Bootloader don't start

mallocman · 2012-08-16 02:03:47

Hello everyone,

a few days ago i reinstalled linux from live CD.
I have kept all partitions. The only thing i have changed is '/root' and '/var' filesistem. Before i had reiserFS and now is ext4.
I formated /root, /boot, /var with mkfs.
I followed arch installation guide and installed arch with syslinux bootloader.

After reboot the laptop hangs at black screen with text edit marker blinking.
No error and bootloader screen dont show up.

After that i installed grub and the problem is the same.
Then i have installed again syslinux only this time manually - dd mbr, fdisk /dev/sda and setting sda5 (/boot) to active. No difference.
If i boot from liveCD and select "boot from HDD" the bootloader shows up and averyting is working as it should.
If i add boot flag to sda1 (windows7 partition), windows start normally widouth syslinux bootloader.
I thought that partition table is somehow corrupted, so i resized one partiton in gParted to recreate it. No difference.

My laptop is Toshiba satellite a665-11t with phoenix bios.

fdisk output:

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders, total 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4c534376

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048     3074047     1536000   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2         3074048   423264554   210095253+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       423264555  1227446324   402090885    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4      1227448320  1250260991    11406336   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5   *   423264618   425336939     1036161   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       425337003   470415329    22539163+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7       470415393   488135024     8859816   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       488135088  1206674279   359269596   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      1206674343  1227446324    10385991   82  Linux swap / Solaris

file mbr (current mbr + partition table):

mbr-new-backup: x86 boot sector; 
partition 1: ID=0x27, starthead 32, startsector 2048, 3072000 sectors; 
partition 2: ID=0x7, starthead 89, startsector 3074048, 420190507 sectors; 
partition 3: ID=0xf, starthead 254, startsector 423264555, 804181770 sectors; 
partition 4: ID=0x17, starthead 254, startsector 1227448320, 22812672 sectors, code offset 0xc0

linux:
sda5 is /boot
sda6 is /root
sda7 is /var
sda8 is /home

sda(1-4) are primary partitions
sda(5-9) are logical partitions

sda4 is windows7 OEM recovery disk

I dont know why this is happening, becouse before arch reinstall everyting worked.
Booting from liveCD and then selecting HDD is a little bit annoying.
Any help is apprechiated. I have run out of ideas.

p.s. disk dont have any bad sectors and installing syslinux/grub complete without errors. Disk has MS-DOS partition table.

Last edited by mallocman (2012-08-16 08:42:04)

bernarcher · 2012-08-16 03:33:38

mallocman, welcome to the forums. Please enclose listings in [ code ]...[ /code ] tags (without the intervening spaces near the brackets). This way they will be better readable and longer listings be displayed in a scrollable window.

AleArchi686 · 2012-08-16 18:35:46

Try boot with the livecd (not boot Hdd, boot the livecd) and view the configuration file the syslinux, and compare the difference with the syslinux configuration file in your Hdd installation.
If the partition table is broken, don't boot anything in the hard disk.

mallocman · 2012-08-16 20:27:19

diff /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg ~/syslinux.cfg.liveCD

23c23
< PROMPT 1        # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt 
---
> PROMPT 0        # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt 
55c55
<       APPEND root=/dev/sda6 ro
---
>       APPEND root=/dev/sda3 ro
61c61
<       APPEND root=/dev/sda6 ro
---
>       APPEND root=/dev/sda3 ro
64,67c64,67
< LABEL windows
<         MENU LABEL Windows
<         COM32 chain.c32
<         APPEND hd0 1
---
> #LABEL windows
> #        MENU LABEL Windows
> #        COM32 chain.c32
> #        APPEND hd0 1

As you can se my syslinux.cfg is almost the same.
I only uncommented windows chainloader and changed /dev/sda3 to /dev/sda6 (i hope that this is correct).

I don't think that my syslinux.cfg is the problem becouse if i run liveCD and in liveCD syslinux screen select "boot existing OS" my installed syslinux (on sda5) screen shows up and i can normaly boot arch linux or windows on my HDD.
Widouth liveCD computer isn't able to boot from HDD - after few seconds of black screen BIOS boot selection meni is shown (boot from Toshiba HDD / boot from CDROM).

