
from an extra stage2.
Before I make a fool of myself by reporting this as a bug, does this
look like a bug to you? If so, why haven't others seen it.
Dumb question - is this a brief flash, like the video changing
modes, and not a longer pause between displays of the menu?
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
10:55 p.m.
New subject: Fedora/grub bug -- I think ?
Hi All;
On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 20:04 -0400, William Case wrote:
My grub.conf contains the following line.
splashimage=(hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
I altered my splashimage line slightly by putting a single space
between 'splashimage=(hd1,4)' and '/grub/splash.xpm.gz'.
When I re-booted instead of the Fedora splash image, I got a bare bones
colourless square with menu items -- which in itself is not surprising.
But also, I no longer saw a double flash of that menu. It was a very
quick load, straight to the menu window. I retried it with the space
removed but the whole splashimage line commented out. Again I saw a
very quickly, single copy, skeleton menu load.
On both occasions there was not a hint of a Fedora splash image coming
from an extra stage2.
Before I make a fool of myself by reporting this as a bug, does this
look like a bug to you? If so, why haven't others seen it.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
Hi Tim;
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 07:35 +0930, Tim wrote:
> On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 10:28 -0400, William Case wrote:
> > When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
> > besides that everything else boots normally.
>
>
[snip]
7:04 p.m.
Hi Tim;
On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 07:35 +0930, Tim wrote:
On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 10:28 -0400, William Case wrote:
> When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
> besides that everything else boots normally.
Sounds like you've installed GRUB, again, to a second location. And,
now, one chainloads the other, before the computer boots.
Computer relay racing... Pass the baton... ;-)
Exactly -- but where and how do I eliminate it?
I might guess that you've got a grub inside a grub directory.
e.g. /boot/grub/grub/grub
I have double -- triple -- checked, and I can't find a second grub or
grub.conf anywhere. I have searched both harddisks. I do have
a /etc/grub.conf link and a grub2 /boot/efi but I moved both of those
aside by renaming *.BU. That had no effect, I still get the double grub
flashscreen/menu.
I avoided using the grub-install scripts, as they can make some
unwarranted assumptions.
I will in the future.
Sorry to keep at this, but I am stumped. I don't want to risk
prematurely re-installing grub without discovering the cause of the
baton passing. Who knows what I might mess up. Remember, I did
re-install grub when I did a fresh install of F9 and that solved
nothing.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
11:29 a.m.
William Case wrote:
Thanks for replying Tim;
On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 16:05 +0930, Tim wrote:
I was trying to avoid wasting peoples time with a long description.
When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
besides that everything else boots normally.
About four weeks ago my commercial boot loader was blown away by the
WindowsXP sp3 download and install. Fine and good: that didn't surprise
me.
I just installed grub. During a first attempt at a grub install I had
an ooops! So I just re-installed grub and everything seemed fine.
Because it was an oops and not a confusion, I didn't pay attention to
the mistake, so now a month later I have forgotten exactly what I did
wrong. Besides I thought I had recovered.
About a week ago (I don't re-boot very often), I noticed the Fedora
grub splash screen appear for 1/2 second or less, then go blank and
pause for a second or two. Then a new splash screen appeared and
everything progressed fine from there. This occurs definitely during
the grub stage of bootup.
I didn't do anything then because I was going to fresh install Fedora 9
with a new grub on the weekend. Which I have done. But the double
splash screen still appears.
The double splash screen is normal with chaining multiple grub
installations. The
short splashscreen is normal if the timeout parameter is not set or is set
to a small value.
Could you have a /boot on /dev/sda that is chaining to one on /dev/sdb?
With
a stanza in grub.conf like
title Other
rootnoverify (hd1)
chainloader +1
or
title Other
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
chainloader +1
It is a clean way of handling multiple linux operating systems and letting
each handle its own
boot and grub configuration.
Robert McBroom
--
View this message in context:
http://www.nabble.com/Double-checking-grub-install----tp18118813p18138085...
Sent from the Fedora List mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
5:04 p.m.
