15 replies to this topic

[ilko]

Hi,

Using latest Grub4dos on my system causes long delay when booting from USB stick. It gets stuck at "GRLDR is booting" for about 2:40 minutes. After that everything is normal.

Here are the versions where boot is slow:

0.4.3 2008-01-03
0.4.3 2007-12-25
0.4.3 2007-12-14
Haven't tried yet all previous.

These have no problems:
0.4.2 2006-12-31
0.4.3 2007-10-15

Motherboard- Gigabyte 965P-DS3P
C2D 4300@2.9
2GB RAM
F5 BIOS

1GB Transcend JetFlash USB stick formated FAT16 from PEtoUSB, LBA makes no difference. Tried HP USB format tool too- no difference.
Can't boot from USB if FAT32 is used.
GRLDR is chainloaded from NTLDR/boot.ini- C:\GRLDR

I need to use ISO emulation options found in latest versions.
Would that information help you fix it? Or it's buggy BIOS/MB?

Last but not least- many many thanks for this great software


Regards,
ilko

[ktp]

@ilko
My latest used grub4dos is at version 0.4.3 2007-12-01.
I assume that this version works for you ?

Maybe if you have time to test the following versions then you can determine
starting from what version grub4dos has problem :

grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-01.zip admin 527K 30/11/2007 1
grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-02.zip admin 527K 02/12/2007 1
grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-04.zip admin 530K 04/12/2007 1
grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-05.zip admin 531K 05/12/2007 1
grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-10.zip admin 538K 09/12/2007 1
grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-12.zip admin 548K 12/12/2007 1
grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-13.zip admin 549K 13/12/2007 1

[ilko]

ktp, thanks for helping. My post was rather towards Grub4Dos developers to help fix the bug, if it is such. If they ask me I could check all previous versions and determine where it gets broken. Thanks again for your input.

[tinybit]

Hi, everyone.

Thanks to you all.

@ilko,

This is a known problem. It is caused by the buggy bios. Newer grub4dos versions have features of "auto probing the CHS that BIOS uses for each storage media". The probing could hang or delay. Please be patient before this is solved. At this moment, try a version around grub4dos-0.4.3-2007-12-05.zip please.

[ilko]

Thank you tinybit. If I could help with testing later just let me know
Thanks again for this great boot loader, amazing work!

[tinybit]

Thanks, ilko. You may try version 2008-03-12 as a workaround. The auto probing code was stripped out(disabled). The code will change(be improved) someday.

[ilko]

Tried 2008-03-12- the same delay at "booting GRLDR". Led on USB stick is blinking rapidly, no other activity. Keyboard is inactive, num lock or alt-ctrl-del aren't working until menu is displayed.

[tinybit]

Thanks, ilko.

You may use the DEBUG mode to single-setp the boot process. At the very beginning of the grldr booting(before the "Booting GRLDR" message), press the Insert key as quickly as you can, and you will enter the DEBUG mode. When the DEBUG mode entered, you may press any key each time you want to see the next step.

In that way you could find which step causes the long delay.

Enter the grub command line, issue these commands:

geometry (hd0)
geometry (hd1)
geometry (hd2)
geometry (hd3)
geometry (fd0)
geometry (fd1)
geometry (cd)

and post the displayed messages.

[ilko]

Hi,

It hangs here:


Next few screens:


Geometries:

geometry (cd) returns the same result as (cd1) and (cd2) above.

ilko

[was_jaclaz]

ilko,
can you post the MBR of your (hd0)?
It is a USB stick, is it?

jaclaz

[ilko]

Yep, 1GB USB stick, tried formated by PEtoUSB and HP USB format tool.
Here is the MBR. Now I suppose you going to perform your "black magic" with the geometry, at which I've started looking numerous times, but never got to the final

I am not quite sure, but I think BIOS sees it as 0MB , need to check with other sticks what that field says and whether GRLDR hangs on them too, will do as soon as I get back from work.

ilko

Attached Files

•  MBR_HardDisk3.zip   515bytes   442 downloads

[was_jaclaz]

Try the attached MBR's as follows:
1) dd to stick MBR_HardDisk6.dat
See if the delay remains/stick boots

2) copy all contents of the stick somewhere.
3) dd MBR_HardDisk5.dat
4) format the stick from within Win2k/XP as FAT16
5) Restore contents of the stick
6) dd MBR_HardDisk5.dat AGAIN
See if the delay remains/stick boots

7) dd MBR_HardDisk4.dat
See if the delay remains/stick boots

Report the three behaviours.

Some possible explanations:
http://www.911cd.net...o...21186&st=20
http://www.911cd.net...o...21049&st=17

And a simple spreadsheet to allow you to perform the same kind of "magic":
http://www.boot-land...?...ic=2959&hl=


jaclaz

Attached Files

•  MBR_Hard_Disk456.zip   1.47KB   420 downloads

[tinybit]

Please do a quick test on version 2008-03-14, and report any failure.

Hopefully the problem will be solved.

Thanks.

[ilko]

Try the attached MBR's as follows:...

Did exactly as you wrote it:
MBR_HardDisk6.dat - delay

Put MBR_HardDisk5.dat.
Format from XP Windows Explorer, FAT16.
Put again MBR_HardDisk5.dat - "Disk error, press any key to restart"
Wrote MBR_HardDisk4.dat directly, no format- "Disk error, press any key to restart"
Thanks for joining here

Please do a quick test on version 2008-03-14, and report any failure.

Now works fine, no delays, thank you

Interestingly for me fact- tried a few other sticks with 2008-03-12 and the delay was 30 secs. exactly, for all 3 other sticks. The 4th- Transcend, gets stuck for 2 mins and 40 secs. What would make such a big difference? Is in this case 30 secs delay normal, and the 2:40mins abnormal?

ilko

[tinybit]

It turns out a bug with those versions(including 2008-03-12). A misuse of the 'char' in the source code(in bios.c) caused the problem. The 'char' has been corrected to 'unsigned char' since 2008-03-14.

Thank you again for the great help, ilko.

[ilko]

Thanks for working on this.
All the best