Last edited by mallocman (2012-08-16 20:33:17)

DSpider · 2012-08-16 21:49:04

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … al_Install

The manual install implies:

1) installing files (and no, I'm not talking about pacman -S syslinux; that installs the syslinux package)
2) marking the partition as active (by setting up the boot flag)
3) installing the MBR boot code.

# extlinux --install /boot/syslinux

^ Did you run this command? Because without it, poor little "ldlinux.sys" isn't being placed on the correct drive sector, with the correct attributes and no boot for you! But maybe you'll have more luck with the automatic method (... -iam).

Last edited by DSpider (2012-08-16 21:50:12)

mallocman · 2012-08-17 17:13:59

I have executed above command and boot from HDD still fails.
Automatic install with '-iam' parameters doesn't work either - although it completes widouth errors/correct output message is shown.
I have installed grub boot loader before on this PC and several others and I never had those kind of problems. I hope that syslinux didn't broke something on my disk in a way that even grub doesn't work anymore.

p.s. Thank you for all replys. I realy appreciate your effort and I hope we will find solution. Repartitioning and formatting whole disk is not an option becouse this is a work computer and I can't afford reinstalling all programs, devEnvironments and data again.

mallocman · 2013-03-25 22:11:42

Hello!

can anyone please help me with this problem.
I am still booting arch linux from cd-rom (for 5+ months).
Few days ago i have reinstalled linux (becouse of broken glibc) + syslinux and still can't boot without liveCD.

I have configured syslinux with:

# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

fdisk output:

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes, 1250263728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4c534376

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1            2048     3074047     1536000   27  Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda2         3074048   423264554   210095253+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       423264555  1227446324   402090885    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda4      1227448320  1250260991    11406336   17  Hidden HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5   *   423264618   425336939     1036161   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       425337003   470415329    22539163+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7       470415393   488135024     8859816   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       488135088  1206674279   359269596   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      1206674343  1227446324    10385991   82  Linux swap / Solaris

parted output:

Model: ATA TOSHIBA MK6465GS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 640GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  1574MB  1573MB  primary   ntfs            diag
 2      1574MB  217GB   215GB   primary   ntfs
 3      217GB   628GB   412GB   extended                  lba
 5      217GB   218GB   1061MB  logical   ext2            boot
 6      218GB   241GB   23.1GB  logical   ext4
 7      241GB   250GB   9072MB  logical   ext4
 8      250GB   618GB   368GB   logical   ext4
 9      618GB   628GB   10.6GB  logical   linux-swap(v1)
 4      628GB   640GB   11.7GB  primary   ntfs            hidden

/boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

DEFAULT arch
PROMPT 0        # Set to 1 if you always want to display the boot: prompt 
TIMEOUT 50
# You can create syslinux keymaps with the keytab-lilo tool
#KBDMAP de.ktl

# Menu Configuration
# Either menu.c32 or vesamenu32.c32 must be copied to /boot/syslinux 
UI menu.c32
#UI vesamenu.c32

# Refer to http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/menu
MENU TITLE Arch Linux
#MENU BACKGROUND splash.png
MENU COLOR border       30;44   #40ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR title        1;36;44 #9033ccff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR sel          7;37;40 #e0ffffff #20ffffff all
MENU COLOR unsel        37;44   #50ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR help         37;40   #c0ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout_msg  37;40   #80ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR timeout      1;37;40 #c0ffffff #00000000 std
MENU COLOR msg07        37;40   #90ffffff #a0000000 std
MENU COLOR tabmsg       31;40   #30ffffff #00000000 std

# boot sections follow
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

LABEL arch
        MENU LABEL Arch Linux
        LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
        APPEND root=/dev/sda6 ro vga=773
        INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img

LABEL archfallback
        MENU LABEL Arch Linux Fallback
        LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
        APPEND root=/dev/sda6 ro
        INITRD ../initramfs-linux-fallback.img

LABEL windows
        MENU LABEL Windows
        COM32 chain.c32
        APPEND hd0 1

LABEL hdt
        MENU LABEL HDT (Hardware Detection Tool)
        COM32 hdt.c32
 
LABEL reboot
        MENU LABEL Reboot
        COM32 reboot.c32
 
LABEL off
        MENU LABEL Power Off
        COMBOOT poweroff.com

/etc/fstab

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# UUID=4ba3733e-230a-4446-884c-563c5bd45999
/dev/sda6               /               ext4            defaults,relatime,data=ordered  0 1

