[gentoo-user] vbox vm no boot

[gentoo-user] vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Fresh install of gentoo as guest vm on win7

Configured kernel, fdisked like so:

/dev/sda1 boot
/dev/sda2 swap
/dev/sda3 /

set boot as bootable

emerged various things...
emerged grub and ran it 

grub
  root (hd0,0)

  setup (hd0,0)
  bla bla
  [...]
  succeeded


Edited fstab

/dev/sda1       /boot [...]
/dev/sda2       swap  [...]
/dev/sda3       /     [...]
[...]

But, when I remove the livecd and attempt to boot from hdd, its a
total failure:

FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted

So it appears that as has always been the case, there is some PITA
stopping up the works.

So what is the trick here... one googled result says to boot with
something containing gparted and set the boot partition
bootable.. that cfdisk doesn't work.

I used fdisk... is there anything to that claim.. or better yet what
do I need to do here.

Re: [gentoo-user] vbox vm no boot

[Alan McKinnon]

On Sun, 04 Dec 2011 15:53:40 -0600
Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:

> Fresh install of gentoo as guest vm on win7
> 
> Configured kernel, fdisked like so:
> 
> /dev/sda1 boot
> /dev/sda2 swap
> /dev/sda3 /
> 
> set boot as bootable
> 
> emerged various things...
> emerged grub and ran it 
> 
> grub
>   root (hd0,0)
> 
>   setup (hd0,0)
>   bla bla
>   [...]
>   succeeded
> 
> 
> Edited fstab
> 
> /dev/sda1       /boot [...]
> /dev/sda2       swap  [...]
> /dev/sda3       /     [...]
> [...]
> 
> But, when I remove the livecd and attempt to boot from hdd, its a
> total failure:
> 
> FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted
> 
> So it appears that as has always been the case, there is some PITA
> stopping up the works.
> 
> So what is the trick here... one googled result says to boot with
> something containing gparted and set the boot partition
> bootable.. that cfdisk doesn't work.
> 
> I used fdisk... is there anything to that claim.. or better yet what
> do I need to do here.

A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup. Let's
examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.

What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
host for that vm?



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup. Let's
> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
>
> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
> host for that vm?

I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:

   www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi

I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3 and on
Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no other
choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that... now I
see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last tried
it.

I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
failure.

Maybe those are not related to the problem?

[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:

> Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
>
> [...]
>
>> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup. Let's
>> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
>>
>> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
>> host for that vm?
>
> I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
>
>    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
>
> I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3 and on
> Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no other
> choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that... now I
> see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last tried
> it.
>
> I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> failure.
>
> Maybe those are not related to the problem?

Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I have
always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now present and
accounted for...

www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>
> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
> > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> > [...]
> >
> >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup. Let's
> >> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
> >>
> >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
> >> host for that vm?
> >
> > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> >
> >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> >
> > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3 and on
> > Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no other
> > choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that... now I
> > see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last tried
> > it.
> >
> > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> > failure.
> >
> > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
>
> Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I have
> always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now present and
> accounted for...
>
> www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
>

Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)

Rgds,

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[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:

> On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>>
>> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>>
>> > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
>> >
>> > [...]
>> >
>> >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup. Let's
>> >> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
>> >>
>> >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
>> >> host for that vm?
>> >
>> > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
>> >
>> >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
>> >
>> > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3 and on
>> > Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no other
>> > choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that... now I
>> > see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last tried
>> > it.
>> >
>> > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
>> > failure.
>> >
>> > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
>>
>> Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
>> gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I have
>> always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now present and
>> accounted for...
>>
>> www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
>>
>
> Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)

Yes it is, and its missing because I have no idea what it wants.  Do you?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 5, 2011 7:55 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>
> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
>
> > On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> >>
> >> > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> >> >
> >> > [...]
> >> >
> >> >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup.
Let's
> >> >> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
> >> >>
> >> >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
> >> >> host for that vm?
> >> >
> >> > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> >> >
> >> >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> >> >
> >> > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3 and on
> >> > Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no other
> >> > choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that... now I
> >> > see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last tried
> >> > it.
> >> >
> >> > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> >> > failure.
> >> >
> >> > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
> >>
> >> Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> >> gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I have
> >> always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now present and
> >> accounted for...
> >>
> >> www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> >>
> >
> > Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)
>
> Yes it is, and its missing because I have no idea what it wants.  Do you?
>

I'm still on my way to the office, so I can't for sure tell you what,  but
IIRC if you use Vbox's default settings for a Gentoo Linux VM, it's ICH9.

