Problem with GRUB after install

[erehwon]

This is my first time with gentoo, but not my first time with linux. I've worked with Debian and red hat. I managed to finally get through the install, but after rebooting, I get a blank screen instead of grub. It waits and then goes into gentoo and I can make it go into Windows too. When I go into linux, all the code running across the screen is messed up but clears after a little bit. There is also a problem of it saying eth0 does not exist. Windows sees it, but says it's disconnected.

I'll post some of my config files.

fstab

shm /dev/shm tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexex
/dev/hdc2 /boot ext3 defaluts,noatime
/dev/hdc3 none swap
/dev/hdc4 / ext3
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto
/dev/cdroms/cdrom0 /mnt/cdrom auto
proc /proc proc

Should I have also put the windows partitions into fstab? /dev/hdc1 is windows and there is a ntfs and a fat32 partition on another drive.

grub.conf

# Which listing to boot as default. 0 is the first, 1 the second etc.
default 0
# How many seconds to wait before the default listing is booted.
timeout 30
# Comment out if you don't have a graphics card installed
splashimage=(hd0,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.14
# Partition where the kernel image (or operating system) is located
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.14-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/hda4

# The next four lines are only if you dualboot with a Windows system.
# In this case, Windows is hosted on /dev/hda6.
title=Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I was a tad confused with this file. Is the splashimage located on the root partition, hdc4 or on the boot, hdc2? For some reason, I just tried changing those to (hd0,4) and get a grub error 22. I just made my problem worse. Opps. How do I fix that so I can back to linux and fix the other problems?

[Tamsco]

I'm a bit confused by what your actual problems.

First and foremost eth0 is your ethernet card, it's is not a partition. Do you have internet in your new gentoo install?

You only need to put the windows partitions into fstab if you want them to be mounted at boot. (or want to be able to mount it with a shorter command)

If you have it in your fstab you could mount it something like this

[erehwon]

My problems are: eth0 not existing and grub coming up in a blank screen. I listed the fstab because I wasn't sure about that thought it might be connected to the other problems. I posted both files to give anyone plenty of info on my setup.

One thing I also noticed is that during bootup, I see it asking to boot from cd (for both of my drives) even there are no discs in the drives. I don't know it that is important. That comes up before grub.

[dpshak]

I will leave the eth0 to other more advanced folk, I'm having problems will wlan0 myself! As for the blank screen, I'm guessing you configured the kernel manually based on your grub.conf. I also see no video type statements on that line. This would make me think that maybe Gentoo doesn't know how to set up the intial splash screen. See the top part of this page: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml?part=1&chap=10
As for your boot from cd, because it occurs before grub, I would guess it's part of the MB BIOS routine.

[sirdilznik]

If you don't care about having a splash image I would say comment out that line. If you want to be able to access your windows partition from inside Gentoo and have it mounted automatically upon boot then, yes you do need to add it to fstab:

[erehwon]

I don't care too much about the splash screen, I just want to be able to see grub. I can choose windows or linux in it, but I can not see either option. I think I will add that partition to fstab as well as my other ntfs and a fat32 partition on my other drive. I do think I added ntfs in the kernel config.

My ethernet is a onboard marvell 8001 chip (10/100/1000 Mbit) on my GA-K8NSC-939 motherboard. When doing the network information, I only put I was using DHCP in the /etc/conf.d/net file and no options, since I wasn't sure on what ones were needed. I also didn't put anything for the NISDOMAIN. If you're using DHCP, do you need to put anything in /etc/hosts? One thing I should also say is that this ethernet problem is also present in windows.

I also have a slight problem. Last night I was playing around with my grub.conf. I edited splashimage=(hd0,1) to (hd0,4) and root (hd0,1) to (hd0,4). It no longer lets me into linux. I get a grub error 22. How can get back in to fix that? So root (hd0,1) refers to the kernel image being on the /boot partition.

[sirdilznik]

Usually when grub fails after you press enter it brings you back to the grub screen where you can choose to edit the line back to root=(hd0,1). However from the sound of it this may not work for you (with the garbled grub screen and all). You can boot up your live cd or a knoppix cd and use it to mount your /boot partition, which will allow you to edit your /boot/grub/grub.conf.

As far as your ethernet card goes. If windows doesn't recognize it either, that sounds like it may be a hardware problem. In case it isn't what you need to have enabled in your kernel config is:

[erehwon]

Thanks. I did what you said and now grub is coming up fine. The ethernet card is still not functioning though. I added the support for the first thing you showed, but not the syskonnect. One thing I noticed in code going by as linux loads up was an error under the dhcpcd. It said netmount was not started. Do you know what that is?

To get some info on the ethernet card, I ran lspci. It told the ethernet adaptor is a Marvell 88E8001 gigabit card. Also, I was asking about the /etc/hosts file because I didn't want to have to go through and add all 8 or so computers on our home network.

[sirdilznik]

Glad to hear grub is working properly
As far as the ethernet card goes, seems you are not the only one having problems. It's pointing more and more to a hardware issue.

[erehwon]

Thanks for your help. This has been an interesting learning experience, but I've decided to try another distro on this box. The hardware problem is bugging me. I did try putting in another network card, but the monitor would not come on with that in. I'll wait for some more work to be done on the drivers for that marvell NIC. I do have a P3 I might put gentoo on once I transfer over my files. I hope that will go easier after the practice I've had with this install.

[sirdilznik]

No problem, I only wish I could have been of more help. Whatever distro you choose I hope it works out for you (Suse and Ubuntu are both quality distros that worked well for me before I harnessed the power of Gentoo). If you come back to Gentoo we'll be here to help in any way possible.