Fixing A Tri Boot

[Old-Polack]

[root@localhost duvid]# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00073da6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        1958    15727603+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            1959        5874    31455270   83  Linux
/dev/sda3           60541       60801     2096482+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4            5875       60540   439104645   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000356ad

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        5222    41945683+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2            5223        7180    15727635   83  Linux
/dev/sdb3            7181       20234   104856255   83  Linux
/dev/sdb4           20235      121601   814230427+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb5           20235      114029   753408306   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6          114030      117293    26218048+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb7          121341      121601     2096451   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb8          117294      118729    11534638+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb9          118730      121340    20972826   83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

 This past weekend I installed a 500gig HD for storage only which is why the drive with the operating systems is now called /dev/sdb instead of /dev/sda
The multiple Bootscreen was the same prior to the new hard drive

Well then, I have absolutely no idea how this will work out in the end, but to go for the obvious for the moment.

Back in the terminal with grub running

grub> root (hd1,1)                 <Enter>

grub> setup (hd1)                          <Enter>

Post your results.

[Duvid]

grub> root (hd1,1)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd1)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"...  17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+17 p (hd1,1)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded

[Old-Polack]

grub> root (hd1,1)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd1)
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
 Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
 Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1)"...  17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
 Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1) (hd1)1+17 p (hd1,1)/boot/grub/stage2
/boot/grub/menu.lst"... succeeded

OK. Grub is now on the MBR of the drive holding the various OS. The problem now is that all menu.lst references are to (hd0) while the drive is being seen as (hd1) because of the added 500 GB drive. There are two ways to correct for this;

1. Reboot, enter BIOS, and set the 1 TB drive as the boot drive.

or

2. Shut down completely, then physically change the cable connections at the motherboard connectors. Plug the 1 TB drive cable into the socket now occupied by the 500 GB drive, and plug the 500 GB drive cable into the socket occupied currently by the 1 TB drive. Alternately one could change the connectors at the drives themselves, depending on which end of the cables has the easiest access.

Choose method 1, or method 2, but not both.

Personally I'd go for number 1 since all SATA equipped MBs I've ever seen have a BIOS that allows choosing the boot drive. Before selective BIOS came out, method 2 was the only method.

Post your results.

[Duvid]

 
   Just rebooted into KDE3, then rebooted DIRECTLY into KDE4 with no problems. An unexpected benefit is that the system is booting up VERY FAST. It had to be doing a lot of "thinking" to get where it wanted to go. I didn't think there would be a problem with the new HD effecting the booting other than it changed the letter, as their was no OS in the new HD. Granted it did add to the confusion, but I did learn how to explain myself better for the future. I kept all the scripts for future reference, and bookmarked this post to refer back to if necessary
  I  appreciate you seeing this through to the finish line. I had hoped you would see this post as I had seen you help others with boot problems. Thanks again
                           
                                                                                                                                                                        Duvid

[Old-Polack]

   Just rebooted into KDE3, then rebooted DIRECTLY into KDE4 with no problems. An unexpected benefit is that the system is booting up VERY FAST. It had to be doing a lot of "thinking" to get where it wanted to go. I didn't think there would be a problem with the new HD effecting the booting other than it changed the letter, as their was no OS in the new HD. Granted it did add to the confusion, but I did learn how to explain myself better for the future. I kept all the scripts for future reference, and bookmarked this post to refer back to if necessary
  I  appreciate you seeing this through to the finish line. I had hoped you would see this post as I had seen you help others with boot problems. Thanks again
                           
                                                                                                                                                                        Duvid

That was the plan, man! 

Have you tried to boot Windows yet? If not, do so, and let me know how that goes.

There is still that nasty stanza to clean up in menu.lst also.

Remove this chunk of text from the stanza that follows the Windows stanza;

root      (hd0,6)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=e7ccc224-df95-4eed-9bfc-35a147f81bf5 acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=silent vga=788
initrd      (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

Highlight it by dragging the cursor over it in kwrite, then press the Backspace key. Save the file, and you should be set.

[Duvid]

Guess the coffee wore off without warning last night.

