Problem with GRUB (lilo also) in SuSE (as well as others)
I just got SuSE 9.1 DVD..
So anyways, I go and install it. Only one problem, the boot loader (GRUB) refuses to work. During the installation, when it rebooted, I had to go into the manual installation and boot directly off /dev/hda3. I am also using winXP and trying to go with a dual boot system. Anyways, after a long painstaking day, I finally managed to get SuSE to run (KDE works, but GNOME just has a whole bunch of lines for text). WinXP is my first partition, and I am on an AMD 1700+ with nForce2, onboard Geforce4 MX video GPU and sound. I use a Surecom 320XS ethernet card to connect to my ADSL modem. Anyways.. when I boot off the hard drive, the only thing that shows up is the word GRUB, no graphical interface, nothing. It won't respond to any keyboard commands. To run SuSE, I have to boot off the SuSE DVD, and go into the manual installation, and directly boot off /dev/hda3. My windows partition is on /dev/hda1. I tried editing the GRUB configuration files, and to no avail. I tried switching to LILO, and all that does is, instead of the word GRUB on boot, it just shows a single uppercase L. Again, the computer freezes, and I have to Ctrl-Alt-Delete, and boot off the DVD again. And there are a few problems IN SuSE also, I can't get onto the internet. It worked one time (during the setup), when I just setup the ethernet card, and didn't touch the DSL settings; the updater worked, and I updated all the installed components. I haven't been able to get it to work since. Also, I can't enable 3d acceleration, and I've gotten the nVidia drivers off YOU (the updater); SaX2 says that there are no available screen modes (I run a 19" monitor, at 1600x1200 resolution by the way) Anyways, any help would be greatly appreciated. [Also.. I'm not COMPLETELY new to linux.. I had red hat before, and had it running pretty smoothly, but some space issues forced me to erase the partitions.. but yeah, I have no idea how to do most things :P] |
Hi Kelvie,
I've just won such battle against SuSE 9.0, so I'm aware of what your problem is and how it can be solved. If it makes no odds to you, that I'm a Linux newbie, but dare to post some knowledge here, read further - SuSE rocks!!! Quote:
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For the nVidia driver to update, you just need to download the newest installer and then follow the instructions there. You'll not have need to recompile anything, and the installations is prety simple and straightforward. Quote:
From there mount your SuSE partition in the /mnt directory mount -t auto -o rw /dev/hda3 /mnt Edit your /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst so that it contains at least this entry label Linux root (hd0,2) kernel (hd0,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 initrd (hd0,2)/boot/initrd Append on the kernel-line any parameters you like to pass to the kernel. Then issue this command stroke from your Rescue: prompt grub-install --force-lba --root-directory=/mnt /dev/hda This should fix the problem with the freezing GRUB. If you want to have dual-boot choice for the XP system, just add to the menu.lst file the appropriate entry for Windows XP. For details check the GRUB documentation. That's it, if I can be of further assistence for you, just post here. Kind regards, sbogus |
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;) What do you mean with the word trick? :)
Tricky was to realize what the GRUB does with all the disks and partitions. Kind regards, sbogus |
Well, when you browse this site and see how often people have problems doing dual-boot with Win and SuSE, your trick :D should be widely publicized. Particularly nice would be SuSE noticing that something is wrong (again) ... :p
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Yeah, I'd hope SuSE would notice that...
But unfortunately the background causing this problem persist also in 9.1 version. I do not consider it trick , just it is small piece of knowledge inside the mater of how Linux builds up its own boot process. I'm very happy I know it now, and I'm very thankful to you JZL240I-U, to pointing me to the right direction and to giving me the right media to learn from. :D Kind regards, sbogus |
You are wellcome ...
... but you did find the specific solution all by yourself, I guess I just gave some links and "moral" support -- and that's what LQ is for, after all. Bye and good luck. :) |
Hah, alright, thanks for all the help.
One problem remains though, I have to get my network working somehow. It has worked in the past with linux, and I'm sure the modem is working just fine. I'm sure the MAC addresses are configured correctly (as I used RH before, and the network was more or less automatic (even better so than XP). Anyways, I had gotten YOU to work, so that proves that internet will work. It will be infinitely more convenient to have internet at home. Also.. does SuSE have apt-get pre-installed? Installing it on RH was quite a pain. Again: how would I get GNOME to work? (all the menus and stuff have lines instead of text) And if I went to nVidia.com and got the drivers there instead of through YOU, then I can enable 3d accel? Thanks, K |
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hi Kelvie,
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Kind regards, sbogus |
Alright, I have some progress!
I followed the directions completely (thanks !), but was unable to get it to work. grub-install kept complaining about not being able to find the stage files in /usr/lib/, so I went into /usr/lib/grub/i386-suse and copied all the files to /usr/lib (this is in the rescue system, so this is all on the ramdisk, I presume). vi took quite a bit of figuring out, but I made the file to exactly what you specified. My device.map looks like this: (hd0) /dev/hda (hd1) /dev/hdb (fd0) /dev/fda Anyhow, I got grub-install to work. I try to boot off the hard disk, and the only progress is, instead of showing only "GRUB" on the screen, it now says: GRUB Loading stage1.5 GRUB loading, please wait . . . So I wait a couple of hours, nothing happens. I reinstalled SuSE, and by NOT using YOU, I have gotten the internet to work (along with my printer !). I suspect the nForce2 driver update screwed up a lot of things. Anyways.. it's kind of late so I won't go download and install the nVidia drivers quite yet, although they're just a website away. I have a few more questions to ask. Of course, how can I get my boot loader to work?! It seems impossible.. and I want my WinXP back! How can I get things like kernel updates, security patches, etc, using apt4rpm? I'm really used to using Windows Update for things like this. Would I have to go to the internet and find every single patch that is available, and install all of them separately? Or is there an easier way? I like Mozilla :P But for some reason it installed Mozilla in German for me, how would I go about to switch it back to English? (or.. is Konqueror better?) Oh yeah... the font inside GAIM is too big.. and it won't let me set it under 12pt, any way to change that? And if you need any more info about my computer, please ask, Anyways, thanks a lot in advance ! |
Hi Kelvie,
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Now back to your Linux bootloader problem. Boot into the Linux rescue console. Mount your root partition in /mnt Then I'd kindly ask you to provide the following information: - the output of fdisk -l /dev/hda - the contents of the /mnt/boot/grub directory (ls -lha /mnt/boot/grub) - the contents of the menu.lst file in that /mnt/boot/grub directory - the contents of the /mnt/etc/grub.conf file it that one exists Quote:
After it finishes you can type in apt-get upgrade kernel security. This will update your kernel and the security packets. Quote:
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Kind regards, sbogus |
Umm, not to criticize or to rein in your zest, but are you sure that apt works on SuSE, sbogus? I thought is ought to be apt4rpm...
On the topic of Konqueror being crap I beg to differ ... but everybody to his or her tastes ;). |
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Hi JZL240I-U, apt4rpm comes with some scripts called apt-get, apt, apt-cache and so on... So if you installed apt4rpm successfully, the you should be able to type in on the command prompt just this apt-get update and it will work. I've done exactly the same and I was able to refresh and update my apt cache and to perform smooth and simply update of some SuSE packets like k3d, xmms and etc. About the Konqueror... well you're correct - each one has its own imagination of what a good browser should be - for me Konqueror is just a waste, I never used it and I also will not use it in the future. Kind regards, sbogus |
I see. Learned something new -- can go home now. :D
Thanks sbogus |
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