Gentoo 1.4 x86 grub install problems
 

I spent the day installing then reinstalling Gentoo 1.4 x86 20030807

ultimately upon reboot, I found the error message 15 file not found.

I installed the 2.4.20-r3 kernel.

The mobo is an abit be6-ii.

The partition table is /dev/hda1 /boot 250 mb
/dev/hda2 /swap 1000 mb
/dev/hda3 /reiserfs 5000 mb



I followed all of the installation notes to the letter. This machine is linux only, I wanted to avoid any dual booting issues.

Code listing 23.2: GRUB on the MBR

grub> root (hd0,0) (Your boot partition)
grub> setup (hd0) (Where the boot record is installed; here, it is the MBR)

here's the grub.conf:
default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title=Gentoo Linux (genkernel)
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.4.20-r3 root=/dev/hda3
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.4.20-r3


I used all grp packages. This distro was released about ten days before this posting.

This whole mess seems very familiar since I came across the same problem about four months ago with the april release of gentoo. The grp seemed to help since I could install without downloading new packages. But alas I could not get it to boot.

Help.
Please.

There's nothing obviously syntatically wrong with that boot code but I'd just check to make sure your kernel version is perfect. Did you use genkernel to build it? I remember the default kernel (gentoo sources) being 2.20.9-r5-gentoo but I'm sure you compiled it differently. That seems like the only thing it could be.

I used genkernel and built the gaming kernel. 2.4.20-r3. Except I didn't emerge sync or have the machine networked while installing.

If you built the gaming kernel you may want to try using

kernel-2.4.20-gaming-r3

and

initrd-2.4.20-gaming-r3


It may not work but it is worth a shot. Gentoo names the kernels with kernelnum-sourcetype-rX.

I tried that, it seems that I overlooked it in my previous attempts. Perhaps my kernel install was botched, I pointed the bootloader to the kernel, alas error 15 pops up again. Also the compilation process popped up some errors, and warninig messages. Thanks for holding my hand folks, this is going to take some time.

Ok, well the quick fixes don't look like they're going to work.

Let's have a look at what's in your boot folder first.

Boot gentoolive

mkdir /mnt/linux
mount /dev/hdXY /mnt/linux
cd mnt
cd linux
cd boot
ls

What do we got?

I'm almost certain that the error is in grub.conf. I had the same problem last time I installed gentoo and fixed it, but I can't remember what I did...

Stupid question. You're sure that's the name of your kernel? If you're following the install directions exactly it would be:
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3
probably this isn't the case, but...

After following instructions above, /mnt/boot has 0 files.

here's the install docs from the gentoo website, kernel instructions and all.

Settings:
compile optimization: 1 processor(s)
source tree: /usr/src/linux-2.4.20-gaming-r3
config: gentoo (customized)
config loc: /etc/kernels/config-2.4.20-gaming-r3
initrd config: (default) /etc/kernels/settings

* Running "make oldconfig"... [ ok ]
* Logging to /var/log/genkernel.log... [ ok ]
* Starting 2.4.20-gaming-r3 build... [ ok ]
* Running "make dep"... [ ok ]
* Running "make bzImage"... [ ok ]
* Running "make modules"... [ ok ]
* Running "make modules_install"... [ ok ]
* Moving bzImage to /boot/kernel-2.4.20-gaming-r3... [ ok ]
* Building busybox... [ ok ]
* Creating initrd... [ ok ]

* Build completed successfully!

* Please specify /boot/kernel-2.4.20-gaming-r3 and /boot/initrd-2.4.20-gaming-r3
* when customizing your boot loader configuration files.

this is also what printed on the screen after compiling the kernel.

Ok well you defeinitely need to have the "gaming" in there from now on, but you said it still didn't work like that, right?


Also a revision to my instructions above, I didn't realize that you had an extra boot partition. So just trying mounting /dev/hda1 if you haven't already. Also remember that the way grub sees partition numbers starts indexing at 0, where the /dev method starts indexing at 1.

Here is just a boot block of what your linux part should look like in grub.conf:


title=Gentoo Linux (genkernel)
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.4.20-gaming-r3 root=/dev/hda3
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.4.20-gaming-r3

This block assumes that your have a seperate boot partiton at /dev/hda1, a Probably swap partition at /dev/hda2 and definitely a main partition at /dev/hda3. If this is all correct and you have correctly generated the kernel I really don't see the problem.

It looks as thoug I made a syntax error after all. kernel-2.4.-20-gaming-r3 instead of kernel-2.4.20gaming-r3. Dumb a** newbies anyway,huh?

Also nothing but love for you all for helping me, holding my hand and all.