 Everything boots as it should and faster than it did. I had commented out the entire "nasty" section before testing to see if everything would boot. Is it safe to assume it's ok to take out the complete stanza?

[Old-Polack]

Guess the coffee wore off without warning last night.

 Everything boots as it should and faster than it did. I had commented out the entire "nasty" section before testing to see if everything would boot. Is it safe to assume it's ok to take out the complete stanza?

At the moment that block of text looks like it's part of the stanza above it, as there is no empty line between them, but it's actually a separate stanza without the title line. It can be safely removed, but the stanza above it should still be usable, so I'd leave that.

The individual lines you commented out earlier, can now be safely removed, but the stanza as a whole should be left intact, if it points to a kernel that is still in use.

[Gnarly]

If he had swapped hd's on the mb, would he have had to re-run the grub install to the mbr?

[Duvid]

 I had just put the hard drive without an OS ( for data  only ) in this weekend, but was having this situation for a long while. The scenario actually kept repeating itself on several other machines where I also tri boot. This morning I used my new found knowledge, and was able to fix it . Pretty amazing how quickly something is rectified with the right knowledge. Thanks again for all your help.

  

[Duvid]

 One last thing: This is how my menu.lst looks in KDE3 which is my Bootscreen that will bring me directly into KDE4  or Windows when I scroll down to it and press ENTER. Is there any other tweaking you would suggest? I was a little unclear regarding your last post.

At the moment that block of text looks like it's part of the stanza above it, as there is no empty line between them, but it's actually a separate stanza without the title line. It can be safely removed, but the stanza above it should still be usable, so I'd leave that.

The individual lines you commented out earlier, can now be safely removed, but the stanza as a whole should be left intact, if it points to a kernel that is still in use.

                                       timeout 5
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title PCLinuxOS 2009.1 KDE3
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2009.1_KDE3 root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c failsafe acpi=on
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title Windows7
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

#title 2.6.26.8.tex3
#kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.8.tex3 BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.26.8.tex3 #root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 #splash=silent vga=788
#initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.26.8.tex3.img




title      PCLinuxOS KDE4 (on /dev/sda8)
root      (hd0,7)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=338bfe6e-6e12-4096-ad54-7575eb8d506a acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=silent vga=788
initrd      (hd0,7)/boot/initrd.img
#savedefault
#boot


title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.31.tex5 BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.31.tex5.img


                                                                                                        Thanks

[Old-Polack]

If he had swapped hd's on the mb, would he have had to re-run the grub install to the mbr?

No. Once grub is installed to the MBR it's there for keeps. Changes to the menu.lst stanza entries was what I was concerned with at that point. The only real reason to reinstall grub would have been if we wanted to change which installation's menu.lst was to be the master list.

On my last main hard drive, I installed grub from SuSE 7.2 with the grub directory in an unmounted boot partition, and kept that same grub, without a single reinstallation, for about four years, and through close to 100 OS installations and removals, including the removal of SuSE 7.2, modifying only the menu.lst entries. I accidentally overwrote that grub installation when installing SuSE 9.3 64 bit. It was no great lose, as it had long since proved the point that grub can last indefinitely, once installed, if done right the first time. I reinstalled that SuSE 7.2 grub, from within itself, only to get back to the boot partition version being the master again.

That hard drive is now the boot drive in my back up machine, with the same grub still in place. I'll probably replace it now, with the PCLOS modified grub, just to get the ext4 support.

[Old-Polack]

One last thing: This is how my menu.lst looks in KDE3 which is my Bootscreen that will bring me directly into KDE4  or Windows when I scroll down to it and press ENTER. Is there any other tweaking you would suggest? I was a little unclear regarding your last post.

At the moment that block of text looks like it's part of the stanza above it, as there is no empty line between them, but it's actually a separate stanza without the title line. It can be safely removed, but the stanza above it should still be usable, so I'd leave that.

The individual lines you commented out earlier, can now be safely removed, but the stanza as a whole should be left intact, if it points to a kernel that is still in use.

