30.07.2011 01:06, Ralf Jung wrote: > Machine: HP Compaq 615 > Processor: AMD Athlon(tm)X2 DualCore QL-66 > Memory: 4 GiB > Partitions: > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System > /dev/sda1 * 2048 122879999 61438976 83 Linux > /dev/sda2 122880000 131071999 4096000 82 Linux swap / Solaris > /dev/sda3 131074046 625141759 247033857 5 Extended > /dev/sda5 131074048 625141759 247033856 83 Linux > [] > Installation went fine, however, the initial boot into the actual system > failed: The BIOS complained it would not find anything to boot on my HDD. I > tried both graphical and console installation, with the same result - of > course > I always replied "Yes" when asked whether I want GRUB to be installed into the > MBR. I then tried to fix the problem by chroot'ing into the installed system > and running "grub-install /dev/sda", but even though this completed > successfully, the PC would still refuse to boot. After three installation > attempts with two different versions of the disc (I used a two-months old > version for my first attempts), I tried to set the boot flag on the root > partition, using GParted from the system rescue CD. The next installation > attempt then completed successfully. > > I suspect that either my system is special in that it needs that flag on the > partition even though grub resides in the MBR, or this is a bug in grub- > install: It should also make sure the partition containing grub has the boot > flag set so that booting actually worked. If that's impossible, the installer > should at least set the boot flag for the /boot or / partition - the partition > in question was actually created during Debian installation, so it definitely > should have been set up correctly. The way things work currently, the user > ends > up with a completely unusable system.
Can you verify this by clearing the boot flag you now have and seeing if your system will boot after that? So far, I for one haven't seen a system which requires a partition _table_ to boot, not to mention a bootable partition in it. BIOS merely loads first 512 bytes of a disk into memory and jumps into that area, without trying to interpret what's inside. Unless you use some recovery/diagnostic mode which is embedded into some BIOSes/machines. Thanks, /mjt -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-boot-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/4e33ad23.6040...@msgid.tls.msk.ru
