GRUB-2 Bootloader fails to load for lack of floppy drive. Ubuntu 10.4 & Windows XP

Question

2010.07.21 while trying to install Ubuntu 10.4

Hello all,

I've been trying to install Ubuntu 10.04 on my Dell workstation and am unable to get the Grub-2 bootloader to load properly. It seems to be failing for lack of a floppy drive on the system resulting in an error message that reads :

error: fd0 cannot get C/H/S values.  

I've gone through the Grub-2 page at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2 to no avail and other sources having similar problems have likewise turned up no solutions. I would certainly appreciate any insight, here's the background:

A while back I was trying to install a different version of Linux and had the same problems, then had to set the project aside for a bit. I don't think this has anything to do with Linux or Ubuntu per se, but rather Grub.

The system is an old (4-5 years) Dell workstation that has one drive (128 GB) set up for Windows XP and a second new drive (500GB) which I installed for Linux. There is a DVD/CD drive and the system contains no floppy drive at all. In one attempt to get this working I tried modifying the BIOS to indicate there was a floppy drive - this created a failure earlier in the chain with the BIOS failing to load properly, not unexpected, just a shot in the dark at that point.

At the moment I am considering just running out to buy and install a cheap floppy drive to see if that helps. I'll never use the thing though so I'd rather find a solution that doesn't require me to spend money on useless hardware.

In any case, here's the /boot/grub/grub.cfg contents:

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
insmod play
play 480 440 1
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd1,1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 ro   quiet splash
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-21-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
 recordfail
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd1,1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988
 echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.32-21-generic ...'
 linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-21-generic root=UUID=fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988 ro single 


 echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-21-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd1,1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988
 linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
 insmod ext2
 set root='(hd1,1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set fbebde47-f488-41b0-9480-337802ecb988
 linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda1)" {
 insmod ntfs
 set root='(hd0,1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 6ef0d4b4f0d4842d
 drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
 chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Is there a setting in your BIOS for floppy emulation? If so, try turning it on, and it might solve (or at least workaround) the issue. If not, check for a "legacy USB" or similar option that makes the BIOS not start USB devices, and that might help. When you modified the BIOS to indicate there was a floppy drive, and it errored, what exactly did you do, and what exactly happened?

From what I can tell, the error can be caused by certain BIOSes reporting usb devices as floppies. Grub then tries to probe for a floppy, and doesn't find an actual one, and borks. Assuming this is what is going on, it's supposedly fixed in grub-1.98-1 -- although upgrading to that may be more of a pain than it's worth.

Putting a floppy in the system might solve the issue, I'm honestly not sure. It seems like it would, but that's a pretty nasty workaround.

Answer 2

Try turning the floppy controller off completely in the BIOS. It may be trying to initialize a device that doesn't exist. If GRUB can't see a controller, it shuold naturally do nothing at all about floppy.