kernel presentation at ILUG on Sat.

[Charles Steinkuehler]

Jason Clinton wrote:

> Here is the output of grub when I attempt to place the bootloader on the 
> media with a reference to the grub files on my IDE drive.
> 
> grub> root (hd0,0)
>  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
> 
> grub> setup (h2)
> 
> Error 23: Error while parsing number
> 
> grub> setup (hd2)
>  Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
>  Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
>  Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
>  Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd2)"...  16 sectors are embedded.
> succeeded
>  Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd2) (hd2)1+16 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage
> 2 /boot/grub/grub.conf"... succeeded
> Done.
> 
> I could have sworn I was getting an error message before, but I guess 
> not. The BIOS skips right over the USB flash drive (I see the light 
> blink as though it looked for the MBR). I tried both USB FDD and USB ZIP 
> bootable options. The BIOS post messages display that it has detected a 
> "JumpDrive 2.0 removable storage device".

I'm not a grub guru, but wouldn't you need to set the grub root to the 
same hdd you're trying to setup grub on?  ie:

grub> root (hd2,0) # <- or appropriate partition number
grub> setup (hd2)

> So I tried LILO too:
> 
> boot=/dev/sda
> map=/boot/map
> install=/boot/boot.b
> prompt
> timeout=50
> lba32
> default=linux
> 
> image=/boot/bzImage
>         label=linux
>         read-only
>         root=/dev/hda3
> 
> Output of /sbin/lilo:
> 
> Warning: BIOS drive 0x82 may not be accessible
> Warning: /dev/sda is not on the first disk
> Warning: Unable to determine video adapter in use in the present system.
> Added linux *
> 
> And then I reboot and it just skips over it again after looking for an 
> MBR and not finding one.

Hmm...maybe you don't have an MBR.  I don't think LILO installs an MBR 
by default.  The grub setup should have installed an MBR, but since 
you're having troubles with grub, I wouldn't rely on it entirely.

Have you tried "fdisk /mbr" from a dos disk?

> Like I said, I don't have a clue where to go from here.

It's also interesting to note that you have two options for USB booting. 
There are also two basic FAT partition formats, the "floppy disk" 
format, with a single partition table for the whole device, and the 
"hard disk" format, with 4 partition entries (more partitions can be 
added as logical partititons contained within one of the 4 primary 
partitions marked as "extended".  I believe this relates to your BIOS 
choices.

I would personally try to get DOS (or at least something similar, like 
syslinux) booting from the USB device.  That will verify you don't have 
any hardware or BIOS problems preventing things from working.  Once 
you've gotten over the DOS hurdle, I think the getting linux to boot 
will be much more straight-forward.

Overall, I'd put odds on an invalid MBR, which you can fix with the 
"fdisk /mbr" command.  Oh, and make sure you marked the lilo partition 
"active".

-- 
Charles Steinkuehler
charles at steinkuehler.net