Arch Linux

Negorath

Member

Registered: 2008-03-05

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] Having some problems booting up

I have this old computer I figured I'd try installing Linux on, and already having ArchLinux on my laptop, I decided to go with that.

My HDDs and partitions (all old IDE drives):
Primary Master: 60gb
- /boot
- /
Primary Slave: 200gb
- /home

Secondary Master: CD-ROM

Secondary Slave: 16gb
- /swap

Now, everything looks correct in the CMOS, and the jumper settings "should" be correct, but I still can't seem to be able to boot up.
I suspect the problem might be GRUB, as the Beginner Guide was a bit fuzzy on this part.

Should I install GRUB on the /boot partition (sda1), or just sda?

And where should I point GRUB to the kernel images? As it stands right now I have GRUB installed on the /boot partition, and set the config to look for the kernel in /vmlinuz26

Any help or suggestions would be welcome, as I must admit I haven't installed Linux on several HDDs before, so it's all rather new

Last edited by Negorath (2008-09-02 09:50:42)

luca

Member

From: Rome

Registered: 2005-10-30

Posts: 280

Re: [SOLVED] Having some problems booting up

Hi Negorath,
grub should be installed on /dev/sda (Master Boot Record).
For the kernel image try with:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=....

Negorath

Member

Registered: 2008-03-05

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Having some problems booting up

Just set it up like that, but I still get DISK BOOT FAILURE

Maybe I need to play with the jumpers some more... but ugh, if it's detected correctly in the CMOS shouldn't that be enough?

Onwards

Member

From: Pakistan

Registered: 2007-04-18

Posts: 108

Re: [SOLVED] Having some problems booting up

... but ugh, if it's detected correctly in the CMOS shouldn't that be enough?

No, as is the case with some mobos; their BIOS isn't able to configure PCI devices correctly (mostly in bad or old mobos...). The solution would be to take ur CMOS battery out [to reset it...] and reinsert and reboot. That has helped me many times...

thantik

Member

Registered: 2008-08-31

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] Having some problems booting up

Did you setup your partitions manually? 

If so, make sure your boot partition is the first partition on the drive, old motherboards and hardware can't (or won't rather) read past the first 8gb or so of your drive. You would probably be safe to set the boot partition as the first partition and only make it 32mb.  /home and / partitions also have to share the same filesystem type.  Just for reference here's what I pulled from the beginners guide on what auto-prepare does to the drive:

Auto-Prepare divides your disk into the following configuration:
    * ext2 /boot partition, default size 32MB. You will be prompted to modify the size to you requirement.
    * swap partition, default size 256MB. You will be prompted to modify the size to you requirement.
    * A Separate / and /home partition, (sizes can also be specified). You may choose from ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs and jfs, but note that both / and /home must share the same fs type if choosing the Auto Prepare option.

So a 32mb /boot partition should be fine.  But it needs to be at the beginning of the drive.  I'm sure that even if it's at the beginning of the drive and it spans PAST the 8gb mark it can cause issues as well.

Last edited by thantik (2008-08-31 18:37:00)

Negorath

Member

Registered: 2008-03-05

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Having some problems booting up

... but ugh, if it's detected correctly in the CMOS shouldn't that be enough?

No, as is the case with some mobos; their BIOS isn't able to configure PCI devices correctly (mostly in bad or old mobos...). The solution would be to take ur CMOS battery out [to reset it...] and reinsert and reboot. That has helped me many times...

I love you! This solved my problem straight away I was so insanely frustrated earlier because nothing logically worked!

Just for future reference, the motherboard is a KN8 Ultra

Last edited by Negorath (2008-08-31 20:43:05)