Solved--Install on Sata no boot?

[eriefisher]

I've just installed Feisty on an Emachine T5010 with two sata drives and on restart cannot boot. For some reason it looks like the bios can't find a boot device. I can use the live cd and choose to boot to the first hard drive and it has no problems there. The install looks solid and it appears that grub is there and I did try to reinstall grub to be sure.

The reason for the install to begin with is that the XP installation kept crashing. Even after several reinstalls and drive formatting I would get write errors so I do suspect some kind of hardware problem. I had hoped that Kubuntu would at least be able to pin down the problem.

Once booted from the cd into the install all works well. I suspect an issue with the sata drives and have installed an os on both to be sure that it wasn't unique to one drive.

Thoughts and suggestions would be greatly welcomed

eriefisher

[Qqmike]

Re: Install on Sata no boot?

I would use GParted to double check that the boot flag is set on the boot drive that you set in BIOS (the drive to boot first after the CD). (Partition > Manage Flags)

Run diagnostic tests on the drives. (E.g., Seagate has Seatools.) First the "quick test" on each drive, then maybe a longer test. Ditto for Memtest -- I'd run it for a 2-3 hours on RAM memory (when you have something else to go do while it's running), just to rule these things out.

The fact that you have 2 SATAs is good (versus having a mix of IDEs and SATAs).

And you already tried re-installing GRUB, so that's good.

Sometimes, one suspects the power supply when weird restarts/crashes happen, but you are able to run the live CD OK and there's no other indication of a flaky/tricky P/S issue ( ? ).

[dibl]

Re: Install on Sata no boot?

Concur w/Qqmike's advice.

Also, in BIOS, mine offers three different "modes" for the SATA bus. I presently have it set to "AHCP" if memory serves, but there is a "As IDE" mode and another one that is escaping recall. You might want to see if one of the other modes works, if you have other modes.

Also, if a Win XP installation was attempted on HDD #1, it might have written stuff to the MBR that is still there. I personally favor FDISK to nuke whatever remains of a partition definition or a filesystem type there, but there are other tools out there as well.

[eriefisher]

Re: Install on Sata no boot?

In konsole I just ran sudo fdisk -l and found there is no boot flag set. I didn't think this would make a difference. Is there away to set the boot flag after the install? I know it can be done during the partitioning?

eriefisher

[eriefisher]

Re: Install on Sata no boot?

Fixed!! Loaded Gparted and set the boot flag to the right partition rebooted and all is well.

This was the first time I've used the graphical installer so I never even though about it. With the text installer you get the option to set the boot flag to the /root partition.

Moral of the story: use the alternate cd when installing and save yourself alot of headaches.

Thanks guys.

eriefisher

[dibl]

Re: Install on Sata no boot?

Moral of the story: use the alternate cd when installing and save yourself alot of headaches.

Yep, I really think it is the better way to go if you have an concern about where stuff goes.

But I did not know the "boot" flag had any effect on a Linux system -- I thought it was only a DOS / Windows function. Guess I'll amend my theory on that!

[eriefisher]

Re: Solved--Install on Sata no boot?

There was a recent discussion here about the boot flag and I though it didn't seem right. Well I just proved that the boot flag is necessary.

On to the next one.

eriefisher