82 replies to this topic

[pecd.net]

well ok

26 hours is not 2 hours later, but you are right...should have given it a day or two longer...

[was_jaclaz]

well ok

26 hours is not 2 hours later, but you are right...should have given it a day or two longer...

2 hours need to be translated as 2 Latin hours=4 days

jaclaz

[pecd.net]

I verified it myself, it seems to always happen when the cd-rom is connected to some external ide controller chip that is not part of the chipset.

It takes about 60-120 seconds (with cd activity) for grub to come up...everything else works fine...

maybe it has to do with this (from grub4dos readme)


A bug was found in the CDROM driver

It seems the cdrom must be connected as the master device of an IDE controller.
If cdrom is slave, the driver will fail to read the cdrom sectors. Hope someone
could fix this problem.

not sure if this is meant..it does work, just takes ages...

[kDn]

Some interesting thing detected...
For example:
(HDD) hd0,3 - hidden, but have grldr (0.4.3) in root

1. I started from USB-FlashDrive with mbr-loader and grldr (0.4.4) as USB-HDD, then hd0,3 became number hd1,3
All ok.

2. I started from USB-FlashDrive as USB-ZIP (fd0), then hd0,3 not changed.
Then loader try to find grldr, and find it on hd0,3 (hidden), but I need to find grldr from USB-ZIP (as main loading device).

How I can do this?

[tinybit]

kDn,

try to change the name of your grldr on your usb drive and modify the MBR accordingly.

if this does not work, you may impose a disk serial number on the MBR of your USB drive. See comments about disk serial number in the source code of grldrstart.S.

ctmag,

it seems this is unknown and will continue to be unknown.

[pecd.net]

sad to hear as more and more people are using those extra ide controllers now that the motherboard chipsets only use sata

The strange thing is CD that there activity for 1-2 minutes with only a blinking curso and the grub comes up and works fine...

[tinybit]

ctmag,

You may press Insert key quickly at the boot of grub4ddos and gain debug messages. Then you can examine in which step the machine slowed down.

[pecd.net]

Well you could have mentioned the space bar steps forward, but i found out after waiting a while:-))

Here is waht i got:

- Drive spins up
- i get black scrren white cursor _ top left bliniking
- drive led is blinking and drive is spinning (and keeps spinning)
- IDE LED is also blinking
- when i do nothing it takes over 2 minutes for grub to load
- when i press insert it takes also over 2 minutes but then nothing happends (leds go out) until i press space
- everything seems normal, finds cddrive/bootdrive

Tried another drive (not IDE but SATA in same PC). Boots up without 2 min delay, debug messages look the same...so this mus be something happening before grub4dos really starts its work.... maybe something related to the way it is loaded into memory, or to the way the ISO is created (here is the commandline:
mkisofs.exe -rdNlDTJ -force-uppercase -duplicates-once -joliet-long -hide-joliet-trans-tbl -volid "my labell" -eltorito-boot "boot/grldr" -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -hide boot.catalog -o "c:\myiso.iso" "C:\folder"

[pecd.net]

i saw this today in the changelog:

2008-10-20 removed cross-track read in bootlace to avoid hanging on some machines; fixed cylinder issue in int13/ah=8.

i am not sure if it has to do with my problem above, but i can tell you that the problem did not change with the new version...

[drob]

When a new version comes out, do only the file need updating, or is it also the boot sector?

[pecd.net]

as far as i know the files only...

[pecd.net]

boot problem on extra IDE controllers (as described some posts above) still exists...hope someone works on this...

BUMP

[Tedd_79]

EDIT: I was wrong. don't read the submenu problem. it's not grub's fault. it's a infinite loop. I'll let this post for my feature requests at the end.

the next part is solved:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
my grub version is : grub4dos-0.4.4-2008-11-08
I can't boot windows xp if I use submenu.(it works without it).
My windows and all files are in (hd0,0).

my boot.ini:

[boot loader]timeout=0default=C:\GRLDR[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectC:\GRLDR="Grub for DOS"

ntldr is in c:\ (hd0,0).my menu.lst:

# This is a sample menu.lst file. You should make some changes to it.# The old install method of booting via the stage-files has been removed.# Please install GRLDR boot strap code to MBR with the bootlace.com# utility under DOS/Win9x or Linux.#color black/cyan yellow/cyantimeout 0default /defaulttitle Load Configuration Fileconfigfile (hd0,0)/grub4dos/menu.lst

my (hd0,0)/grub4dos/menu.lst:

