GRUB doesn't boot

It is working for others, so we need more information. What kind of
motherboard, BIOS, and disks does your system have? What version of grub
worked, and how did you test it? Are you able to boot Ubuntu with that version?

The mother board is an asus A7V266-E.
The HD (I got the problem on both of them) where one recent 160 GB Maxtor,
one older Western Digital (40 GB).
The GRUB which worked is this one http://packages.debian.org/stable/admin/grub
(0.91)
I tested it by putting in on a floppy (something which didn't work with
the Ubuntu version with exactly the same symptom: a message displayed
slowlier than from the HD -- I think it was Phase2 or something similar
-- then the screen clear).

As 0.91 worked from the floppy, I copied the files in the /boot/grub directory of
Ubuntu and reissued the installation commands (from memory, I had doc visiable at
that time)
 root (hd0,2)
 setup (hd0,2)
 exit
(BTW, I tried to install the Ubuntu grub manually with the same commands
and that didn't work).

BTW, the Ubuntu live CD is able to boot.

Yours,

--
Jean-Marc

Something not clear: yes using 0.91 I'm able to boot Ubuntu
(using lilo as well, as a matter of fact, I first tried
with lilo -- anew Debian 3.0 version -- and then the grub
from Debian).

--
Jean-Marc

I'm afraid we stand little chance of being able to do anything about this unless
you can figure out how to extract the error message. Maybe a digital camera or
something, or more practically a debugging version of GRUB?

Can you get to the GRUB menu at all?

When booting on floppy, I could read the message and it was about
as plain as possible (phase 2 or something like that and then some
dots) with no information on the problem.

I don't get at the menu. Trying to press ESC or other keys just
at that moment or a little before doesn't seem to change anything.

What is the easiest way to get a debugging version of grub on the
build on the same sources as you used?

Yours,

--
Jean-Marc

Combined with your initial comment that the hard disk light was flashing, that
sounds like GRUB loaded Linux just fine but then Linux was unable to figure out
how to drive your display. I'm not sure a debugging GRUB will help here unless
you're an expert in it ...

I wonder why you think it is linux which has a problem
considering that
   - Ubuntu's kernel boot from both lilo and grub 0.91
   - I don't get the menu from Ubuntu's grub

I'm not an expert in debugging grub... I'd have given
you the fix instead of reporting the problem :-)

Yours,

--
Jean-Marc

I have had this same problem. I have XP on a Dell D810 laptop. (SATA controller) and I
installed Ubuntu Breezy. Everything was great at first (except for crashes when trying to
unhibernate) then I booted into XP and was installing a VPN client and the system slowly
froze. I powered off and when I tried to power back on I get the Dell BIOS screen followed by
a message flashing quickly, I think it says something about "stage 1_5" and then the Dell
BIOS screen again in an endless loop. I tried booting Knoppix and doing grub-install with no
luck.
boot is in the Ubuntu partition. Ubuntu is /dev/sda3 and in the grub map is referred to as hda
(0,2) not sure what else will help.

Ted

I reinstalled Ubuntu today. Everything went fine again. Booted into XP, shutdown
and same problem again.
I noticed some very fast error message (from GRUB presumably) flashing by just
before XP booted.
Not sure how to proceed here but apparently booting XP is corrupting GRUB or the
MBR somehow.

(In reply to comment #9)
> I reinstalled Ubuntu today. Everything went fine again. Booted into XP, shutdown
> and same problem again.
> I noticed some very fast error message (from GRUB presumably) flashing by just
> before XP booted.
> Not sure how to proceed here but apparently booting XP is corrupting GRUB or the
> MBR somehow.

OK, I have perhaps something similar. Does it happens only after you have booted XP?

Jean-Marc, could you check whether description of Bug 26058 matches your problem?

