GRUB problem : "Loading Stage 1.5" in infinited loop

Gaucho · 07-07-2008, 11:02 AM

Hello,

I've a ABIT BX133-RAID motherboard (chipset Intel BX) with an embedded HighPoint (HPT) 370 controller for 4 additional UDMA100 hard disks.

The Intel BX IDE connectors are IDE1 and IDE2. The HPT IDE connectors are IDE3 and IDE4.

I have a 80Gb WD connected as primary on IDE3, a 80Gb Seagate connected as slave on IDE3, a 80Gb Samsung connected as primary on IDE4 and a 40Gb Maxtor connected as slave on IDE4.

I've first installed Windows XP on C:\ on the first HD; then used the other 2 80Gb HDs for additional partitions. Everything went fine and system run this way for a week.

Then I got a copy of Ubuntu 8.04 and installed it on the 40Gb Maxtor (slave HD on IDE4).

So Ubuntu recognized the hard disks as hde, hdf, hdg and hdh. Ubuntu was intalled on hdh and I've choosen to install GRUB during the automated installation. Unfortunelty I don't remember exactly what Grub asked me by the time (where to install itself), I think it was in hdh0, but I'm not sure.

Then, after finishing installing Ubuntu, I rebooted it, Grub menu loaded correctly and I loaded Windows. Windows loaded fine and I booted it again, but this time, the loader gets to GRUB 1.5 while booting then starts a reboot, indefinitely. I must use the Ubunt disk and reinstall Ubuntu to break out. Then the system works once and I can boot properly to XP or Ubuntu; the next time I reboot I am again in the loop...

I've gone through everything I found on the internet regarding seting up GRUB again (setup hd3,0), reinstalling in (grup-install bla bla bla) but nothing works!

My suspicious is the slave HD on the second HPT controller (that Linux recognizes as hdh), but I'm definetly not sure, this is a long shot. I'm thinking in removing it and putting on IDE1 (UDMA33 controlled by Intel chipset, but I would lose the performance boost that's intended with this board) as primary then reinstall everything one more time.

Any help will be MUCH apreciatted.

Best regards from Brasil,

amani · 07-07-2008, 11:37 AM

The first thing to remember is that you are using raid.
You must try to install grub on all of the hard disks.

E.g http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-li...3-07/1270.html

Gaucho · 07-07-2008, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

The first thing to remember is that you are using raid.
You must try to install grub on all of the hard disks.

E.g http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-li...3-07/1270.html

Hello Amani,

thanks for the help! I'm reading the article now.

But just to make everybody know, I didn't install the OSs as RAID; they're only connected to RAID IDE connectors, but there are no RAID setup for the WindosXP nor for the Ubuntu.

Anyhow, I'll check the article and see if/how it applies to my problem.

Once again, thanks a million!

Gaucho · 07-07-2008, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

The first thing to remember is that you are using raid.
You must try to install grub on all of the hard disks.

E.g http://www.linuxsa.org.au/mailing-li...3-07/1270.html

Hello again Amani,

I've read the article, but I have some questions:

1) like I said in the previous post, I didn't install Windows neither Ubuntu as RAID; do I still need to install grub on all hard disks?
2) assuming YES as answer for the above question, should I do as described on the article? (so, in my case, I need to enter root (hd0,0) + setup (hd0) for the primary HD on IDE3 (Windows), root (hd1,0) + setup (hd1) for the slave HD on IDE3 (Windows), root (hd2,0) + setup (hd2) for the primary HD on IDE4 (Windows) and, finally, root (hd3,0) + setup (hd3) for the salve HD on IDE4 (Ubuntu)?
3) different question: what if I overwrite the MBR using Windows Recovery Console from WindowsXP Install CD (using the fixboot command)? Will it destroy grub? Will I be able to enter Ubuntu afterwards? Is there any way to use the Windows boot loader to load both WinXP and Ubuntu? Or it's compulsory to have a Linux loader like GRUB or LILO?

Thanks!!

