Grub Woes
 

I had a problem with Grub on another system, which I managed to remedy with help from this forum......this one is different, but no less frustrating.

On that last occasion, the problem seemed to be caused by a Kernel update usiing RHN on RH7.3, this time I have no idea what has caused the problem, somehow between the last reboot (51 days ago) and now, the Grub environment seems to have gotten into something of a tangle.

Information (in segments for ease of reading)

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The system is dual processor, and built on Red Hat V7.3, as far as I can recall, we upgraded this from a V6.2 platform about a year ago, but it has not been probmatical before or after the many RHN updates.......

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The message I get is as follows:

Booting 'Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-27.7)'

root (hd0,0)

filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp ro root=/dev/sda8

Error 15: File Not Found

Press Any Key To Continue

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Disk Layout:

Filesystem 1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda8 256667 155901 87514 65% /
/dev/sda7 256667 27812 215603 12% /boot
/dev/sda5 7937796 881344 6653224 12% /home
/dev/sda6 7937796 2833380 4701188 38% /usr
/dev/sdb1 4372108 320964 3829048 8% /var
none 257220 0 257220 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sdb2 1011960 230764 729788 25% /mnt/new2

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grub.conf:

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda8
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$cMìÑLÕùs$z5Gy21GPNGES8ajwYzYmB0
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-27.7.xsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp ro root=/dev/sda8
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-27.7.x)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.7.x ro root=/dev/sda8
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-24.7.xsmp)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.7.xsmp ro root=/dev/sda8
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-19.7.x)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-19.7.x ro root=/dev/sda8

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/boot area files

boot.0800 module-info-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
boot.b os2_d.b
chain.b System.map
config-2.4.18-19.7.x System.map-2.4.18-19.7.x
config-2.4.18-24.7.xsmp System.map-2.4.18-24.7.xsmp
config-2.4.18-27.7.x System.map-2.4.18-27.7.x
config-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp System.map-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
grub vmlinux-2.4.18-19.7.x
kernel.h vmlinux-2.4.18-24.7.xsmp
lost+found vmlinux-2.4.18-27.7.x
map vmlinux-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
message vmlinuz
message.ja vmlinuz-2.4.18-19.7.x
module-info vmlinuz-2.4.18-24.7.xsmp
module-info-2.4.18-19.7.x vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.7.x
module-info-2.4.18-24.7.xsmp vmlinuz-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp
module-info-2.4.18-27.7.x

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My assumptions:

As far as I can tell, the grub pointers are ok, the vmlinux-2.4.18-27.7.xsmp kernel file exists and the disk partition points to the correct place.

Thankfully I CAN still boot from the emergency floppy created and maintained, but I would obviously like to regain the boot from HDD if possible. If necessary I WILL rebuild from V7.3 and do the necessary up2dates, but I would really like to know what the problem is and why it is failing / has happened.

Any, and all help received with thanks. If I can provide any further information, do not hesitate to ask!

TIA

Steve.

Have you tried commenting out the splashimage line?

You do not state if that file exists on your system.

No, I don't - I hadn't looked at it from that viewpoint (that the file that wasn't found might not be the kernel (DOH!!!))

But here is the listing.....unfortunately I'm noyt able to test the comment out and retry - until tomorrow (UK time) but I will do so then and come back with the results.

Thanks for the response though!

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Listing /boot/grub:


drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 1024 Mar 19 13:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 2048 Mar 19 13:49 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 45 Dec 23 14:35 device.map
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10880 Feb 17 13:53 e2fs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9808 Feb 17 13:53 fat_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8896 Feb 17 13:53 ffs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 883 Mar 19 13:49 grub.conf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11104 Feb 17 13:53 jfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1096 Dec 23 13:04 menu.lst
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 617 Dec 23 13:04 menu.old
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9280 Feb 17 13:53 minix_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12576 Feb 17 13:53 reiserfs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 33585 Apr 10 2002 splash.xpm.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 Feb 17 13:53 stage1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 131008 Feb 17 13:53 stage2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8544 Feb 17 13:53 vstafs_stage1_5
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 12744 Feb 17 13:53 xfs_stage1_5

You say Grub is pointed at the right place? Grub is looking for /boot on hd(0,0), which Linux would call sda1. You don't show an sda1; you have /boot on sda7, which Grub would call hd(0,6)

What am I missing?

It's me that is miossing something - but I'm completely at a loss as to how that has occured. Only 3 people have acces sto that system at root level and none of use have admitted changing the settings.

One guy reckons he viewed Grub with linux conf (horrified by that and have since removed it) but made no changes that he can recall.......

I am no expert in Grub (or linux) and have only begun wrestling with the reference manual these last few days....it seems I am looking so hard I miss everything.

{Humble} Thanks

I'll try and change the pointers and see how I get on - I will definitely post up the result!