William Case wrote:
<snip>
My Fedora version is listed with my signature.
so it is. did not notice before. guess i will have to start noting sigs
before i question versions. :o)
During a bugzilla discourse, a program or facility called
'firstaid' was
can not answer about that. next release of f9 i will venture into it.
<snip>
smoothly as possible.
no harm in double checking.
as you asked,
'grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sdb'
will, as stated in 'man grub-install' and 'info grub-install', put grub
on
'/dev/sdb' which is ok if you are using a boot loader with oos or have bios
to boot '/dev/sdb'.
when i had a '/dev/sda' crash, i used,
'grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sda'
to install to 1st drive, as that is how i have my bios set.
hthm.
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
10:40 a.m.
William Case wrote:
I was trying to avoid wasting peoples time with a long description.
it can clear things up sometimes as they are becoming not. [excuse order
of comments. trying to reply as you have things written]
When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
as you mention below, twice, meaning that it appears, you select or let
it time out and boot, then it appears again, you select or let it time
out and boot to system. if so, then it sounds like you may have it
installed on both sda and sdb. possible, sda calls it up on sdb.
[i am only trying to be sure we are of full understand of this matter]
anyway, in my last post to you, i mentioned that from grub command you
presented, you where wanting to install to /dev/sdb. i stated that that
is ok, if bios was set to boot /dev/sdb, else if set to /dev/sda, bios
would not see loader on /dev/sdb, unless maybe if /dev/sdb was set as
active instead of /dev/sda. not sure, as i have never tried booting that
way.
About four weeks ago my commercial boot loader was blown away by the
so, this is what is calling grub on /dev/sdb. you do not need it and
may be better off if you just use grub on /dev/sda to select oos or
fedora. unless you have something that grub can not load.
if not, you can/should either follow tim's grub install using
'grub <enter>' or use single command as you posted. either way, you
can/should change install to /dev/sda and make changes to 'grub.conf'
and include oos.
m2c. ymmv.
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
9:28 a.m.
Thanks for replying Tim;
On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 16:05 +0930, Tim wrote:
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
On Wed, 2008-06-25 at 14:15 -0400, William Case wrote:
> I have to run fixmbr on my WindowsXP harddisk (sda). I assume this
> use of fixmbr will blow away my grub.
It will change the master boot record to suit Windows. If you'd
previously put GRUB on there, you'd lose it.
I'm not sure that I see the point of running fixmbr, then doing
something else to undo it.
I was trying to avoid wasting peoples time with a long description.
When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
besides that everything else boots normally.
About four weeks ago my commercial boot loader was blown away by the
WindowsXP sp3 download and install. Fine and good: that didn't surprise
me.
I just installed grub. During a first attempt at a grub install I had
an ooops! So I just re-installed grub and everything seemed fine.
Because it was an oops and not a confusion, I didn't pay attention to
the mistake, so now a month later I have forgotten exactly what I did
wrong. Besides I thought I had recovered.
About a week ago (I don't re-boot very often), I noticed the Fedora
grub splash screen appear for 1/2 second or less, then go blank and
pause for a second or two. Then a new splash screen appeared and
everything progressed fine from there. This occurs definitely during
the grub stage of bootup.
I didn't do anything then because I was going to fresh install Fedora 9
with a new grub on the weekend. Which I have done. But the double
splash screen still appears.
> after running fixmbr I will go to my Fedora rescue disk and do:
>
In the hopes that I can eliminate this double boot.
> grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sdb
> That is; I want grub stage1 on the mbr of sda while I
want stage2 on
> sdb /boot.
I will use the grub command as you have given me to see if I can find
where the problem is.
Shouldn't really be necessary to do anything other than rewrite
the MBR
(you could that by backing it up with dd before any changes, then
restoring it again the same way).
Running fixmbr should only affect the drive that Windows is on. So the
only thing lost will be the MBR, the rest of GRUB will be unchanged
(stage2 will still be where it was before).
The problem is, I think I have two stage2s.
