Re: [opensuse] OpenSUSE 11.1 Boot Loader Problem

Joe Morris wrote:
On 03/30/2009 12:38 AM, Stephen P. Molnar wrote:
For reasons that I needn't go into I found it necessary to upgrade my
Linux system to OpenSUSE 11.1 form 10.3 (I was intending to wait for
11.2, but that's a different story)

I installed 111.1 on a new 500GB SATA HD without any complaints or
problems, until I rebooted the system without the installation DVD in
it's drive. Everything is well until I get to:

GRUB loading stage 1.5

When the boot hangs on:

GRUB loading, please wait . . .

In this case the ellipses represent a time of infinity.

OK. What I gon' to do? Well, boot the installation DVD and run
Repair System. The first two methods on that page were unsuccessful. I tried Expert Tools and it told me that it succeeded. And, indeed it
did as long as I selected Repair Tools/Boot installed system from the
pull down menu at the bottom of the Expert Tools page. When I boot
from the HD (no installation DVD in drive) it still hangs

So I can boot 11.1, albeit it rather clumsily. I managed to copy the
Grub menu list to my windows machine (from which this pleas for help
is being dispatched. It's attached.

I am strictly a user and GRUB is an arcane mystery to me. Any help
will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
While running 11.1 (which I think you said you could do in another
post), open a terminal, send us the output of fdisk -l. We need to
verify your 11.1 is really on your 4th HD, first partition [root
(hd3,0)]. It might be good also to send us your /etc/fstab as well. Or, if you know your partitioning, like is there a separate /boot? which partition is /? You easily install grub to the mbr of your new
disk by entering a grub shell (enter grub from a console, then root
(hdx,y) [x=hd with 11.1, y=partition number with /boot, if not separate
/boot, this would be your / partition. Note: counting starts at 0]. After the root command, you would next write it to the mbr via setup
(hdx) [x would be the hd with 11.1]. Then quit to exit grub. i.e. if
your menu.lst was correct, that would be

grub
root (hd3,0)
setup (hd3)
quit

HTH

Thanks for your note and suggestions. I noticed that you're running 11.1 on a x86_64.

I am very hesitant to make changes in the booting procedure, although they are necessary. I have attached both fstab files, suitably identified. to this email.

At this point I would prefer to be able to boot into the 10.3 installation, as I really don't want the hassle of configuring 11.1 to the point that I want. I've also attached the 10.3 menu.lst file from /boot/grub.

I really appreciate the help that the Linux community gives so freely.



--

--
Stephen P. Molnar, Ph.D. Life is a fuzzy set
Foundation for Chemistry Stochastic and multivariate
http://www.geocities.com/FoundationForChemistry

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/sdb1 swap swap defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

/dev/sda1 /sda1 auto defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb3 /sdb3 auto defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb5 /sdb5 auto defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb6 /sdb6 auto defaults 0 0
/dev/sdd1 /sdd1 auto defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc2 /sdc2 auto defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS-00A7B0_WD-WMASY0223768-part1 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5000AAKS-00A7B0_WD-WMASY0223768-part2 /home ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD400EB-00CPF0_WD-WCAAT4041445-part1 /sda1 ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500KS-00MJB0_WD-WCANK9498942-part1 /sdb1 ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500KS-00MJB0_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 /sdb2 ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500KS-00MJB0_WD-WCANK9498942-part5 /sdb5 ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD2500KS-00MJB0_WD-WCANK9498942-part6 /sdb6 ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1200JB-00GVA0_WD-WCALA1589923-part2 /sdd2 reiserfs defaults 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD400JB-00ENA0_WD-WCAD1A295196-part1 /sde1 reiserfs defaults 1 2
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy auto noauto,user,sync 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1200JB-00GVA0_WD-WCALA1589923-part1 swap swap default 0 0
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Mar 29 16:50:57 EDT 2009
default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux-2.6.22.5-31-default###
title openSUSE 10.3
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Debug -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.5-31
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-debug root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-debug

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title XEN -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.5-31
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/xen-pae.gz
module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-xenpae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
module /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-xenpae

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux-2.6.22.5-31-bigsmp###
title openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.5-31
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-bigsmp root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 vga=0x31a resume=/dev/sdb1 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-bigsmp

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3 - 2.6.22.5-31
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-bigsmp root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-bigsmp

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe-2.6.22.5-31-default###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 10.3
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.5-31-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD2500KS-00_WD-WCANK9498942-part2 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.22.5-31-default

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