Can't boot Xandros with GRUB

homey · 12-31-2005, 10:08 AM

Give me a while and I'll put Xandros on a /dev/hdb5 and see what it should look like in grub.

kahlil88 · 12-31-2005, 10:50 AM

Yeah, I did get an error with lilo -b /dev/hdb5

Quote:

Ignoring entry 'boot'
Warning: COMPACT may conflict with LBA32 on some systems
Fatal: raid_setup: stat("/dev/hdb5")

Here is lilo.conf

Quote:

boot=/dev/hda
install=/boot/cboot.b
message=/boot/splash.lilo
timeout=300
map=/boot/map
prompt
lba32
read-only
compact
fix-table
image=/vmlinuz
label=Xandros_Desktop_3.0.2_OC
vga=0xf04
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz
append="quiet rw acpi=on "
image=/vmlinuz
label=Safe_Video_Mode
vga=0xf04
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz
append="quiet 3 rw acpi=on "
image=/vmlinuz
label=Configure_(Expert)
vga=normal
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz
append="single quiet rw acpi=on noresume noresume2 "
other=/dev/hda2
label=Windows_XP
other=/dev/hdb2
label=Windows_98
map-drive=0x80
to=0x81
map-drive=0x81
to=0x80
image=/disks/suselinux/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.11.4-21.9-smp
label=SuSE_Linux_on_hdb1
initrd=/disks/suselinux/boot/initrd-2.6.11.4-21.9-smp
append="root=/dev/hdb1 selinux=0 resume=/dev/hdb3 splash=silent showopts rw "
other=/dev/hda1
label=MS_Windows

...and lilop.conf

Quote:

boot=/dev/hdb5
install=/boot/cboot.b
message=/boot/splash.lilo
timeout=300
map=/boot/map
prompt
lba32
read-only
compact
fix-table
image=/vmlinuz
label=Xandros_Desktop_3.0.2_OC
vga=0xf04
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz
append="quiet rw acpi=on "
image=/vmlinuz
label=Safe_Video_Mode
vga=0xf04
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz
append="quiet 3 rw acpi=on "
image=/vmlinuz
label=Configure_(Expert)
vga=normal
root=/dev/hdb5
initrd=/boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz
append="single quiet rw acpi=on noresume noresume2 "

saikee · 12-31-2005, 11:16 AM

Bugger!

I can't cope with the Raid set up error. This means Lilo has not been installed successfully in your hard disk and you have never ran it.

Can you confirm this?

This is a new ball game.
-------------------------------------------------
I believe there is a bug in Lilo that when it finds two hard disks it thinks having to be installed in a Raid.

I don't have a cure for it because I choose the easy way out by bypassing it and installing Grub, effectively changing the boot loader from Lilo to Grub.

I have not had a need to do it with the Xandros 2 and Xandros 3 installed in hda28 and hdc37 documented in the Grub menu of this thread.

From memory Xandros was one of the toughest one I met to boot with Grub and I was pleased to get Lilo to sort itself out.

OK lets have a go at this by modifying Suse's Grub with the following entries

Code:

title Xandros
	root (hd1,4)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb5 rw acpi=on
	initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz

It appears your Xandros 3.0 is later than the one homey and I have got so the ramdisk file is different. I am using the information from your own lilo.conf now

kahlil88 · 12-31-2005, 11:42 AM

I had Lilo before I installed SuSE, and I know I ran it at least once.

homey · 12-31-2005, 12:08 PM

You can restore the Xandros lilo by booting up with the Xandros CD.
Press shift to see options.
Select: 11. Restore Xandros
Select the proper partition and proceed, it will reboot to the Xandros lilo if all went well.

I'm having problems getting mine to boot with the grub menu but it works fine in the lilo.

I booted up with knoppix livecd and got the partition number which goes after root= in the grub.conf . On my box, that came out as 0x0345 but it may be different on your box.

Code:

boot: knoppix init 3
mkdir /mnt/test
mount /dev/hdb5 /mnt/test
chroot /mnt/test
rdev
That returns 0x0345

I put that in the grub.conf which is using the old kernel as I haven't updated Xandros yet.

Here's what it looks like for now....

title Xandros
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=0x0345 rw acpi=on
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.11-x1.gz

saikee · 12-31-2005, 12:23 PM

homey,

I have never used your method to find the root partition reference and used simply root=/dev/hdb5 etc.

What do you get out of using 0x0345 instead of /dev/hdb5, bearing in mind you did take the trouble to make a /mnt/test directory first, mount it and then chroot to it just to get the offset when both Lilo and Grub are quite happy to accept the face value of /dev/hdb5?

homey · 12-31-2005, 12:40 PM

In the grub world, Xandros hasn't been all together co-operative for previous installations. The only way I was able to get it to work was to use that instead of /dev/hdb5 .

homey · 12-31-2005, 01:40 PM

Ok, keeping in mind that I have version 3.01 and they may have fixed this problem for version 3.02.
I did a bunch of updates and it boots ok using the number 0x0345 but when I try using root=/dev/hdb5, I get these errors on boot....

Code:

VFS: Cannot open root device "hdb5" or unknown-block(0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)

saikee · 12-31-2005, 04:06 PM

homey,

Good tip. Glad you found Xandros difficult to boot with Grub too. I thought I was alone.

It is the first time I see a Distro insist on an offset address. I know the Red Hat familty distros are keen on LVM and they like to use disk label for root identification.

kahlil88 · 01-01-2006, 02:43 AM

I was able to boot Xandros with GRUB once, but it installed Lilo and now I can't boot SuSE!!! When I try, it loads a less graphical version of GRUB and I get an error when I select SuSE.

homey · 01-01-2006, 08:29 AM

If you can at least get into Xandros, mount the Suse partition and chroot into it. Then, should be able to fix the grub from there....

mkdir /mnt/test
mount /dev/hdb1 /mnt/test
chroot /mnt/test

In the Suse chroot environment....
grub
grub> root (hd1,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

type exit to get out of the Suse chroot

kahlil88 · 01-02-2006, 02:45 PM

I reinstalled GRUB with the SuSE 10 install disc. Has anyone figured out a definite way to boot Xandros without receiving an error or having Lilo auto-installed over GRUB?