Solaris 10 x86 ends in grub

Question

Hi Frends!
When I try to boot Solaris 10 on my x86 PC it takes me to the GRUB> prompt.
Solaris 10 been a perfect gem of an Operating system been working perfectly fine till now.
My PC spec:
x86 PC Celeron 2.0 ghz
735 mb ram.
s3 prosavage ddr onboard
Primary : 5 GB Solaris
Primary: 10 GB Free FAT32
Primary: 5 GB Windows XP NTFS
Primary: 54 GB Free NTFS
Cause of the problem is as follows:
I wanted to install Netbeans and other SUN software so tried to make room my mounting the 10 GB FAT32 partition manually in solaris.
mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/c0d0p0:1
This worked allright. To automate the process I added entry in /etc/vhstab file
#device device mount FS fsck mount
#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot
/dev/dsk/c0d0p0:1 - /c pcfs - yes -
Till here it worked fine.
After reboot the GRUB menu was gone and all I could get was the
GRUB> prompt
I tried the following in the GRUB>
root <enter>File system type unknown; parttype 0x7
root (hd0,0)File system type unknown; parttype 0xbf
root (hd0,1)File system type unknown; parttype 0x7
root (hd0,2)File system type unknown; parttype 0x7
root (hd0,3)File system type unknown; parttype 0x7
root (hd0,4)No filesystem
(hd0,0) contains the solaris10
GRUB>root (hd0,0)
GRUB>kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot
Error 17: could not mount selected partition
or
GRUB>kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/unix -s
Error 17: could not mount selected partition
or
GRUB>kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/unix -B
Error 17: could not mount selected partition
GRUB>module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive
GRUB>boot
also tried
GRUB>find /grub/stage1
file not found
GRUB>find /grub/stage2
file not found
also tried
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0,0)
Error 17: could not mount selected partition
Is there a way out of this or do i need to reinstall a fresh copy or repair using the Solaris DVD.
Please suggest a method by which i will be able to boot into the system from the GRUB> prompt and restore the system.
I faced a similar situation earlier but then i was able to follow the above steps to boot into the system and restore the menu.lst by using installgrub.
Please help.
Thank You in advance.

Answer 1

For the first time Solaris multiboot users, I recommend installing it as the last OS occupying the last primary partition (hd0,3). But it is possible to install Solaris, Linux then Windows if you are willing to edit menu.lst and add Linux and Windows boot stanzae manually. Any subsequent Windows or major service pack installation would wipe out grub installed by Solaris. But re-installation of grub that comes with Solaris is not that difficult - all you need is a boot cd/dvd or floppy disk containing usf version of grub.
# grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
(hd0,0,a) This is the answer from grub and depends on whre your Solaris is located at+
grub> root (hd0,0,a)
filesystem is ufs, partition type 0xbf
grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if “boot/grub/stage1” exists...yes
Checking if “boot/grub/stage2” exists...yes
Checking if “boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5” exists...yes
Running “embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5(hd0)”...16 sectors
are embedded... succeeded
Running “install /boot/grub/stage1(hd0) (hd0)1+16p (hd0,0,a)
/boot/grub/stage2/boot/grub/menu.lst”... succeeded
Done.
grub> quit
# reboot
Solaris version of grub and Linux version appear and behave much the same but they are not interchangeable. Solaris version has enhanced support for both ufs and ext2 and Solaris slices (sub-partitions) whereas Linux version lacks all these features. Both versions can competently boot Windows by chain loading (pointing Windows boot partition) since all Windows contains its Windows specific boot loader (typically ntldr) pointer within its PBR (partition boot record).
You can however re-install grub within Solaris or Linux PBR instead of MBR so that they can be invoked from chain loading from Windows boot.ini or any third party boot loaders.
Unfortunately GNU grub makes various inconsistent boot scenarios since it writes menu.lst based on disk and partition hierarchy based on BIOS presented order at time of OS installation and has no ability to dynamically rewrite OS location in menu.lst thereafter even though its binary is able to see disk and partition hierarchy change on the fly. Therefore it hands wrong partition information of OS boot kernel image location simply following old menu.lst. That is why Solaris GUI based interactive installation omitted such options to install on a disk other than boot disk set from BIOS.
I do not have any working knowledge of other versions of grub even though their newest versions are 2.x. since the current Solaris and most other Unix like OS including Linux all use grub version 0.9x, If you want to install Solaris or Linux on the disks other than boot disk, then you need a BIOS that can easily re-assign boot order or hide the disk if you install Solaris on the second or third disk in the system that has multiple disks.
Back in Solaris 8 generation, there were debian and slackware linux kernel 2.1.x which can compile to mount, read and write access to Solaris version of ufs (Unix file system). But forget it with current Linux kernel 2.6.x. To boot Solaris manually from ufs version of grub is not as difficult as linux. Solaris kernel name is easy enough to memorise since it does not contain complicated version numbers and decimal points like linux. Good thing about manual boot from grub prompt will bypass wrong 'menu.lst' entry and gives you a chance to re-edit wrong 'menu.lst' entry.
There are no third party boot loaders I know of capable of re-editing Solaris menu.lst dynamically however installing System Commander or Ranish Boot Manager may help understanding various boot techniques. These third party boot loaders require a fat16 partition for its own use or shared with fat16 compatible OS for maximum flexibility since they need to store images of PBR, MBR, real and virtual partition tables, boot codes and the like in its OS management/tracking directory. System Commander can dynamically rewrite boot.ini after each partition change but such capability is limited on Windows platform only.
Learning of manual grub setup or unix/linux 'dd' command to back up MBR would always be great help to restore system after Windows wiping out grub or other boot images.
GNU grub www.gnu.org/software/grub/
GNU Parted www.sorcefroge.net
System Commander www.download.com
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