PCLinuxOS doesn't boot after Mint install

[Fargo]

OK so I installed Mint 10KDE to check it out.  I can boot into Mint and WInXP but I can not longer boot into PCLinuxOS.  I can see a linux entry for the partion that PCLinuxOS is on, but it doesn't boot PCLOS.  It starts to boot but then it locks up the system with my Caps lock and Scroll lock lights flashing.  Any ideas how to fix this.

[Xenaflux]

Maybe a problem with bootloaders..grub1 and grub2

If Mint uses grub2, you should have installed the mint bootloader in / of mint and chainloaded via PClos..
Also, get prepared to have your post deleted , as was mine last week.
No other distros get discussed here ( rule 8 I think )

[Old-Polack]

OK so I installed Mint 10KDE to check it out.  I can boot into Mint and WInXP but I can not longer boot into PCLinuxOS.  I can see a linux entry for the partion that PCLinuxOS is on, but it doesn't boot PCLOS.  It starts to boot but then it locks up the system with my Caps lock and Scroll lock lights flashing.  Any ideas how to fix this.

Reinstall PCLinuxOS grub.

[ezas]

OK so I installed Mint 10KDE to check it out.  I can boot into Mint and WInXP but I can not longer boot into PCLinuxOS.  I can see a linux entry for the partion that PCLinuxOS is on, but it doesn't boot PCLOS.  It starts to boot but then it locks up the system with my Caps lock and Scroll lock lights flashing.  Any ideas how to fix this.

Reinstall PCLinuxOS grub.

And you can follow the instructions in 5B of this tutorial to easily add a Grub 2 to distro to Grub 1: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html

This method requires that Grub 1 be the boot loader in the MBR and that Grub 2 be installed of the boot partition of the Grub 2 distro. This is the method I use to dual boot PCLOS/Mint/XP.

[uncleV]

OK so I installed Mint 10KDE to check it out.  I can boot into Mint and WInXP but I can not longer boot into PCLinuxOS.  I can see a linux entry for the partion that PCLinuxOS is on, but it doesn't boot PCLOS.  It starts to boot but then it locks up the system with my Caps lock and Scroll lock lights flashing.  Any ideas how to fix this.

Look into Mint's boot/grub/grub.cfg file and probably you'll see an address mismatch in the stanzas dedicated to PCLOS. See there (hdm,n) at the beginning of addressing and a (hdm,n-1) at the end.
If you wish edit the (hdm,n-1) to become (hdm,n).
"m" and "n" being numbers of your hard drives and partitions on them respectively.

[Fargo]

Thanks guys.  After some research I believe that you are correct that it is a grub/grub2 issue. I will try some of the ideas you all had.

old-polack - At one time I had mint installed first and then installed PCLOS and I had the same issue.  So I don't think reinstalling PCLOS grub again will work.  Or am I missing something?  Is this done off of a live cd?

[Old-Polack]

Thanks guys.  After some research I believe that you are correct that it is a grub/grub2 issue. I will try some of the ideas you all had.

old-polack - At one time I had mint installed first and then installed PCLOS and I had the same issue.  So I don't think reinstalling PCLOS grub again will work.  Or am I missing something?  Is this done off of a live cd?

Yes you are; a simple stanza in your menu.lst to boot mint with it's grub2 installed in its own / partition. Something that doesn't rely on corrupting a perfectly good stable bootloader to compensate for a broken beta bootloader that should never have been included with what purports to be a stable system.

[Xenaflux]

many years ago, when we were all using Lilo, it was possible to move the bootloader from the mbr to the / of relevant OS.
Maybe if you use google, you will find something
here is a link
Please note that this is not intended as a solution for your problem.
Maybe it is, and maybe not.
But it is darn interesting and worth a read

Moderator Edit: Link removed.

Have fun reading or fixing

[Old-Polack]

Xenaflux:

The point to be made is the need for moving of grub2 from the MBR to the Mint / partition. Posting a link with instructions for moving grub legacy to a / partition only confuses the issue, as the procedures are not the same. We have literally dozens of examples of that right here on our own forum; we don't need outside links for that.

[Old-Polack]

Fargo:

If you install Mint's bootloader to its own / partition, and boot from the PCLinuxOS legacy grub in the MBR, you can chainload to Mint with this stanza placed in the PCLinuxOS /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Mint
root (hdn,n)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
boot

Replace n with the hard drive number, n with the partition number. Both, hard drive and partition counting, start with 0.

[Fargo]

Fargo:

If you install Mint's bootloader to its own / partition, and boot from the PCLinuxOS legacy grub in the MBR, you can chainload to Mint with this stanza placed in the PCLinuxOS /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Mint
root (hdn,n)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
boot

Replace n with the hard drive number, n with the partition number. Both, hard drive and partition counting, start with 0.

Thanks OP.  It looks like you and Uncle V have about the same solution if Iam understanding it correctly.  I guess I just need to dig in and start working on it before I know exactly what I am doing.  But I think if I can find the time to do it I will figure it out. 

So let me see if I am understanding this correctly.  I will need to reinstall Mint with the boot record on /, then reinstall PCLOS with boot record on sda1, then I will need to go into  PCLOS /boot/grub/menu.lst and make the following changes that you mentioned.

title Mint
root (hdn,n)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
boot

Replace n with the hard drive number, n with the partition number. Both, hard drive and partition counting, start with 0.

