GRUB Problems with Dell Optiplex GX1

[Garrett Cooper]

On Aug 21, 2006, at 6:41 PM, backyard wrote:

>
>
> --- 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.
>>
>> -Garrett
>
> #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

Ok, it seems like your installation process at least is ok; perhaps  
the location of the installed grub is incorrect though. Could you do  
the following?

1.	Run fdisk and verify that the partition you actually have your  
root installed on is the first one.
2.	Replace all references to just "/" (root) in all partition names  
to the proper device name, plus root, e.g.:
root (hd0,0,a)
kernel (hd0,0,a)/boot/loader
	I know it seems a bit redundant, but it's saved me from some issues  
with installing grub on my linux box.
3.	Remove the splashedimage reference. It's referring to your floppy  
and if the floppy isn't there I could see some possible issues  
occurring with booting grub, as you mentioned earlier in the email.

-Garrett