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Alan McKinnon]

On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 07:34:46 +0700
Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:

> On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >
> > Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> >
> > > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> > >
> > > [...]
> > >
> > >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup.
> > >> Let's examine the host settings first as that affects booting
> > >> too.
> > >>
> > >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the
> > >> VBox host for that vm?
> > >
> > > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> > >
> > >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> > >
> > > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3
> > > and on Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were
> > > no other choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like
> > > that... now I see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated
> > > since I last tried it.
> > >
> > > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> > > failure.
> > >
> > > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
> >
> > Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> > gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I
> > have always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now
> > present and accounted for...
> >
> > www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> >
> 
> Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)

I'm not convinced. The error is:

FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted

That's a BIOS error, the vm's kernel and it's drivers have not yet been
loaded, never mind running when that happens. In this respect a VM
works just like physical hardware, so what does one do with that error
on physical hardware? you check the BIOS settings.

Harry, start the VM and engage the BIOS setup, see what it has been
configured to do wrt booting.



-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Alan McKinnon]

On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 08:01:57 +0700
Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:

> On Dec 5, 2011 7:55 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >
> > Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
> >
> > > On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> > >>
> > >> > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> > >> >
> > >> > [...]
> > >> >
> > >> >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same
> > >> >> setup.
> Let's
> > >> >> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
> > >> >>
> > >> >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on
> > >> >> the VBox host for that vm?
> > >> >
> > >> > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> > >> >
> > >> >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> > >> >
> > >> > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3
> > >> > and on Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there
> > >> > were no other choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was
> > >> > ok like that... now I see the dropdown on Storage has gotten
> > >> > populated since I last tried it.
> > >> >
> > >> > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> > >> > failure.
> > >> >
> > >> > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
> > >>
> > >> Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> > >> gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs
> > >> I have always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now
> > >> present and accounted for...
> > >>
> > >> www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> > >>
> > >
> > > Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)
> >
> > Yes it is, and its missing because I have no idea what it wants.
> > Do you?
> >
> 
> I'm still on my way to the office, so I can't for sure tell you
> what,  but IIRC if you use Vbox's default settings for a Gentoo Linux
> VM, it's ICH9.

At least on a Linux host, PIIX works fine for Linux guests. Performance
sucks rather majorly[1], but it does at least work. 

[1] "sucks" meaning lots of IOwaiting resulting in top showing
excessive load figures on the host. Probably a case of PIIX not being
optimized and running very generic, slow, code.

-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 5, 2011 8:01 AM, "Pandu Poluan" <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>
>
> On Dec 5, 2011 7:55 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >
> > Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
> >
> > Yes it is, and its missing because I have no idea what it wants.  Do
you?
> >
>
> I'm still on my way to the office, so I can't for sure tell you what,
but IIRC if you use Vbox's default settings for a Gentoo Linux VM, it's
ICH9.
>

Here's my suggestion :

1. Go to http://www.kernel.org/doc/menuconfig/x86.html

2. Search for "ICH"

3. Activate / enable the setting in make menuconfig

4. The usual steps : make, make modules_install, copy kernel to /boot, edit
menu.lst

Good luck!

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 5, 2011 8:13 AM, "Alan McKinnon" <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 07:34:46 +0700
> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
>
> > On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> > >
> > > > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> > > >
> > > > [...]
> > > >
> > > >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup.
> > > >> Let's examine the host settings first as that affects booting
> > > >> too.
> > > >>
> > > >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the
> > > >> VBox host for that vm?
> > > >
> > > > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> > > >
> > > >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> > > >
> > > > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3
> > > > and on Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were
> > > > no other choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like
> > > > that... now I see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated
> > > > since I last tried it.
> > > >
> > > > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> > > > failure.
> > > >
> > > > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
> > >
> > > Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> > > gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I
> > > have always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now
> > > present and accounted for...
> > >
> > > www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> > >
> >
> > Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)
>
> I'm not convinced. The error is:
>
> FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted
>

Have you seen his last screen cap? The latest error message is now:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root.

