[Clfs-support] clfs-X64 section7 lilo wont install, host grub wont boot: help

[Ken Moffat]

On Wed, Jan 16, 2008 at 10:31:12PM +0000, b-vol wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I am doing a clfs build with an amd64 host.  I discovered I could not (for 
> unknown reasons chroot)  so I have to boot.

 A successful build often requires the ability to learn from
mistakes.  Almost all of us make mistakes in our builds, I know I
certainly do, as some of my comments in the archives show.
Occasionally, failures cannot be attributed to any particular cause,
but if you get a lot of inexplicable failures it is never a good sign.
Taking the time to understand what went wrong is a good use of your
time - how else will you develop the skills to efficiently build the
software you want in the final system ?

 Specifically, you said you can't chroot, and yesterday you posted an
error message indicating that the command was not found.  The first
task is to determine if you do indeed have chroot installed on the
host.  Might need a run of updatedb, followed by locate or slocate, or
just an invocation of 'find'.  If it's there, invoke it as
/some/unusual/path/to/chroot and if it isn't, use the package manager
to install it.
>  I installed and configured all u 
> to lilo-installation.  this fails as shown  below:-
> 
> 
> ############7.13. Lilo-22.8 install
> 
> AS86 version 0.16.10 or later is required
> as86 is not present
> 
> LD86 version 0.16.10 or later is required
> ld86 is not present
> 
> BCC version 0.16.10 or later is recommended
> bcc is not present
> You will not be able to make floppy2, diag2.img, or lilo.com
> make: *** [test.img] Error 1
> 

 In the immediately previous step you should have compiled
bin86-0.16.17 and installed as86 and ld86 under prefixed names in
/cross-tools/bin.  In this step itself you should have applied the
patch to reference the two programs by the prefixed names.  Go back,
and re-read the book's instructions.  If you didn't miss out section
7.12, you'll have to work out what went wrong.  Favourite cndidates
would be not installing to the correct names, or omitting the lilo
patch.
> #########
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I then decided to use the grub botloader  of the host running fedora8. 
> Unfortunately  it fails to boot.
> 
> I get  the following message:
> 
> ############  boot message below:
> could not open root device  /dev//xxx  or unknown block (0,0)
> please append  a correct "root="
> 
> ##############
> 
> (I have tried various combinations of /dev/sdax /dev/hdax  in /etc/grub/conf 
> (with the appropriate change in $CLFS/etc/fstab without  success.
> 
> Help would be appreciated.
> 
> 
> sincerely
> bv

 I try not to offer support on grub, because I have enough trouble
remembering how to specify my own filesystems to it.  This looks
like a kernel error message, which would mean that grub.conf or
menu.lst has found a kernel image (but, it might be the host's image
- fedora probably uses some sort of initrd or similar which ain't
going to work here).

 If it is indeed your new kernel, you have probably not compiled in
the correct drivers.  You will have to build a working kernel sooner
or later, so if that is the problem go back to the fedora host
system and use lsmod to see which modules are loaded.  The disk
driver(s) and the correct filesystem (ext2 or ext3, probably) _must_
be compiled in (not modules) for your clfs system.

 If by some mischance grub has picked up the fedora kernel, make a
note of how you specified it, compare where the clfs kernel is
situated, and change the specification until it finds it.

 You have three problems here.  I recommend you to take time to
solve the first, because building in chroot is a lot nicer (e.g.
access to a browser and xterms or whatever your term of choice is,
so much easier to do initial searches on google when you have a
problem.

 For the lilo problem, you really should investigate what went
wrong, even though you won't need to build lilo - understanding
what went wrong is the first step to developing a method which works
for *you*.

 The third (grub/kernel) is actually the most serious, at least if
it is caused by an inappropriate kernel .config.  At the end of the
build, you need to be able to boot the new system.  Since you've
built enough to boot, you can keep tuning the .config until it boots
- or, you can leave that until the system is finished.  Doing it now
will probably be the less-painful alternative.  Actually, if you
intend to keep grub then it's worth sorting out even if it's "only"
an error in the grub configuration.

 Good luck in solving these problems.

ĸen
-- 
das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce