GRUB configuration questions?

[NikPreviousAcct]

Not sure if this belongs in software, OS, or tech support. It's a question about how-to, so I dumped it into tech support. If this ain't the place, sorry. Mods can move it. 🙂

I'm editing grub.conf and need to know what the root line needs to be.

Partitioning Scheme:
/dev/hda1 = /boot (ext3)
/dev/hda2 = swap
/dev/hda3 = / (ext3)

In grub.conf, here's what I got so far:

default 0
timeout 10
#splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title-Gentoo Linux 2.6.8-r10
root (hd0,2)
kernel /kernel-2.4.26-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/hda3

My question is this: I'm fairly certain that "root" is the /dev/hda3 listed in the partitioning scheme because of the whole "/" thing. However, the guide that I'm following has (hd0,0) listed for root in the grub config file -even though they suggest the same partitioning scheme earlier in the guide that I'm using.

So, which is it? (hd0,0) or (hd0,2) for root??

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Well, it actually booted into grub correctly, which is great. The only thing is that I got this when it loaded and attempted to boot into gentoo:

Booting into 'gentoo linux 2.4.6-r10'
root (hd0,0)
File system type is ext2fs, partition is type 0x83
Kernel /2.6.8-gentoo-r10 root=/dev/hda3

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

which brings me back to the screen where I choose what I want to boot in to.


...suggestions?

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I changed the (hd0,0) to (hd0,2) and corrected the title (which doesn't change functionality) and got this:

Booting into 'gentoo linux 2.6.8-r10'
root (hd0,2)
File system type is ext2fs, partition is type 0x83
Kernel /2.6.8-gentoo-r10 root=/dev/hda3

Error 15: File not found

Press any key to continue...

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

SWEET - got it working. I had to change it back to (hda0,0) and edit to this: "kernel /linux-2.6.8-gentoo-r10 root=/dev/hda3"

However, now it loads a crapload of text WAY too fast for me to read, then gets caught up here:

hda: dma_intr: status = 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error = 0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
hda: dma_intr: status = 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error = 0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
hda: dma_intr: status = 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error = 0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
hda: dma_intr: status = 0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error = 0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

suggestions?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Can you boot into single user mode and fsck? If you can figure out how (I don't know 😱 ), try dropped the DMA level a bit. Looks like something might have gone bad (cable, drive, controller, something...).

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

I can boot to some sort of command prompt instead of into gentoo, yeah. But I don't know what that is. I don't know what fsck is. I also don't know the syntax to "drop" the DMA level. I don't think it's a ribbon or controller or anything else because I can install any of the other myriad OS's in my collection and they work just fine.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

hdparm /dev/hda output:

/dev/hda:
multicount=16
io_support=0
unmaskirq=0
usingdma=1
keepsettings=0
readonly=0
read a head=8
geometry=14946/25/63, sectorys=122942324236, start=0

I want to set hdparm -X66 -d1 -u1 -c3 -m16 /dev/hda, which I can do. How do I save it?

 

[n0cmonkey]

fsck is a filesystem sanity check. Not sure if it's going to be helpful though, now that I'm sober. It really depends on the filesystem in use.

Not sure how to save hdparm settings. Maybe an init script, or something passed along in grub.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Yeah. I HAD it working, but some guys in Freenode#gentoo told me to undo that one thing I did to make it work and put the hdparm script elsewhere which fcked it all up again. I can't remember what I did to make it work in the first place.