[Sussex] Strange grub behaviour

[Steve Williams]

On Mon, 2005-05-16 at 15:02 +0100, John D. wrote:
> Stephen Williams wrote:
> 
> >On Sun, 2005-05-15 at 19:38 +0100, John D. wrote:
> >  
> >
> <snip>
> 
> >>Oakey Doakey,
> >>
> >>the "error" is as follows:
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>>Block device /dev/hda3 is not a valid root device...
> >>>>The root block device is unspecified or not detected.
> >>>>        
> >>>>
> >>       Please specify a device to boot, or "Shell" for a shell..
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >This suggests that you've got the wrong root= entry in grub.conf, or
> >there's a problem with filesystem or ide chipset support. I know you've
> >been using genkernel, but there really is no substitute for doing it
> >manually.
> >  
> >
> Ok. I don't follow why it would have done something with either, as the
> /boot partition is ext2 and the / is ext3. Plus surely "it" (genkernel)
> would have detected the same chipset info as it did when I used it for
> the install ????? Afterall, I'm using the same info in both entries to
> either lilo.conf or grub.conf, the only difference being that the
> symlink is changed and there are different kernel images/initrds/system
> maps etc etc, but theyre all in the same place.

I've not used genkernel so I don't know whether it auto-detects ide
chipsets. I've been rolling my own kernels since RedHat 3.whatever.
There has been the odd occasion when building my own that I've not
commpiled the necessary chipset support into the kernel, which causes
grub to throw a wobbly early in the boot process. One of the other
gotchas has been a lack of MS-DOS partition support - ensure this is
compiled in.

If you compile all the necessary chipset, partition and filesystem
support into the kernel you won't need an initrd.

> 
> <snip>
> 
> >p.s. erm also could someone remind me how I make the system start in a
> >GUI mode? I've set the inittab at 5, the boot dialogue says it's
> >starting at run level 5 but then just drops me into a CLI login.
> >
> >  
> >
> >
> >This suggests you've got a problem with your Xorg configuration. Have a
> >look in /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see if there are any errors raised.
> >
> No, theres no errors showing, a couple of warnings, but theyre the same
> ones that I've had before, and if I understand them correctly, because
> I've used the "proper" horizontal and vertical info that came from the
> philips website (warns are stuff about not using some odd resolutions
> and the like). I was wondering if there was something else that I'd
> missed, rather than just setting default run level as 5 in the /etc/inittab?
> 
> >
> >Rather than enter a long e-mail conversation, perhaps you'd like to
> >bring your box up to Bramber one evening so we can sort it out John.
> >  
> >
> Yes, that would be marvellous. Unfortunately, I'm working pretty much
> straight through until stupid Oclock on Saturday morning, which would
> mean the earliest late Saturday afternoon or evening, if they're not too
> inconvenient, or after that, it would be Monday evening.
> 

OK next Monday is fine by me.

> If you could let me know which is the more convenient for you Steve i.e.
> dates/times and where you are. I'll keep plugging away in the meantime
> (so much to read, find, comprehend and so little time - Ah, theres no
> smiley for Martyrs  :-P   ).
> 
> regards
> 
> John D.
> 
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