[Sussex] Strange grub behaviour

[Rupert Swarbrick]

John D. wrote:
> I seem to have some curious things going on with my grub install.
>
> I can't fathom whether it's a grub issue, or possibly a gentoo thing,
> but suspect grub.
>
> If I boot the system, I get a black screen. It doesnt' seem to matter
> whether I'm passing the kernel instruction (I think that's what it's
> doing) with splash=silent or verbose. It comes up the same black screen.
>
> Now, also, I have 2 entries for different kernel versions, though the
> second one is for a kernel upgrade that "doesn't want to play.
>
> The grub.conf, looks like this:
>
>     quote:
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>     default 0
>     timeout 30
>     splashimage=(hd0,0) /grub/splash.xpm.gz
>
>     title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.11-r8
>     root (hd0,0)
>     kernel /kernel-2.6.11-gentoo-r8 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc
>     ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev vga=0x317 splash=silent
>     initrd /initrd-2.6.11-gentoo-r8
>
>     title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.11-r3
>     root (hd0,0)
>     kernel /kernel-2.6.11-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/ram0 init=/linuxrc
>     ramdisk=8192 real_root=/dev/hda3 udev vga=0x317 splash=silent
>     initrd /initrd-2.6.11-gentoo-r3
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> It could easily be something to do with the splash image, though I'm not
> sure about that, because it's in the /boot/grub directory but can't work
> out what I'd open it with, too see if it looks OK.
>
> If from the black screen, I hit the down arrow, and then enter, it will
> boot the 2.6.11-gentoo-r3 kernel version, but I get a very quick, but
> corrupted boot list, before it goes into the boot sequence OK and boots
> fine.
>
> If I just hit return, as if to boot into the 2.6.11-gentoo-r8 kernel, I
> get an almost unreadable screen, though I've managed to decypher that it
> says I've done some sort of incorrect video/screen selection, and offers
> the list or scan of possible video modes.
>
> If I then select, say 3, it will then change and start to boot, but only
> until it gives me the error of /dev/hda3 not being a valid root block
> device.
>
> So does anyone know what else I'd need to look into/check please ??
>
> regards
>
> John D.
>
Presumably as it's Gentoo, you compiled your own kernel. You might want
to try not using an initrd - they tend to be difficult to get right and
somewhat of a black box when you try to work out how you broke it.

It sounds like maybe it's failing to load your ram disk, which would
contain the modules to read your /dev/hda3. When I've compiled things
like PCI disks and reiserfs support in as modules without an initrd by
accident I've had error messages like that in the past.

Regarding your grub problems, you could always try completely
reinstalling it (use dd to blank the start of the drive first to make
sure). Or if it feels safer, install lilo or something else on top first
instead.

Of course, you could try using lilo in the short term to get things
working, as it always seems less inclined to go horribly wrong - I had
to a couple of months ago when I messed up my grub bootloader with
terrible splash options, but I've managed to get grub back.

Good luck!

Rupert
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