(In reply to comment #8)
> I have had this same problem. I have XP on a Dell D810 laptop. (SATA
controller) and I
> installed Ubuntu Breezy. Everything was great at first (except for crashes
when trying to
> unhibernate) then I booted into XP and was installing a VPN client and the
system slowly
> froze. I powered off and when I tried to power back on I get the Dell BIOS
screen followed by
> a message flashing quickly, I think it says something about "stage 1_5" and
then the Dell
> BIOS screen again in an endless loop. I tried booting Knoppix and doing
grub-install with no
> luck.
> boot is in the Ubuntu partition. Ubuntu is /dev/sda3 and in the grub map is
referred to as hda
> (0,2) not sure what else will help.
>
> Ted

The following commands work for me to fix grub until I boot in XP again. Could
you confirm that they work for you?

1) Boot Knoppix, rescuecd or another live cd.
2) Mount Ubuntu partition somewhere
3) chroot /mnt/ubuntupartition/ bash
4) grub-install --recheck in the place you wish to install boot (take care of
not overwriting something else)
5) update-grub
6) exit
7) umount ubuntu partition
8) reboot and eject live cd.

Ted, your bug is completely different, please file a separate bug.

Jean-Marc, would it be possible for you to test with breezy?

(In reply to comment #13)
> Ted, your bug is completely different, please file a separate bug.
>

From his description, ted's bug seems similar to bug 26058. If it is, there is
no need to open a new bug. It will be very helpful if he can provide more
information there.

(In reply to comment #13)
> Jean-Marc, would it be possible for you to test with breezy?

I'll try this week end.

I'm sorry, I was busy and then forgot the issue. I've tried with breezy's GRUB
(0.95+cvs20040624-17ubuntu7) and get a slightly different behaviour: I still get a back screen after boot but after a time (the 10 s timeout? I've not tried to lengenth it to confirm) it boot the default OS. Something strange is that the keyboard isn't recognized by GRUB: hitting enter or the up/down arrows don't change anything: it wait and then boot after about 10s whatever I do on the keyboad.

Thank you for reporting this bug.

Jean-Marc - are you able to reproduce this with the grub in latest Dapper? Could you please some of the information requested earlier regarding debugging this to move forward with finding a solution?

Thanks again.

I won't probably have the time for testing that in the next two weeks, perhaps more. I'll try to remember when things will slow down.

Could you please be more specific about what information you want? I may have missed something but It seems to me that I've provided all information I was asked.

Yours,

--
Jean-Marc

Thank you, Jean-Marc.

If you are able to reproduce the bug with Dapper, please answer the following questions (all collected from the questions asked of you before to make it easier):

What kind of motherboard, BIOS, and disks does your system have?
What version of grub worked, and how did you test it?
Are you able to boot Ubuntu with that version?
Can you get to the GRUB menu at all?
Can you upload a picture taken using a digital camera if that is pertinent to the problem and captures the screen showing the error?
could you check whether description of Bug #19948 matches your problem?

Thanks a lot for the quick reply, Jean-Marc, and for helping us pin this problem down. Please take your time and let us know how it goes with Dapper.

Jean-Marc, I am closing this due to lack of recent information. If you can reproduce this in the latest dapper, please feel free to reopen the bug. Thanks.

I've reproduced the bug in the latest dapper. As a matter of fact, it blocked
my upgrade.

Previously, the screen flashed too quickly for a digital camera to react.

Now, the freeze is slighly different, it just show GRUB.

Bug #19948 is about libglademm2, I think you mistyped the number.

Apparently all the information you want was given in my second message. If you need something else, please state what.

I'm probably missing the obvious, but I don't see a way to reopen the bug.

Yours,

Jean-Marc, I reopened the bug. The "trick" is to click the name of the package (grub (Ubuntu) in this case). This will the show a drop-down menu where you can change the status etc.

Thank you for the update.

Carthik Sharma a écrit :
> Jean-Marc, I reopened the bug. The "trick" is to click the name of the
> package (grub (Ubuntu) in this case). This will the show a drop-down
> menu where you can change the status etc.
>
I had assume that this link led to a package page showing other
bugs for it.

Thanks for the information.