When I've restored GRUB, I've done it this way:
[snip]
That's just four commands. Here's a copy and paste of the process on my
computer, though I'm doing everything on drive zero, since there's only
one disc in this box.
[tim@gonzales ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@gonzales ~]# grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)
[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename.]
grub> root (hd0,0)
root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 23 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+23 p (hd0,0)/grub/stage2
/grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.
grub> quit
quit
[root@gonzales ~]#
NB: Tabbing didn't work when I tried it. But it has in the past. I'm
not sure if that's down to the terminal on Fedora 9, or something else.
1:42 p.m.
William Case wrote:
I am looking for confirmation that this is a correct strategy and
the
proper use of the grub-install command.
i have not used oos for several years and when i have had to reinstall grub,
i have been using a mandriva install disk. i would imagine it is not all
that different with fedora.
you did not mention what version, i would guess you are at f9, i am using f8
and recall 'recover' being in selections at disk boot.
so it should be a simple matter of booting install disk, selecting 'recover'
and follow prompts.
hth.
--
tc,hago.
g
.
in a free world without fences, who needs gates.
3:13 p.m.
Hi g;
On Wed, 2008-06-25 at 18:42 +0000, g wrote:
William Case wrote:
> I am looking for confirmation that this is a correct strategy and the
> proper use of the grub-install command.
i have not used oos for several years and when i have had to reinstall grub,
i have been using a mandriva install disk. i would imagine it is not all
that different with fedora.
I don't know much about mandriva, but the install disk does have rescue
mode which I am used to using.
you did not mention what version, i would guess you are at f9, i am
using f8
and recall 'recover' being in selections at disk boot.
My Fedora version is listed with my signature.
During a bugzilla discourse, a program or facility called 'firstaid' was
promised for F9 anaconda/rescue which would cover such eventualities but
if it exists, I can't find it.
so it should be a simple matter of booting install disk, selecting
'recover'
and follow prompts.
But it isn't. In any case, I have spent time with grub in the past and
generally comfortable using it. I asked here as a double check because
what I am planning will wipe out my boot loader for both of my systems
temporarily and I wanted to make sure that I can be up and running as
smoothly as possible.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
1:35 a.m.
On Wed, 2008-06-25 at 14:15 -0400, William Case wrote:
I have to run fixmbr on my WindowsXP harddisk (sda). I assume this
use of fixmbr will blow away my grub.
It will change the master boot record to suit Windows. If you'd
previously put GRUB on there, you'd lose it.
I'm not sure that I see the point of running fixmbr, then doing
something else to undo it.
after running fixmbr I will go to my Fedora rescue disk and do:
grub-install --root-directory=/boot /dev/sdb
That is; I want grub stage1 on the mbr of sda while I want stage2 on
sdb /boot.
Shouldn't really be necessary to do anything other than rewrite the MBR
(you could that by backing it up with dd before any changes, then
restoring it again the same way).
Running fixmbr should only affect the drive that Windows is on. So the
only thing lost will be the MBR, the rest of GRUB will be unchanged
(stage2 will still be where it was before).
When I've restored GRUB, I've done it this way:
Get into a GRUB shell:
Type the "grub" command.
Tell GRUB where the boot partition (GRUB's root) is:
Type a "root (hd1,0)" command line (second drive, first partition).
Tell GRUB where to write the boot record to (the MBR the BIOS will boot):
Type a "setup (hd0)" command line (first drive MBR).
Make GRUB actually do it:
Type the "quit" command.
That's just four commands. Here's a copy and paste of the process on my
computer, though I'm doing everything on drive zero, since there's only
one disc in this box.
[tim@gonzales ~]$ su -
Password:
[root@gonzales ~]# grub
Probing devices to guess BIOS drives. This may take a long time.
GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)
[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename.]
grub> root (hd0,0)
root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> setup (hd0)
setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 23 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+23 p (hd0,0)/grub/stage2
/grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
Done.
grub> quit
quit
[root@gonzales ~]#
NB: Tabbing didn't work when I tried it. But it has in the past. I'm
not sure if that's down to the terminal on Fedora 9, or something else.
