error loading operating system

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hello,

My pc got stuck one morning recently (certainly mixed up ide and sata drivers and changed the name of disks …)

My aim is to find a way to a non moving install. SO that disks can NOT be renamed by the OS.
I guess UUID is the better way to fix this annoying problem.
Am i right ?
Have you been investigating this matter before ?

Here’s what i did :

i did a fresh install of opensuse 11.2
I erased swap, /, /home and kept some previous partitions like /data1 …

in yast partitioner i used uuid option in fstab for everything : is this supposed to work ?

after the install i can use the pc but the system is very slow to respond while downloading . For example adding 3 repositories will take something like 20 minutes :frowning:

After some updates : codecs, kde … i reboot the pc.
I can see the Bios logo and then comes a black screen and a message in the top left corner :
error loading operating system

Nothing more.

¨Pc not starting at all.

Any tips or ideas are welcome :wink:

2

I don’t understand what you’ve been trying to achieve. Can you be more explicite on what you’re trying to do in fstab?

3

Hi :wink:

Disks can be mixed up when you boot (/dev/sda is seen differently, now seen as /dev/sdb for example) and then the pc can’t boot anymore.

GO in Yast, then partitionner, enter one of your disk and then choose the “modify” option.
You’ll see a way to change the fstab options , amongst with is uuid .

In this same place you can choose how the disks are seen by the os : either by name, by id, by path, or by uuid.

If disks are set in the /dev/sdx form then you can have this problem, if set in the /dev/by-id form also.

I’m trying to find a way to fix this problem once and for all, i therefore set everyhting with uuid.

If you have some time and want to try this is a virtual machine for example it’d be interesting to see if you have the same result.

4

do you know where is the MBR with only sata disks ?

5

Disks don’t get messed up when you boot. Not unless you mess with the BIOS boot order.

AFAIK there’s no difference between IDE and SATA disks concerning the place of the MBR.

Still, I cannot see which problem you’re trying to solve, or want help with.

6

I explained it all above :expressionless:

7

In GRUB, hit Escape to go to text mode. This opens the possibility to edit the lines for booting. “No operating system installed” means it’s trying to boot from a partition containing no OS. So, something definitely wrong in GRUB.

8

hi :wink:

i realised i had 2 places in bios with disk order, i set them the same as there was a difference.

I reinstalled erasing swap, / and /home and using the other data partitions i had.
I used uuid option in fstab for all these.

During the install some packages were missing : yast2-qt, yast2-qt-graph, java_1_6_0_openjdk, yakuake (i added them afterwards).

Also the /home file system was not recognized by the system, mentionning it as unknown in the summary even if it was listed as ox83linux in the detail of the partition, i thus erased /home and put it in ext4 so that it was correctly seen afterwards.

Now my system works But it is very slow :
surfing the web is definitly slower than usual, adding 3 repos will take some 20 minutes (instead of a few seconds), updating with zypper and upgrading is a nightmare for it takes hours to refresh the repos , then you stop it completly bored.

I had very full disks so i moved data to be sure disks have at least 20% free, i checked the disk with smart monitoring tools and selftest results show no error.

I still need to test ram with memtest but i doubt it’s a problem for it turned ok with seven for hours.
Also i noticed i did not mount /home , i’m gonna correct this asap.

Do you have any idea what can disturb and slow down the pc like that ?
is it uuid in fstab (?) :expressionless:

Thanks :wink:

edit :
oh, also the boot fails somatimes: i have a message saying

system boot fails, enter bios and load defaults …

What is this linked with ?

9

I still don’t see the use of it, but this may be my lack of knowledge. Disk “letters”, sda, sdb etc don’t get mixed up, unless you mess with the BIOS.

I suggest you first install according to defaults, see if performance is normal, make backup copies of /boot and /etc, then start experimenting. The problems you’re having don’t exactly make me want to test this :).

BTW, where did you get this idea, that disks get mixed up?

10

When fstab is listed in a way and suddenly your disks are renamed by the os then the os gets confused and can’t boot anymore, you often need to reinstall grub to solve this.

Linux boots one of the 1st two IDE disks if ide And sata disks are available.
i was asking about the boot order if only using sata disks. I know know it’s as seen by the bios : sata1/2/3 … and nothing to do with the connections on the motherboard.

Now the bios is producing is boot failure message and there is a reason which i’m looking for.

I have already loaded default boot options, it’s cahnging nothing, the desktop comes then the pc freezes.

i mentionned virtual machine for testing purpose :wink: