After turning on my computer I received the following message
GRUB Loading stage2...
graphics file "(hd0,1)/boot/message" missing, press a key to continue....

After pressing any key a blue screen comes up GNU GRUB version 0.94 and asks to select Linux, Floppy or Failsafe

If I hit Linux

It says the following
Booting 'Linux'
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 vga=0x317 splash=silent desktop resume=/dev/hda1 showopts

Error 18:Selected cylindar exceeds maximum supported by Bios

Press any key to continue...


After pressing any key a blue screen comes up GNU GRUB version 0.94 and asks to select Linux, Floppy or Failsafe

and the cycle continues...

Just a suggestions, make sure your CMOS setting are set to LBA for your hard
drive. I have problems booting from grub if my bios isnt set to that, and the grub is
installed on a higher region of my hard drive (hda2, hda3 etc...). You should be able
to access these setting when your computer starts up, before it gets to grub. On my
cpu it's the <del> key, it may be different on yours.

I tried your suggestion but no change in the output.

Thanks
Drewer

Are you able to get to the grub command line? If I &%$# up my menu.1st (grub.conf) file it spits me out to the grub command line rather than another menu. Try typing "c" when your at that menu. From the grub command line your can type <Tab> to see a list of all commands, then help <command> for a description.

If you can get to the command line try the following:

# mount (hd0,1)

If you get a message similar, about max cylinders, then you may have to reinstall grub. If you dont, then try the following command. You can use tab completion on the path art, just like in bash.

# kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2

If that works then type

# boot

If you cant do anything regarding (hd0,1), I would suggest reinstalling grub onto the MBR, if it already isnt. That means you will have to use grub to boot any OS on that hard drive. This can be done from the grub command line using the setup command, I've done it once, the grub web page should have all the info on how to do it.

I am able to get to the grub command line.
ie. grub>
If I type # mount (hd0,1)
ie. grub> # mount (hd0,1)
I receive a Error 27: Un Unrecognized command

Hey, I'm sorry dude, I made a mistake. I put "mount" but the proper command is
"root". And I'm also sorry for the late reply and correction, I just got off work.
So instead of mount, it would be:

grub> # root (hd0,1)
grub> # kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2
grub> # boot

Try that and see if it boots. Also if you have any kind of boot floppy you may be
able to get in that way.

I typed in root (hd0,1) and received the comment
Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83

That's a good thing, that means grub is able to see the partition that linux is on, and also sets it up to boot your system. After you've entered that command, you'll have to select which kernel to boot with the "kernel" command, then type "boot" to boot your system up. Once again here's all three commands, after each one succeeds, enter the command following it. If any fail, let us know what the failure message is.

grub> # root (hd0,1)
grub> # kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2
grub> # boot

These should be the minimal three commands needed to boot your system, based on your first post. I've left out the vga=0x317 and the splash=whatever, if anyone feels the vga address kernel parameter is necessary, please post. But if you can boot your system with the three commands posted above, you should be able to backup and edit your grub.conf to fix it, or at least boot it manually for a while.

This is the result
grub> # root (hd0,1)
Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83
grub> # kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2
Error 18: Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by Bios
grub> # boot
Error 8 Kernel must be loaded before booting

I'm thinking this may not be a grub issue. Is it possible there was a new kernel installed, or this is happening after a fresh installation? Are there any special circumstances that led up to the problem? Any recent CMOS setting changes? Grub re-install? Is grub installed on your MBR or the start of your partition?

There is more you can do from the grub command line. If your familiar with bash a bit, it's similar. You can read your config files to check if thats an issue. The command name is "cat". You just have ot specify what partition the file your looking for is on. For instance to find a grub.conf on a Slackware cpu, on the first hard drive, second partition would be:

grub> # cat (hd0,1)/boot/grub/grub.conf

I'm not sure where your grub.conf (or maybe menu.1st) is on Suse, but you can double hit tab to list the files in a directory while your typing the path, so it's possible to explore your filesystem for it. Also look for the file /boot/message, I don't know what it's for, so I don't suggest using cat to read that file incase it's binary, but you can use the tab completion when typing in a path using cat to see if its listed.

Not a Bash brainbuster. :'( . No changes to the CMOS. I can't remember where I installed GRUB. I tried the command grub> # cat (hd0,1)/boot/grub/grub.conf but the file wasn't found.
Double hit TAB???
Unrecognized command when I used /boot/message

scottman forgive my hijacking....Drewer questions are
1) post your mobo details and your bios details, & what did you do to enable LBA?
2) root (hd0,1) = your /boot partition is that correct? most have boot as (hd0,0). You appear to have your / (root) partition with a sub-folder of /boot
3) do you have a rescue option on your suse or a rescue cd?
4) for a tutorial heres mine
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=237511

PS if for paranoid reasons you don't want to post your mobo and bios then do a google or go to your mobo site and read the dox on how to enable LBA......hint you may need to flash your bios if your current bios does not support LBA and grub supports LBA in its natural state altho if we are forced to we can use the force command to force LBA.

Award v6.00 soyo syk7via - Athlon 600 Ram 500 meg Nvidia 64meg agp 4x. 136GB no scsi, sata, or usb drives. i have an sata card i would like to use some day but i could not get the drivers to work (A future project).
I have LBA picked but I will try your suggestion.
I unfortunately did not make a recovery cd or disk

aus9, excellent thread, I put it in my subscribed threads. As far as the "hijacking", please post anything you think that would help Drewer out, I'm here to learn too.

I'm thinking that since grub can recognize his second partition as reiserfs with the root command, LBA may not be an issue.

His menu.1st (wherever or whatever it may be on Suse) is pointing to /boot/message... that may be a splashscreen? When that fails, it could be spitting him out to a "Linux, Floppy, Failsaife" prompt. I've never seen this, but could this be a Suse thing? As my grub from source spits me out to the command line.

My next thought, what does grub do if it tries to boot a kernel on a resierfs partition without resierfs support? I know I've screwed up on installations without making an "initrd" or compiling resierfs into a new kernel before trying to boot a new OS off a default kernel. Grub seems to be able to sense this failure, and return me to the grub menu, or command line.

Drewer:
As far as the double tab I was referring to, I meant that when you are typing the cat command, you can hit tab to either complete what you are typing. If that doesn't work, you can hit tab again to see all the optional completions of what you are typing. Using this, you can list all files and directories in a folder, or on a partition (from grub).

Also, if you could think of any other circumstances leading up to this (new distro install, new kernel, etc) let us know.

If you don't have a boot disk, or CD available, you could always explore a distrobution that boots from CD. I use DamnSmallLinux if I have to get in and fix things. You would have to learn how to mount a partition from a shell, and know how to boot from a CD.

Drewer Please confirm what your /boot part is on

2) fallback will kick in if the first (default) fails

3) Once grub handballs to the kernel all errors for kernel with no support for what filesystem are handled by the kernel but obviously the grub files have to be on a format recognised by grub.

4) I am not sure if he has attempted to use my troubleshooter but deleting all GRUB splashimages and kernel splash images will narrow down the errors to one solution over time.

5) His initial error is error 18 which is a cylinder issue which is why I focus on that ....I am a simple aussie heh heh