"grub" command works, but GRUB boot loader hangs

[Ben Liblit]

I am trying to use GRUB 0.90 on a Linux/Windows machine.  My GRUB
build is courtesy of Red Hat's "grub-0.90-7.i386.rpm", which is part
of their recently announced beta release.

The "grub" command, run under Linux, works just fine.  It correctly
identifies my hard drives and their respective partitions.  However,
using GRUB as a boot loader does not work.  It misidentifies my hard
drives and hangs on any nontrivial attempt to access them.  LILO, by
contrast, works just fine.

My system is an older Micron Millennia with two SCSI disks and one IDE
disk.  I boot off of one of the SCSI disks; the IDE disk is connected
as a secondary drive.  There's also a floppy tape drive controller in
this system; perhaps that's important.  Specifically:

        Adaptec 2940 Ultra/Ultra Wide SCSI adapter (BIOS v. 1.21)
                Western Digital (WDE9150 ULTRA3) hard drive
                        SCSI ID: 0
                        Linux device: /dev/sda
                        GRUB drive: 0x81 (hd1)
                        geometry: 1112/255/63 (C/H/S)
                        primary partition:
                                Linux device: /dev/sda1
                                GRUB drive: (hd1,0)
                                filesystem: FAT32 (0x0b)
                                cylinder interval: 0 - 729
                        primary partition:
                                Linux device: /dev/sda2
                                GRUB drive: (hd1,1)
                                filesystem: Linux swap (0x82)
                                cylinder interval: 730 - 745
                        primary partition:
                                Linux device: /dev/sda3
                                GRUB drive: (hd1,2)
                                filesystem: Linux ext2 (0x83)
                                cylinder interval: 746 - 1111

                Seagate (ST34520W) hard drive
                        SCSI ID: 2
                        Linux device: /dev/sdb
                        GRUB drive: 0x82 (hd2)
                        geometry: 553/255/63 (C/H/S)
                        primary partition:
                                Linux device: /dev/sdb1
                                GRUB drive: (hd2,0)
                                filesystem: FAT32 (0x0b)
                                cylinder interval: 0 - 552

                Plextor (PX-6XCS) CD-ROM drive
                        SCSI ID: 4
                        Linux device: /dev/scd0


        Intel 82371FB PIIX IDE controller
                WDC AC22100H ATA hard drive
                        channel: secondary
                        role: master
                        Linux device: /dev/hdc
                        GRUB drive: 0x80 (hd0)
                        geometry: 4092/16/63 (C/H/S)
                        primary partition:
                                Linux device: /dev/hdc
                                GRUB drive: (hd0,0)
                                filesystem: ReiserFS (0x83)
                                cylinder interval: 0 - 4091


        Seagate (CTC-2Mb) QIC-117 floppy tape drive controller
                Conner TSM850R/1700R/TST3200R floppy tape drive

        Pentium 150MHz
        PhoenixBIOS 4.04 M-M54Hi-11

        3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Voodoo 3 graphics controller
        Lite-On Communications Inc ethernet controller


As I said, the "grub" command run under Linux identifies everything
correctly.  It looks like I would use (hd1,0) and (hd1,2) to boot
Windows and Linux, respectively.

However, I decided to try out a boot floppy first.  I built the floppy
disk using "cat stage1 stage2 > /dev/fd0" and booted it.  Now things
start to fall apart.

The first time I use tab completion on devices, GRUB hangs for eleven
seconds.  For example, if I type "geometry (" and hit <tab>, I get an
eleven second hang.  After eleven seconds, GRUB wakes back up and
offers the following completions: "fd0 fd1 hd0 hd1".

If I now select one of the hard drives, and ask for tab completion on
partition numbers, GRUB hangs permanently.  For example, if I type
"geometry (hd0," and hit <tab>, GRUB hangs and I most press the
hardware reset button.

Similarly, if I avoid tab completion and just type a partition number
directly, GRUB also hangs permanently.  For example, if I type
"rootnoverify (hd0,0)", GRUB hangs and I most press the hardware reset
button.

Does anyone have any suggestions?  I'd really like to ditch LILO in
favor of GRUB, but so far my boot floppy experiments are not
encouraging.

Is there any additional information I can provide?  I've attached
below the output from "lspci -vv", which might answer questions about
other hardware in the system.  If there is important information that
I have omitted, please just tell me what you need to know.

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 430FX - 82437FX TSC [Triton I] (rev 02)
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- 
<TAbort- <MAbort+ >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 32

00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371FB PIIX ISA [Triton I] (rev 02)
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- 
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 0

00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371FB PIIX IDE [Triton I] (rev 02) 
(prog-if 80 [Master])
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- 
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 32
        Region 4: I/O ports at fbf0 [size=16]

00:11.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7881U
        Control: I/O- Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV+ VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- 
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64 (2000ns min, 2000ns max), cache line size 04
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 10
        Region 0: I/O ports at fc00 [disabled] [size=256]
        Region 1: Memory at f0dff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]

00:12.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX (rev 20)
        Subsystem: Kingston Technologies: Unknown device f002
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR+ FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- 
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Latency: 64
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 9
        Region 0: I/O ports at f400 [size=256]
        Region 1: Memory at f0dfec00 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=256K]

00:13.0 VGA compatible controller: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. Voodoo 3 (rev 01) 
(prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: 3Dfx Interactive, Inc.: Unknown device 0057
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- 
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- 
<MAbort- >SERR- <PERR+
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 11
        Region 0: Memory at ee000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
        Region 1: Memory at ec000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=32M]
        Region 2: I/O ports at f000 [size=256]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [60] Power Management version 1
                Flags: PMEClk- DSI+ D1- D2- AuxCurrent=0mA 
PME(D0-,D1-,D2-,D3hot-,D3cold-)
                Status: D0 PME-Enable- DSel=0 DScale=0 PME-