# This is a sample menu.lst file. You should make some changes to it.# The old install method of booting via the stage-files has been removed.# Please install GRLDR boot strap code to MBR with the bootlace.com# utility under DOS/Win9x or Linux.#color black/cyan yellow/cyansplashimage=(hd0,0)/grub4dos/splash.xpm.gztimeout 10default /defaulttitle Windows XP SP2aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa#savedefault --wait=2rootnoverify (hd0,0)chainloader /ntldrtitle Slackware 12.1rootnoverify (hd0,5)kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb6#title quit#savedefault --wait=2#quittitle rebootsavedefault --wait=2reboottitle halt(poweroff)savedefault --wait=2halt#title Slackware 12.1 installer#kernel   (hd0,0)/bzImage#initrd   (hd0,0)/initrd.imgtitle commandlinesavedefault --wait=2commandline

I can boot the submenu but if I select Windows XP, grub is reloaded...if I move my title windowsxp code to menu.lst in the root folder, Windows XP boots.can you help?-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------And I don't think the author will want to do it , but here are my humble request about the interface:-option to make the cursor semitransparent in graphics mode.-option to print long title on several lines (as in my menu.lst - Windows XP SP2aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
a
aaaa)

Have a good day.


EDIT: Another question. does grub4dos do cpu halt instructions? it'll be useful for some people.

[was_jaclaz]

Try naming the submenu something different from menu.lst.

If I get it right, you now have:

• a (hd0,0)/menu.lst
• a (hd0,0)/grub4dos/menu.lst

It is possible that grub4dos gets somehow "confused".

Also, but should be unrelated, why using the rootnoverify?

How is grub4dos inittially loaded?
I mean:

• grldr installed to MBR
• grldr invoked by modified partition bootsector
• grub.exe

jaclaz

[tinybit]

@jaclaz

The menu problem was said by Tedd_79 to have been solved. It was caused by an endless loop.

@Tedd_79

Sorry we have so many bugs to fix that we cannot deal with your feature requests.

[was_jaclaz]

@jaclaz

The menu problem was said by Tedd_79 to have been solved. It was caused by an endless loop.

Sorry, I thought the problem was still there, edited posts accordingly.

jaclaz

[Tedd_79]

jaciaz:
I'll edit more clearly at the future...


tinybit:
Ok. I hope good with your project.

[qiet72]

Hi,

I have been using grub4dos a long time but i discovered first now that the official mailing list was here and not at gna.org. I also just learned that http://nufans.net/grub4dos/ seems to be the official download instead of http://download.gna.org/grub4dos/

I use grub4dos daily on many machines. Recently I have noticed that something broke in grub4dos since version 2008-06-18 which affected most IBM Thinkpad T Series laptops. The feature that broke is where one can load a floppy image into ram and boot from there. Harddrive images seem to be unaffected. I have tried to look at the source code changes between 2008-06-15 and 2008-06-18 and it looks like it has something to do with the A20 gate code that has been worked on in that period. So until now, I am using the 2008-05-14 version as the latest version.

I am very willing to test any code that needs to be tested on the IBM ThinkPad T Series - I have access to the following models:
T20, T23, T30, T42p, T43.

This is a problem that definetely needs to be looked into. I have previously used syslinux with memdisk but all versions of them failed on IBM Thinkpad laptops and the author, Peter Anvin could not find the problem. It would help greatly if we could track this problem down so that it can be fixed in both grub4dos and syslinux's memdisk program.

Here is some debugging information:

Here is the result when trying to load a floppy memdrive and booting under version 2008-11-11 on a Thinkpad T43:
----------------- Begin Clip -------------------------
Booting command-list

FAT12 BPB found with 0xEB (jmp) leading the boot sector.

probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880
int13/41(0),version=AA210001, int13/08(0),version=0, C/H/S=80/2/18, int13/02
(0),
-------------- End clip ------------------------------
After that it hangs.

The same procedure works fine on a non-IBM machine. Here is the clip that works:
-------------- Begin Clip ------------------
Booting command-list

FAT12 BPB found with 0xEB (jmp) leading the boot sector.

probed C/H/S = 80/2/18, probed total sectors = 2880
int13/41(0),version=AA210001, int13/08(0),version=0, C/H/S=80/2/18, int13/02
(0),err=0, int13/41(0),version=AA210001, int31/08(0),version=0, C/H/S=80/2/18
, int13/02(0),err=0,

--------------- End clip ------------------------

I also tried the Insert key upon bootup and only succeeded once in getting it into debug mode. The next time I get succeed I will write the information down.
It would be nice if there was a longer timeout so that you have a chance to hit the insert key.

qiet72

[xclimbing]

@ qiet72

Please post your menu.lst or your commands used under grub> prompt.

which way do you load the grub4dos?

