Gentoo install

BrianK · 01-18-2004, 12:39 PM

Being that there's no Gentoo distribution forum, I'll ask here.

I've installed gentoo step by step via the documentation (used the stage 3 tarball). I initially installed gentoo on hde - which is the first hard drive on my system, I've since moved it to hda (by mapping SATA port 0 to IDE1 Master). In any case, fdisk shows hda1 as being bootable, hda2 as swap, and hda3 as the root partition (no other partitions). I also have a second swap on /dev/hdb1.

My /boot/grub.conf looks like this:

Code:

default 0
timeout 30
splashimage=(hd0,0)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title My crappy non-working kernel
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.6.1-gentoo root=/dev/hda3
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.1-gentoo

However, when I boot the machine, it hangs at the point where it searches for bootable media. It will boot off the CD if I have a CD in, but won't if I don't. I've changed the BIOS so that it only looks at the HD, but it still hangs.

If I boot up with the CD, I can mount /dev/hda1 & see that the kernel and initrd are there. I can also mount /dev/hda3 and see that all the files that are supposed to be there are also there. I'm probably missing something basic, but I can't seem to think of it. I have no idea why this is happening. Any thoughts?

Eqwatz · 01-18-2004, 03:05 PM

Hde1 remapped to WHAT? IDE-0 IDE-1 IDE-2 IDE-3. Drive-#0 partition #1 of IDE CHANNEL#0 is of course according to grub 0,0

You are on a different drive as far as stage 1 of grub is concerned. You need to re run grub. I don't know how, when it happens, I edit lilo.conf to match grub.conf using appropriate syntax for lilo, ln-s /mnt/SysImage/etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo.conf and the same for lilo and run it.

When I'm frustrated and pissed and not thinking too well, I use the tools I've used the longest. I can fine tune later.

BrianK · 01-18-2004, 03:17 PM

Ahh... yes, IDE-0 is what I meant. I'm sure that the info is on hda1-3 becuase I can boot from the CD and then mount hda1 & 3 to see the data I just installed.

Maybe I do need to re-run grub & make sure that it's looking at hda as opposed to hde. I'll give it a try and see what happens. (have to go to the office).

BrianK · 01-18-2004, 07:11 PM

Well, It appears that my hardware does not like to install the bootloader while chrooted, so I made a boot disk. When I boot off the boot disk, I get a grub prompt & type:

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
reboot

everything appears to work before the reboot. When I reboot, however, it starts to work, then the bootloader comes up (which is better than before), but all the text is garbled and there's random pixels filled all over the screen.

Something is corrupt, but I have no idea what it is. ::sigh::

ideas?

Eqwatz · 01-18-2004, 11:31 PM

Say the hell with it and try to install lilo.

Then, if it boots up and runs, you can go back to grub after doing a manual overwrite of the stage 1.5 and Stage 2 files, one of which appears to have been corrupt on your install media.

Get it up and running and type: info grub. use the space-bar and read the help for info if you aren't familiar with it.

acid_kewpie · 01-19-2004, 02:20 AM

Code:

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.6.1-gentoo root=/dev/hda3

this is so so so surely wrong.... you're root ( / ) partition is hda3 right? then in that case hda1 is your dedicated boot partition? in that case your path is wrong.... should be (hd0,0)/kernel-2.6.1-gentoo

BrianK · 01-20-2004, 11:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by acid_kewpie

Code:

kernel (hd0,0)/boot/kernel-2.6.1-gentoo root=/dev/hda3

this is so so so surely wrong.... you're root ( / ) partition is hda3 right? then in that case hda1 is your dedicated boot partition? in that case your path is wrong.... should be (hd0,0)/kernel-2.6.1-gentoo

Thought we had it there, but no. Gentoo makes a symbolic link in / on the boot partition called "boot" that links to ./ - so /boot and / on hda1 are the same.

I'm going to make a last ditch effort of reinstalling the OS now that it's back on hda instead of hde & hdg. I had the machine setup to RAID those two drives (but not setup in Linux) - maybe that was causing problems. We'll see.

Thanks for the help

Eqwatz · 01-20-2004, 01:28 PM

OOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH. The other guy is RIGHT. Grub knows nothing of the volume label. /boot is the volume label for the partition which contains your kernels and /grub/grub.conf files. I am so very duh! No wonder I could never make grub re-install when things were toasted, I added a directory in the path which didn't exist!

Well, at least I always get lilo to work. Then, with it booted up, I can re-install grub--or more likely, until RedHat drops RH-9, wait until Up2date updates the kernel, it seems to run a script which reinstalls grub and updates lilo every time.

I really hate it when I insist on making the same really stupid mistakes over and over--then declaring something broken. I have re-read the documentation probably 50 times and unconsciously inserted the /boot (which is the VOLUME LABEL FOR THE PARTITION MOUNTED OVER THE DIRECTORY "/boot" in the / (root of the linux drive).

Sorry, no spell check.

BTW: Once the kernel boots up (with the arguements which are read to the command-line by grub from grub.conf) and the initrd is read and loaded, the next step is pivot_root which mounts "/" as read and write. After the initial boot, linux doesn't look in the /boot directory again (unless it is to update entries for a new kernel, modules, and initrd.)