Larry Webb · 07-07-2008, 02:34 PM

You can overwrite the mbr as many times as you want without destroying your windows installation. The mbr points to the partition to boot from. To help more we need you to post your sudo fdisk -l using your ubuntu as a live cd. The procedure you are mentioning above is chainloading. Here is a good article

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...ading_in_Linux

and here is one in more detail

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=147959

Gaucho · 07-09-2008, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Webb

You can overwrite the mbr as many times as you want without destroying your windows installation. The mbr points to the partition to boot from. To help more we need you to post your sudo fdisk -l using your ubuntu as a live cd. The procedure you are mentioning above is chainloading. Here is a good article

http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/...ading_in_Linux

and here is one in more detail

http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showt...hreadid=147959

fdisk -l:

Code:

root@ubuntu:/# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hde: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa29fa29f

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hde1   *           1        2550    20482843+  42  SFS
/dev/hde2            2551        9729    57665317+  42  SFS

Disk /dev/hdf: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0dba0dba

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdf1               1        9729    78148161   42  SFS

Disk /dev/hdg: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5ee25ee2

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdg1               1        9729    78148161   42  SFS

Disk /dev/hdh: 41.1 GB, 41110142976 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4998 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x5f495f49

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hdh1               1        4858    39021853+  83  Linux
/dev/hdh2            4859        4998     1124550    5  Extended
/dev/hdh5            4859        4998     1124518+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
root@ubuntu:/#

fstab:

Code:

root@ubuntu:/boot/grub# cat /etc/fstab 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# /dev/hdh1
UUID=c92660b5-2b8c-4895-8501-9591ba4f86c8 /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /dev/hdh5
UUID=54189feb-5988-4e16-85e3-1b1be9a3d01b none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
root@ubuntu:/boot/grub#

menu.lst:

Code:

title           Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root            (hd3,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=c92660b5-2b8c-4895-8501-9591ba4f86c8 ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

title           Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd3,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=c92660b5-2b8c-4895-8501-9591ba4f86c8 ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic

title           Ubuntu 8.04, memtest86+
root            (hd3,0)
kernel          /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title           Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hde1
title           Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root            (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader     +1

(END)

device.map:

Code:

root@ubuntu:/boot/grub# cat device.map 
(hd0)    /dev/hde
(hd1)    /dev/hdf
(hd2)    /dev/hdg
(hd3)    /dev/hdh
root@ubuntu:/boot/grub#

amani · 07-09-2008, 06:15 PM

It is almost compulsory to use grub or lilo for dual boot.

From within Ubuntu, if you simply do

#sudo grub-install /dev/hde

Then all your problems may be solved

Larry Webb · 07-09-2008, 06:56 PM

You can also install your ubuntu live cd and from terminal type #sudo grub and after you hit enter you should get a grub prompt at the prompt type

root (hd3,0)

setup (hd0)

That should get you working if your boot menu list is in ubuntu at hdh

Gaucho · 07-10-2008, 06:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

It is almost compulsory to use grub or lilo for dual boot.

From within Ubuntu, if you simply do

#sudo grub-install /dev/hde

Then all your problems may be solved

Ok, just did it:

Code:

root@ubuntu:/boot/grub# grub-install /dev/hde
Searching for GRUB installation directory ... found: /boot/grub
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install'.

(hd0)   /dev/hde
(hd1)   /dev/hdf
(hd2)   /dev/hdg
(hd3)   /dev/hdh
root@ubuntu:/boot/grub#

Now I'll reboot and see what happens.

Gaucho · 07-10-2008, 06:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Larry Webb

You can also install your ubuntu live cd and from terminal type #sudo grub and after you hit enter you should get a grub prompt at the prompt type

root (hd3,0)

setup (hd0)

That should get you working if your boot menu list is in ubuntu at hdh

Hello Larry,

I've already tried
root (hd3,0)
setup (hd3)

but did not try setup (hd0) yet.

First I'll see if the previous suggestions (to install grub on hde) works. If not, I'll try yours.

Thanks!

Gaucho · 07-10-2008, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

It is almost compulsory to use grub or lilo for dual boot.

From within Ubuntu, if you simply do

#sudo grub-install /dev/hde

Then all your problems may be solved

Hello Amani,

thanks for the tip! Now I have the Operational System listed!

But one problem remains: if I choose Windows XP, it reboots instantly. I can only login on Ubuntu (from where I'm typing now :-)

What else I need to do to get Windows loading correctly?

Thanks!

syg00 · 07-10-2008, 07:13 AM

Sounds like you at some point installed grub into the Windoze partition.
Boot the Windoze CD, get into recovery console and run fixboot

Then try again.

Gaucho · 07-10-2008, 07:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Sounds like you at some point installed grub into the Windoze partition.
Boot the Windoze CD, get into recovery console and run fixboot

Then try again.

But won't it overwrite MBR/Grub (since I've *just* installed grub on hde, wich is where Windows is installed) and I'll have to start all over again?

Larry Webb · 07-10-2008, 07:32 AM

Yes then you go back and do the fix I recommended earlier. Syg00 is right, windows does not like any other programs in it.

syg00 · 07-10-2008, 07:32 AM

Cancel that. Didn't realize you were using dynamic disks.
Erk - haven't tried them from Linux.

Ignore me, I'll go back to sleep.
Sorry to intrude.