Ubuntu
grub package

Grub and error 21

Asked by w4sef

I am new to Linux but been using and working on IBM types since 1986 so I am no novice...I installed a third HD to install Linux ubunta 6.10. When all was done and I rebooted all I got was Grub error 21. I could not access ANYTHING....and, to make matters worse it screwed up my MBR on the C drive!! I would up losing EVERYTHING on the C drive. To say that I was not pleased is an understatement!! I hate Windoze and wanted to try Linux but now my attitude is very bad now towards trying it again. What went wrong? i was expecting to get a dual boot menu but nada!

Steve Fritts

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xiphon (ali-fay) said : 		#1

Have a read of this:

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub/+bug/8978/comments/14

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John Arthur Fensome (fensj) said : 		#2

BugFix:

Grub Loader problems:- "OS will not boot halts at Grub loader" as seen in versions 5.04 / 6.06 / 6.10 / 7.04 (& beta) / 7.10

Most of these are created by the grub loader reading (or attempting to read) an area that it can't see because of the DMA settings.

Fix: Rather simple really go into your BIOS and reset the IDE hard-drive settings from (Auto) to a DMA mode the hard-drvie does not recognise,

 e.g. On the following two motherboards, Asus A8V Deluxe (model A + B I'm building two for friends) and Asus A7V 880, the hard-drives are seen automatically and the drives set according to the reported back DMA mode is auto-selected (using Seagate Barracuda 120gb, 250gb, and 320gb ATA {also known as PATA} 16mb cache drives are seen as UDMA modes 5 and 6, and Hitachi Deskstar 80gb (these drives are the same as IBM I believe.)

 Set the value to one NOT recognised by the drive (ignore motherboard modes) and set them to UDMA 4, if your drive uses DMA4 or UDMA 4 use a lower value or adjust accordingly.

 This will force the grub loader to read the relevant DMA/UDMA mode directly from the drive and not from the motherboard BIOS, so it then selects the correct mode and can read the drive. (If it trys to read from the motherboard BIOS it stalls and this is where the problem [BUG] occurs.

Acknowledgements:-

 This information was gleaned from the web pages at http://www.ubuntulinux.org {it is not my own}

 I hope that this helps people fix the majority of the Grub booting problem[s].

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