[qiet72]

Hi,

I don't know if it is in grub4dos yet, but I have noticed that later versions of the original grub used in later linux distributions such as Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex have started using UUID's, for example:

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
uuid a6919165-0a64-46a9-80b2-a751647f5a07
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=a6919165-0a64-46a9-80b2-a751647f5a07 ro vga=ask hpet=force
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

where before they used something like "root (hd0,0)", now they use uuid xxxx-xxxx-xxx

I find this method a lot more reliable than trying to find where menu.lst is, because all partitions on all disks have unique uuid's be it ext3/reiserfs/fat and you don't accidentaly invoke the wrong menu.lst incase for example you are booting from usb.

qiet72

[xclimbing]

@qiet72

No. grub4dos didn't support uuid command. it's patch for grub legacy from Ubuntu. and tinybit said there had some difficuties to integrate this feature. there have some discussions at forum : bbs.znpc.net, but have no result.

Climbing

[qiet72]

Here is the section for booting from a floppy image:

title - IBM Disk Manager
map --mem /boot/images/dm.gz (fd0)
map --hook
chainloader (fd0)+1
rootnoverify (fd0)
boot

Boot process goes like this: BIOS -> USB-KEY -> MBR -> syslinux -> grub.exe -> menu.lst
I chainload grub.exe via syslinux "default grub.exe"

qiet72

@ qiet72

Please post your menu.lst or your commands used under grub> prompt.

which way do you load the grub4dos?

[xclimbing]

@ qiet72

you can try the menu commands under grub's command mode(Press 'c' to enter grub's command mode under grub4dos menu). See grub4dos hangs with which command.

commands input under grub's command mode:

debug on

map --mem /boot/images/dm.gz (fd0)

pause --wait=3

map --hook

geometry (fd0)

chainloader (fd0)+1

root (fd0)

ls (fd0)/

boot

record all the messages after run each command and post here.

I suggest you create a new thread to discuss this problem. Mr. tinybit will look into this problem and try to solve it.

Climbing

[gray]

This may sound weird, but I'm using grub.exe from a USB Stick running DOS to load VistaPE. On one of the new Dell E6400 notebooks with the Intel video option this works perfectly. However, when I try on an E6400 with the NVIDIA video (same Intel chipset though) I get the following error from grub.exe:

Failure restore ROM INT 0x15 vector. Unsupported DOS, device driver, or TSR.

Hi all.

Well have the same problem on DELL E6500 laptop, when booting from USB flash using Grub.
This is a further investigation of a problem i raised on 911cd some days ago.

Unfurtunately i only have one model E6500 where i can test, and i could only borrow it for a few minutes today.
I have testet several E6300/ E6400 models without any problems.
This is the first pc where i have seen this failure , and many different models from several manufacturers,
have been booted this way in my company.


The DOS I use is the dos from WIn 98 SE .
Used Grup version is now 2008-11-11(r61).

Grub is loaded in config.sys
Config sys will follow here.

[menu]
menuitem=WINXPE, Start Windows XPE. Usb Version.
menuitem=WINDOS, Start Windows 98Se DOS version.
menudefault=WINXPE,10
menucolor=7,0

[WINXPE]
device=grub.exe --config-file="color black/cyan yellow/cyan;timeout 0;default 0;title Find/Load NTLDR of Windows;find --set-root /ntldr;chainloader /ntldr"

[WINDOS]
device=himem.sys /testmem:off
DEVICE=EMM386.EXE NOEMS X=D000-D300
device=oakcdrom.sys /D:oemcd001
device=btdosm.sys
device=flashpt.sys
device=DUSE.EXE VERBOSE=1 DRIVES=3 XFER=8 SEC=2048
device=btcdrom.sys /D:oemcd001
device=aspi2dos.sys
device=aspi8dos.sys
device=aspi4dos.sys
device=aspi8u2.sys
device=aspicd.sys /D:oemcd001
devicehigh=ansi.sys
devicehigh=ramdrive.sys 4096 /e

[COMMON]
device=display.sys con=(ega,,1)
country=045,850,country.sys
install=mode.com con cp prepare=((850) ega.cpi)
install=mode.com con cp select=850
install=keyb.com dk,,keyboard.sys
files=60
buffers=20
dos=high,umb
stacks=9,256
lastdrive=z

Regards Gray

[xclimbing]

@gray

just try to start grub.exe under pure dos box(when show config.sys menu, press shift-f5 to enter) command prompt instead using device=grub.exe in config.sys.

you can also try to load grub.exe by syslinux using "kernel /grub.exe" command.

or

try to load grldr by add {c:\grldr="grub4dos"} to Windows NT's boot.ini.

if also failed these ways. then the mostly cause is the DELL laptops buggy BIOS. then it have to be looked into and resolved by tinybit.

Make sure to use the newest release of grub4dos download at http://grub4dos.nufans.net, it is 0.4.4-2008-11-15 by now.