grub2 refuses to boot my HP laptop
by Gordie from LinuxQuestions.org on (#5EME2)
grub2 refuses to boot my HP laptop
Hi,
Trust me, I have Googled my face off trying to find a solution but only find Kali / Windows videos and solutions for other problems I have never heard of.
My previous laptop was a Lenovo Thinkpad W510 with legacy boot. There was no option for UEFI. There was no problem using grub or lilo to boot it. The Thinkpad finally packed it in and I managed to find an HP Elitebook as a replacement. After originally moving the hard drive from the old laptop to this one to see if my Linux install would still work, I replaced and maxed out the RAM to 16 Gb and changed the 500 Gb hard drive for a 500 Gb SSD. That is how it sits today
Slackware64-current made the trip to the new laptop without many problems just by moving the hard drive over and booting up. That was a big surprise. I had backup to use but didn't need it. All but one of the few problems has been fixed. That one problem is grub2. The latest from the Slackware site is grub-2.04-x86_64-3 but it won't install. The error reads that the "Decompressor is too big" and the workaround is to revert to grub-2.02_beta3-x86_64-2. I reverted to the earlier grub-2.02_beta3-x86_64-2 and it installs to the MBR . For all intents and purposes things appear to be OK. Here is the command:
RUN AS ROOT
Code:grub-install --target i386-pc /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgIt shows "Installation finished. No error reported."
Upon rebooting the computer sits unresponsive at the HP logo and shows an instruction that says to use the escape key to enter the BIOS settings. No dice, no response at all to any key. What I have to do is beat on the "tab" key as fast as possible while rebooting. That brings up a menu for BIOS choices and one choice says hit enter to continue so I do and NOW THE GRUB MENU IS REVEALED.
First menu item is a generic kernel and that fails to boot.
Next is a huge kernel and it boots.
Sorry for the lengthy narrative but I just wanted to include the info I remember and the story helps me do that.
Grub used to work on my old laptop but not on this one and I know not why. Now I need lilo to boot this laptop.
Hi,
Trust me, I have Googled my face off trying to find a solution but only find Kali / Windows videos and solutions for other problems I have never heard of.
My previous laptop was a Lenovo Thinkpad W510 with legacy boot. There was no option for UEFI. There was no problem using grub or lilo to boot it. The Thinkpad finally packed it in and I managed to find an HP Elitebook as a replacement. After originally moving the hard drive from the old laptop to this one to see if my Linux install would still work, I replaced and maxed out the RAM to 16 Gb and changed the 500 Gb hard drive for a 500 Gb SSD. That is how it sits today
Slackware64-current made the trip to the new laptop without many problems just by moving the hard drive over and booting up. That was a big surprise. I had backup to use but didn't need it. All but one of the few problems has been fixed. That one problem is grub2. The latest from the Slackware site is grub-2.04-x86_64-3 but it won't install. The error reads that the "Decompressor is too big" and the workaround is to revert to grub-2.02_beta3-x86_64-2. I reverted to the earlier grub-2.02_beta3-x86_64-2 and it installs to the MBR . For all intents and purposes things appear to be OK. Here is the command:
RUN AS ROOT
Code:grub-install --target i386-pc /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfgIt shows "Installation finished. No error reported."
Upon rebooting the computer sits unresponsive at the HP logo and shows an instruction that says to use the escape key to enter the BIOS settings. No dice, no response at all to any key. What I have to do is beat on the "tab" key as fast as possible while rebooting. That brings up a menu for BIOS choices and one choice says hit enter to continue so I do and NOW THE GRUB MENU IS REVEALED.
First menu item is a generic kernel and that fails to boot.
Next is a huge kernel and it boots.
Sorry for the lengthy narrative but I just wanted to include the info I remember and the story helps me do that.
Grub used to work on my old laptop but not on this one and I know not why. Now I need lilo to boot this laptop.