Grub, SATA and Matrix Snowflakes [SOLVED]

pivot · n00b Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 6

Hey Folks,

I've been playing around with the 2004.3 live cd's for x86 as well as x86-64 and there seems to be some inconsistency with regards to how my SATA drives are detected. With the x86-64 install it sees it as /dev/sda whereas with the x86 install it's read as /dev/sde. Ok no biggee, BUT...

Why is this? What are some of the technical details behind this detection? I've read on a few threads where people are having issues with USB devices on sde and even a bits of info on SATA detection in general but I'm still confused. The x86-64 install went off without a hitch (after a few boot options and some modprobing [sata_sil]) but the x86 install is having horrible issues. Once I chroot I'm able to cd in /dev and "MAKEDEV sde" (because it's obviously not there in the beginning). Afterwards, everything seems to go smoothly until I reboot. Grub comes up fine, I select the kernel and then POOF, the messages turn into something out of the matrix. the characters are all there but they don't resemble english in any form. It actually looks like weird acsii snowflakes flying up my monitor. Because I lack knowledge in this area, I'm blaming it on the fact that when I created /dev/sde with MAKEDEV something got borked.

I may be crazy. It wouldn't be the first time.

Any thoughts, suggestions, links, poison?

Sith_Happens · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 3:27 pm Post subject:

Posion, maybe later :wink:

. Why don't you post your grub.conf so I can see your kernel options. This might be a framebuffer problem (graphics problems at boot usually are). Why don't you try booting without any vga or video options that might be in your kernel command line options, see if that fixes anything.
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pivot · n00b Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 6

HAHA, _great_ username!

Here's my grub.conf :

Sith_Happens · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:07 pm Post subject:

The splashimage should really go before the title, otherwise that line won't be read and executed until you select the gentoo boot option.
_________________
"That question was less stupid; though you asked it in a profoundly stupid way."
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pivot · n00b Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 6

Right on! That fixed the snowflake problem (strangely enough).

Now it's turned into a kernel panic issue. It can't find root.

I don't wanna keep bugging you. I can look through the forums for grub issues (there are plenty) and try to come up with a solution.

Cheers!

pivot · n00b Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Posts: 6

Well, that was easy (cough)...

In short, during the installation I always had to fdisk and mount at /dev/sde. What I didn't realize was that I still needed to treat the SATA drive as /dev/sda with regards to the grub.conf, device.map and fstab. Kind of confusing to the beginner but a quick scan of dmesg after the kernel panic revealed that it was in fact seeing it as /dev/sda.

As far as the Matrix snowflakes are concerned they were fixed with the slight alteration to grub.conf as mentioned above.

Thanks again.

Sith_Happens · Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2005 5:07 pm Post subject:

Sure thing. Bootup problems seem like the end of the world, but in most cases I find them to be the easiest to solve.
_________________
"That question was less stupid; though you asked it in a profoundly stupid way."
I'm the brains behind Jackass! | Tutorials: Shorewall