The preceding lines don't indicate the kernel recognizing any hard disks,
so I guessed the right driver has not been loaded.

Rgds,

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[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:

> FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted
>
> That's a BIOS error, the vm's kernel and it's drivers have not yet been
> loaded, never mind running when that happens. In this respect a VM
> works just like physical hardware, so what does one do with that error
> on physical hardware? you check the BIOS settings.
>
> Harry, start the VM and engage the BIOS setup, see what it has been
> configured to do wrt booting.

You may have missed a post where I reported that resetting /dev/sda1
as bootable using gparted rather than fdisk, allowed the boot to
proceed.  We are now at a kernel panic posted at:

   www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi

Where it appears there is a missing driver.

[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:

> On Dec 5, 2011 7:55 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>>
>> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
>>
>> > On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>> >>
>> >> > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
>> >> >
>> >> > [...]
>> >> >
>> >> >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup.
> Let's
>> >> >> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
>> >> >>
>> >> >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the VBox
>> >> >> host for that vm?
>> >> >
>> >> > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
>> >> >
>> >> >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
>> >> >
>> >> > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3 and on
>> >> > Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no other
>> >> > choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that... now I
>> >> > see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last tried
>> >> > it.
>> >> >
>> >> > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
>> >> > failure.
>> >> >
>> >> > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
>> >>
>> >> Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
>> >> gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I have
>> >> always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now present and
>> >> accounted for...
>> >>
>> >> www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
>> >>
>> >
>> > Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)
>>
>> Yes it is, and its missing because I have no idea what it wants.  Do you?
>>
>
> I'm still on my way to the office, so I can't for sure tell you what,  but
> IIRC if you use Vbox's default settings for a Gentoo Linux VM, it's ICH9.

I'll try that, but I think I've noticed what is missing when I clicked
on the storage tab and then on the sata controller... it shows type
AHCI and that suddenly rang a bell.  I think that may be it... but
right now I've ditched the vm I was trying to setup and started over.
So I'll be a little while getting to the boot from disc stage again.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 5, 2011 8:35 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>
> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
>
> > On Dec 5, 2011 7:55 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
> >>
> >> > On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> >> >>
> >> >> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> >> >>
> >> >> > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> >> >> >
> >> >> > [...]
> >> >> >
> >> >> >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same setup.
> > Let's
> >> >> >> examine the host settings first as that affects booting too.
> >> >> >>
> >> >> >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on the
VBox
> >> >> >> host for that vm?
> >> >> >
> >> >> > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> >> >> >
> >> >> >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> >> >> >
> >> >> > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3
and on
> >> >> > Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there were no
other
> >> >> > choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was ok like that...
now I
> >> >> > see the dropdown on Storage has gotten populated since I last
tried
> >> >> > it.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the same
> >> >> > failure.
> >> >> >
> >> >> > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
> >> >>
> >> >> Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> >> >> gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs I
have
> >> >> always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now present and
> >> >> accounted for...
> >> >>
> >> >> www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)
> >>
> >> Yes it is, and its missing because I have no idea what it wants.  Do
you?
> >>
> >
> > I'm still on my way to the office, so I can't for sure tell you what,
 but
> > IIRC if you use Vbox's default settings for a Gentoo Linux VM, it's
ICH9.
>
> I'll try that, but I think I've noticed what is missing when I clicked
> on the storage tab and then on the sata controller... it shows type
> AHCI and that suddenly rang a bell.  I think that may be it... but
> right now I've ditched the vm I was trying to setup and started over.
> So I'll be a little while getting to the boot from disc stage again.
>

Just before emerging the source, you really should tarball *everything*
(except /proc, /sys, /var/tmp/*, and /usr/portage/distfiles/*), so you can
just 'pick up where you left it' :-)

Rgds,

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[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:

> Just before emerging the source, you really should tarball *everything*
> (except /proc, /sys, /var/tmp/*, and /usr/portage/distfiles/*), so you can
> just 'pick up where you left it' :-)
>

That's almost as slow as starting over from scratch... hehe.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 5, 2011 10:42 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>
> Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> writes:
>
> > Just before emerging the source, you really should tarball *everything*
> > (except /proc, /sys, /var/tmp/*, and /usr/portage/distfiles/*), so you
can
> > just 'pick up where you left it' :-)
> >
>
> That's almost as slow as starting over from scratch... hehe.
>

