System Freezes (Sometimes) At "Grub Loading Stage 2"

jlacroix · 10-16-2009, 09:29 AM

Hello everyone, I'm using Arch with the latest updates and I'm pretty sure this is a software problem.

Basically about one out of five times my system freezes at "Grub Loading Stage 2". Whenever this happens, I usually just reset my box with the reset button and it will boot up just fine the next time.

I originally put it down to being a defect in my hard drive which is probably three years old now at least. However, last week I bought a brand new 1.5TB drive. I removed my old drive and am using only my new one. Same problem.

I Googled for this problem and found a bunch of posts with the same issue as I'm having, yet all of those issues are with people that dual boot with Windows. I don't. I only have Arch and no other OS on my system. I then tried reinstalling Grub and that doesn't seem to have solved it.

I'm hoping someone can help me out with this. I hope it's not a hardware problem. Any help is VERY appreciated as this problem makes me worry that something worse is going on.

Here is some further information. I'll start with "fdisk -l":

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 1500.3 GB, 1500300828160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          13      104422   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              14          46      265072+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3              47       12795   102406342+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4           12796      182401  1362360195   83  Linux

Here is my fstab:

Code:

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0

#/dev/cdrom             /media/cd   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/dvd               /media/dvd  auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
#/dev/fd0               /media/fl   auto    user,noauto             0      0

/dev/sda1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda3 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda4 /home ext4 defaults 0 1

Finally, here is my Grub menu.lst:

Code:

# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
#
#  Linux           Grub
# -------------------------
#  /dev/fd0        (fd0)
#  /dev/sda        (hd0)
#  /dev/sdb2       (hd1,1)
#  /dev/sda3       (hd0,2)
#

#  FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#          | 640x480    800x600    1024x768   1280x1024
#      ----+--------------------------------------------
#      256 | 0x301=769  0x303=771  0x305=773   0x307=775
#      32K | 0x310=784  0x313=787  0x316=790   0x319=793
#      64K | 0x311=785  0x314=788  0x317=791   0x31A=794
#      16M | 0x312=786  0x315=789  0x318=792   0x31B=795
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#  for more details and different resolutions see
#  http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_Resolution

# general configuration:
timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/d584218d-ab0c-4c7d-8edd-f6e4ff920ed3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/d584218d-ab0c-4c7d-8edd-f6e4ff920ed3 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

# (2) Windows
#title Windows
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
#chainloader +1

yancek · 10-16-2009, 01:06 PM

Your fdisk, fstab and menu.lst files look good. I'm assuming it is somewhat random (not exactly every 5 boots) so I would check the connection to the drive and the power supply, power supply might be going out but it probably wouldn't stop at the same point in booting everytime if this were the case.

jlacroix · 10-16-2009, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

Your fdisk, fstab and menu.lst files look good. I'm assuming it is somewhat random (not exactly every 5 boots) so I would check the connection to the drive and the power supply, power supply might be going out but it probably wouldn't stop at the same point in booting everytime if this were the case.

Yeah, it is random and it is at the same place each and every time this happens. I even went as far as removing fd0 from Grub's device list, then reinstalling Grub just in case that was causing a problem.

Is there a log saved at all at this point in the process?

jlacroix · 11-17-2009, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jlacroix

Yeah, it is random and it is at the same place each and every time this happens. I even went as far as removing fd0 from Grub's device list, then reinstalling Grub just in case that was causing a problem.

Is there a log saved at all at this point in the process?

If anyone else has this problem, the problem was due to a faulty sata cable. I replaced the cable and it's fixed. I thought I tried that but I guess not.