--
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r
2.6.25.6-55.fc9.i686
Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I
read messages from the public lists.
10:18 p.m.
Hi Stan;
Lets step back a little bit.
On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 18:52 -0700, stan wrote:
William Case wrote:
> Hi Tim;
>
> On Fri, 2008-06-27 at 07:35 +0930, Tim wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 2008-06-26 at 10:28 -0400, William Case wrote:
>>
>>> When I first boot I get the Fedora grub splash screen/menu twice --
>>> besides that everything else boots normally.
>>>
This describes the behavior that occurs when there is a configfile entry
in the
grub.conf file. You don't have that?
For instance, you keep your mbr on sda. However, you have another boot
partition
on sdb. You can put the entry
root(hd1,0) # boot for second OS is first partition on second drive
configfile /grub/menu.lst
in grub.conf and it will bring up the second menu that you can then
select which
kernel you want to boot on the other OS.
As I understand it, and have used it for over two years, grub has three
parts or stages.
1) stage1 is one line that is installed on the mbr within the 64 bytes
or 512 bits that is reserved on the disk for booting purposes. Stage1
has the sole function of directing grub to stage1_5 or the grub loader
which is stage2. Stage1 is not grub but only a short binary that directs
the harddisk to read the next stage. The grub program is in stage2.
2) stage1_5 (stage 1.5) is a file that can reside on the first track
next to the mbr. stage1_5 is used when the instructions of where to
boot from are more complex than can be handled by the small mbr. In
that case stage1 directs grub (actually the controller of the harddisk)
to read stage1_5 which then directs grub to read stage2 wherever stage2
happens to be installed.
3) stage2 is a the binary executable that contains the actual boot
loading instructions. Stage2 gets some of the details for how and what
to load from the grub.conf file.
It is common on a dual boot system, to read the mbr of the first
harddisk (first, second etc. is established by the BIOS setup) and then
be directed to the /boot directory of the second harddisk in order to
read stage2. Stage2 reads the information contained in
the /boot/grub/grub.conf | menu.lst and proceeds to boot. When booting,
if the hiddenmenu has been commented out, grub shows one and only one
splashscreen with a menu. For a dual boot with Windows as an option,
the menu gives the user the choice of the latest Linux kernel, the next
to latest kernel and/or to chainload Windows (Other). Whichever is
selected (or the default), grub boots directly into that Operating
System.
My /boot/grub/grub.conf is as follows:
# boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,4)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
## hiddenmenu
title Fedora (2.6.25.6-55.fc9.x86_64)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25.6-55.fc9.x86_64 ro
root=UUID=884ffe2a-42ff-4835-bf57-b80bc45c3baa rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.25.6-55.fc9.x86_64.img
title Fedora (2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64 ro
root=UUID=884ffe2a-42ff-4835-bf57-b80bc45c3baa rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.25-14.fc9.x86_64.img
title WindowsXP sp3
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
There is no reason why I should be having this menu flash once and
disappear, pause, then load so that I can make an OS choice.
As has been suggested here by others, it looks like one stage2 has
become entangled with a second stage2. I cannot find a second stage2. I
have used 'locate', 'find', and 'grub> find' to search both
disks. In
fact, root]# grub> find /boot/grub/grub.conf returns 'file not found'
error 15. I have not yet used grub> find from the rescue disk command
line. I am about to try that next to see what it can tell me.
And, in fact, in the past, if I let anaconda automagically install the
grub setup, it gave me exactly that: stage1 on the sda mbr and stage2
in /boot of sdb. It should have done that when I installed F9, yet
somehow grub remained entangled with an extra stage2.
--
Regards Bill;
Fedora 9, Gnome 2.22.2
Evo.2.22.2, Emacs 22.2.1
5797
days inactive
5801
days old
27 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Bill Case -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
g -
Mikkel -
Robert McBroom -
stan -
Tim