<solved> added a 5th OS and now having boot issues

[Phil]

Hi Nish,

He is installing debian via virtualbox to a file rather than to a partition. If it goes wrong or he gets bored he deletes the file, no effect to the real grub or real system. Safer way to play....

This thread is boggling my head, learning new things,

Have fun,

phil

[Nish]

Hi Nish,
He is installing debian via virtualbox to a file rather than to a partition. If it goes wrong or he gets bored he deletes the file, no effect to the real grub or real system. Safer way to play....
This thread is boggling my head, learning new things,
Have fun,
phil

I am having to install mature 64bit distros in order to test a hardware problem.  To be specific, an unlocked core on my cpu.  I am not sure I could trust test results in a VM. 

After a little debacle with another 64bi that had grub2 thought I had the disastrous installs licked as long as I only let their grubs go to partition and chainloaded from my mbr grub.  Guess not. 

[Old-Polack]

Hi Phil - me and deb are old friends. I was running sid from ten years ago and installed more times than I can remember like even before there was a graphical installer.  Though there is a soft spot in my heart for the ncurses dialogues  

Not sure what happened here, grub2 - only thing I can think of is the device map. Checked current map in the grub on my poor ruined PCLOS and it is correct. Why has it gotten into its head that is sda?  And even the PCLOS 2011 liveCD thinks it is sda?  that is scary

I will have to wipe it in a few hours. Need to get back to business and I can't be messing about with this testing distro, need my stable OS back. 

Still would love to know what happened.

With only two hard drives, the boot drive is always (hd0) and the other (hd1). You have three hard drives present. The boot drive is still always seen as (hd0) but the others, in no set order, will be (hd1) and (hd2). Therein lies your problem, and the reason I use a boot partition on each of my drives.

If you copy the boot stanza shown earlier, and paste it immediately below the original, then edit the copy as shown, I think you'll find it will work.

title PCLinuxOS (hd2)
kernel (hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=LABEL=Linux resume=LABEL=swap2 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd2,1)/boot/initrd.img

[Nish]

With only two hard drives, the boot drive is always (hd0) and the other (hd1). You have three hard drives present. The boot drive is still always seen as (hd0) but the others, in no set order, will be (hd1) and (hd2). Therein lies your problem, and the reason I use a boot partition on each of my drives.

If you copy the boot stanza shown earlier, and paste it immediately below the original, then edit the copy as shown, I think you'll find it will work.

title PCLinuxOS (hd2)
kernel (hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=LABEL=Linux resume=LABEL=swap2 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd2,1)/boot/initrd.img

Just did it, and no, it doesn't work.  New message - error 17  cannot mount selected partition

If there is anything else you want to try before I grab the seagate disk and write zeros to this cursed thing let me know.   

[Old-Polack]

With only two hard drives, the boot drive is always (hd0) and the other (hd1). You have three hard drives present. The boot drive is still always seen as (hd0) but the others, in no set order, will be (hd1) and (hd2). Therein lies your problem, and the reason I use a boot partition on each of my drives.

If you copy the boot stanza shown earlier, and paste it immediately below the original, then edit the copy as shown, I think you'll find it will work.

title PCLinuxOS (hd2)
kernel (hd2,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=LABEL=Linux resume=LABEL=swap2 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd2,1)/boot/initrd.img

Just did it, and no, it doesn't work.  New message - error 17  cannot mount selected partition

If there is anything else you want to try before I grab the seagate disk and write zeros to this cursed thing let me know.   

Open a terminal, su to root, and issue these commands;

[root@localhost ~]# mkdir -p /mnt/here                   <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# mount LABEL=Linux /mnt/here                      <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# ls -l /mnt/here                        <Enter>

Post your results.

[Nish]

It looks like my old PCLOS, yep

Code:

[nish@biostar ~]$ su
Password:
[root@biostar ~]# mkdir -p /mnt/here
[root@biostar ~]# mount LABEL=Linux /mnt/here
[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here
total 3356
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Nov 22 06:57 64bit/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jan 23 06:20 bin/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root    4096 Feb 12 09:38 boot/
-rw-------   1 root root 3136096 Feb 12 07:25 dead.letter
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 11 09:18 debian/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Desktop/
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root  135168 May  9  2011 dev/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Documents/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Downloads/
drwxrwxr-x 126 root root   12288 Feb 12 07:31 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root    4096 May  9  2011 home/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 May  9  2011 initrd/
drwxr-xr-x  17 root root   12288 Jan 23 06:20 lib/
drwx------   2 root root   16384 May  9  2011 lost+found/
drwxrwxr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 12 06:51 media/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root    4096 Feb 11 19:38 mnt/
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    1735 Feb  9 07:55 Module.symvers
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Music/
-rw-rw-r--   1 root root       0 Feb  9 07:51 null
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root    4096 Oct  8 07:45 opt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 11 19:43 PCLOS64/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Pictures/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 May  9  2011 proc/
drwxr-x---  30 root root    4096 Feb 12 07:31 root/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   12288 Dec 12 18:10 sbin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 22  2010 swap/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 May  9  2011 sys/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Templates/
drwxrwxrwt  24 root root    4096 Feb 12 07:31 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root    4096 Jul  1  2011 usr/
drwxr-xr-x  18 root root    4096 Jul 24  2011 var/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Videos/
[root@biostar ~]#

