Very Computer

by **Dave Bro** » Fri, 22 Mar 2002 06:33:20

I just recently upgraded my kernel (just used RH's kernel rpm). I
manually edited my grub menu file (since it was in another partition,
not this RH partition). When I went to boot the new kernel, grub started
loading it and it hung. But this grub can still load the older kernel
image. Other than the kernel image and initrd names, the grub entries
are identical. I presume grub is not using any data-block maps, but
its knowledge of the file system.

Just to check the kernel image itself, I dd'd it to a diskette
and it boots fine from diskette.

Any thoughts?

--
Dave Brown Austin, TX

by **Molchu** » Sat, 23 Mar 2002 03:33:45

> I just recently upgraded my kernel (just used RH's kernel rpm). I
> manually edited my grub menu file (since it was in another partition,
> not this RH partition). When I went to boot the new kernel, grub started
> loading it and it hung. But this grub can still load the older kernel
> image. Other than the kernel image and initrd names, the grub entries
> are identical. I presume grub is not using any data-block maps, but
> its knowledge of the file system.

> Just to check the kernel image itself, I dd'd it to a diskette
> and it boots fine from diskette.

> Any thoughts?

Have you tried loading the kernel manually, using the GRUB shell at boot
time? Leave the menu.lst file alone till you figure out what causes the
problem. When you load the kernel through GRUBs shell-like interface it
will spit out the error codes so that you know what's going on, then you
can look up the error codes in GRUBs info pages by going to
'troubleshooting' node. What filesystem are you using on the partition
that accommodates the kernel image? If it's reiserfs and the partition
was formatted with the newer 'mkreiserfs' the earlier GRUB releases
might *- get the latest GRUB. Post the errors that GRUB prints,
also you could post your old menu.lst and the new one (changed by you)
maybe you made some mistake.

Ruslan.

by **Dave Bro** » Sat, 23 Mar 2002 07:49:06

> Have you tried loading the kernel manually, using the GRUB shell at boot
> time? Leave the menu.lst file alone till you figure out what causes the
> problem. When you load the kernel through GRUBs shell-like interface it
> will spit out the error codes so that you know what's going on, then you
> can look up the error codes in GRUBs info pages by going to
> 'troubleshooting' node. What filesystem are you using on the partition
> that accommodates the kernel image? If it's reiserfs and the partition
> was formatted with the newer 'mkreiserfs' the earlier GRUB releases
> might *- get the latest GRUB. Post the errors that GRUB prints,
> also you could post your old menu.lst and the new one (changed by you)
> maybe you made some mistake.

Thanks for the input. This is quite a mystery. I have a diskette
in which I've installed grub, and I can manually type in the
root partition, kernel image, and initrd image, and it boots okay.
The version of grub is the same on the diskette and the disk, 0.90.

When I use whatever grub has put on disk, whether I use the menu, or
type each line in the "command mode", it hangs when it starts to load
the kernel image. But, nonetheless, this setup will load a different
kernel image stored in the same partition (ext3fs) . The "only"
difference is "vmlinuz-2.4.9-13" vs "vmlinuz-2.4.9-31", (and
corresponding initrd's).

As you suggested, I tried it in command mode to see if there were any
error messages, but, no-- simply hung at that point.

--
Dave Brown Austin, TX

by **Molchu** » Sun, 24 Mar 2002 05:20:40

>>Have you tried loading the kernel manually, using the GRUB shell at boot
>>time? Leave the menu.lst file alone till you figure out what causes the
>>problem. When you load the kernel through GRUBs shell-like interface it
>>will spit out the error codes so that you know what's going on, then you
>>can look up the error codes in GRUBs info pages by going to
>>'troubleshooting' node. What filesystem are you using on the partition
>>that accommodates the kernel image? If it's reiserfs and the partition
>>was formatted with the newer 'mkreiserfs' the earlier GRUB releases
>>might *- get the latest GRUB. Post the errors that GRUB prints,
>>also you could post your old menu.lst and the new one (changed by you)
>>maybe you made some mistake.

> Thanks for the input. This is quite a mystery. I have a diskette
> in which I've installed grub, and I can manually type in the
> root partition, kernel image, and initrd image, and it boots okay.
> The version of grub is the same on the diskette and the disk, 0.90.

