MX Linux Forum

Route 2(b): One of the options listed on the initial MX Live splash screen menu is to 'Boot from Hard Disk'. Selecting this option opens a black, terminal-style screen with the words "Grub loading, Welcome to Grub...". Then after a few moments the message "error: attempt to read and write outside of disk 'hd0'", followed by a new line saying "grub rescue>". I have no idea what I could type into the space which follows. So I can only again do Ctrl-Alt-Del to get back to the initial screen display, in order to try the next possibility....

oops wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 1:34 pm ... to see first some potential errors and warninge you can try in the terminal :
sudo dmesg -k -l emerg,alert,crit,err,warn ; dmesg | egrep -i --color 'error|critical|failed'

$ sudo dmesg -k -l emerg,alert,crit,err,warn ; dmesg | egrep -i --color 'error|critical|failed'
[sudo] password for brian:           
[    0.457367] acpi PNP0A03:00: fail to add MMCONFIG information, can't access extended PCI configuration space under this bridge.
[    0.503459] pnp 00:00: disabling [mem 0x000c8e00-0x000cbfff] because it overlaps 0000:01:00.0 BAR 6 [mem 0x000c0000-0x000dffff]
[   10.666962] ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[   15.526961] ata1: SRST failed (errno=-16)
[   20.726961] ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[   25.586960] ata1: SRST failed (errno=-16)
[   30.786960] ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
[  233.587426] device-mapper: core: CONFIG_IMA_DISABLE_HTABLE is disabled. Duplicate IMA measurements will not be recorded in the IMA log.
dmesg: read kernel buffer failed: Operation not permitted

j2mcgreg wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 1:39 pm
Your hard drive is nineteen years old and has almost certainly failed.

Yup, it is an ancient machine. But I did try to check the condition of the hard drive using the "Disks" utility. The verdict was that the drive was OK, and had just 3 bad sectors. That doesn't seem to me to explain the problem I have described.

CharlesV wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 4:56 pm MX Boot repair will give you a few options to try, you might start there and see if either reinstalling or repairing grub might help.

This issue sounds to me like something is possibly running the wrong grub? and then eventually figuring it out. If you can wipe the drive, that might be another method to see whats up - wipe the drive and then reinstall.. and personally I would install into one partition / and see if that helps things.

oops wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 5:38 pm ... You can also try for an old PC, a old kernel (ex: 5.10.xx , or 4.19.xx antiX via MXPI)
https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html

br1anstorm wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 5:43 pm

CharlesV wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 4:56 pm MX Boot repair will give you a few options to try, you might start there and see if either reinstalling or repairing grub might help.

This issue sounds to me like something is possibly running the wrong grub? and then eventually figuring it out. If you can wipe the drive, that might be another method to see whats up - wipe the drive and then reinstall.. and personally I would install into one partition / and see if that helps things.

Thanks, @CharlesV . Although I didn't say so in my original post, I have tried actions on those lines already, but they don't seem to have made any difference. I used to have both MX and Mint on this old computer, and encountered difficulties with booting up. So in an attempt to simplify matters I wiped and reformatted the hard drive and then installed MX 23.5 alone, using the default settings, as a clean fresh install on the whole disk (ie with just the / (root) and /home partitions). That's how the setup is currently configured.

I assume that this default installation puts the MX Grub into the MBR (which is I think the norm). I noted that MX had a Boot Repair tool, so I tried that. It gives the option of reinstalling the [repaired] Grub into the MBR and/or the partition containing MX 23. I ticked the boxes for both. I may thus have two Grubs (how do I check?) . But neither appears to function automatically when I try to boot up from the hard drive. And I am still mystified by the error message which refers to "....failed attempts to read or write outside of disk 'hd0'" . What does that message actually mean?

CharlesV wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 6:30 pm
....
You might try the reverse of the 'auto install' .

....

oops wrote: ↑Sat Apr 19, 2025 6:25 pm
PS: about the ata1: SRST failed (errno=-16) ... maybe it is the jumper setting.

oops wrote: ↑Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:37 am ... For the Hdd jumper, yes, or just see if the actual setting is correct (CS or Master, not Slave).

