Debian problem

ilkjester · Post by **ilkjester** » 22 Nov 2008, 04:49

Ok I can't seem to find a fix on google for this all im managing to find is how to create a root file system. Anyways debian just stalls when booting up once it gets to accessing root file system. It loads up grub just fines detects all operating systems. When I go to boot into debian though it doesn't boot all the way. I tried single user mode too and it does that same thing. Anyone have any ideas.

I found this but im not sure if its what I was looking for or not. Means I never upgraded it and don't have a way of editing any boot lists or anything if it doesn't start up. Im thinking this is if i had two different linux distros running. Correct me if im wrong though.

Post by **bad_brain** » 22 Nov 2008, 05:16

does the boot procedure fail because the root file system can't be found or mounted?
that's because of a weird incompatibility, usually HDDs are named hdX, but since Debian is using SCSI drivers for ALL HDDs it have to be sdX...here's what to do:

in the GRUB bootloader screen press "e"
highlight the line where it says something like root=/dev/hda1 ro
press "e"
replace hda with sda, so it says root=/dev/sda1 ro
press "return" to save the edit
press "esc" to leave

of course your partiton name can be different, like hdb2 or something like that, the important part is only to replace the "h" with the "s"....

ilkjester · Post by **ilkjester** » 22 Nov 2008, 16:30

It doesn't have an error or anything just stalls there and does nothing. I tried renaming it and that didn't work. Ill give you some more details. As far as I know it was working until I had some problems with my computer. Ill try to explain it as much as I can. It was really weird and a weird fix. So the grub boot loader would come up and then say os not found. I was like oh man my hard drive went out. Then I remember that to duel boot windows and linux the boot loader was installed on the windows drive. Which I thought was a lot better because that's where all my stuff is. Well for some reason I got the idea to get a new secondary slave ide strip and put in my computer. I then hooked up the debian drive to the new slave instead of the primary ide strip with both the master and slave on it. It worked after i rebooted. Which is just weird to me because it would seem like the master part of the ide strip worked and just the slave went out. I have never heard of that happening though. Anyways that's the only thing I have changed since debian quit working. I never had to to figure out how to get the belkin wireless usb to work, so I never used it. Wow almost my 100th post only took two years.

Post by **bad_brain** » 24 Nov 2008, 12:12

ummm...ok, let's sort this out:
- where is the Debian OS now? (primary/secondary master/slave, what partition)
- where was it when you initially installed it?
- what path is set in GRUB for "root=" ?

ilkjester · Post by **ilkjester** » 24 Nov 2008, 18:43

bad_brain wrote:ummm...ok, let's sort this out:
- where is the Debian OS now? (primary/secondary master/slave, what partition)
- where was it when you initially installed it?
- what path is set in GRUB for "root=" ?

Right now its on the secondary slave. Initially it was on the primary slave. For the partition Im not sure I used an old hard drive I found laying around so its on its own drive.
The root is (hd1,0)
kernal is /boot/vmlinuz=2.6.18-6-686 root=/dev/hdb1 ro
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-6-686

When I changed them to the H's to s like you said It wasn't working. Now that Ive tried it again a couple more times every time I exit out it changes them all back to h. I even tried deleting the save defaults and it still changes them back.

Post by **bad_brain** » 26 Nov 2008, 04:04

ok, of course it can not work then because the path is wrong, it points to the slave of the 1st IDE channel, this is the right one for the 2nd channel IDE slave:
root=/dev/hdd1 ro
(or maybe sdd)

ilkjester · Post by **ilkjester** » 26 Nov 2008, 04:15

bad_brain wrote:ok, of course it can not work then because the path is wrong, it points to the slave of the 1st IDE channel, this is the right one for the 2nd channel IDE slave:
root=/dev/hdd1 ro
(or maybe sdd)

Nice thanks bad_brain so do I only change the root settings then? Once I fix this I'm sure ill post another problem. I want to use my debian for all purposes instead of windows except I can not figure out how to configure a belkin wireless usb adapter for it and of course my mom puts the router upstairs so I cant have an ethernet cord running all through the house

Post by **bad_brain** » 26 Nov 2008, 04:37

yeah, simply edit it through GRUB as described above.
uh-oh...wireless USB on Linux can be a real pain in the rear, but well, we'll see...

oops, wait...just noticed something...is primary master the first HDD, primary slave and secondary master CD drives and secondary slave the 2nd HDD?
if yes (hd1,0) is right, but if there are more HDDs you will also have to edit this....it's easy, for example:
hd0,0 = 1st HDD, 1st partition
hd0,1 = 1st HDD, 2nd partition
hd1,0 = 2nd HDD, 1st partition
hd2,1 = 3rd HDD, 2nd partiton

ilkjester · Post by **ilkjester** » 26 Nov 2008, 05:12

bad_brain wrote:yeah, simply edit it through GRUB as described above.
uh-oh...wireless USB on Linux can be a real pain in the rear, but well, we'll see...

oops, wait...just noticed something...is primary master the first HDD, primary slave and secondary master CD drives and secondary slave the 2nd HDD?
if yes (hd1,0) is right, but if there are more HDDs you will also have to edit this....it's easy, for example:
hd0,0 = 1st HDD, 1st partition
hd0,1 = 1st HDD, 2nd partition
hd1,0 = 2nd HDD, 1st partition
hd2,1 = 3rd HDD, 2nd partiton

So Ive come to notice

. Anyways I found that I had some old computers I didn't get rid of. So I just swapped out my old primary ide slip for a new one. I couldn't figure out how to save the changes? Thanks though I know it would've worked if i could.

Post by **bad_brain** » 26 Nov 2008, 05:46

to save the changes you simply have to press <return>, and then get back to the boot menu with <Esc>...

ilkjester · Post by **ilkjester** » 26 Nov 2008, 11:33

Hmm weird that's what I was doing. I found this article saying you had to have root access to make permanent changes to the loader.
http://grumpymole.blogspot.com/2007/05/ ... eters.html

Post by **bad_brain** » 26 Nov 2008, 15:39

hmmm...possible, I don't really remember if I had to edit menu.lst too after doing the changes in the GRUB menu or not. but anyway, the main point is to be able to boot the system, if needed editing the menu.lst file is done in just a few seconds...IF you have to edit it you will of course need root permissions...