Gentoo 2006.0 installation completed, but GRUB does not boot it

J_K9 · 03-27-2006, 11:18 AM

Hi,

I followed the Gentoo documentation to the word, but I have still encountered problems. I installed Gentoo via the network using the Minimal Install CD. I used genkernel to compile my kernel, which meant that my grub.conf ended up looking like this:

Code:

default 0
timeout 10
spashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2006.0
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev
initrd /boot/initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r1

/boot is located on hda1 (formatted as ext2), / on hda3 (formatted as ext3), swap on hda2. I installed GRUB using grub-install, but then this happened-

When I boot the computer, first of all no splash image is displayed when GRUB comes up - and then after about 10 seconds, I get the following error:

Code:

  Booting 'Gentoo Linux 2006.0'

root (hd0,0)
 Filesystem type ext2fs, partition type 0x83
kernel /boot/kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r1 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

I'm not sure about the last three dots there (...) as they come up as extended ASCII characters which I cannot possibly replicate, but I assume that is what they would be.

I then tried reinstalling GRUB by chrooting to the mounted filesystem again from the Gentoo Minimal CD, mounting /dev/hda1 to /boot, and then doing the following:

Code:

# grub
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

But, even then, I get the same problem. Does anyone know what's happening, or how I can fix this? Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers,

-jk

TruongAn · 03-27-2006, 11:36 AM

Have you checked carefully that the path to the kernel image is correct ?
It said File not found, may be you have misspelling it

J_K9 · 03-27-2006, 12:17 PM

I reinserted the Minimal Install CD - here are the contents of hda3's (/) boot partition:

Code:

boot # ls -l
total 4216
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  820775 Mar 27 13:32 System.map-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r1
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       1 Mar 27 09:31 boot -> .
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1842250 Mar 27 13:47 initramfs-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r1
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1637177 Mar 27 13:32 kernel-genkernel-x86-2.6.15-gentoo-r1

I've checked, and there isn't a misspelling. But, grub.conf refers to 'root (hd0,0)' as the root of 'Gentoo Linux 2006.0'. However, (hd0,0) is my hda1 (/boot mount point), isn't it? Therefore, GRUB is looking for the kernel in hda1, but it's actually in hda3. So, should I change 'root (hd0,0)' to 'root (hd0,1)'? I'm going to give it a shot now.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

Cheers,

-jk

jomen · 03-27-2006, 12:20 PM

This could happen if you did not have /dev/hda1 (your /boot - where grub _and_ the kernel should be) to / while setting up grub.
Or if you forgot to mount /boot when you copied the kernel to it - it would have ended up in /boot on /dev/hda3 then.
Make sure /boot is mounted when you set up grub and when installing the kernel.

-edit-
just saw you posted in the meantime:
looks like what I suggested second...you did not mount /boot so the kernel ended up being copied to /boot on /dev/hda3

J_K9 · 03-27-2006, 12:38 PM

Hi jomen,

Thanks for your reply - it worked! I basically chrooted to /mnt/gentoo (where /dev/hda3 was mounted), copied the contents of /dev/hda3's /boot directory to a directory /tmp/kernel, mounted /dev/hda1 over /boot, and then copied the files in /tmp/kernel recursively into /dev/hda1's boot.

And now it boots - GRUB even displays the splash image!

I have another problem though: when Gentoo is starting, here is the error message I get (after a few screenfuls of text):

Code:

* Checking root filesystem...
fsck.ext3: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/ROOT
/dev/ROOT:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap of ufs or something else), then the supervlock is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
    e2fsk -b 8193 <device>

* Filesystem couldn't be fixed :(
Give root password for maintenance
(or type Control-D to continue):

I hope you can help me here. I'm at the console logged in as root (after the last bit of the error), so I would be extremely grateful if you could help me out. Switching to Gentoo isn't easy

Thanks!

-jk

jomen · 03-27-2006, 02:00 PM

look at the file /etc/fstab (in your / partition...)

IIRC there was a "template" which refers to your partitions as /dev/ROOT for what would really be /dev/hda3 for you
the same goes for entries like /dev/SWAP and /dev/BOOT - which are /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 respectively - change these to their real names.

J_K9 · 03-27-2006, 02:52 PM

Excellent - I commented out all the /dev/ROOT, /dev/SWAP etc and left the mount lines I had added manually - and now I can login!

I have a few more questions though.. Here is the first one - it complains that DHCP is not available:

Code:

*    No loaded modules provide "dhcp" (dhcp_start)       [ !! ]
* ERROR: Problem starting needed services.
*        "netmount" was not started.

However, my /etc/resolv.conf shows:

Code:

# Generated by dchpcd for interface eth1
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.xx
nameserver xxx.xxx.xxx.x
domain WORKGROUP

So, dhcpcd is there. I also tried emerging it again, and the emerge worked (even though my internet connection does not work). I restarted the computer and I still got the same error message. So, I tried setting the IP address and the rest manually using 'ifconfig up eth0 192.168.1.100 netmask 255.255.255.0' (I know there are no conflicts) but it still doesn't work. Emerge complains about not being able to resolve the download servers.

Is there any way I can fix this?

Another thing is that the 'startx' command doesn't work, so I'm not sure how to bring up the GUI. Oh, and I tried creating a standard user (with no password), and then switching to the user (max) via 'su max', which worked. BUT, then I tried to change the passwd from the user max (I know I could've done this as root), and I got the error "passwd: Authentication token manipulation error" when I entered a blank password. Why? There should not be a password on the account. And another thing is that I cannot 'su' back to root (error- "su: Permission denied. Sorry."), so I cannot shutdown/reboot the computer either.

Again, help gratefully received

Thanks,

-jk

jomen · 03-27-2006, 03:16 PM

If you look at the error...
netmount was not started because dhcp was not started - and this in turn was not started because...I have a guess:

is /etc/init.d/net.eth0 a link to /etc/init.d/net.lo

ls -al /etc/init.d/net*

it should be...

Is the module for your ethernet-card loaded - or is it compiled into the kernel - is it the right one?
Check the systems logs
/var/log/messages
and
dmesg | less

For the startx - do you have xorg installed?

Install a display-manager like GDM or KDM...this will also solve the problem with the password...
There should be a password - and I don't even know how to make it going without one - and I really would not do so.
It's not neccessary eighter, because when using a display-manager you can allow passwordless logins for specific users or even automatically start a session without needing to login via user/password

The password for user max can be changed by max:
passwd --> while logged in as max
or by root:
passwd max --> while being root

TruongAn · 03-27-2006, 11:14 PM

DHCP didn't work.
How about give it a static IP
open /etc/conf.d/net
then comment out the line

Code:

 iface eht0="dhcp"

and add these line

Code:

config_eth0=( "Your_IP netmask Your_Netmask" )

then:
ln -s /etc/init.d/net.lo /etc/init.d/net.eth0
and run /etc/init.d/net.eth0 start