Re: new Etch install fails to boot

On 07/29/2007 04:43 PM, Steve Kleene wrote:
I just made a fresh Etch Netinst CD and successfully completed an install on
a PC that I bought six years ago. When I try to boot, this is as far as it
gets:

Verifying DMI Pool Data ..........
GRUB Loading stage1.5.
Read

It may or may not be relevant to mention an issue I had in the past with this
box. I used to run Red Hat on it but with a Windows partition at the start
of the disk. During the Red Hat installation, I had to select "Force LBA32"
or it wouldn't find the Linux boot partition.

Now, though, I have given the whole disk to Etch, so I'd be surprised if this
is the issue. There are just two partitions:

IDE5 master (hde) - 41.2 GB IC35L040AVER07-0
#1 primary 39.9 GB B f ext3 /
#5 logical 1.5 GB f swap swap

The BIOS (AWARD 1998 / PCI/PNP 686 / 276079428) shows:
IDE Primary Master Auto (other choices are None, Manual)
Access Mode Auto (other choices are Normal, LBA, Large)

I've tried various combinations, including LBA, to no avail. The hard drives
are IBM Deskstar 40-GB IDE hard drives, model IC35L040AVER07-0.

Any ideas how to fix this? Thanks.



Older BIOSes have restrictions on where the Linux kernel and other boot files must be located. LBA32 should be able to get past these restrictions, but in your case it might not be working.

If you can, try to get the boot files placed before the 1024th cylinder boundary. Sometimes this is at 0.5GB, 2.1GB or 8GB. Try a partition layout like so:

/boot (primary #1, 2.1GB)
/ (primary #2, 37.8GB)
swap (logical #5, 1.5GB)

/boot must be the first partition, and try to keep all of it below the 1024th cylinder.


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