Hi, Out of interest, when you install F7 where do you put the /boot partition ? I.e. is it a separate small 100M or so partition at the start of your drive, or do you make it a simple directory under your main / partition ? The fact that you find grub broken only after updates is odd. Note that the point of a separate /boot is to make sure all the files needed by grub are at the start of the drive, where the bios can access them. If you don't do this then what might happen is files get written to grub that reside in parts of the drive that cannot be read at boot time, hence problems. This could also explain why things work for the first install but then break after updates. sorry if you've covered this before. Just a thought. Chris On Saturday 18 August 2007 4:15:48 pm David Krings wrote: > 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