Yours,

--
Jean-Marc

I set to unconfirm, because there seems to be missing, or outdated information.

Hi, Jean-Marc.

Rereading, I understand that you say that Ubuntu grub does not work, and that the Debian one work.

Well, you said Ubuntu Dapper version did not work.

Can you/have you tried an Edgy version?

Paul, just curious as to why you are assigning the bug to yourself. Do you intend to fix it. I'm sorry if you are a grub hacker and that is your intention. Otherwise, please only subscribe to the bug and not assign it to yourself.
Thank you for your attention.

Paul,

Could you please state which information is incomplete or outdated?

About trying the Edgy version... well do you think to something which was fixed and could be relevant or is it just a random shot? If I do it and it doesn't work, would you just drop the issue or try to fix it? In the later case, I'll just wait until I need to upgrade, and that could well be after I got another computer.

Don't misinterpret me, I don't mind doing some investigation if it help to fix the issue, but I don't see the utility of just trying another version for the sake of trying another version: my system works as it is, and I don't need anything present in later version of grub.

--
Jean-Marc

I am acting (even if I am not officially on QA Team) as a bug triager.
And following recommendations on:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToTriage section Complete Reports,
I set the bug to me, until I think a developer would have enough information to begin investigation with enough information, at which point, I would reassign the bug to Nobody.

...It is a random shot.
"My system works as it is"
Yes, but which version of Grub (Debian?) are you using, right now?
I tend to suppose you locked grub to a particuliar version, to avoid
problem about upgrading your system. Is it the case?

Which AMD microprocessors? (I ask because a bug about NX bit
have been fixed for grub)

Indeed, I am really not a Grub guru, but since there doesn't seems to be much people having exactly the same problem, yes it would need quite some investigation on your work. I can imagine, that building grub without any difference from Debian, and adding patches until we find which one cause problem, could be used as an investigation method. But you would have to try each build, since you are the one having the hardware that don't work well with Ubuntu's version of Grub.
And if you don't want to do much of this kind of work, probably better reclose the bug, and let people work on others. Frankly, I would understand that.

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 6
model name : AMD Athlon(TM) XP1700+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 1477.556
cache size : 256 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mp mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips : 2958.01

The grub from Debian has version 0.91. I didn't change it nor tried newer version. I doubt the compilation process change anything, I get the same kind of problems when booting from Solaris CD.

Binary search for a triggering change is more than I'm ready to do.

Jean-Marc, this make it a processor without NX bit, so it should not be affected by the bug I was speaking earlier.

Also I found this information, that I am not sure is relevant:
"Starting with 2.4.19 and continuing in 2.4.20-pre8, the order the kernel
associates with the two IDE controllers (one VIA vt8233 and one PDC20265 intended for RAID use) on the A7V266-E has been reversed. The BIOS and GRUB consider the VIA to be first, so root(hd0,0) loads the kernel from the first device on the VIA controller. Prior to 2.4.19, the OS then booted with that drive identified as hda. Beginning with 2.4.19, however, the kernel instead identifies the PDC as ide0 and ide1, and puts the VIA at ide2 and ide3, resulting in the boot drive being hde.
I found an earlier mention of this on the mailing list, but no solution or workaround was suggested. We are using a workaround where 2.4.19 and later kernels are booted with root=/dev/hde1 and earlier with hda1, and fstab lists both hda2 and hde2 as swap partitions, simply failing to insert one.
This works, but the general ugliness and maintenance headaches since this is different than the typical machine config we use around here make it difficult to use in the long run. "

Hi Paul,

It does not seem relevant to me: it's about Linux kernel, and I get a problem before being able to choose the kernel.

Thanks for your efforts.

Yours,

--
Jean-Marc

You could try to use pre-made grub floppy-disk (of CD image)
The package grub-disk, in Universe, contains both images for floppies and cd.

Frankly, it should not work according to what you said, (maybe the CD yes however). But it would show that this is not just badly configured grub files.