[Old-Polack]

It looks like my old PCLOS, yep

Code:

[nish@biostar ~]$ su
Password:
[root@biostar ~]# mkdir -p /mnt/here
[root@biostar ~]# mount LABEL=Linux /mnt/here
[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here
total 3356
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Nov 22 06:57 64bit/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jan 23 06:20 bin/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root    4096 Feb 12 09:38 boot/
-rw-------   1 root root 3136096 Feb 12 07:25 dead.letter
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 11 09:18 debian/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Desktop/
drwxr-xr-x  24 root root  135168 May  9  2011 dev/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Documents/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Downloads/
drwxrwxr-x 126 root root   12288 Feb 12 07:31 etc/
drwxr-xr-x   4 root root    4096 May  9  2011 home/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 May  9  2011 initrd/
drwxr-xr-x  17 root root   12288 Jan 23 06:20 lib/
drwx------   2 root root   16384 May  9  2011 lost+found/
drwxrwxr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 12 06:51 media/
drwxr-xr-x   3 root root    4096 Feb 11 19:38 mnt/
-rw-r--r--   1 root root    1735 Feb  9 07:55 Module.symvers
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Music/
-rw-rw-r--   1 root root       0 Feb  9 07:51 null
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root    4096 Oct  8 07:45 opt/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 11 19:43 PCLOS64/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Pictures/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 May  9  2011 proc/
drwxr-x---  30 root root    4096 Feb 12 07:31 root/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root   12288 Dec 12 18:10 sbin/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Feb 22  2010 swap/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 May  9  2011 sys/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Templates/
drwxrwxrwt  24 root root    4096 Feb 12 07:31 tmp/
drwxr-xr-x  14 root root    4096 Jul  1  2011 usr/
drwxr-xr-x  18 root root    4096 Jul 24  2011 var/
drwxr-xr-x   2 root root    4096 Jun 17  2011 Videos/
[root@biostar ~]#

Well we know the LABEL works.

[root@localhost ~]# cat /mnt/here/boot/grub/menu.lst               <Enter>

[root@localhost ~]# cat /mnt/here/etc/fstab               <Enter>

Post your results.

[Nish]

Code:

Will do this because you told me to  :) and you The Man about this stuff.  But geesh, I think this thing needs an exorcist  :o and assuming I should be root

[root@biostar ~]# cat /mnt/here/boot/grub/menu.lst
timeout 20
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux
root=UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59
resume=UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb
root=UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59
resume=UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe
root=UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59 failsafe
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title 64linux
kernel (hd1,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux
root=UUID=5c07fd18-3a4f-4c00-999e-65e78d0ec473  quiet nokmsboot vmalloc=256M
acpi=on resume=UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,2)/boot/initrd.img

title LXDE64
root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
[root@biostar ~]# cat /mnt/here/etc/fstab
# Entry for /dev/sdb2 :
UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59 / ext3 defaults 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sdb3 :
UUID=5c07fd18-3a4f-4c00-999e-65e78d0ec473 /64bit ext3 user 1 2
# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=fe6c6834-c4a5-48e8-a6fd-b2460b5f83fd /PCLOS64 ext4 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9 swap swap defaults 0 0
[root@biostar ~]#

[Old-Polack]

Code:

Will do this because you told me to  :) and you The Man about this stuff.  But geesh, I think this thing needs an exorcist  :o and assuming I should be root

[root@biostar ~]# cat /mnt/here/boot/grub/menu.lst
timeout 20
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd1,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title linux
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux
root=UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59
resume=UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb
root=UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59
resume=UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe
root=UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59 failsafe
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

title windows
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title 64linux
kernel (hd1,2)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux
root=UUID=5c07fd18-3a4f-4c00-999e-65e78d0ec473  quiet nokmsboot vmalloc=256M
acpi=on resume=UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd1,2)/boot/initrd.img

title LXDE64
root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
[root@biostar ~]# cat /mnt/here/etc/fstab
# Entry for /dev/sdb2 :
UUID=8c42e187-fc24-4216-b576-d79d50381c59 / ext3 defaults 1 1
# Entry for /dev/sdb3 :
UUID=5c07fd18-3a4f-4c00-999e-65e78d0ec473 /64bit ext3 user 1 2
# Entry for /dev/sda6 :
UUID=fe6c6834-c4a5-48e8-a6fd-b2460b5f83fd /PCLOS64 ext4 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
UUID=96630cec-04b4-4526-a344-f578130defd9 swap swap defaults 0 0
[root@biostar ~]#

[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here/boot |grep vm                 <Enter>

[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here/boot |grep init                 <Enter>

Post your results.