If that is correct I think I should be able to do that.  What will happen if I install Mepis or Debian or something later?  Would I just install their grub onto their own / and edit the grub from PCLOS again?

[Old-Polack]

Fargo:

If you install Mint's bootloader to its own / partition, and boot from the PCLinuxOS legacy grub in the MBR, you can chainload to Mint with this stanza placed in the PCLinuxOS /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Mint
root (hdn,n)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
boot

Replace n with the hard drive number, n with the partition number. Both, hard drive and partition counting, start with 0.

Thanks OP.  It looks like you and Uncle V have about the same solution if Iam understanding it correctly.  I guess I just need to dig in and start working on it before I know exactly what I am doing.  But I think if I can find the time to do it I will figure it out. 

So let me see if I am understanding this correctly.  I will need to reinstall Mint with the boot record on /, then reinstall PCLOS with boot record on sda1, then I will need to go into  PCLOS /boot/grub/menu.lst and make the following changes that you mentioned.

title Mint
root (hdn,n)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
boot

Replace n with the hard drive number, n with the partition number. Both, hard drive and partition counting, start with 0.

If that is correct I think I should be able to do that.  What will happen if I install Mepis or Debian or something later?  Would I just install their grub onto their own / and edit the grub from PCLOS again?

You don't need to reinstall anything other than grub2 to the Mint / partition and grub to the MBR. You need to consult Mint docs for the first, and here for the second.

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

[uncleV]

As far as I understand old-polack's suggestion is about using PCLOS's GRUB for booting.

My solution here is how to repair and use the existing Mint's GRUB2 booting. (I really don't like this - but trying to help).
And you can try it immediately and safely given you backed-up the Mint's grub.cfg file.

If you want it done this way post here, please, the content of that file to see what exactly to alter.

[Fargo]

Hi all, I've been weighing my options and I think I will see if I can make the changes to the Mint boot that Uncle V suggested.  This will probably come back to bit me later when I install Mepis, but right now it seems easier than reinstalling the Mint boot loader.  I tried to read the config file myself but I just could quite figure out how to make the correct changes.  So UncleV if you don't mind here is what the grub.cfg looks like.  My PCLOS install is on sda2.  I know one of the entries for some reason says mint on sda2, I'm not sure how that came to be.  But here is my file.  Sorry its awefully long, Mint has memtest and things in there too.  Thanks for the help.

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

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

function load_video {
  insmod vbe
  insmod vga
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### 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/06_mint_theme ###
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
insmod png
if background_image /boot/grub/linuxmint.png ; then
  set color_normal=white/black
  set color_highlight=white/light-gray
else
  set menu_color_normal=white/black
  set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Linux Mint 10 KDE, 2.6.35-22-generic (/dev/sda7)' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
   recordfail
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
   linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85 ro   quiet splash
   initrd   /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
menuentry 'Linux Mint 10 KDE, 2.6.35-22-generic (/dev/sda7) -- recovery mode' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
   recordfail
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
   echo   'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
   linux   /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85 ro single
   echo   'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
   initrd   /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###
### END /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
   linux16   /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos7)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 340f429f-914c-47c6-8215-2ae9e3be8b85
   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 part_msdos
   insmod ntfs
   set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7898abff98abb9d0
   drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
   chainloader +1
}
menuentry "linux (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4 resume=UUID=2fa9f389-17c5-4ca3-a051-a2a92c1c54c8 splash=silent vga=788
   initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img
}
menuentry "linux-nonfb (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4 resume=UUID=2fa9f389-17c5-4ca3-a051-a2a92c1c54c8
   initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img
}
menuentry "failsafe (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4 failsafe
   initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img
}
menuentry "mint (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=mint root=UUID=d09d5441-297b-411f-a697-50186377c521
   initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img
}
menuentry "linux-0 (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/grub BOOT_IMAGE=linux-0 root=UUID=d09d5441-297b-411f-a697-50186377c521
   initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img
}
### 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 ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f  $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
  source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

[Old-Polack]

Fargo:

menuentry "linux-0 (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/grub BOOT_IMAGE=linux-0 root=UUID=d09d5441-297b-411f-a697-50186377c521
   initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img
}

Remove the part in blue completely from this and the next two entries, and edit the menuentry to read PCLinuxOS, so it reads like this.

menuentry "PClinuxOS (on /dev/sda2)" {
   insmod part_msdos
   insmod ext2
   set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
   search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e8cfb9ee-c8dc-4bd2-9e3f-b0d9acc086a4
   linux /boot/grub BOOT_IMAGE=linux-0 root=UUID=d09d5441-297b-411f-a697-50186377c521
   initrd /boot/initrd.img
}

Save the file and boot into PCLinuxOS. You can do the same with the next two entries, once you know it works.

menuentry "linux-nonfb (on /dev/sda2)" { to menuentry "PCLinuxOS-nonfb (on /dev/sda2)" {

menuentry "failsafe (on /dev/sda2)" { to menuentry "PCLinuxOS failsafe (on /dev/sda2)" {