Example I have:
$ ls -l /usr/share/grub-disk
total 140
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 67146 2006-10-05 06:50 grub-0.97-i486-pc.ext2fs.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 61556 2006-10-05 06:50 grub-0.97-i486-pc.iso.gz
It would be good to list these, if you try, to let us know which version you have (these are in edgy version).

Next, to make a floppy you would (it did not worked for me, but I think it is because my floppies are SO old & scrap):
cp /usr/share/grub-disk/grub-version-i486-pc.ext2fs.gz .
gunzip grub-version-i486-pc.ext2fs.gz
put a new floppy,
sudo dd if=grub-version-i486-pc.ext2fs.gz of=/dev/fd0
wait patiently, then boot with the floppy.

Or to make a CDRW or a spare CDR:
cp /usr/share/grub-disk/grub-version-i486-pc.iso.gz .
gunzip grub-version-i486-pc.iso.gz
put fresh CDRW or CDR
sudo cdrecord grub-version-i486-pc.iso.gz
wait patiently, then reboot with the CD.

Note that in the best case, all wou will have is a floppy or CD giving
a useless menu, but since what we want is test wheter you get that
menu or not, this should do the trick fine.

Also, it would be great before saying, it does not work, to try the CD or floppy you made, on an other computer if you have access to one.

It would be best that you use current edgy version.
You can download it at:
http://packages.ubuntu.com/edgy/admin/grub-disk click all , that would put you on a list of mirrors having the package.

In Firefox, for me, gdebi is automatically called to install it.
But you could install it, with
dpkg --install grub-disk_0.97-11ubuntu13_all.deb

From there, proceed like previous post suggested.
Well, this is not an obligation, if it is much work, we can close the bug.

A bug on Debian suggest that some people have problems with grub 0.97, but it is supposed that this is because they don't use grub-install, so they are still having pre-0.97 files inside /boot/grub, and mixing with 0.97 files, cause garbage, or other problems on the screen.

i had similar problems with xp and grub
also new to ubuntu so i resolvse it by using removeable trays with seperate hard drives for each operating system set them up on primary controller i shut down exchange system h/d and reboot
just a method that i chose to use because i feared losing all my previous work which is like 20 years of windows files and routines
this way one operating system cant effect the other similar to having two computers

by the way im no mbr expert there are so many variations with operating systems and packages that make it a nightmare to deal with
i used fdisk.exe /mbr to fix the mbr on my windows drive
i believe it to be an asus motherboard bios problem in my case it's an older p4s333 asus mother boerd with an intel 1.9 gb processor
may be of help to someone having similar issues
basically it s an older bernolli type of setup proceedure ive used for years with good results when dealing with multiple
operating systems
each o/s has it own pecularities when dealing with mbr and bootup

Please confirm that this is still an issue in Feisty.

I've changed my computer. I don't have access to the old one anymore, so I can't say anything about the behavior of Feisty.

im sorry for bumping this tread but im sorry to say i have a very similar problem, my grub wont boot at all... installed latest version of kubuntu (as we speak is) Kubuntu 7.04 Beta .feisty

tryed installing kbuntu had a few errors trying to get my damn ati drivers to work with kde beryl on different distros.. damn you ati drivers..
went from ubuntu 6.10 edgy to a clean kubuntu install
screen goes black for a second looks as if its trying to load grub then starts winxp loader

amd64 3500 @ 2200mhz
2gig corrsair pc3200ram
msi neo2 deluxe
asus 9800xt
35gig HDD western digital raptor

Since the problematic machine is no longer available I suggest to close this bug and wait for new fresh or no reports concerning this probably no longer existing problem.

@Defus: please upgrade your kubuntu to feisty final and make a fresh report if the bad behavior still exists.

As already recommended by a7p this bug report gets hereby rejected as it is based on a quite old ubuntu version and the problematic machine is not available anymore for testing. If you have similar errors with e.g. feisty stable (not beta) feel free to open a new bug.

Thanks to all for the bug reports.