Ubuntu
grub2 package

Cannot boot after loading ubuntu 10.10 onto SCSI drive

Asked by Tom H.

I get the following message after "apparently" successfully loading either Ubuntu/Kubuntu 10.10 on a SCSI
hard disk with a PCI LSI20320A-R controller installed:

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER

I have tried 3 different known good SCSI disks (4gb, 36gb, 73gb) all with the same
results in both Ubuntu and Kubuntu.

At the error message, when I put in the Kubuntu live disk - which has an option
to "boot from first drive", hitting "enter" will cause the SCSI disk LED to start flashing
and it boots to the login screen with no problems. The df command shows my hard
drive mounted. During install I had selected /dev/sda1 as my bootloader location.

I am assuming this is a GRUB issue, but I don't know how to fix it.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu grub2 Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Tom H.
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
dave jordan (davo-ozzy) said : 		#1

hiya I do n;t know if I can help. scsi has been a bit of a funny one over the years, but not sure if you have a boot loader on the scsi drive.

is the scsi controller on the pci/pci express bus or on the motherboard ?

if built into the mother board, Just check the options for the scsi in bios on boot make sure boot is still enabled you may need to change things for Linux. you might need to check manuals or on line Or the scsi card might have a setup disk....for config

Sometimes you have to change the hardware options in bios or setup for the card if it is on the pci-pci express bus.

Apart from that I can't help coz I've been away form linux for a while and can't remeber the last time I played with scsi...but the Ubuntu is seeing the drive probably not the boot block or the partition being active.

So I'd boot via the cd and check ("be careful") in System Admin either parted (" partition editor ")

or "system" "admin" disk utitility and make sure you have a primary partition, which has an mbr( master boot record") and the partition is maked active. Also see iwhich partition ubuntu is installed on.

Post that here and folk will help

Dave

Revision history for this message
delance (olivier-delance) said : 		#2

Sometimes, the first installation of Grub2 fails.
Could you reinstall from CD and check again: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD

Revision history for this message
Tom H. (tomohawk123) said : 		#3

Well, I was able to spend a little more time on this. Thanks for the responses, but it
appears that it is the BIOS on my motherboard that is preventing the boot as now
I realize that I cannot boot from a SATA drive either. Doesn't matter how I set my
BIOS, it will not boot from SCSI or SATA even if I choose it as my first option. The
motherboard is an ASUS A7V8X. I had taken a SATA drive I had loaded with Ubuntu
and it booted fine from another computer, then installed it on my ASUS box with the same
error in the original post. It appears that I have the newest BIOS for this MB. My intentions
were to leave the original IDE XP drive "as-is" and put the Ubuntu on either a
SCSI or SATA drive since it would be easy to switch this out if I wanted to toggle
between the two. I guess my other option is to put a crossing switch for two IDE
drives. I may end up just putting the Ubuntu as another partition on my IDE, but wanted
to see what I could do to keep things "separate" so the kids couldn't screw things up
if ya know what I mean. BTW, this motherboard is "supposed" to be able to boot from
the onboard IDE or onboard SATA controller with just a simple BIOS change.

Revision history for this message
Tom H. (tomohawk123) said : 		#4

This turned out to be a setup issue with the onboard Promise
SATA controller. It was required to stripe the disk as a "single"
disk RAID array to get this to boot. Works fine now although it
was not clear that this needed to be done from the ASUS manual.
I assume something similar would need to be done with my PCI
SCSI card and SCSI disk should I decide to go back to that.
Thanks for the responses....Tom.