Error 23 at boot: Error while parsing number

tmoonen · October 19, 2011, 11:43pm

dear helping hand,

since two days i notice an error (error 23) at boot which forces me to start up in Failsafe mode (desktop mode does no longer work)
Fortunately the failsafe mode lets me do most or all the things i normally do, however, i’d like to have thigs running without errors if possible…

just before the error appeared I had installed the qt UI for Gnome’s Yast, becasue the gtk one got me stuck without possibilty of confirming a necessary confirmation screen for upgrades/downloads/replacement.

The install seemed to go wrong (error message at final install: System management is blocked by app. id.8780 (YAST2/bin/y2base (dutch: Systeembeheer is geblokkeerd door de applicatie met pid 8780 (/usr/lib/YaST2/bin/y2base)
However, afterwards the QT UI seemed to be succesfully installed.

Also, i have been running an external HardDisk with a RAID option/function, for some time prior to the appearance of Error 23.

I tried running YAST-> System -> bootloader (with the Desktop mode set to default.)
It seemed to (re)install the bootloader, but had no effect on the error last time i checked.

Thanks for your help

Tom

robin_listas · October 20, 2011, 12:13am

On 2011-10-19 23:46, tmoonen wrote:
>
> dear helping hand,
>
> since two days i notice an error (error 23) at boot which forces me to
> start up in Failsafe mode (desktop mode does no longer work)

23 : Error while parsing number
This error is returned if GRUB was expecting to read a number and
encountered bad data.

You have to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and correct the error.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

tmoonen · October 20, 2011, 5:55pm

Thanks Carlos

I found the file, made a copy and opened it to study, but i don’t know what to change.
it’s printed below.
When booting was going a status message ’ did not succeed in making an image for next boot’ was shown. I didn’t note it down as i had activated a boot logger just before… couldn’t find this message though in the bootlog (which i could not attached due to forum policy). I’ll take note next boot.

Please tell me if you see anything obviously wrong, so i could correct it.
Thanks again!
Tom

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on wo okt 19 23:46:07 CEST 2011

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 5
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Desktop – openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part2 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=none
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part2 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop

robin_listas · October 21, 2011, 2:43pm

On 2011-10-20 17:56, tmoonen wrote:

> I found the file, made a copy and opened it to study, but i don’t know
> what to change.
> it’s printed below.

But you did not use code tags, so it makes it difficult to read.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

tmoonen · October 24, 2011, 9:23pm

a link too my bootlog: (too big to fit on the blog):
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11nzTlVOo3VxKeLYySFNqIgC9R9ROjyL_pzh5abgIDXU/edit?hl=en_US

will put the above message within codeblocks next…

tmoonen · October 24, 2011, 9:27pm

thanks again Carlos,

here’s the file, this time within CODE tags… please, anyone with the knowledge, tell me if you see anything that should be changed.
Thanks!

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on wo okt 19 23:46:07 CEST 2011
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 5
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Desktop -- openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part2 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=none
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part2 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop

knurpht · October 24, 2011, 10:43pm

Could it be the “vga=none”, AFAIK this should be 0xhex number, in your case (see Failsafe bootline) “vga=0x31a”. Also AFAIK “vga=normal” is another non numeric option.

Sorry, Carlos, if I gave away your secret…

robin_listas · October 24, 2011, 10:48pm

On 2011-10-24 21:36, tmoonen wrote:

> here’s the file, this time within CODE tags… please, anyone with the
> knowledge, tell me if you see anything that should be changed.
> Thanks!
>
>
> Code:
> --------------------
> # Modified by YaST2. Last modification on wo okt 19 23:46:07 CEST 2011
> # THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
> # Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader
>
> default 0
> timeout 5
> ##YaST - generic_mbr
> gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
> ##YaST - activate
>
> ###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
> title Desktop – openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
> root (hd0,1)
> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part2 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=none
> initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
>
> ###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
> title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.7
> root (hd0,1)
> kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-HTS541080G9AT00_MP28XBXBH2WZES-part2 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x31A
> initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
> --------------------

The problem is that I do not see what could be causing that error 23.
Unless there is another grub installed somewhere and this is the wrong file.

The only strange thing is the “devfs=mount,dall” parameter. It’s new for me.

About the boot log, it is useless, because it comes from the failsafe
entry. There is no problem there.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

robin_listas · October 25, 2011, 12:13am

On 2011-10-24 22:46, Knurpht wrote:
>
> Could it be the “vga=none”, AFAIK this should be 0xhex number, in your
> case (see Failsafe bootline) “vga=0x31a”. Also AFAIK “vga=normal” is
> another non numeric option.
>
> Sorry, Carlos, if I gave away your secret…

But grub doesn’t parse that part of the line, it passes it to the kernel.
Everything that is behind the “kernel” token is passed as is.

The error 23 typically goes for the “(hd0,1)” part, that misses a part. For
example “(hd0,hd1)”.

It is a pain that grub is not more explicit with what it doesn’t
understand, it could print the exact line and mark the bad word.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

tmoonen · November 2, 2011, 4:51pm

The error message has gone, apparently it accepted the VGA changes I made…

It still mentions a ’ set up Grub entry for next boot cycle: FAILED’ in the startup status reports though…

thanks everybody for your ideas and help.

robin_listas · November 4, 2011, 11:33am

On 2011-11-02 16:56, tmoonen wrote:
> It still mentions a ’ set up Grub entry for next boot cycle: FAILED’
> in the startup status reports though…

Weird.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)