GRUB stuck in text mode
 

I installed a new hard drive in my laptop and a friend helped me get eveything moved over to the new drive. The problem now is that GRUB only comes up in text mode. I've been reading over tons of forms and been modifying the /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

My boot partition is hd0,0 and root is on hd0,1
I've tried
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/boot/message
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/message
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/message

I've got the partitions correct I believe becuse the system will boot just fine but GRUB just won't display the graphic menu.

I tired copying the message file over again from my old hard drive in case it was corrupt but same problem

Any help would be great.

Lerxst

I don't understand what you mean by the "message file". Also, what are the lines beginning with "gfxmenu"?

When you say boot partition at (hd0,0) I assume you mean that is where /boot is mounted. What is confusing is that you are using the GRUB numbering scheme out of context.

For GRUB to find its menu on startup, it needs to be installed with a command sequence in which you first tell GRUB where / (root) is, then run setup with an argument to say where GRUB stage1 goes. The location of / gets hard-coded into the Stage1 code.

So....what is the exact partition setup? (In Linux terms---eg /dev/hda1 mounted at /boot, /dev/hda2 mounted at /, etc.)
Can you get into the Linux distro somehow?---eg by booting the install disk---rescue mode.

Also, tell us the name of the distro.

I'm using Suse 10.1 If I understand it right the /boot/message file is the actual graphic file that displays when Grub loads and displays the options of which OS to load as soon as it goes to Stage 2. I'm getting a text mode instead of the normal graphic. The "gfxmenu" lines are what is supposed to point where the "message" is at (again if I'm understanding it right) The reason I had tied the 4 different versions was incase I wasn't mounting something wrong. I can get into the system just fine. It will boot when I select the SUSE Linux 10.1 option in the text menu of Grub. I just don't get the graphic anymore. I have compared the menu.lst file from my old drive and with the exception of the actual partation numbers eveything looks the same.

My partition setup is:
/dev/hda1 mounted at /boot
/dev/hda2 mounted at /

The reason I was using the Grub numbering scheme was that is how it is in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file.


Here is my menu.lst file:
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Tue Jul 25 08:06:29 CDT 2006

color white/blue black/light-gray
default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/messag

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/hda3 splash=silent showopts
initrd /initrd

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
chainloader (fd0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- SUSE Linux 10.1
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off 3
initrd /initrd


Here is my /etc/grub.conf (not sure why Stage 2 is listed twice in here)
setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0,0) (hd0,0)
setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0) (hd0,0)
quit


I hope this is what you were asking for.

Lerxst

I misunderstood---I thought you were not able to boot into your OS.

Here's a clue (from my RedHat EL4 setup):

The grub directory includes a file named splash.xpm.gz

In the menu.lst file are the following two lines:
if I hide the splash file, then I get behavior similar to yours. My hunch is that --without an image file--"hiddenmenu" causes nothing to be displayed.

Try some experiments--or read the GRUB manual (or both...;) )

I have read through the documentation on the Grub site and it made no mention at all of gfxmenu. After some more searching i discovered that this is a Suse patch that they have added to all a graphical menu for Grub. A few other distros are using this too. They don't use the splashimage command.

I have tried running the Boot Loader from Yast and running the repair from disk 1 but still a no go. I have also tried mkinitrd -s 800*600 even though that seems to relate to the bootsplash rather than the grub screeen.

Lerxst