Re: Slow Grub on new mobo Q

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



On Thursday 02 October 2008, Kam Leo wrote:
>On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 9:50 PM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
wrote:
>> On Thursday 02 October 2008, Kam Leo wrote:
>>>On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 8:14 PM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>
>> wrote:
>>>> On Wednesday 01 October 2008, Kam Leo wrote:
>>>>>On Wed, Oct 1, 2008 at 11:13 AM, Gene Heskett <gene.heskett@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>> Greetings;
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I built a new box yesterday, and one of the things I'm seeing is about
>>>>>> a 10 second lag between the bios clearing the screen after doing its
>>>>>> thing, and the "Loading Grub stage 2", which stays on screen for
>>>>>> several seconds, then its blanked for another 10 secs or so, and
>>>>>> finally the grub 'choice' menu comes up.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is with the new grub.  One thing I had done on the previous mobo
>>>>>> was to have just one entry in /boot/grub/devices, but I see that has
>>>>>> been reset by something from /dev/sdb to /dev/sda, presumably by
>>>>>> upgrading grub this morning.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The bios is set to boot from the first ide, which is (hd0,0) I
>>>>>> believe.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> What can I post that might be of interest?, just ask.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
>>>>>> Cheers, Gene
>>>>>
>>>>>What new grub? As far as I am aware there has been no update to grub.
>>>>
>>>> The one that's been sitting in updates for 2-3 months, scared to install
>>>> it because my drive mapping was fubar on that biostar mobo with its
>>>> outboard sata controller.  Now on this asus, it seems like hd0,0 is
>>>> indeed /dev/sda1, aka /boot in the label.  Anyway, it worked.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Cheers, Gene
>>>
>>>Why didn't you state that you were running F8?  If it makes you feel
>>>any better here is the changelog for grub-0.97-33.1-fc8:
>>
>> I thought I did at first, but CRS could make a liar out of me.  Sorry.
>>
>>>Changelog
>>>
>>>* Thu May 29 2008 Peter Jones <pjones@xxxxxxxxxx> - 0.97-33.1
>>>  - Backport F-9's grub to F-8.
>>>* Tue Apr 08 2008 Peter Jones <pjones@xxxxxxxxxx> - 0.97-33
>>>  - Rewrite ia32 efi call wrapper to make the makefile simpler.
>>>
>>>F9's grub is at 0.97-33. The previous version for F8 was 0.97-33.
>>
>> That is the same numbers.  Typu?
>>
>>>Unless Peter Jones made some dramatic changes I don't see how this
>>>backporting is going to adversely affect your system.
>>
>> Thanks.  But this still does not explain why grub itself is so slow.
>>
>> After the bios is done, then the next thing one normally sees is the "Grub
>> stage 2 loading", but I'm watching a monitor telling me there is no input
>> drive for about 12 seconds between the bios clearing the screen, and that
>> printout.
>>
>> And normally that just sort of flickers for a few milliseconds, but that
>> now stays on screen for 2 or 3 seconds, then the screen is cleared again,
>> and about 10 seconds later the boot choice menu finally pops up.  This
>> only took maybe 2 seconds total on the old motherboard, now it's a good
>> 20-25 seconds from the bios clearing the screen to the boot selection
>> menu.
>>
>> Its that time that I'm fussing about.
>>
>> --
>> Cheers, Gene
>
>Have you checked the boot order in your BIOS settings?

This particular bios gives one the choice of media order, and I have HDISK set 
as first choice.  In another menu, the onboard IDE is first choice, and on 
this ASUS mobo, there is only one ide socket/channel, followed by about 8 
sata's, and I have a pata_sil plain pci ide card which addresses the other 
partitions as not all of this system is on the same drive.  Presently, there 
is a 400 (372)GB Deathstar on sata1, and that is only used by amanda as its 
repository for a 30 directory virtual tapes setup.

The output of df:
 [root@coyote linux-2.6.27-rc8-4]# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3            470854808  25622460 420928416   6% /
/dev/sdc2            143830328   6657620 129748672   5% /home
/dev/sdc3            148522020  39811816 101043988  29% /usr
/dev/sdc1             10426124   3147408   6740544  32% /var
/dev/sdb1            384578164 332136332  32906392  91% /amandatapes
/dev/sda1               248895    133498    102547  57% /boot
tmpfs                  2073508         0   2073508   0% /dev/shm

/amandatapes was /dev/sdc on the old biostar mobo, and everything shown 
as /dev/sdc was formerly /dev/sdb.  Since /dev/sdc is on a separate pata_sil 
controller and not included in the asus bios scan, I have not found a way to 
re-sort that to put all ide's before the first sata.  It boots from /dev/sda1 
& 3 as it always has, and there is swap on both sda and sdc.
 
>Also do you 
>happen to have non-bootable media in your CD/DVD drive?

Its a dual layer writer, and empty.  At present, no floppy, and its disabled 
in the bios.

I'm wondering now, if the mbr that initiates the boot to (hd0,0) is not 
on /dev/sda.  That would make the bios search all drives for the partition 
marked as bootable.

How can I verify that what is now /dev/sda, on the onboard ide connector, is 
actually the location of the grub stage 1 its using.  I'm not fam enough with 
the contents of the mbr to be able to confirm/deny that, although I can use 
dd to dump them.  Or maybe this bios, like scsi, has to scan all 8 sata 
channels before it starts on the remaining on-board ide.  That used to cause 
a 49 second delay when scsi was set to scan all luns.

Maybe I should check the asus site for a bios update?  It would not be the 
first time I've bought a board with an old bios on it.

Its an ASUS "M2N-SLI DELUXE" if that triggers any memories here.

Thanks.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
wolf, n.:
	A man who knows all the ankles.

-- 
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/MailingListGuidelines

[Index of Archives]     [Current Fedora Users]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Yosemite News]     [Yosemite Photos]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora Tools]     [Fedora Docs]

  Powered by Linux