problems with dual booting LXDE & Parted Magic

[jamesmayxt]

    Let my tell you I have trying to install various flavours of pclos of the weeks

     7         must be my lucky number      Iam mad I know    but what has kept me sane
      has been Parted Magic a brilliant suite off tools   & desktop & million & 1 other things
       I have been trying to follow these instuctions http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=frugal_install
                I made anew partition  formatted it as ext4  copied the pmagic to said partition
                then I copy & paste the kernel image into grub wait for grub to configure its self
                but all i get is grub error 15 I  have tried doing this 5 or more times .
                within the lxde desktop I can see it as /media/pm I labelled the pm with gparted
                 when using Parted Magic

                A  SUPERB Concept  by Patrick  Werner   I would recommend it to anyone
                 

[Just17]

Could you start again and tell us what you have been trying to install PCLOS on and in what manner? .....  do you want 'frugal install' or complete installations of PCLOS?

If it is 'frugal install' then PCLOS has its own application for the purpose ......  LiveUSB Creator ......  which will allow you to put many flavours of PCLOS on the ONE partition, up to its size limit.

You can then add Parted to the list by doing the copying manually, and adding - again manually - a boot stanza to the /boot/grub/menu.lst file.

IIRC, it is not necessary to put the PM directory into the /boot directory .....  it can be kept outside and the boot stanza edited to reflect its location.  It is a long time since I had PM on a USB stick (a couple of years at least) so things might have changed a little.

Anyway, do let us know what you are trying to achieve, before explaining the methods you used.

[jamesmayxt]

           I have a fresh install of  pclos lxde  on my hard-drive. grub sees it as sda 1
           
            I set up a  2nd for parted magic sda 2 .I can see the pmagic with in the sda 2 partition.
 
              As I always get the same error 15 Iam making the same mistake

              I have 2 theorys  1   have not made the partition boot-able      although I did so with
              with gparted          what makes it a bootable partion ?
                                       2 something  to do with the same          hd0,0 error I get after
                                         the grub error message
                                         I can do cli stuff          as long as you tell me what buttons press
                                      thanks for your help so far..... Jim

                                                                                                   

[Just17]

15 : File not found
      This error is returned if the specified file name cannot be found,
      but everything else (like the disk/partition info) is OK.

Info available on the error codes in Konqueror at

info:/grub/Stage2 errors

So whatever command you are using is pointing either to a non-existent file or pointing to the wrong place for an existing file.

something  to do with the same          hd0,0 error I get after the grub error message

It possibly does ......  but I have not seen it and you have not quoted it, so I could not even guess.

What error .......  the EXACT phrase of the error please.

What is the boot stanza you are using to try to boot PM?
Copy & paste it please from your menu.lst file ........  copy and paste .....  not type it out again .....

***

My suspicion is that you are attempting to boot the wrong partition ........  supplying sufficient info should allow that to be determined.

what makes it a bootable partion ?

Partitions are not 'bootable'.
The drive is bootable by writing a boot manager, such as Grub, to the MBR.
You list - in the Grub menu.lst file - the details of the OS and its location so that Grub can find it and hand over to it to boot the OS.

[jamesmayxt]

 

         This is the grub error I get  hd0,0 /boot/pmagic/bzImage root=/dev/sdXX directory=boot edd=off load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw vga=normal loglevel=9 max_loop=256 vmalloc=288MiB
initrd /boot/pmagic/initrd.img

            this is what I copied & pasted from the frugal install page   
                                            UNABLE to copy & paste from stanza
                       

                  LABEL        linux-o          is   default name in grub
                   
                  IMAGE       /pmagic/bzimage

                   ROOT       /dev/sda 1 Maxtor STM325031
         
              APPEND       this what is copied & pasted from the frugal install page
                    I have tried all options in grub sda1 sda2   default This my fourth day with   lxde all the partitions i see under media is that the norm.   thanks for your patience   

[Just17]

I find your post confusing ......... 

This is the grub error I get  hd0,0 /boot/pmagic/bzImage root=/dev/sdXX directory=boot edd=off load_ramdisk=1 prompt_ramdisk=0 rw vga=normal loglevel=9 max_loop=256 vmalloc=288MiB
initrd /boot/pmagic/initrd.img

Rather than being an error, this appears to be the boot stanza.

You said you made a new partition for PM .......  if so it is highly unlikely to be partition (hd0,0) so try changing it to (hd0,1) .........  it might work. You will also need to change the /dev/sdXX to something like /dev/sda2.