In my case, I've successfully re-used the "stage3.5" tarball anytime I need
to deploy a new Gentoo VM. Saves on download time :-)

(I also have gcc upgraded to 4.5.3 and performed the acrobatics necessary
to activate gcc's Graphite feature, and upgraded glibc, *before* creating
stage3.5, so yes it's a huge timesaver for me)

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Mick]

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On Monday 05 Dec 2011 01:25:06 Harry Putnam wrote:
> Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> > FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted
> > 
> > That's a BIOS error, the vm's kernel and it's drivers have not yet been
> > loaded, never mind running when that happens. In this respect a VM
> > works just like physical hardware, so what does one do with that error
> > on physical hardware? you check the BIOS settings.
> > 
> > Harry, start the VM and engage the BIOS setup, see what it has been
> > configured to do wrt booting.
> 
> You may have missed a post where I reported that resetting /dev/sda1
> as bootable using gparted rather than fdisk, allowed the boot to
> proceed.  We are now at a kernel panic posted at:
> 
>    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> 
> Where it appears there is a missing driver.

Did you try to untick the floppy drive (from the storage tab)?
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Alan McKinnon]

On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 08:20:22 +0700
Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:

> On Dec 5, 2011 8:13 AM, "Alan McKinnon" <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 5 Dec 2011 07:34:46 +0700
> > Pandu Poluan <pandu@poluan.info> wrote:
> >
> > > On Dec 5, 2011 7:19 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
> > > >
> > > > > Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:
> > > > >
> > > > > [...]
> > > > >
> > > > >> A Gentoo VM on a Linux host works fine here with the same
> > > > >> setup. Let's examine the host settings first as that affects
> > > > >> booting too.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> What settings do you have on the System and Storage tabs on
> > > > >> the VBox host for that vm?
> > > > >
> > > > > I guess the easiest is to post screen shots of those tabs:
> > > > >
> > > > >    www.jtan.com/~reader/vu2/disp.cgi
> > > > >
> > > > > I did notice that on System tab the chipset is listed as piix3
> > > > > and on Storage Tab it shows `type' as PIIX4.  At first there
> > > > > were no other choices on the drop downs, so I assumed it was
> > > > > ok like that... now I see the dropdown on Storage has gotten
> > > > > populated since I last tried it.
> > > > >
> > > > > I set it to match the System `chip' PIIX3... but still the
> > > > > same failure.
> > > > >
> > > > > Maybe those are not related to the problem?
> > > >
> > > > Haa... that google hit I mentioned about resetting bootable with
> > > > gparted worked... Now bootup starts.  But the same old sorry bs
> > > > I have always hit with gentoo when trying to setup a vm is now
> > > > present and accounted for...
> > > >
> > > > www.jtan.com/~reader/vu1/disp.cgi
> > > >
> > >
> > > Seems to be a case of missing driver to me :-)
> >
> > I'm not convinced. The error is:
> >
> > FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted
> >
> 
> Have you seen his last screen cap? The latest error message is now:
> 
> Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root.
> 
> The preceding lines don't indicate the kernel recognizing any hard
> disks, so I guessed the right driver has not been loaded.


Yes, I see the latest screenshot now. Must have missed that one.

Harry, that error almost always indicates you do not have the drivers
for PIIX compiled into the kernel. I assume you are not using an
initramfs so that driver must be compiled in, not a module.

In make menuconfig, it's found at Device Drivers -> Serial ATA and
Parallel ATA drivers

Similar for the file system driver (presumably ext2|3|4) for the
partition hosting /boot, that too must be compiled in (not a module)


-- 
Alan McKinnnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> writes:

> Yes, I see the latest screenshot now. Must have missed that one.
>
> Harry, that error almost always indicates you do not have the drivers
> for PIIX compiled into the kernel. I assume you are not using an
> initramfs so that driver must be compiled in, not a module.
>
> In make menuconfig, it's found at Device Drivers -> Serial ATA and
> Parallel ATA drivers

Those are selected as builtin

> Similar for the file system driver (presumably ext2|3|4) for the
> partition hosting /boot, that too must be compiled in (not a module)

Ditto here

That is for the new attempt... I have yet to try booting it, but from
your suggestions it sounds like I may have it right this time.