So when you type at GRUB prompt: root (hdx,y) where y is the partition
where 1_5 stages and kernel image live it does recognize the filesystem?
To be on safe side I'd still get the latest GRUB which was 0.91 last
time I looked.

Quote:> When I use whatever grub has put on disk, whether I use the menu, or
> type each line in the "command mode", it hangs when it starts to load
> the kernel image.

What is the last line it prints before it hangs? Do you see 'Booting
kernel' or something. I don't want to sound silly but are you sure it's
GRUB that hangs and not the kernel?

Quote:> But, nonetheless, this setup will load a different
> kernel image stored in the same partition (ext3fs) . The "only"
> difference is "vmlinuz-2.4.9-13" vs "vmlinuz-2.4.9-31", (and
> corresponding initrd's).

Again the kernel image might be the culprit and not GRUB.
But try with latest GRUB and tell me what happens.
Why do you use initrds, cant you get the ext3 support compiled into the
kernel? Any other reason you need them?

- Show quoted text -

Quote:> As you suggested, I tried it in command mode to see if there were any
> error messages, but, no-- simply hung at that point.

by **Van T** » Mon, 08 Apr 2002 13:05:44

> Thanks for the input. This is quite a mystery. I have a diskette
> in which I've installed grub, and I can manually type in the
> root partition, kernel image, and initrd image, and it boots okay.
> The version of grub is the same on the diskette and the disk, 0.90.

> When I use whatever grub has put on disk, whether I use the menu, or
> type each line in the "command mode", it hangs when it starts to load
> the kernel image. But, nonetheless, this setup will load a different
> kernel image stored in the same partition (ext3fs) . The "only"
> difference is "vmlinuz-2.4.9-13" vs "vmlinuz-2.4.9-31", (and
> corresponding initrd's).

> As you suggested, I tried it in command mode to see if there were any
> error messages, but, no-- simply hung at that point.

I'm having a problem similar to yours. I too updated the kernel (from
2.4.9-21 to 2.4.9-31) and cannot get GRUB to load the newer version.
GRUB will get to the same point in the boot process and stop. I've
tried it from the command line and from the menu. Both end up with the
same result.

FYI, my menu.lst file contains the following

# By default, boot the first entry.
default 0

# Boot automatically after 10 secs.
timeout 10

# For booting Linux (2.4.9-21)
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.9-21)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.9-21 root=/dev/hdb5
initrd /initrd-2.4.9-21

# For booting Linux (2.4.9-31)
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.9-31)
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.9-31 root=/dev/hdb5
initrd /initrd-2.4.9-31.img

# For booting Windows 2000
title Windows 2000
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

# For booting Windows ME
title Windows ME
root (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Again, the only differences between the loading of the 2.4.9-21 and
2.4.9-31 kernels are the kernel and initrd images. I don't think the
problem lies with GRUB (v0.91), but with something else that I don't
quite understand (I'm relatively new to Linux).

I've been stuck on this problem for the last month or so and have been
looking for a solution in the docs and online, but have not found
anything. Other people do seem to have the same problem though.

If anyone has any ideas, please post them so that I can give them a try.

Thanks,

Van

P.S. The 2.4.9-31 kernel is correctly installed since it can be boot up
properly using a bootdisk created by mkbootdisk in RH7.1.

by **Dave Bro** » Mon, 08 Apr 2002 15:32:18

> I'm having a problem similar to yours. I too updated the kernel (from
> 2.4.9-21 to 2.4.9-31) and cannot get GRUB to load the newer version.
> GRUB will get to the same point in the boot process and stop. I've
> tried it from the command line and from the menu. Both end up with the
> same result.

After playing with this thing for hours on end.... I finally decided
to reinstall grub:
grub-install /dev/hda

Now it will boot the new kernel (as well as the old kernel, Windows,
and my Slackware partition). Now don't ask me why the copy of grub
already there could boot 2 other kernels, but not the new one. Maybe
grub isn't *that much* smarter than lilo--and you have to rewrite it
every now and then.

--
Dave Brown Austin, TX

Very Computer

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curious grub failure

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