[Gllug] CentOS boot problem

Alain Williams addw at phcomp.co.uk
Tue Oct 12 15:45:44 UTC 2010


On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 04:42:03PM +0100, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> On 12 October 2010 15:43, Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk> wrote:
> > On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 03:33:50PM +0100, James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> >
> >> I visited the server and gave it a bit of TLC.
> >> The server was failing to even load grub second stage.
> >> It got as far as printing "GRUB" and then halting, no other messages.
> >> It did not even get to the grub command prompt.
> >> All I needed to do the fix it was to "grub-install --no-floppy
> >> /dev/sda"  using the "linux rescue" boot from the install CDs and
> >> chrooted to the HD filesystem.
> >>
> >> I have absolutely no idea what corrupted the boot sectors.
> >
> > Would it be dual boot with MS Windows and have Adobe s/ware on it ?
> > I heard something recently about Adobe keeping license type info in ''spare''
> > disk blocks immediately after the boot sector.
> >
> 
> Do you have a URL describing the specifics of this.

	http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/08/28/2112208/Some-Windows-Apps-Make-GRUB-2-Unbootable

Since I don't have any machines that run MS Windows I can't comment on the article.

> If Adobe are doing that, it is likely to kill the boot of over 10000
> desktop windows PCs we have in our company!!!
> We use a windows product that does "Whole disk encryption" and it
> installs itself in the entire first track of the HD. I.e. Not just the
> boot sector, but a number of sectors at the beginning of the disk,
> just like grub does.
> In this particular case, windows has not been booted on this machine
> of over 3 months, it is a Linux server, although it can dual boot to
> windows if needed. This server is in our test environment, which it
> why it still has the possibility to dual boot.

-- 
Alain Williams
Linux/GNU Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd. Registration Information: http://www.phcomp.co.uk/contact.php
Past chairman of UKUUG: http://www.ukuug.org/
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