Problems with swap partition

[Juergen Kreileder]

Hi,

installing GRUB (Debian version: 0.92+cvs20021128-1) seems to make my
swap partition unusable.  And running mkswap on that partition again
makes GRUB unusable.

The system has this partition table:

,----
| Disk /dev/hda: 61.4 GB, 61492838400 bytes
| 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7476 cylinders
| Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
| 
|    Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
| /dev/hda1          7475      7476     16065   83  Linux
| /dev/hda2          7444      7474    249007+  83  Linux
| /dev/hda3             1       249   2000092   82  Linux swap
| /dev/hda4           250      7443  57785805    5  Extended
| /dev/hda5           250       311    498014+  83  Linux
| /dev/hda6           312      5202  39286957   83  Linux
| /dev/hda7          5203      7194  16000739+  83  Linux
| /dev/hda8          7195      7443   2000092   83  Linux
`----

All Linux partitions have an ext3 fs.  hda2 is /, hda1 is /boot.

I've installed GRUB with "grub-install --root-directory=/boot
/dev/hda".  My menu.lst is appended below.

After that, booting with GRUB worked fine but /dev/hda3 no longer was
recognized as a swap partition ("Unable to find swap-space
signature").
I've then did a 'mkswap /dev/hda3' and tried to reboot.  However I
just saw GRUB writing some message on the screen (wasn't displayed
long enough to actually read it) and then the maschine rebooted
again (it didn't reach the boot menu) and again.

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong?  How do I keep GRUB from
modifying the swap partition?

LILO works fine with same partition layout.


        Juergen

,----[ menu.lst ]
| # /boot/grub/menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
| # --------------------       grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
| #                            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
| #                            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.
| 
| ## default num
| # Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
| # the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
| #
| # You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
| # is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.           
| default               0
| 
| ## timeout sec
| # Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default 
entry
| # (normally the first entry defined).
| timeout               5
| 
| # Pretty colours
| color cyan/blue white/blue
| 
| ## password ['--md5'] passwd
| # If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
| # control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the
| # command 'lock'
| # e.g. password topsecret
| #      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
| # password topsecret
| 
| #
| # examples
| #
| # title               Windows 95/98/NT/2000
| # root                (hd0,0)
| # makeactive
| # chainloader +1
| #
| # title               Linux
| # root                (hd0,1)
| # kernel      /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
| #
| 
| #
| # Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST
| 
| ### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
| ## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
| ## by the debian update-grub script except for the default optons below
| 
| ## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs
| 
| ## ## Start Default Options ##
| ## default kernel options
| ## default kernel options for automagic boot options
| ## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
| # kopt=root=/dev/hda2 ro
| 
| ## default grub root device
| ## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
| # groot=(hd0,0)
| 
| ## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
| ## e.g. alternative=true
| ##      alternative=false
| # alternative=true
| 
| ## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
| ## e.g. lockalternative=true
| ##      lockalternative=false
| # lockalternative=false
| 
| ## altoption boot targets option
| ## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
| ## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
| ##      altoptions=(recovery mode) single
| # altoptions=(recovery mode) single
| 
| ## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
| ## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
| ## alternative kernel options
| ## e.g. howmany=all
| ##      howmany=7
| # howmany=all
| 
| ## ## End Default Options ##
| 
| title         Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.20-ac1
| root          (hd0,0)
| kernel                /vmlinuz-2.4.20-ac1 root=/dev/hda2 ro
| savedefault
| boot
| 
| title         Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.20-ac1 (recovery mode)
| root          (hd0,0)
| kernel                /vmlinuz-2.4.20-ac1 root=/dev/hda2 ro single
| savedefault
| boot
| 
| title         Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.20
| root          (hd0,0)
| kernel                /vmlinuz-2.4.20 root=/dev/hda2 ro
| savedefault
| boot
| 
| title         Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.4.20 (recovery mode)
| root          (hd0,0)
| kernel                /vmlinuz-2.4.20 root=/dev/hda2 ro single
| savedefault
| boot
| 
| ### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
`----

,----[ device.map ]
| (fd0)   /dev/fd0
| (hd0)   /dev/hda
`----

-- 
Juergen Kreileder, Blackdown Java-Linux Team
http://www.blackdown.org/java-linux/java2-status/