I posted another screen grab but never saw it show up here.  Trying again

   http://www.jtan.com/~reader/vu3/disp.cgi

Note:
The first image (filename Driver.png) doesn't show the last 10/12 lines
of menuconfig due to monitor constraints, but they are all unselected.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Claudio Roberto França Pereira]

From the first post, you've ran, under grub, setup (hd0,0). This
installs grub on the first partition boot loader, you want to install
it on the DISK boot loader, on the MBR. Maybe gparted fixed that for
you. The correct way would be to run:
root (hd0,0) //indicate where grub stage 1.5 and 2 are.
setup (hd0) //install grub's stage 1 on the MBR.

About the second error, the kernel is definitely detecting your sata
controller, the partitions are all there. It seems that you missed to
append the root=/dev/sda3 to the kernel parameters, under grub.conf.

In the end, I'd recommend disabling ext2 fs support in the kernel too,
and use ext4 to mount ext2 and ext3 file systems.

[gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Harry Putnam]

Claudio Roberto França Pereira <spideybr@gmail.com> writes:

> From the first post, you've ran, under grub, setup (hd0,0). This
> installs grub on the first partition boot loader, you want to install
> it on the DISK boot loader, on the MBR. Maybe gparted fixed that for
> you. The correct way would be to run:
> root (hd0,0) //indicate where grub stage 1.5 and 2 are.
> setup (hd0) //install grub's stage 1 on the MBR.

That was a nice catch ... I sure did F___ this up from beginning to
end.  Relying on memory let me do setup (hd0,0) which like you say is
really wrong.  And what makes it worse is that the install
documentation tells you exactly what to run... I didn't even look,
just thought I `remembered'

> About the second error, the kernel is definitely detecting your sata
> controller, the partitions are all there. It seems that you missed to
> append the root=/dev/sda3 to the kernel parameters, under grub.conf.

Another good catch, and I caught it too, at some point.

> In the end, I'd recommend disabling ext2 fs support in the kernel too,
> and use ext4 to mount ext2 and ext3 file systems.

Why is that?

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Pandu Poluan]

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On Dec 6, 2011 8:00 AM, "Harry Putnam" <reader@newsguy.com> wrote:
>
> Claudio Roberto França Pereira <spideybr@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > From the first post, you've ran, under grub, setup (hd0,0). This
> > installs grub on the first partition boot loader, you want to install
> > it on the DISK boot loader, on the MBR. Maybe gparted fixed that for
> > you. The correct way would be to run:
> > root (hd0,0) //indicate where grub stage 1.5 and 2 are.
> > setup (hd0) //install grub's stage 1 on the MBR.
>
> That was a nice catch ... I sure did F___ this up from beginning to
> end.  Relying on memory let me do setup (hd0,0) which like you say is
> really wrong.  And what makes it worse is that the install
> documentation tells you exactly what to run... I didn't even look,
> just thought I `remembered'
>

Age is a harsh mistress :-)

> > About the second error, the kernel is definitely detecting your sata
> > controller, the partitions are all there. It seems that you missed to
> > append the root=/dev/sda3 to the kernel parameters, under grub.conf.
>
> Another good catch, and I caught it too, at some point.
>
> > In the end, I'd recommend disabling ext2 fs support in the kernel too,
> > and use ext4 to mount ext2 and ext3 file systems.
>
> Why is that?

ext4 driver is perfectly capable of mounting ext2/3, so you'll save memory.
And before btrfs matures, you can expect the kernel people to optimize ext4
to hell and back.

I'm not (yet) aware of any additional benefits.

Rgds,

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Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Claudio Roberto França Pereira]

Yeah, just for simplicity. This way you just have one extended file
system driver that works for the second, third and forth version of
the file system.

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: vbox vm no boot

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, Dec 05, 2011 at 08:26:07AM -0600, Harry Putnam wrote

> That is for the new attempt... I have yet to try booting it, but from
> your suggestions it sounds like I may have it right this time.
> 
> I posted another screen grab but never saw it show up here.  Trying again
> 
>    http://www.jtan.com/~reader/vu3/disp.cgi

  I had similar "can't find boot device" problems with qemu-kvm.  I don't
know if it's relevant or not to your situation, but try changing all
"sda?" entries to "hda?" in /etc/fstab and lilo/grub the virtual
machine.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>