Installation to HDD...not booting
- Kristofor Jensen
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16 years 11 months ago #1971
by Kristofor Jensen
Installation to HDD...not booting was created by Kristofor Jensen
Hi there,
I am trying to install the latest CAELinux onto my laptop on a brand new hdd. My question concerns the installation of grub. I get through the whole installation cleanly (including grub and user setup) but it does not boot...I get a flashing cursor when the grub screen would normally show up with the boot choices.
I have the following 4 partitions...the default ones chosen by the installer never worked and I installed CentOS to check if the drive was okay and so I left the partitions that it chose.
hda1 108MB /boot (not reformatted when CAElinux installed)
hda2 3500MB swap (unmodified)
hda3 20GB / (formatted when CAElinux installed)
hda4 remaining drivespace /home (always empty)
I can boot from the livecd and mount the partitions and see what is in them...is there something I need to do to get the grub installation to take over and do what it is supposed to?!?
I am trying to install the latest CAELinux onto my laptop on a brand new hdd. My question concerns the installation of grub. I get through the whole installation cleanly (including grub and user setup) but it does not boot...I get a flashing cursor when the grub screen would normally show up with the boot choices.
I have the following 4 partitions...the default ones chosen by the installer never worked and I installed CentOS to check if the drive was okay and so I left the partitions that it chose.
hda1 108MB /boot (not reformatted when CAElinux installed)
hda2 3500MB swap (unmodified)
hda3 20GB / (formatted when CAElinux installed)
hda4 remaining drivespace /home (always empty)
I can boot from the livecd and mount the partitions and see what is in them...is there something I need to do to get the grub installation to take over and do what it is supposed to?!?
- Joël Cugnoni
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16 years 11 months ago #1972
by Joël Cugnoni
Joël Cugnoni - a.k.a admin
www.caelinux.com
Replied by Joël Cugnoni on topic Re:Installation to HDD...not booting
Hello,
I have never tried to use a separate boot partition with the PCLinuxOS installer.. maybe it does not support this correctly when setting the parameters of Grub. I usually recommend (see intallation guide in caelinux.org wiki) to install in a single Root partition because I know the installer works well in this case. Additionnallz, you did not reformat the boot partition that will contain grub configuration, so it may be that the installer does not install Grub correctly. But I have never tried this so it is only an extrapolation of what could happen.
So one option would be to reinstall CAELinux in a single root partition on hda3. For the moment, also forget about the /home partition.
Another possibility could be to reset the grub configuration:
boot from liveDVD and run "redo-mbr" in a shell. This should fix the grub config on your HDD.
Let me know if you find what causes the problem!!
Best regards
Joël Cugnoni
I have never tried to use a separate boot partition with the PCLinuxOS installer.. maybe it does not support this correctly when setting the parameters of Grub. I usually recommend (see intallation guide in caelinux.org wiki) to install in a single Root partition because I know the installer works well in this case. Additionnallz, you did not reformat the boot partition that will contain grub configuration, so it may be that the installer does not install Grub correctly. But I have never tried this so it is only an extrapolation of what could happen.
So one option would be to reinstall CAELinux in a single root partition on hda3. For the moment, also forget about the /home partition.
Another possibility could be to reset the grub configuration:
boot from liveDVD and run "redo-mbr" in a shell. This should fix the grub config on your HDD.
Let me know if you find what causes the problem!!
Best regards
Joël Cugnoni
Joël Cugnoni - a.k.a admin
www.caelinux.com
- Kristofor Jensen
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16 years 11 months ago #1973
by Kristofor Jensen
Replied by Kristofor Jensen on topic Re:Installation to HDD...not booting
When the old hdd died I put in the new one and used the installer on the livecd. It seemed to crash at some point as it never asked me about grub or user configuration. I did notice the partition layout was different (no separate /boot partition) so I installed CentOS and let it set up the drive properly with something that functioned. When I retried the CAElinux installer it proceeded through the entire installtion and I was able to pick options for grub and user accounts.
When I get to the grub stage, should I be leaving it at the "hda" or pick the specific partition that contains the boot info, "hda1"?
I'll give it another shot and repost my results.
Thanks for the help.
FYI: The install cd passes the media check so I'm sure it's just some configuration problem.
When I get to the grub stage, should I be leaving it at the "hda" or pick the specific partition that contains the boot info, "hda1"?
I'll give it another shot and repost my results.
Thanks for the help.
FYI: The install cd passes the media check so I'm sure it's just some configuration problem.
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16 years 11 months ago #1974
by Kristofor Jensen
Replied by Kristofor Jensen on topic Re:Installation to HDD...not booting
I've tried the entire installation process several times now. Regardless of what I do with the partitions (I tried the defaults and several other combinations) it doesn't seem to ever write anything to the hdd. After the whole wizard is done and it says to shutdown, remove the disk and reboot (which I do) I still get the same blinking cursor where the grub is supposed to be. Starting the livedvd and checking the partitions just shows partitions but nothing in them at all.
Any idea what this might be from? During the installation it gives no errors concerning the creation of partitions or copying of files.
I'm redownloading the iso now...I'm not sure this is necessary since running the "check media" in the livedvd boot menu says the disk passes.
Any idea what this might be from? During the installation it gives no errors concerning the creation of partitions or copying of files.
I'm redownloading the iso now...I'm not sure this is necessary since running the "check media" in the livedvd boot menu says the disk passes.
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16 years 11 months ago #1976
by Kristofor Jensen
Replied by Kristofor Jensen on topic Re:Installation to HDD...not booting
I monitored the root directory during the install. A /install directory gets created in /mnt and fills up with 7.9G of everything needed for the install. hda1 is a 20GB partition so there should be enough space for all this but at the end of the installation wizard the /install partition is emptied and it all disapears. I'm going to give it another shot tomorrow and see if I can copy everything out of /install to /hda1 manually before the wizard finishes.
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16 years 11 months ago #1979
by Kristofor Jensen
Replied by Kristofor Jensen on topic Re:Installation to HDD...not booting
Finally sorted it out. The files were 'dissapearing' out of the diectory because the partition was unmounted at the end of the installation. The grub configuration was pointed at hda instead of hda1. Once I changed it back it booted fine.
...now I've just got to figure out KDE and SalomeMecha...
cheers everyone!
...now I've just got to figure out KDE and SalomeMecha...
cheers everyone!
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