[Nish]

The Man on a roll    at this point just following directions and always assuming to be root

Code:

[nish@biostar ~]$ su
Password:
[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here/boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Feb  9 07:52 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2059312 Oct 21  2010 vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330784 Jun  4  2011 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2331328 Jul  8  2011 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs
[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here/boot |grep init
-rw------- 1 root root 6058367 Jun 17  2011 initrd-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 5159026 Jun 17  2011 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 3775061 Feb 11 15:23 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.bak
-rw------- 1 root root 3774854 Feb 12 07:30 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 3775101 Feb 11 17:42 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.old
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      30 Feb  9 07:52 initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.img
[root@biostar ~]#

[Old-Polack]

The Man on a roll    at this point just following directions and always assuming to be root

Code:

[nish@biostar ~]$ su
Password:
[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here/boot |grep vm
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      27 Feb  9 07:52 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2059312 Oct 21  2010 vmlinuz-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2330784 Jun  4  2011 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2331328 Jul  8  2011 vmlinuz-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs
[root@biostar ~]# ls -l /mnt/here/boot |grep init
-rw------- 1 root root 6058367 Jun 17  2011 initrd-2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 5159026 Jun 17  2011 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos1.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 3775061 Feb 11 15:23 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.bak
-rw------- 1 root root 3774854 Feb 12 07:30 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.img
-rw------- 1 root root 3775101 Feb 11 17:42 initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.old
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root      30 Feb  9 07:52 initrd.img -> initrd-2.6.38.8-pclos3.bfs.img
[root@biostar ~]#

I'm trying to figure out what's happening with your boot menu options.

You show a correct kernel and initrd image pair, the links are proper, the UUIDs in the original boot stanza seem correct, the LABEL in the (hd2) stanza works, so the only substantial difference is that one looks for the kernel on (hd1,1) and the other looks for it on (hd2,1). One or the other should work, unless you told me a fib, and your grub is actually installed on the MBR of the same drive, in which case you'd need to look for the kernel on (hd0,1)

Copy the stanza with the LABELs and edit to read;

title PCLinuxOS (hd0)
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=LABEL=Linux resume=LABEL=swap2 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

Reboot and use that stanza.

Unless you're hiding a fourth drive somewhere on that machine, one of those three stanzas has to work.

[Nish]

There is no fourth drive anywhere to be found.  I have two hard disks.  And an external drive via USB.  That's it.  I still don't believe that the few times I booted a PCLOS 2011 live CD it was showing the two installed hard disks flipflopped but it did.  BBL

OK, it worked.  I am here.  


taking that back the hd0,1 does not work but the entry above it did (hd1,1 - but did we not try that?).  Have to try this out a few more times.

Yes, I can confirm the hd1,1 works.  Which is what I did originally, no?    This is what is working

title PCLinuxOS (hd1)
kernel (hd1,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=LABEL=Linux resume=LABEL=swap2 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd1,1)/boot/initrd.img

w

[Old-Polack]

There is no fourth drive anywhere to be found.  I have two hard disks.  And an external drive via USB.  That's it.  I still don't believe that the few times I booted a PCLOS 2011 live CD it was showing the two installed hard disks flipflopped but it did.  BBL

OK, it worked.  I am here. 

So now, what to do to put grub right from here?   Rather than from the other install?  I can just make it the default from there I suppose but that would be too easy 

You can choose any hard drive to be the boot drive. You need to decide which OS should be the one with the master grub, then install grub to the MBR of the same drive it resides on and set that drive as the boot drive in BIOS. Your boot stanza in the master menu.lst should then point to (hd0,n) with n being the partition number, counting from 0.

When you install any additional OS, install that installation's grub to the PBS (Partition Boot Sector) of its / partition, then either copy the first boot stanza from its menu.lst to the master menu.lst of the original installation. Alternately, you can just write a chainload stanza for the new installation in the master menu.lst If the new installation is on a different drive, the stanza you write or copy must be written or edited to look for the kernel and initrd image on (hd1.n). If you install grub to a partition, during the initial installation, you will be asked which drive you actually boot from, and if you give the correct answer, this will already be taken care of.

You can use the grub native install method to choose which installations grub will be the master grub. You can do this from the installed system or a liveCD. The instructions are the same for either.

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,62786.msg508062.html#msg508062

[Nish]

Rather than mess with anything when it is working, I am just making this option the default from the other grub.  I just can't take any more excitement, rilly.  This works.  That's ok by me    If I try and make a new menu.lst here that works I am liable to screw something up. 

thanks

[Old-Polack]

Rather than mess with anything when it is working, I am just making this option the default from the other grub.  I just can't take any more excitement, rilly.  This works.  That's ok by me    If I try and make a new menu.lst here that works I am liable to screw something up. 

thanks