bugGNU GRUB - Bugs: bug #16609, flash update ASUS bios, Grub wrote...

 
 

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bug #16609: flash update ASUS bios, Grub wrote error mesage to mbr

Submitted by:  John Wrenshall <johnwren>
Submitted on:  Wed 17 May 2006 02:23:24 AM UTC  
 
Category: BootingSeverity: Major
Priority: 5 - NormalItem Group: Software Error
Status: NonePrivacy: Public
Assigned to: NoneOriginator Name: John Wrenshall
Open/Closed: ClosedRelease: 0.95
Release: NoneReproducibility: None
Planned Release: None

Sat 15 Dec 2007 09:12:57 PM UTC, comment #5:

Thanks John. Closing.

Robert Millan <robertmh>
Project Administrator
Mon 22 May 2006 01:20:35 PM UTC, comment #4:

This bug report should be marked closed. The problem has been identified, and is a bios related error. The problem has nothing to do with grub.

The bios was apparently fooled by the fact that there were two identical drives (same model number and manufacturer) on the IDE bus. As soon as one drive was removed (leaving only the master) the boot response immediately returned to normal. When the second drive was then added (as a slave) all was fine.

John Wrenshall <johnwren>
Fri 19 May 2006 11:59:45 AM UTC, comment #3:

Updated from work:
updating the bios via grub-install does not fix the problem. The update is confirmed, as grub uses the new menu.lst (switching bewteen a suse 10.1 system on hdb5 and a unbuntu 5.10 on hda3. I will now proceed to remove one of the twin seagate 80mbyte drives (a susggestion of asus support) and see what this does to the problem.

More coming on this I'm sure.

What it also suggests is that the error message seen in the bootrecord (just look at the boot record with any symple editor, and ignore the binary unintelligible stuff) is something quite deliberate and clever that grub does, and does not in fact 'trash' the boot record as such.

It seems this is a geometry problem -- something to do with the bios.

John Wrenshall <johnwren>
Wed 17 May 2006 08:34:20 AM UTC, comment #2:

If you try to reinstall Ubuntu you will see that I will boot again. That's my bet. But you can try to reinstall Grub on the Mbr only with Super Grub Disk Cdrom (if you only have a Linux) which is here:

http://adrian15.raulete.net/grub/

Reinstall GRUB on the MBR
Auto.
Auto.

I've heard that Grub to boot depends on some geometry parametres that are passed by the bios.

The bios update (changing these geometry parametres) might have confused grub but if you reinstall it again it will take the right parametres and will work ok.

adrian15

adrian15 <adrian15>
Wed 17 May 2006 02:26:03 AM UTC, comment #1:

hmm. the attached files failed. here is the mbr record.

John Wrenshall <johnwren>
Wed 17 May 2006 02:23:24 AM UTC, original submission:

System: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
motherboard ASUS A8N-*\E ACP! bios revision 1010
display: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (512Mb)
memory 1Gb 400Mhz
Software: Ubuntu (Amd_64) 5.10 Breezy
Grub 0.95

I updated the flash bios (operating under windowsXP, using flash update program provided by ASUS, rom file downloaded from ASUS -- see asus report (attached) and rom file (attached). BIOS updated to 1013. [This was done as a suggestion from the ubuntu forums about problems in the dmesg to do with usb support -- see dmesg attached]

Update proceeded normally. However subsequent reboots failed with message 'no operating system'. The partition table is OK, I can boot via any linux CD. The mbr shows that grub seems to have detected a disk geometry change (I'm not sure if the bios update did in fact change the geometry). The problem is that the error message appears to have been written over the boot loader portion of the mbr -- see a dd copy of the mbr attached. This may be either/and/or a grub problem and a problem with the asus flash update. I have filed a report with both sites.

Thanks
John

John Wrenshall <johnwren>

 

Attached Files
file #9990:  A8NE1013.Rom added by johnwren (315KiB - application/octet-stream)
file #9989:  asus report.txt added by johnwren (2KiB - text/plain - copy of the report filed with asus re motherboard)
file #9988:  menu.lst added by johnwren (5KiB - application/octet-stream - the grub menu list under ubuntu)
file #9987:  bootrecord added by johnwren (512B - application/octet-stream - the corrupted mbr)
file #9986:  ubuntu 5.10 dmesg.txt added by johnwren (16KiB - text/plain - ubuntu dmesg output)

 

Depends on the following items: None found

Items that depend on this one: None found

 

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    Follow 6 latest changes.

    Date Changed By Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced By
    Sat 15 Dec 2007 09:12:57 PM UTCrobertmhOpen/ClosedOpen=>Closed
    Wed 17 May 2006 02:33:28 AM UTCjohnwrenAttached File-=>Added A8NE1013.Rom, #9990
    Wed 17 May 2006 02:28:11 AM UTCjohnwrenAttached File-=>Added asus report.txt, #9989
    Wed 17 May 2006 02:27:12 AM UTCjohnwrenAttached File-=>Added menu.lst, #9988
    Wed 17 May 2006 02:26:03 AM UTCjohnwrenAttached File-=>Added bootrecord, #9987
    Wed 17 May 2006 02:23:24 AM UTCjohnwrenAttached File-=>Added ubuntu 5.10 dmesg.txt, #9986

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