grub

[Lloyd Kvam]

On Thu, 2007-10-11 at 15:29 -0500, mike miller wrote:
> Could this be a failing 
> motherboard?  I'm not getting any consistent error messages.  

I think the boot process is wired to the start of the disk drive.  If
that part of the disk is failing, you will have grief.  If you boot a
live CD and use (fix the devices - you mentioned sdb, but I assume you
boot from sda)
        smartctl  --all /dev/sda
        smartctl --test=long /dev/sda
you may get some useful information.  You can also use dd to copy off
the first blocks of the drive to run comparisons.  

I would not blame the motherboard if Windows can boot.

grub usually provides some kind of message - or linux will depending on
the failure.  I'm puzzled at the silence.

I deal with boot woes every three or four years and muddle through.  By
the time my next boot adventure comes along enough things have changed
so that my old notes are not helpful.  Hopefully you'll hear from
someone who knows what they're doing.

> Should I just 
> give up and use this for windows and build another machine for linux? 
> Should I just reestablish relations with my slide rule? 

-- 
Lloyd Kvam
Venix Corp
DLSLUG/GNHLUG library
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=dlslug