If it does not then post the output of this command from a terminal

fdisk -l

That is a lower case L. You might need to use   su    and provide the root password for that command to work.

[jamesmayxt]

   thanks so far
                Ive been trying to read up on a grub legacy site. I am pretty sure the partition I need to use is hd0.01   Ive fired   up     the terminal  grub config  got me into grub how can I
           bring up the menu list & edit it

[Just17]

   thanks so far
                Ive been trying to read up on a grub legacy site. I am pretty sure the partition I need to use is hd0.01   Ive fired   up     the terminal  grub config  got me into grub how can I
           bring up the menu list & edit it

That will not work.
The syntax is (hd0,1) as I posted above.

When in a normal install insert the USB stick and navigate to
<USB Stick>/boot/grub/menu.lst
in the file manager and edit it.

[jamesmayxt]

       ok  I still need a bit  more help 

              Iam using my live cd from which I installed the OS

               Ive opened file manager pcmanfm  & searched for boot/grub/menu.lst     

               & it comes up    this specified directory is not valid ..but looking thru the
               boot/grub section there 3 possible suspects  all called device maps
   No.1says  (hd0)   /dev/sda

    No.2says  (hd0)   /dev/sda
                    (hd10 /dev/sdb   device map Backup this is called

    No.3 is (hd0)  /dev/sda  this is called device map old   am I in the right place & what do I ??



 

[Just17]

The   menu.lst   file you need to edit is on the LiveUSB device

Why are you doing this from the LiveCD and not from the installed OS?

[jamesmayxt]

      sorry about the delay in getting back to ya
  I thought you giving me a hint
        When in a normal install insert the USB stick and navigate to
                                    <USB Stick>/boot/grub/menu.lst 
                                      in the file manager and edit it        this obviously confused     me     
          It still does
                         Why are you doing this from the LiveCD and not from the installed OS?             
       I have looked in  /boot/grub/ & device maps   & there the same .     
       I was certain that this  was something to do with grub but have installed pclos no problem
   I have got 3 partitions hdo.1 on the 2nd partition equates to dev/sda2 which is right 
    And last pm on the third as      dev/sda3 & still the same grub 15 error
                    Where do you  suggest WE start     keep the faith     Jim

[Just17]

OK let's start again.

1.   You have a USB stick with PCLinuxOS installed on it so that you can boot PCLOS on any PC from the USB stick.

2.   You have created another partition on the USB stick into which you have copied the PM files as per instructions.

3.   You wish to boot PM instead of PCLOS sometimes, and other times want to boot PCLOS ....  all from the USB stick.

****

If any of the above is not correct please post back and tell me exactly where I have misunderstood.

****

If 1, 2, & 3 are correct above, then what needs to be done is to edit the    /boot/grub/menu/lst   file  that is on the PCLOS partition on the USB stick.

You must add the correct boot stanza to this file to allow you to boot PM.
If it is added correctly then it will appear as a boot option along with the PCLOS boot options, for you to choose when booting the USB stick.

****

Before going any further will you please confirm that everything I have posted above is correct, and that you understand what must be done.

[jamesmayxt]

               pretty much every thing is wrong                see my second post 
 
       I know most of my posts have been messy but I have been trying to all this on my
       Desk top PC that WONT    boot from a USB stick only a floppy (what-ever that is)
       Hence the need for PM on the hard=drive
                            thanks  Jim

[Just17]

OK ......  I was totally confused.

You have PCLOS installed on a HDD - the first partition.
You have the PM files placed on the second partition of the same HDD.  (please confirm)

You will need to edit the  /boot/grub/menu.lst  file on the PCLOS partition to include the boot stanza for PM.

On the basis that you are using the same HDD for PM as for PCLOS .....

That boot stanza should refer to  (hd0,1)   and not  (hd0,0)  as you previously posted.

Please post the contents of the /boot/grub/menu.lst file in your next post ......  copy and paste them to avoid any typing errors.

[jamesmayxt]

           At the moment I have  a more pressing MESS
   I tried to get  PM on the hard drive using Unetbootin & messed up
   Nothing of unetbootin works & most of all lxde  gives be error 15
Iam using the KDE *64 desktop & I am trying to edit MBR to get rid of all elements of that messed up .MBR opens up in Konqueror but What do I Do to remove the unwanted items
         Or should fire up anew post ? Jim