On Thu, Aug 05, 2010 at 02:49:48PM -0400, Tom H wrote: > On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 1:49 PM, Thomas H. George <li...@tomgeorge.info> wrote: > > > > I don't understand grub's menu.lst. It begins with several entries > > and the beginning of the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST and within this the > > start of the default options list. Within this list is > > > > #kopt=root=UUID=xxxx where xxxx is the UUID of the root partition which > > was previously known as /dev/sdb1 > > > > The following entry is > > groot=(hd0,0) > > > > though at some point in the original setup I specified writing the MBR > > to /dev/sda and to /dev/sdb. I had used lilo to write a different MBR > > to /dev/hda. Subsequently grub failed to boot the system because it > > could not find the root partition but lilo could still boot the system > > and running update-grub corrected grub's problem. > > > > After a number of additional default entries the end of the default > > options list is reached. Following this is the entry > > > > title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.30-1-amd64 > > root (hd0,0) > > kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.30-1-amd64 root=/dev/sdb1 ro > > initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.30-1-amd64 > > > > followed by several more such entries for earlier kernels and then the > > END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST. Since the current kernel and two > > other recent kernels were not included in the above list I added > > > > title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.32-5-amd64 > > root (hd0,0) > > kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-amd64 root=/dev/sdb1 ro quiet splash > > vga=0x311 > > > > to the end of the file, saved the file, ran update-grub and rebooted. > > The scripts still change to the tiny font in middle of the reboot. > > > > Questions: Why are the newer kernels not included in the Automagic > > listings? Is there a conflict between root (hd0,0) and root=/dev/sdb1? > > Why does the system still switch to tiny fonts during bootup? > > initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-amd64 > > "kopt=..." defines the /boot where the automagic kernels are and the > options to give the kernel line for these kernels (sdb1, in your case) > and "groot=..." defines the /boot where /boot/grub is (that's why it > is (hdX,Y) and not (hdX) even though you've written grub's stage 1 to > the mbr). > > Given that you installed grub to sda and sdb, you must have a raid > setup so mixing an sdb1 / and an sda1 /boot is weird but the new > kernels should be seen by update-grub; "should" is the operative > word... > I do not have a raid setup and /boot is in the root directory on sdb1. History: /sdb is a 71G hard drive and all the system subdirectories are subdirectories of the root directory. sda is a 300G hard drive added to store large collections of music, photo and video files. hda is left over from the days - long gone - when I thought I occasionally needed run windoz.
When I recently updated grub the installation script specifically recommended installing the MBR on each hard drive. Earlier I had lilo put an MBR on hda and this proved useful when the grub boot failed as the lilo boot still worked. I just tested booting from hda and found kernel-2.6.32-5 is now too large but the boot of kernel-2.6.32-3 still works and the system came up with 640x480 resolution and large fonts. This is not a result of the changes to grub. When I was using kernel-2.6.32-3 I had to restore an old copy of xorg.conf otherwise the boot would not use the nv driver. When I switched to kernel-2.6.32-5 I had to remove the xorg.conf file. > I am curious though. Since you are running testing or unstable, could > it be that your bootloader is grub2 and that update-grub is updating > grub.cfg rather than menu.lst? That would also explain why "vga=0x311" > was ineffective. > You have pinpointed the problem. The system is Squeeze and when update-grub is run it reports updating grub.cfg. > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org > Archive: > http://lists.debian.org/aanlktinqxmfeqzuxcd_t9vdlhs=q-vhznx1amoud1...@mail.gmail.com > > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20100805200726.ga2...@tomgeorge.info
