Boot Errors

[rigadon]

The second drive definitely does NOT contain the root filesystem - it is used purely for backup purposes. If it is the BIOS of the second drive that is causing the problem how might I go about verifying this and fixing it?

Actually I have just taken a closer look at the drives and I note that the primary (master) drive does not have any jumpers. The three jumper settings listed for this drive are:

Single or Master: No jumpers
Master w/ Slave Present: Jumper on pins 5 & 6 (w/ does mean 'with' right?)
Slave: Jumper on pins 3 & 4

It would appear that I need another jumper on the primary drive. Could this be the cause of my problem? I'd test but I don't have a spare jumper to hand! The jumpers on the secondary (slave) drive are configured as I would expect.

[drakebasher]

Master w/ Slave Present: Jumper on pins 5 & 6 (w/ does mean 'with' right?)
Slave: Jumper on pins 3 & 4

You may have got it. Yes, with both drives in place on one ribbon cable, you would need to jumper 5 & 6 on the master drive. (w/=with). But if the second drive is not an essential part of the Linux filesystem, you should be able to disconnect that one (disconnect power connector, ribbon cable or both) and then boot right into the first drive. Linux may or may not complain later, but you should be able to get the system mat least mostly up without the second drive.

Here's hoping it works!

[rigadon]

Hmmm...having disconnected the second drive I now get the following:

Loading ext3.o module
Mounting /proc filesystem
Creating block devices
VFS: Cannot open root device "LABEL=/" or 00:00
Please append a correct "root=" boot option
Kernel panic: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 00:00

Any thoughts?

[drakebasher]

Strange. Like the label fell off...

Just for fun, try this. Get the Grub command line and select to correct menu choice and press 'e' to edit it. Arrow down to highlight the 'kernel' line and press 'e' to edit that. Replace 'root=LABEL=/' with 'root=/dev/hda1'. Press enter to accept changes, press 'b' to boot.

Make a note of what happens. If you don't like the result, do it again with 'root=/dev/hda2' and finally with 'root=/dev/hda5'. Changes will not be permanent, only for this boot, so no harm done.

[rigadon]

Yay - fixed it! I just noticed during boot up that the CD-ROM drive was listed as 'hda' not 'hdc'. So I switched the ribbon cables and hey-presto!

Rather incongruously the BLUE ribbon is now in the BLACK ide socket and the BLACK ribbon is in the BLUE ide socket. I presume these cables must have been switched when it was packed up to be shipped because I haven't touched them since opening the box!

Today's lesson: never trust someone else's colour coding!

Thanks for all your help drakebasher and apologies for wasting your time on what turned out to be a very simple problem - I've learnt a lot about debugging IDE errors today if that's any consolation?!

[drakebasher]

Yay - fixed it!

Cool :rock:

[loft306]

Today's lesson: never trust someone else's colour coding!