Disc not recognised

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Try this (no guarantees, but no harm either) - connect your extra hard drive, and either boot to Recovery Mode (if you can) or boot to the Live/Alt. CD. Then, run the command "sudo grub-install hd0"; that should re-install GRUB to your MBR, and allow you to boot from either hard drive. Again, it's not guaranteed to work, but it won't hurt anything either.

OK - connecting the extra hard drive means that if I use the live CD I can't see hda at all - only hdb. The same seems to occur if I try to boot into recovery mode - as I follow the startup process I can see that it gives error messages eg Dev hda: unable to read RDB block 0
It does recognise the partitions on hdb (the extra disc) and then stalls when it gets to the last cd drive - hdd, drops into Busybox after

Check root=bootarg cat /proc/cmdline
or missing modules, devices:cat /proc/modules ls /dev
ALERT! /dev/disc/by-uuid******(disc id here)*** does not exist.
Dropping to a shell

So installing the extra drive causes Kububtu not to reconise that the drive on which the system is installed is readable - it can't see - or interpret- the partition table.

I reinstalled Grub as suggested, but was only able to do so with the extra disc disconnected

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

Alright, a little research turned up a few results:

1) Check your BIOS and make sure your disks aren't configured in a RAID array (if they are, change the settings).

2) Modify GRUB
- Alter your /boot/grub/device.map config file to look something like the following:

(hd0) /dev/hda

- Delete your /boot/grub/menu.lst file
- Run "update-grub" as root (this will recreate a menu.lst config file)
- Try to boot with both drives connected

If neither of those fixes the problem, I guess I'll do a little more research

[nejode]

Re: Disc not recognised

waverider:

I've had a couple of similar problems with SIS chipset based motherboards. There has been some problems with older Intel chipsets. Somehow, the liveCD fails to load some modules. You can try this out to see if the Live or Alternate CD can recognize your disk and it won't hurt anything:

1) Boot your LiveCD and press F6
2) Edit you kernel params line: at the beginning write break=top, leave a space. At the end of the line take out quiet and splash and put there all-generic-ide... remember to leave a space after that and the double dash (--).
3) Press enter and continue to boot, it'll drop you to a command line prompt: initramfs
4) Write modprobe ide_generic and press enter... a few line will pass by and you'll get the initramfs prompt again.
5) Write modprobe ide_disk and press enter, wait for the initramfs prompt.
6) Write modprobe ide_cd... enter and it should go through to load your desktop
7) Check out to see if it sees your HDD (you can use the sudo fdisk -l command)

Note: if you have an Intel chipset you can try modprobe piix instead of the above 3 commands.

If it works, you'll have to modify your /etc/initramfs-tools/modules and update your initramfs.

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Alright, a little research turned up a few results:

1) Check your BIOS and make sure your disks aren't configured in a RAID array (if they are, change the settings).

2) Modify GRUB
- Alter your /boot/grub/device.map config file to look something like the following:

(hd0) /dev/hda

- Delete your /boot/grub/menu.lst file
- Run "update-grub" as root (this will recreate a menu.lst config file)
- Try to boot with both drives connected

If neither of those fixes the problem, I guess I'll do a little more research

Thanks again for the help. I did all that but no difference

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Thanks for the help nejode

waverider:

1) Boot your LiveCD and press F6
2) Edit you kernel params line: at the beginning write break=top, leave a space. At the end of the line take out quiet and splash and put there all-generic-ide... remember to leave a space after that and the double dash (--).
3) Press enter and continue to boot, it'll drop you to a command line prompt: initramfs
4) Write modprobe ide_generic and press enter... a few line will pass by and you'll get the initramfs prompt again.
5) Write modprobe ide_disk and press enter, wait for the initramfs prompt.
6) Write modprobe ide_cd... enter and it should go through to load your desktop
7) Check out to see if it sees your HDD (you can use the sudo fdisk -l command)

I got as far as step 2 but no further - it stalled and didn't drop into initramfs

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

In total frustration I went back to first steps. Download a new copy of the alternative iso burnt a new disc reformatted the hard drive and did a complete new install (with both ide discs active)

The install went smoothly, detected both discs and installed the system - except that this time it indicated that it detected another OS - Windows XP. It must be in the mbr of the second drive?

After removing the install disc I rebooted the box and - exactly the same thing happened!

Soooooooooo!

My only explanation at the moment is that there is something in the MBR of the second hard drive that is causing the problem - unless someone can come up with another suggestion - nothing else has worked

Can I remove whatever it is from the MBR of the second disc? How? Is it safe to do so?

Thanks

[Snowhog]

Re: Disc not recognised

You say that Windows is not installed on on the problem drive. Then you want to install GRUB to that drives MBR (have you been pointing GRUB to the root partition instead?) which will overright the Windows XP MBR entry. With two HDs, both of which are formatted for Linux, and on which each has one Linux OS installed, you want to put GRUB in the MBR.

Qqmike - as the Forum's GRUB-meister, can you validate what I've just said?

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

You say that Windows is not installed on on the problem drive. Then you want to install GRUB to that drives MBR (have you been pointing GRUB to the root partition instead?) which will overright the Windows XP MBR entry. With two HDs, both of which are formatted for Linux, and on which each has one Linux OS installed, you want to put GRUB in the MBR.

