GRUB2 boots from raid1 device only after "grub rescue> insmod linux" + "rescue:grub> normal"

[Charly]

Binary package hint: grub2

GRUB2 doesn't boot karmic from raid1 device (md0). Instead it shows...

   GRUB loading.
   error: cannot get C/H/S values
   grub rescue>

After invoking...

   grub rescue> insmod linux

it shows...

                         GNU GRUB version 1.97~beta4

    [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB
      lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible
      device/file completions. ]

   rescue:grub>

where

   rescue:grub> normal

boots the system (splash screen is shown after six to eight seconds and system boots).

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: NVidia [HDA NVidia], device 0: ALC888 Analog [ALC888 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: lisa 1731 F.... knotify4
                      lisa 1762 F.... kmix
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfead8000 irq 23'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC888'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,18491e01,00100001'
   Controls : 28
   Simple ctrls : 16
DKDisksMonitorLog: Monitoring activity from the disks daemon. Press Ctrl+C to cancel.
Date: Sun Dec 6 20:00:54 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=4876f730-b2d8-4ab2-8ed5-c3fff2e1649e
HotplugNewDevices:

HotplugNewMounts:

IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
Lsusb:
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0ea0:2126 Ours Technology, Inc. 7-in-1 Card Reader
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c045 Logitech, Inc. Optical Mouse
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: To Be Filled By O.E.M. AM2NF4G-SATA2
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-16-generic 2.6.31-16.52
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=da07e16c-699a-442f-b0fc-84c0d6c9b5e4 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-16.52-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-16-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.25
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
Symptom: storage
UdevMonitorLog:
 monitor will print the received events for:
 UDEV - the event which udev sends out after rule processing
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-16-generic x86_64
dmi.bios.date: 03/08/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P1.30
dmi.board.name: AM2NF4G-SATA2
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP1.30:bd03/08/2007:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnAM2NF4G-SATA2:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvn:rnAM2NF4G-SATA2:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: AM2NF4G-SATA2
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

[Charly (canonical-rips-deactivatedaccount)]

Once system bootet without any interaction. Maybe it's a timing problem. But how could it be fixed?

[bonzo (bonzo)]

I see the same problem. I converted from a non-raid single disk system to a 2 disk raid1 system. I've tried
# grub-install /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
# grub-install /dev/md0
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: warn: Attempting to install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. This is a BAD idea..
/usr/sbin/grub-setup: error: embedding is not possible, but this is required when the root device is on a RAID array or LVM volume.

No matter what when booting I get
error: fd0 Cannot get C/H/S values

One thing to note, when using grub2 1.97 the error is:
error: Cannot get C/H/S values
but using (GNU GRUB 1.98~20100128-1ubuntu3) the error is:
error: fd0 Cannot get C/H/S values (grub 1.97 doesn't have the "fd0")

I'm able to "recover" from the grub-rescue prompt by doing the insmod linux as mentioned or:
grub rescue> insmod normal
grub rescue> normal
I am then presented with the boot menu and it proceeds as it should.

Is it an issue with the raid or linux or normal module not getting loaded early enough? How can I tell the order the modules are loaded? How can I change the order?

I have the output from
#grub-install --debug /dev/md0 (or /dev/sda) if that would help.

[ceg (ceg)]

is this 10.04?

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReliableRaid

[bonzo (bonzo)]

My system is currently 9.04 - initially installed with Ubuntu 9.04 (as I recall - is there a way to see what the base install was?), then dist-upgraded to 9.10. Once on 9.10 I converted from a single disk to a raid1 config. I looked through the link you posted but nothing looked quite like the problem I'm seeing. The closest might be bug 491463 ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/initramfs-tools/+bug/491463 ) dealing with initramfs improvements - but I don't know this area deeply so could be mistaken. Is initramfs used for grub2, or is it after you get through the grub2 functionality?

[Nick Semenkovich (semenko)]

This problem has recently disappeared for me.

[ Mine was a clean 10.04 install (I /think/ from Alpha 2), with raid 1 configured in the installer. ]

[mathew (mathew-boon)]

My Karmic install has been fine since I built the machine 5-months ago. It must be a month or two since I rebooted the machine. I now have this problem... so I suspect it has been introduced with an update.

[bonzo (bonzo)]

Upgraded to 10.04 Lucid and the problem has been fixed/went away. I suspect it was from the step during the upgrade just after grub-pc config save where it asked what devices to load grub onto (/dev/sda and /dev/sdb).

[Andrew Cranwell (andrew-cranwell)]

Is this bug still present in any supported release (10.04 onwards)?

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Closing since this appears to have been fixed in 10.04.