unable to boot after FC6 upgrade / grub

[fish911]

Hi
After running Fedora Core 4 for well over a year, I upgraded to Core 6 and am now unable to boot. Have been looking at posts and googling but have not found a solution. It's a single boot setup, old Intel chip (pre-dual core) single HDD.

When I power on I get the infinietly scrolling "GRUB GRUB GRUB" output. If I boot with rescue CD I can see my new kernel and initrd are where expected and agree with names in grub.conf. The grub.conf file contains:

default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=...
password --md5 ...<password>...
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

I tried some things like making kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18.... and initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.18.. followed by "chroot /mnt/sysimage" and "grub-install /dev/hdc". Same GRUB GRUB GRUB output.

I'd really appreciate some pointers on how I might get out of this mess. Ahhhhhhhhh!! Thanks any and all!

[devils casper]

root (hd0,0) means boot partition is in first Primary HardDisk. why are you installing GRUB in third Hearddisk ( hdc ).
boot up in Linux rescue mode and execute 'fdisk -l' command. post output here. post the contents of /etc/fstab file too.







Casper

[fish911]

fdisk -l ...
Disk /dev/hdc: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 119150 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdc1 * 1 203 102280+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdc2 204 117070 58900968 83 Linux
/dev/hdc3 117071 119150 1048320 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/etc/fstab....
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hdc3 swap swap defaults 0 0

One other thing I've tried (based on all the reading I've done recently) is ...
* boot with rescue CD
# cd /mnt/sysimage
# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# grub
> root (hd0,0)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 root=/dev/hdc2
> initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
(This entry yields "Error 28: Selected item can not fit into memory")
> boot

Also /boot/grub/menu.lst contains ...
default=0
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
password --md5 $1$VV1md8EC$Dydyt6efmVLAmSci.LxpG0
title Fedora Core (2.6.18-1.2798.fc6)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 ro root=/dev/hdc2 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img

System defintely has only a single harddisk but 1-2 years back it had two when I ran Win2k. Dumb queston time: does moving disk on ribbon cable make it appear as /dev/hda? should I move it? Remove master jumper setting if its set??

Many thanks
Chris

[devils casper]

Linux HardDisk is not connected as Primary Master.
How many Harddisks are plugged-in? fdisk is showing only one harddisk.

# cd /mnt/sysimage
# chroot /mnt/sysimage
# grub

execute 'find /boot/grub/stage1' and replace its output with 'root (hd0,0)'

> root (hd0,0) <-- output of 'find'
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6 root=/dev/hdc2
> initrd /initrd-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.img
>boot

in case, this doesn't work, plug-in Linux disk as Primary Master. you can do this through Jumper Settings or Cable select. output of fdisk should list Linux disk as 'hda'.
post the contents of /boot/grub/device.map file.






Casper

[fish911]

Casper
The "find /boot/grub/stage1" came back with (hd0,0). This system contains 1 harddrive. The devices.map file contains following:
# this device map was generated by anaconda
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hdc
Not sure why it shows drive as "hdc" rather than "hda". Tried changing jumpers from "cable select" to "primary master" and still same behavior.

What do you think about the "out of memory" error I mentioned earlier? I can't find anything helpful to explain what issue might be.
Thanks

[devils casper]

Not sure why it shows drive as "hdc" rather than "hda". Tried changing jumpers from "cable select" to "primary master" and still same behavior.

Linux assigned 'hdc' name coz HardDisk is plugged-in as Secondry Master.
you have to find a way to plug-in as Primary Master.
did you try GRUB re-install?

linux rescue
chroot /mnt/sysimage
grub-install /dev/hdc

What do you think about the "out of memory" error I mentioned earlier? I can't find anything helpful to explain what issue might be.

28 : "Bad or corrupt version of stage1/stage2"
This error is returned if the install command is pointed to incompatible or corrupt versions of the stage1 or stage2. It can't detect corruption in general, but this is a sanity check on the version numbers, which should be correct.

Casper

[fish911]

Casper
You are correct, however, grub reinstall did nothing. Found the ribbon cables for primary IDE and secondary IDE were reversed (wow, that was dumb mistake from several years ago but its interesting FC4 never complained). Fixed that. Returned the drive jumpers to cable select. Low level format of drive for good measure. Battery removed so BIOS would clear. Installed FC6 fresh and presto. Now I see FC6 is properly appearing on /dev/hda. Many thanks for your help.
Chris