GRUB Freezing on any OS choice

geeceeaxp · 01-19-2006, 04:09 PM

Ok, I just installed FC4 on my system from the dvd. everything went well and it rebooted to show GRUB. It shows linux as well as windows xp pro, but when i try to pick linux to load my system would lock up. I have to then reboot the computer by switching off the power. I tried it repeatedly and found that the system freezes if i pick anything other that windows, i cant even go into command line. i was wondering if someone could help me. here is my system details:

Hardrives: I have 3 harddrives, 2 IDE and one SATA. windows is one the first IDE HD and linux is on the second. the linux hard drive is partitioned into two, one partition holding linux and the other for windows.
Video: Nvidia Geforce 5500 AGP
Ram: 1gb
Leadtek Winfast TV Tuner Card
Soundblaster 24bit Sound Card
Thanks a lot in advance.

PTrenholme · 01-19-2006, 05:14 PM

Can you boot from you DVD in rescue mode? (I.e.: At the first prompt, enter linux rescue).

If you can, does it find your FC4 installation?

Can you set root as suggested by the message? If so, can you do a cat /boot/grub/grub.conf and a ls /boot to verify that the files referenced in the grub.conf file are where they are supposed to be? You should have something like this:

Code:

# ls /boot/grub/
device.map     grub.conf          jfs_stage1_5      reiserfs_stage1_5  ufs2_stage1_5
e2fs_stage1_5  menu.lst           splash.xpm.gz      vstafs_stage1_5
fat_stage1_5   stage1             xfs_stage1_5
ffs_stage1_5   iso9660_stage1_5   minix_stage1_5    stage2
# ls /boot
config-2.6.12-1.1390_FC4smp      initrd-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4smp.img  System.map-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4smp
grub                             memtest86+-1.55.1

(Note: The above has been edited by hand for clarity.)

The corresponding lins in the grub.conf file should look like this:

Code:

title Fedora Core 4 (2.6.14-1.1656)
        root (hd1,1)
        kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4smp ro root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00 rhgb quiet
        initrd /initrd-2.6.14-1.1656_FC4smp.img

What it sounds like to me is that your root setting, which tells GRUB where to find your /boot directory is not set properly. The root (hd1,1) line above is telling grub to look in the second partition of the second hard drive for the Linux /root directory. (Note that GRUB counting starts at zero, not one.)

If you have a floppy drive, you might consider creating a GRUB boot floppy so you can easily try different settings. (Search the forums here for details on creating GRUB boot floppies, or just "Google It.")

aus9 · 01-21-2006, 09:35 AM

I have 2 questions as well...

can your bios boot to your sata b4 the ides? we could then put a bootloader onto the sata.

(2) when you have go a live cd such as kanotix or knoppix or that rescue cd can you post the output of your fc4 /etc/fstab file ....if you have only the fc4 dvd you may need to look at using the chroot command to force your dvd to read from the hard drive but I am not sure if that confuses you

geeceeaxp · 01-21-2006, 04:02 PM

i forgot to mension, i am a newbie so i dont know to much about linux. i got into the rescue mode of FC and was able to get into the grub folder but i dont know how to edit it. is there a program that i can use to open the file while in rescue mode? also with the etc/fstab, can you tell me how to open that file while in rescue mode? thanks sorry about the trouble.

PTrenholme · 01-21-2006, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by geeceeaxp

i forgot to mension, i am a newbie so i dont know to much about linux. i got into the rescue mode of FC and was able to get into the grub folder but i dont know how to edit it. is there a program that i can use to open the file while in rescue mode? also with the etc/fstab, can you tell me how to open that file while in rescue mode? thanks sorry about the trouble.

Well, there a several editors you can use. One of the easiest (and probably also most complicated) to use is emacs. That's because, even on a command line screen, emacs gives you a (pseudo) wysiwyg display.

For simple editing, use emacs /etc/grub/grub.conf, use your arrow keys to move around, backspace to delete the character before the cursor, just type to enter text, and <ctrl>-x, <ctrl>-c to exit. (If you've made any changes, you'll be asked if you want to save them, and a backup file (/etc/grub/grub.conf~) will be created before your changes are saved.

That's why it's "easy." If you look at the emacs tutorial, you'll see that there are, literally, thousands of command sequences you can use for different things. That's why it also the most complicated editor.

Other people here would recommend, for example, vi or vim or ed or gedit or nano or pico. (Hey, Linux is about choice!

)

I'm prejudiced towards emacs mostly because I learned it whilst using the Multics system at MIT. (In case you're interested, Multics was the Multi-user system that was "cut down to size" to make the original UNIX single-user system by the Bell Labs people who were pulled from the Multics project when Bell Labs dropped out.)

Edit: Oh, about the grub.conf file. When you enter "rescue" mode, one of the last things you'll see printed is a comment something like "chroot /mnt/sysimg to set your root to youur installed system's root." You'll need to do that for the /boot/grub/grub.conf path to work, and for the search path to be set properly so the editors can be found. I think -- but I'm not sure -- that the "rescue" mode has only a limited number of editors available, perhaps only vi.

aus9 · 01-21-2006, 11:08 PM

no probs at being new....I am sometimes myself.

its a good idea to play with linux in a protected environment so you should consider getting a live cd.....I prefer kanotix but knoppix is also good.....its a full operating system running off a cd or dvd.....so a little slow but has office like products like open office or a very good wordpad like program called kwrite or kate.....which you can use to open the file /etc/fstab.....and to get there you just click on the icon button for the relevant partition and a file manager opens up....could not be simpler?