Chris Jones wrote:
Any hints are greatly appreciated.
Well first maybe you could tell us exactly what goes wrong with grub...
In general its really very stable, so whatever issues you have might well be
fixable...
I posted this in a different thread the past days, but I agree with such
a busy list it is easy to overlook.
The setup:
- Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe with nVidia 590 chipset
- nVidia RAID1 using two SATA drives
- Promise 133TX2 IDE controller with two HDDs
- XP on the first primary partition on the RAID array
- F7 on the second primary partition on the RAID array
- GRUB on the MBR on the RAID1 array (well, not anymore)
Problem:
Besides that F7 doesn't even install when the HDDs are present on the
Promise (have to pull the cable) I downloaded apps and updates and that
apparently breaks GRUB.
I get the grub> prompt and all proposals on how to fix it either didn't
work or are definitely going to break my RAID array (such as booting
with nodmraid option).
I can get GRUB to install and repeatedly boot fine as long as I don't
change anything in the F7 install, such as adding updates.
I did try unplugging the HDDs on the Promise and repair/update the F7
install, but since I never end up changing anything in regards to the
kernel, the installer doesn't give me an option to have GRUB reinstalled.
I also do not know what dmraid ended up naming the RAID array, it was
something starting with nvidia_ and some gibberish at the end. I did not
note this as I didn't expect the problems to arise.
I could go ahead and yet again reinstall F7, but with the apps and
updates that I do want I am looking again as running the box for 48
hours downloading. I have DSL, but the Fedora repositories are either
overloaded or not that fast to begin with (I'm spoiled by Ubuntu...which
doesn't install at all...different story and different list).
Conclusion:
I have this new system for two weeks now and nothing caused any concern
except for GRUB. It just doesn't work, or better to say, it doesn't work
reliably. Therefore, I lost any trust in GRUB and look for an alternative.
Options:
I could install F7 on the PATA drives on the Promise, but I still want
to boot off the RAID array, so that doesn't strike me of much help.
I could use a boot process that doesn't depend on the MBR, at least
until Grub is fixed (I filed bug reports). Unfortunately, I cannot give
much more info as I am not able to pinpoint which update or app I
installed that caused GRUB to break. And no, with 167 updates right off
the bat I will not try this out.
So anything that uses a floppy, a floppy/USB combo (the BIOS doesn't
allow for USB boot....so much for 'Deluxe'), a boot from Windows, or
whatever else may work out is fine with me for now.
I could run F7 in VMWare, but then I won't have access to some of the
hardware that is supported by F7, but not by XP64.
That's all I got.
David
