Bug#550902: bug installing debian 5.03 - perhaps related to grub

[jeffunit]

Package: grub or debian installation
Version: unknown

I installed debian 5.03 on my computer, using the dvd image.
The install seemed to go fine.
When I rebooted, I got a grub message about with an error like
'error 15'. I did not get to the grub boot menu.

The machine is a fileserver with 6 ide disks running mdadm.
There is a 7th ide disk where I installed the os (dual booting with windows).
The motherboard is an asus cur-dls, with 2 pentium III 933 processors, 1.1gb
of ram, and two promise tx-100x2 cards, with the ide drives attached to them.
The dvd drive is attached to the ide controller on the motherboard.

When the install got to the grub installation, it detected windows 
xp, and asked if
there were any other os's (which there were not).

After the system failed to boot, I reinstalled 5.03, using the expert 
install option.
There were no additional grub configuration options.
The os install seemed to mess up the partition table on my mdadm array.
After installing mandriva 2009.1, I had to reformat the partition.

I suspect the problem is the os disk is not the first disk detected 
by the bios.
Previous to installing 5.03, I was running mandriva 2007. After being unable
to install debian, I successfully installed mandriva 2009.1, which 
also used grub.
The grub configuration was successful at booting mandriva as well as 
windows xp.
The bios was set to boot the os disk first.

I can't provide the exact error message, as I was unable to boot the machine.
I can't provide a transcript for the same reason.
I suspect that your grub configuration had the wrong disk configured in it.
I don't know the exact version of grub, or the kernel, as I couldn't 
boot the os.

jeff