grub, boot managers, ide cards and linux

[sambartle]

Apologies for the long post, im not sure how much info i needed to give and this problem is really starting to annoy me now.

I have a problem using grub (or lilo) to boot -any- distribution. I know why the problem happens but need help to solve it.

My system is set up as follows:

I have my Standard Onboard (via vt8235) onboard ide controller:
PM: 120GB HDD
PS:
SM: Pioneer DVD-R
SS: LiteOn 24x CDRW

Silicon Image CMD649(number1) add-in card (pci)
PM:
PS:
SM: Zip 100
SS:

Silicon Image CMD649(number2) add-in card (pci)
PM: LiteOn 52x CDRW
PS:
SM: 80GB HDD
SS:

the 120GB HDD
partition 1: ntfs

the 80GB HDD:
partition 1: linux /boot
partition 2: linux swap
partition 4: linux ReiserFS /
partition 5: fat32
partition 6: fat32

Linux is installed and configured on the 80GB HDD.

My 120GB is ntfs (win2k) and boots as default. I use Smart Boot Manager on a floppy to start linux.

The problem is this: my bios detects the onboard ide devices first, and the CMD cards afterwards. Linux detects the CMD cards first and the onboard afterwards.

When i install GRUB to the MBR of the 80GB (in linux) my root is hd0,0 and kernel is on (hd0,x)/kernelxx

(if i reboot with the floppy disk in: the kernel becomes (hd1,x)/kernelxxx and this is how i figured out the problem to begin with the allocations were different)

However when i reboot and use Smart Boot Manager (or any thing else (like the GRUB boot disk)) to boot i get kernel panic as the hard drives are in the wrong place because of the BIOS

I'm not explaining this well... i think my question is therefore: how do i force linux to detect the onboard ide devices first and how can i make sure the two pci cards are detected in the same order as the BIOD to ensure that the drives that SBM (or GRUB) sees at startup are the same once the kernel begins to boot and can therefore find the root drive.


Kernel option: "Boot Offboard Chipsets First"
The offboard chipset IS already booting first even with the option not set in kernel config (the CMD controllers are on PCI cards and in linux take hda through hdh and the onboard via gets hdi through hdl)

The kernel option "Boot Offboard Chipsets First" doesnt change this behaviour as this is already what happens.

I think this is because the CMD cards somehow pretend to be part of my BIOS (they come up just after my bios screen - and the final part of mny BIOS happens AFTER the initialisation of the CMD cards) and can somehow make the hard drive appear as if it was onboard when its not.

I actually think it may be impossible to get linux to work on this system with windows 2000 as well. (my system is totally standard apart from the ide cards though so i think there must be a way)

Are there any ways to swap /dev/hdg for another id very very very early in the linux boot process?



Apart from this i am liking Gentoo so far, it would be nice to be able to boot to the new system properly instead of having to use the livecd and chroot each time though.

[NeddySeagoon]

sambartle,

You may want to use the grub map command.
Say
info grub
in a terminal

Regards,

NeddySeagoon
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

[sambartle]

Thanks thats fixed it.