grub question

[Nostradamus]

I've installed grub in MBR. I've always used lilo before, but thought that I might give this a shot.
At bootup all I get is:

GRUB Loading stage2...

and there it hangs. Nothing happens.
I've searched the internet for a sollution, but haven't found anything.

Why don't it continue the boot-sequence?
What does stage2 mean?
How do I change it back to LILO (I made a boot-diskette during install, which give me access to the system).

thanks in advance.
/Sören

 

[MrRohan]

most probabaly u have not configured ur menu.lst file.
make sure u r refering ur boot device by subtracting one form it, for example if ur /boot is /dev/hda4 u should refer it has (hda0,3).
try this during boot up before selecting the option Press 'e' to edit the syntax.

 

[Nostradamus]

I don't have a specific boot partition so my menu.lst read (hda0,0)
Should I try changing it to something else?

I never end up selecting something during boot-up.
It hangs before that.

Any ideas on my previous questions?
What does stage2 mean for instance? /Sören

 

[RhythmAce]

linux loads in stages. First it gets info from the MBR them it loads vmlinuz or the main kernal which is stage 2. Below is a copy of my /etc/grub.conf file. Yours will be differnt but you should be able to see what is missing from yours. You will notice that there are 3 sections that start with "title" These are the 3 kernales I can choose from in the boot menu. they are numbered from 0 to 2. I have the default set at 1 which will load the second kernal in the list.

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
# all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
# root (hd0,0)
# kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda2
# initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-4debug)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-4debug ro root=/dev/hda2 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-4debug.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-4)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-4 ro root=/dev/hda2 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-4.img
title Red Hat Linux (2.4.18-3)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.18-3 ro root=/dev/hda2 hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.18-3.img

hope this helps a little

 

[Nostradamus]

I've tried different settings in the menu.lst file. nothing helps. I entered a grub password during install.
I've tried removing the md5 line in menu.lst without luck.

Grub don't have the old lilo "bug", that it must be installed below 1024 cyl. or similar?
Why does it hang?
How do I switch back to lilo after having grub on my system/mbr? /Sören

 

[MrRohan]

to change back to ur favorite lilo
- configure lilo.conf accordingly
- login as root and run lilo
( new MBR is written, including the entries in /etc/lilo.conf)
- reboot ur comp, u should now see lilo boot screen

 

[Nostradamus]

so the /sbin/lilo rewrites the MBR.
My gosh how convenient. I thought I had to run the fdisk /MBR and rerun the lilo thing.

Thanks MrRohan.

Would be nice to know what's wrong with the grand(?) bootloader though. Anyone have any ideas? /Sören

 

[MrRohan]

can u tell me the output of the command fdisk -l /dev/hda and also ur menu.lst, may be i will be able to spot out ur problem.