                                       timeout 5
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title PCLinuxOS 2009.1 KDE3
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2009.1_KDE3 root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c failsafe acpi=on
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title Windows7
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

#title 2.6.26.8.tex3
#kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.8.tex3 BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.26.8.tex3 #root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 #splash=silent vga=788
#initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.26.8.tex3.img




title      PCLinuxOS KDE4 (on /dev/sda8)
root      (hd0,7)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=338bfe6e-6e12-4096-ad54-7575eb8d506a acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=silent vga=788
initrd      (hd0,7)/boot/initrd.img
#savedefault
#boot


title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.31.tex5 BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.31.tex5.img


                                                                                                        Thanks

That looks good as is, but you might want to use copy/paste to copy;

title      PCLinuxOS KDE4 (on /dev/sda8)
root      (hd0,7)
kernel      /boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=338bfe6e-6e12-4096-ad54-7575eb8d506a acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=silent vga=788
initrd      (hd0,7)/boot/initrd.img
#savedefault
#boot

to be the second entry from the top, just for convenience, and clean it up a bit. The highlighted lines can now be removed entirely. Once you know it works, (the copy/paste + clean up was correct) you can then safely remove the duplicate stanza at the bottom.

The finished menu.lst would then be;

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
timeout 5
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title PCLinuxOS 2009.1 KDE3
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=PCLinuxOS_2009.1_KDE3 root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title PCLinuxOS KDE4 (on /dev/sda8)
kernel (hd0,7)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=338bfe6e-6e12-4096-ad54-7575eb8d506a acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,7)/boot/initrd.img

title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title failsafe
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c failsafe acpi=on
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd.img

title Windows7
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

#title 2.6.26.8.tex3
#kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.26.8.tex3 BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.26.8.tex3 #root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 #splash=silent vga=788
#initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.26.8.tex3.img

title linux
kernel (hd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.31.tex5 BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=67712f42-4bae-49e8-8c93-4ea3415d4f9c acpi=on resume=UUID=f0016d67-3fac-49f1-b05f-1faf59720327 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd0,1)/boot/initrd-2.6.27.31.tex5.img

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note: I removed the root (hd0,7) line and just placed the (hd0,7) in the kernel line, to match the form of the other stanzas. I also removed the unneeded extra spaces after the title, kernel, and initrd line headers. Just looks a bit neater.

You could just copy that stanza from here, and paste it into your menu.lst. Then reboot to test that it works properly, before removing the other one. (saves redoing the work I already did) 

[Duvid]

I backed up my menu.lst , then I replaced it with your nice cleaned up version. All is good, all 3 operating systems booted fine and quickly. I am not sure if there is a better approach than I have to my tri boot installs, but its not difficult anymore to clean it up. Thanks a lot for your help and patience. Just wondering ...do you sleep, as you are always helping someone?.
 
   I noticed there was this guy that posted a problem with Freeing Up Space In Root. I looked around in the forum to help him, but couldn't find any answers that pertained to his problem. If you know of a previous posting I am sure he would be glad to figure it out. I think his name was ...............Duvid.  (lol).

                                          Thanks again for the Tri boot help It is officially SOLVED
                                                                                          Have a Great Day

[Old-Polack]

I backed up my menu.lst , then I replaced it with your nice cleaned up version. All is good, all 3 operating systems booted fine and quickly. I am not sure if there is a better approach than I have to my tri boot installs, but its not difficult anymore to clean it up. Thanks a lot for your help and patience. Just wondering ...do you sleep, as you are always helping someone?.
 
   I noticed there was this guy that posted a problem with Freeing Up Space In Root. I looked around in the forum to help him, but couldn't find any answers that pertained to his problem. If you know of a previous posting I am sure he would be glad to figure it out. I think his name was ...............Duvid.  (lol).

                                          Thanks again for the Tri boot help It is officially SOLVED
                                                                                          Have a Great Day

Replacing menu.lst was a bit more than I thought you'd want to do, at this stage, but it sure is quick.

Yes, I do on occasion sleep. (I think?)      

You're entirely welcome. You have a good one too.