# UUID=7c83138b-8954-407e-a0af-a36a1d901161
/dev/sda5               /boot           ext2            defaults,relatime       0 1

# UUID=5d87aa12-238b-40f5-8251-5a07ef65d0f1
/dev/sda7               /var            ext4            defaults,relatime,data=ordered  0 2

# UUID=19360f13-c003-4a09-a7e6-d03009270bb1 LABEL=home
/dev/sda8               /home           ext4            defaults,relatime,data=ordered  0 2

# SWAP partition
/dev/sda9                               none            swap            defaults        0 0

dd if=/dev/sda of=/sda-mbr.bin bs=512 count=1
file /sda-mbr.bin

sda-mbr.bin: ; 
partition 1: ID=0x27, starthead 32, startsector 2048, 3072000 sectors; 
partition 2: ID=0x7, starthead 89, startsector 3074048, 420190507 sectors; 
partition 3: ID=0xf, starthead 254, startsector 423264555, 804181770 sectors; 
partition 4: ID=0x17, starthead 254, startsector 1227448320, 22812672 sectors

sfdisk -d /dev/sda > /sfdisk-sda.bak
cat /sfdisk-sda.bak

# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start=     2048, size=  3072000, Id=27
/dev/sda2 : start=  3074048, size=420190507, Id= 7
/dev/sda3 : start=423264555, size=804181770, Id= f
/dev/sda4 : start=1227448320, size= 22812672, Id=17
/dev/sda5 : start=423264618, size=  2072322, Id=83, bootable
/dev/sda6 : start=425337003, size= 45078327, Id=83
/dev/sda7 : start=470415393, size= 17719632, Id=83
/dev/sda8 : start=488135088, size=718539192, Id=83
/dev/sda9 : start=1206674343, size= 20771982, Id=82

Last edited by mallocman (2013-03-26 11:57:05)

Trilby · 2013-03-25 22:14:48

Your boot partition is not a primary partition - I don't think this can work with sylinux and mbr.

mallocman · 2013-03-25 23:01:37

What do you suggest then? Windows is usig 3 primary partitions.
One is recovery, one is c disk and in don't know why is sda9 used (windows was preinstalled on laptop).

Trilby · 2013-03-26 00:35:12

I don't have much of a suggestion - you need to figure out how to manage your own partitions - I'm just highlighting what can't work (AFAIK).

You could remove windows - you could reduce windows partition use - you could use a different bootloader/partition table. GPT partition tables do not have this restriction.

WonderWoofy · 2013-03-26 01:28:55

I think that grub2 can handle this correctly. It seems to support just about any nonsense setup a user can dream up, including putting your kernel on Linux software RAID, LVM, etc. So I would surmise that this should be no problem for grub.

Please note that it has been a long time since I have used grub, though I did do some testing of grub2 when it was very young, its craziness drove me away. So this statement is based on what I have read from others, and not from persona experience.

DSpider · 2013-03-26 11:06:28

You should change the "/dev/sda5" entry from your fstab to end in a "2". Everything else except the root partition should have either "2" or "0" on the last column:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fs … efinitions

Then you should use UUIDs in syslinux.cfg:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … sic_Config

And check the BIOS boot priority (the 640 GB "TOSHIBA" HDD with the boot partition needs to be the first one to boot).

Last edited by DSpider (2013-03-26 11:12:03)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-16 02:03:47

Bootloader don't start

#2 2012-08-16 03:33:38

Re: Bootloader don't start

#3 2012-08-16 18:35:46

Re: Bootloader don't start

#4 2012-08-16 20:27:19

Re: Bootloader don't start

#5 2012-08-16 21:49:04

Re: Bootloader don't start

#6 2012-08-17 17:13:59

Re: Bootloader don't start

#7 2013-03-25 22:11:42

Re: Bootloader don't start

#8 2013-03-25 22:14:48

Re: Bootloader don't start

#9 2013-03-25 23:01:37

Re: Bootloader don't start

#10 2013-03-26 00:35:12

Re: Bootloader don't start

#11 2013-03-26 01:28:55

Re: Bootloader don't start

#12 2013-03-26 11:06:28

Re: Bootloader don't start

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