[Solved] probs with GRUB-M3 is resequencing my drives

[nccpgmr9]

is it suppose to do that???

this totally screwed up my M3 dvd install wouldn't boot Mageia

M2 sda is pri IDE boot drive winxp will boot to this

after install of M3 at boot i get an error - /boot/GFXMENU file not found
all i did was do a clean install of M3
reinstalled M2, reinstalled M3 from DVD with uuid=0 same thing
reinstalled M2, reinstalled M3 from DVD using grub2 same thing
reinstalled M2, installed M3 from mgaonline, up and running on M3, will NOT reload bootloader until its fixed

dvd is good MD5 matched and burn was verified

have had NO problems with mandy,M1,M2 installs


m2 fdisk sda is IDE boot drive

Code: Select all

root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0a30c408

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63   807185924   403592931    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       807185925   976768064    84791070    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       807185988   976768064    84791038+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe7ca5714

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048   981812474   490905213+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2       981815247  1953520064   485852409    5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sdb5       981815296  1022987069    20585887   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6      1022990336  1031164154     4086909+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7      1031168000  1953520064   461176032+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0f73c3c8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *        2048  1902899249   951448601    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2      1902903282  3907024064  1002060391+   5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sdc5      1902903296  3907024064  1002060384+  83  Linux


m3 fdisk NOTICE IDE boot drive is now sdb, sdc is now sda, sdb is now sdc

Code: Select all

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0f73c3c8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048  1902899249   951448601    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2      1902903282  3907024064  1002060391+   5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5      1902903296  3907024064  1002060384+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0a30c408

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63   807185924   403592931    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2       807185925   976768064    84791070    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5       807185988   976768064    84791038+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe7ca5714

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *        2048   981812474   490905213+   7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2       981815247  1953520064   485852409    5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sdc5       981815296  1022987069    20585887   83  Linux
/dev/sdc6      1022990336  1031164154     4086909+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc7      1031168000  1953520064   461176032+  83  Linux
[root@localhost ~]#                           

[gohlip]

First, Mageia did not rearrange your disks. You will also face this issue with any other linux distro.
So, it is unfair to blame Mageia but let's move on.

"Allocating" disk numbering (sda, sdb...or (hd0, hd1...) is done by bios and the OS will use it.
Also this numbering is not consistent with each reboot.
But there is some things we can do to mitigate this
o it is not good practice to mix ide with sata
o with more UEFI and GPT, it is not good practice to mix GPT with msdos disk
(this is much worse than above..some operations will not apply to the other, eg
os-prober will not detect the other disk and won't create entry menu, etc)
o always set "master" and "slave" for jumper wires or use correct primary or secondary cabling.
(but if you have 1 master and 2 slaves, the slaves will continue to be changeable)
o lastly, use 'systems" can can differentiate the disks, as examples,
fstab now uses UUID not /dev/sda
or root=LABEL or UUID
Another good example is grub2 instead of grub-legacy

If we continue to use systems that cannot handle this, there is really nothing else we can do about it.

Cheers.

[doktor5000]

Not Blaming Mageia

Mandrake,Mandriva,Mageia 1,Mageia 2,RedHAT, Knoppix ALL have used the drives in the M2 fdisk SEQ
M3 doesnt

i ALWAYS use master slave jumpers on my drives

the IDE is my Winxp drive that i have had for years, some programs i MUST use are on it and linux does not have/will not run them

a drive is a drive no matter if its an IDE or SATA

Grub 2 DID NOT boot on my system just like GRUB legacy didnt

**** edit***
and since all the other distros i have used, use the M2 fdisk seq, tends to tell me M3 is doing something different.

if the you are unwilling to even consider M3 is doing something different thats up to you, i am just reporting what has happened on my system, and since another person is having the same issue there must be something to it

[gohlip]

Not Blaming Mageia

"M3 is resequencing my drives"
"you are unwilling to even consider M3 is doing something different "

a drive is a drive no matter if its an IDE or SATA

right, another person answering you is the same, no matter what.

I am getting unwilling to be that person.
So have a good day and good luck.

[nccpgmr9]

oh wait there is even a BUG REPORT about this- https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5613

Bug 5613 - sata renumbering; wrong disk install and data loss risk, lilo reinstall failure

[filip]

If you like it or not gohlip is right that BIOS do that. And not always OK.

I have one IDE drive and now two SATA. I noticed that my BIOS is very buggy about renumbering drives. After a lot of tests I found workarounds for those and luckily also most of the other quirks. One of them is that warm boot doesn't boot from USB. I also learned the hard way that is best to leave BIOS when it works as it should unless really necessary.

BTW, I have latest BIOS on this Dell Optiplex GX280.

On that way I also learned that legacy grub see drives as BIOS does but sometimes kernel doesn't agree and reorder them. So when I run grub shell from within DE or CLI drive order can be different. Grub legacy is known to do that "resequencing".

There are some threads about grub. I would recommend reinstall grub. You can do that directly from grub. Please search forum for some good instructions.

[nccpgmr9]

filip-took your suggestion and reinstalled grub
mcc, boot, setup boot system, took the defaults on where M3 thought everything was,( just like someone loading M3 for the first time in the summary screen in the installer), rebooted- GRUB ERROR 15
couldn't boot into anything

reloaded M2 system up and running again- guess im stuck with M2

[filip]

I would try manual edit of boot entries in legacy GRUB's simple CLI. I helped me several times in boot reorder mess on this PC.

You can also try to shift SATA drive on different port. Who knows how BIOS reorders them in this PC but that helped me the most.

I also created manual copies of legacy GRUB files in /boot/grub: device.map, install.sh and menu.lst.

[nccpgmr9]

maybe i'll try it again, i have already reinstalled M3-64 like 8 times trying to get it to at least boot up, even tried M3-32 with the same results

but i'll sit with M2-64 for a while more before going thru it again

in all my yrs working with PC's i never had an os/bootloader reseq drives from what the bios posted on bootup, and i started on IBM single floppy green screens

[nccpgmr9]

ok i unpluged my 2tb drive, which leaves the IDE , and the 1tb drive, booted the DVD(64) went to the part section choose custom and the IDE was sda and the 1TB was sdb which is what they should be.
i'll give installing M3 again and see how it goes then add the 2TB drive back in


******************************edit************************************

ok that solved it. M3 64 dvd loaded with no Problems, rebooted without a hitch

[filip]

ok that solved it. M3 64 dvd loaded with no Problems, rebooted without a hitch

Nice. Could you please change the word in title from DONE to SOLVED?

Thanks for trying again. Have a great time with Mageia.