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I switched from an Ubuntu to the CentOS yesterday. But it seems I have messed my installation somehow, since OS will only start correctly if the USB with the installation is plugged in.

Long story:

I've downloaded a live DVD CentOS 6 from the public repository, and using it with unetbotin created USB installation. That USB was used to install CentOS.

During the installation, (only 1 ) hard disk was mounted under /sdb and USB installation was mounted under /sda. I "think" I selected to boot from the /sdb.

Output of sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
249 heads, 62 sectors/track, 126540 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15438 * 512 = 7904256 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x671e6467

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1       26533   204800000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2           26533       28557    15624193    5  Extended
/dev/sdb4   *       28569      126540   756238336   83  Linux
/dev/sdb5           26533       28557    15624192   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sda: 8086 MB, 8086618112 bytes
37 heads, 13 sectors/track, 32836 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 481 * 512 = 246272 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x90909090

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           5       32837     7896064    b  W95 FAT32

Wierd thing:
if the USB stick is not connected to the machine, the boot screen will show up ( with both new installation of the CentOS and old Windows installation). But after I select either of them, after few seconds the machine will reboot. If the USB is connected, the same or similar boot screen shows up I OS starts normally.

I've tried to reinstall GRUB using grub-install using /dev/sdb and /dev/sda options, but I wasn't able to make progress.

Also, I don't understand purpose and content of the device.map file:

(hd0)   /dev/sda
(hd1)   /dev/sdb

I tried removing /dev/sda from the device.map, which also doesn't help.

grub.conf from /boot/grub/

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You do not have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#          root (hd1,3)
#          kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sdb4
#          initrd /boot/initrd-[generic-]version.img
#boot=/dev/sda
default=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,3)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
title CentOS (2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd1,3)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64 ro root=UUID=6cbcc55f-3342-4e85-a4c2-8355e73962f2 rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=croat rd_NO_MD quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb crashkernel=128M rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_DM
        initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-220.2.1.el6.x86_64.img
title CentOS (2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64)
        root (hd1,3)
        kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64 ro root=UUID=6cbcc55f-3342-4e85-a4c2-8355e73962f2 rd_NO_LUKS LANG=en_US.UTF-8  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=croat rd_NO_MD quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb crashkernel=128M rd_NO_LVM rd_NO_DM
        initrd /boot/initramfs-2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64.img
title Other
        rootnoverify (hd1,0)
        chainloader +1

EDIT: more information
by deleting "quiet" and "rhgb" from the grub.conf I was able to see the error message : No devices found .

1 Answer 1

5

It seems the problem was incorrect mapping of the hard disk.
If the USB was plugged in during boot, hard disk was recognized as hd1; but if there wasn't the USB, it was recognized as hd0.

Fixed the problem by changing grub.conf to use hd0.

2
  • 1
    That was gonna be my guess ;) Jan 23, 2012 at 1:16
  • 1
    @Nils, I need to wait 2 days from answering my question to accept it. Deadline is tomorrow.
    – bbaja42
    Jan 23, 2012 at 7:01

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