I use disc caddies to house separate discs for Windows and Kubuntu. This is the master disc. The slave disc, which is in the machine all the time, is the one causing the problem. It has a Fat32 partition containing data, a NTFS partition containing data and and Ext3 partition.

No OS is installed on this slave disc, but I believe this must have an MBR which is unnecessary and is causing the problem (where else would Grub have picked up a Windows installation from?). The OS I am using always boots from whichever master disc I have installed at the time so as far as I can see there is no need for Grub on the slave disc at all.

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

What Snowhog suggested should work if the problem lies with an MBR on your 2nd HDD (you should just be able to install GRUB to it with the command "sudo grub-install hd1" - probably the easiest possible solution I can think of currently); if you just don't want to mess with GRUB right now, since you said you weren't having this problem with Feisty, if you still have the Feisty installation CD, and since you have a clean 7.10 installation, you may just want to nuke 7.10, reinstall Feisty, and upgrade to Gutsy.

[Snowhog]

Re: Disc not recognised

The OS I am using always boots from whichever master disc I have installed at the time so as far as I can see there is no need for Grub on the slave disc at all.

Was your 'slave disc' that's giving your problems, ever at one time, the 'master?' If you don't have Windows in any shape, flavor, or form on your current 'master disc' and yet, as you said: "The install went smoothly, detected both discs and installed the system - except that this time it indicated that it detected another OS - Windows XP. It must be in the mbr of the second drive?" has to be a true statement. Therefore, and also based on your statement that: "It has a Fat32 partition containing data, a NTFS partition containing data and and Ext3 partition." which indicates 'no OS installed', I'd strongly suspect that it had been used previously with an installed Windows XP OS - which was later removed or simply deleted when you started using it as a slave disc. Does any of this sound familiar?

Finally, if there is no OS (Windows or Linux) installed on this slave disc, then there is no harm in removing the mbr entry on it.

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Was your 'slave disc' that's giving your problems, ever at one time, the 'master?' If you don't have Windows in any shape, flavor, or form on your current 'master disc' and yet, as you said: "The install went smoothly, detected both discs and installed the system - except that this time it indicated that it detected another OS - Windows XP. It must be in the mbr of the second drive?" has to be a true statement. Therefore, and also based on your statement that: "It has a Fat32 partition containing data, a NTFS partition containing data and and Ext3 partition." which indicates 'no OS installed', I'd strongly suspect that it had been used previously with an installed Windows XP OS - which was later removed or simply deleted when you started using it as a slave disc. Does any of this sound familiar?

Yes - I think this is the case

Finally, if there is no OS (Windows or Linux) installed on this slave disc, then there is no harm in removing the mbr entry on it.

OK - but how do I do that? Any help appreciated

I don't know if this is in fact the cause of the problem - anything is worth a try at this stage

[integr8e]

Re: Disc not recognised

Try this:
- connect your slave drive
- boot to your GParted Live CD
- select the slave drive from the dropdown menu
- disable any "boot" flags

That may work, if not, I've come across this command that may do the trick (with the 2nd hard drive connected):

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdb bs=446 count=1

Note: I am NOT very familiar with the "dd" command, so please do not use the above command unless you either know what you're doing or somebody verifies its integrity.

Edit: If you can, you may want to backup your important data before you begin

[Snowhog]

Re: Disc not recognised

WARNING!!! MAKING CHANGES TO THE MBR WITHOUT KNOWING WHAT YOU ARE DOING CAN LEAD TO TOTAL LOSS OF DATA!

Wiki - Master boot Record

[waverider]

Re: Disc not recognised

Try this:
- connect your slave drive
- boot to your GParted Live CD
- select the slave drive from the dropdown menu
- disable any "boot" flags

That may work, if not, I've come across this command that may do the trick (with the 2nd hard drive connected):

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdb bs=446 count=1

Note: I am NOT very familiar with the "dd" command, so please do not use the above command unless you either know what you're doing or somebody verifies its integrity.

Edit: If you can, you may want to backup your important data before you begin

OK. A couple of days of work trying all suggested processes and more.

I used the dd command and rewrote the MBR on the slave disk ( after backing up data of course). It worked as windows didn't find the disc until I installed it as new hardware - at which time it rewrote the MBR to identify the drive name - all data there and accessible in Windows.

Installed Linux caddy, reformatted and partitioned hard drive with Gparted, disconnected slave drive, adjusted jumper appropriately on Master disc, loaded fresh install of Kubutu. Rebooted machine - everything works - even updated to latest releases and installed some software.

Shut down, adjusted jumper on Master disc to Master/slave, connected slave drive and booted machine. SPlash screen stalled and dropped into Busybox - back to square 1.

Remove the slave drive, adjust jumpers and away we go - boots OK, but of course no access to my Email or other data.

I quit! Too hard. On this box Kubuntu Gutsy will not work with a slave drive. My only explanation is that Kubuntu has a problem with my hardware. I am forced to use windows as my sole OS unless I use another flavor of Linux - not what I really want to do.