• Accidental deletion
  Accidental format
  File corruption
  Software "bugs"
  File system corruption
  And much more

• Drive powers up, but is not recognized by the computer;
  Drive powers up, but is recognized wrongly, sometimes with nonsensical characters;
  Drive freezes during booting up;

• Hard disk still accessible but appear to “hang” or “sluggish”;
  Constant Cyclic Redundancy (CRC) errors;
  Unable to access folders or files which can be seen

br1anstorm wrote: ↑Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:55 am

oops wrote: ↑Sun Apr 20, 2025 8:37 am ... For the Hdd jumper, yes, or just see if the actual setting is correct (CS or Master, not Slave).

According to the information in the BIOS, the hard disk drive is set as the Primary Master. The CD/DVD is shown as the Secondary Master. No Slave disks are identified.

CharlesV wrote: ↑Sun Apr 20, 2025 10:55 am Well... one of the things I really like about Western Digital drives... is also one of the most problematic things I have ever seen on hard drives - *many* WD's dont just die.. they fail slowly... and typically with spectacular results.
...

I am starting to think that j2mcgreg may be 100% correct on the drive giving out (or a part of it is bad - say the first part of FAT)

If it were me... the next thing I would do is to put in a new / different drive and test with that. ALL of what you are seeing very well could be that of a drive that has several poorly performing / bad sectors in the very worst spot.

I got a replacement hard drive: used, wiped and tested, guaranteed clean and good. To ensure compatibility, I got exactly the same make, model and spec as the original: a Western Digital 160GB WD1600BB-56RDA0.

j2mcgreg wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 2:50 pm @br1anstorm wrote:

I got a replacement hard drive: used, wiped and tested, guaranteed clean and good. To ensure compatibility, I got exactly the same make, model and spec as the original: a Western Digital 160GB WD1600BB-56RDA0.

I think that your mistake was in duplicating the original model rather than using a different brand. Your method assumes that the defect in the original was unique rather than being series wide. Rather than taking that chance, I would have searched for the newest IDE drive I could find.

Gabriel_M wrote: ↑Thu Apr 24, 2025 5:53 pm It seems that the BIOS is having trouble finding your hard drive.

Try changing the dip switches (according to what you see on the internet you have them) as Master and as CS cable select.

You can also try adding to the boot line:

Code: Select all

insmod = ide-generic

j2mcgreg wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 2:27 pm

Code: Select all

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

This would open grub with administrative powers in the nano text editor. Is that what you were trying to do?

j2mcgreg wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 3:43 pm When you replaced the HDD did you also replace the ribbon cable as I suggested?

Gabriel_M wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 4:41 pm **Try setting the HDD as Master: jumper pins 5 and 6**

Code: Select all

ata1: SRST failed (errno=-16)

Older PATA drives, if not configured correctly for master/slave (master, slave, single, cable-selected), can cause serious problems.

Gabriel_M wrote: ↑Fri Apr 25, 2025 8:00 pm It only affects how the HDD is recognized by the BIOS, it has no effect on the CD/DVD, nor on the data contained on the HDD.

brianstorm: As I understand it - and as shown in the initial screen when I try to boot up - the Western Digital hard disk drive is already set as the Master. The CDROM (is that considered a "drive"?) is listed as the Slave.

trawglodyte wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 6:09 pm Your QSI says you have a 64-bit processor. Can you install the 64-bit version of MX Linux or does it have to be 32-bit for some other reason?

br1anstorm wrote: ↑Sat Apr 26, 2025 6:32 pm Do you have any insight into the cause of the problems and the reason for the error messages which I have documented in this thread?

br1anstorm wrote: ↑Sun Apr 27, 2025 6:37 am Thanks @FullScale4Me for your ramblings...

Just a quick response on the thoughts you offer.

The subject of boot flags, LBA etc is way above my pay grade. I had a look at the Wikipedia explanation of LBA. It might as well have been written in Chinese or Greek. I couldn't begin to understand it. It follows that I'm hardly equipped to investigate and experiment in GParted: I wouldn't know what to look for, what to do, or what to change.

<snip>

The problem seems to be that on powering up, as the boot process (BIOS?) goes through whatever steps it has to go through, it cannot see, find or access the hard drive. Why not? Is it a bootloader problem? Is it somehow related to the settings in the BIOS? That remains the unanswered question. And so far, I haven't found an answer. I'm still hoping that someone with greater expertise than me will review all the evidence and suggest possible solutions!

• Left click to highlight the partition.

• Right click for menu.

• Left click Manage flags.