GRUB Problems with Dell Optiplex GX1

[backyard]

--- Garrett Cooper <youshi10 at u.washington.edu> wrote:

> backyard wrote:
> > I'm having problems installing GRUB on my Dell
> > Optiplex GX1 pentium3 500 BIOS A10. I'm setting
> this
> > server up for a friend and not having GRUB isn't
> the
> > biggest deal; I just wanted to have a nice
> > inappropriate boot image when they turn it on... 
> >
> > It will boot from a floppy, but installing it to
> the
> > hard drive seems to corrupt the root filesystem.
> It
> > claims to install fine and during boot will load
> > grub_stage1.5 from the disk, but instead of
> loading
> > stage2 it begins to boot the system, but the
> console
> > font has become completely corrupted, and I'm not
> > certain if anything else has. It will boot, and
> > appears to function but the font is messed up.
> >
> > Has anyone else had issues with the particular
> Dell
> > and GRUB? I've never had problems with GRUB before
> > this machine. I'm at a loss, any help would be
> > appreciated. It would be nice to get GRUB on this
> > thing, but if I can't oh well.
> >
> > -brian
> >   
> FreeBSD folks tend not to use Grub, but some of us
> do use it as opposed 
> to FreeBSD's bootmanager.
> 
> Please post the steps you use to install grub and
> the output those steps 
> give you, and your grub.conf.
> 
> -Garret

#menu.lst
default 0
timeout 7
fallback 1
#password --md5 some kind of password that is encypted
splashimage (fd0)/boot/grub/opt/smurffed.xpm.gz

title  BSD
root (hd0,0,a)
kernel /boot/loader

title Hold the Phone
halt

title Reset me
reboot

title Floppy Boot
lock
root (fd0)
chainloader
#EOF menu.lst

here is my menu.lst off my grub install floppy. this
was created by building grub 0.97 from ports on my HP
Kayak. the floppy was then prepared as below:

fdformat /dev/fd0
newfs -O1 -n /dev/fd0
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/grub/opt

I then copied the grub files from the
/usr/local/share/grub/i386-freebsd if memory serves me
correct to the /mnt/boot/grub folder. then copied in
my splashimages, then prepared menu.lst as described.
I then ran grub and setup the floppy to boot grub.

now to install on a system I:
mkdir -p /boot/grub/opt
mount /dev/fd0 /mnt; cp -R /mnt/boot/grub /boot/grub

change menu.lst as required to reference hardrives or
different boot options like a windows partition or
linux or whatever needs to be started up.

boot the system with the floppy and go to grub
console.
make sure I can 
find /boot/grub/menu.lst 
then...
root (hd0,0,a) # or whatever
setup (hd0) # again depends

and usually I take the floppy out, reboot, and grub
asks me what I want to boot up.


as far as the exact output from grub I don't know, but
it didn't give any errors. it just said: 
checking for /boot/grub/menu.lst.... found
installing stage1.... success
installing stage1_5.... success
installing stage2.....  success

the typical everything is ok message. I have heard in
later reading that a missing splashimage can mess
things up, I will have to make sure I remembered to
change the root for the image to the harddrive. But I
have also read that this just happens sometimes with
grub and certain machines. this is the only time I've
seen it happen. 

I personally love me some grub. it just makes things
easier in my world; at least usually.

-brian