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Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

 
Michael Ernstoff
Frequent Advisor

Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

I have two Proliant blade servers.
One has a single disk attached (a LUN with single path), the other has two disks attached (2 LUNs, single path).
I can install RHEL 5.3 on the single disk blade.
Although the installation runs on the dual disk system when I reboot after installation I get GRUB problems.
I either get:-
1) Red screen with "Illegal Opcode"
or
2) Black screen with just the word "GRUB".
This is not a GRUB menu, as there is no option to type anything.

I am using all defaults until I can get this issue sorted out.

There is no obvious reason why I get two different errors, but both seem to be to do with the GRUB loader.

Rebooting with a Linux Rescue disk I can see the grub.conf and it looks OK to me (although I am pretty new to RHEL/GRUB).

Any suggestions why a second LUN should cause these issues?
7 REPLIES 7
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

Shalom,

I have run into this with fiber channel enabled systems.

The work around is to do the install with the fiber cable pulled so Grub does not get confused at install time.

SEP
Steven E Protter
Owner of ISN Corporation
http://isnamerica.com
http://hpuxconsulting.com
Sponsor: http://hpux.ws
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux
Founder http://newdatacloud.com
Goran┬аKoruga
Honored Contributor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

To me this looks like it hangs in stage1, because no error is printed. It might be a BIOS bug - I've seen quite a few with HP system over the years.

Old GRUB (not GRUB 2) has some options with its 'install' command (the GRUB prompt command) to overcome some of those.

Hard to say without knowing more.

Goran
Michael Ernstoff
Frequent Advisor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

There are no internal disks.
Only SAN disks which I am installing on.
Therefore I cannot remove the fibre connections during installation.

Is there a location for an improved GRUB loader?
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

Shalom again,

The grub that ships with RHEL 5.3 is pretty up to date. I would turn to HP for hardware support.

SEP
Steven E Protter
Owner of ISN Corporation
http://isnamerica.com
http://hpuxconsulting.com
Sponsor: http://hpux.ws
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux
Founder http://newdatacloud.com
loco_vikide
Frequent Advisor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

It looks like your OS image was installed on the SAN disk which is accessed through fibre connection. When the system boots up, GRUB looks for the boot image, but at this point the Qlogic fibre driver is not loaded yet, therefore the san diks that stored the boot image is not dectected by GRUB. You might want to look into implementing boot from SAN disk.

Cheers.
Nuwan Alwis
Valued Contributor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

Hi Michael,
I have seen this red screen with some messages issue with RHEL 5 on few blades some time back and reinstalling the grub using recovery mode simply solved the problem.

I haven't came across this issue recently on new blade servers.
simply reinstall the grub.

Good Luck...!
Michael Ernstoff
Frequent Advisor

Re: Grub problems with RHEL5.3 Installation on multiple disks

HP Storage support have identified the issue.
When booting from SAN disk (not just EMC) the boot disk must be the disk with the lowest LUN number.

I need to do some further testing on what happens when an additional disk is added at a later stage which has a higher number (which HP do not recommend).

Thanks to everyone who responded. Points have been assigned.