GRUB GRUB GRUB <- that's what it says...

[Christian Hammers]

Hi 

The manual describes all error messages but not what it means when GRUB
just says "GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB GRUB"... endlessly. I saw similar reports
in the mailinglist but couldn't find a real answer.

I setup the harddisk in several ways using grub-install, a boot floppy,
and "root (hd0,0); setup (hd0)" or booting from floppy, loading the kernel
from hdd and then beeing on the hdd root filesystem doing a grub install
or grup shell "root();setup()".

The effect ist always the same. I checked the mbr and the first 512 bytes
and the bytes after that both show only grub signatures (0.90, btw).

More funnily the disk does actually boot on another computer so I guess
it's related to the BIOS although I don't know whom to blame :)

Here are the technical details of my hardware:
Mainboard:      ASUS P4B-E
CPU:            Pentium 4
Harddisk:       Western Digital WD400EB-00CPF0 (40GB) (/proc/ide/hda/model)
The mainboard does not have the latest BIOS but one from 2001-11-xx and as
it's quite late and the newer BIOS version deosn't change relevant portions
according to the changelog I didn't try it.
I couldn't find BIOS updates for the WD drive. 

I had btw, problems with another WD 60GB showing similar problems.


My temporary fix was to change the BIOS's harddisk detection from "auto" 
to "manual", changed the type to LBA and then it worked. 

So:
1. Is it really the BIOS who detected the drive wrong it is there something
   GRUB can do to handle it? Both pieces of hardware are quite new so I 
   wouldn't expect so simple errors..
2. Can GRUB print a more verbose error message or at least have a better
   documentation about this case? (or where was it? Didn't find it!)

thanks,

 -christian-

-- 
Christian Hammers    WESTEND GmbH - Aachen und Dueren     Tel 0241/701333-0
address@hidden     Internet & Security for Professionals    Fax 0241/911879
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