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I was attempting to install a program which was not working well with my 64bit Arch installation so I decided to install Ubuntu to run it. However, I want to be able to have both distributions installed (Arch and Ubuntu) and me be able to switch between them. To attempt to achieve this, I formatted and partitioned my hard drive and installed Ubuntu first, then I installed Arch and updated Arch to grub2. Since then I have been going back and forth with live CDs to reinstall grub2 on both distributions. At this point, when I boot onto my hard drive it loads me into a black screen with some instructional text and grub> for me to type something. I have repeatedly attempted to reinstall grub2, but none of my attempts seem to have worked.
I have access to both the Arch and Ubuntu CDs.
I have installed Arch 64bit with grub2, and Ubuntu 10.10 (RC).
I have a separate boot partition which is at the beginning of my hard drive.
Both distributions are installed on the same hard drive (and I'd appreciate it staying that way).
When I type fdisk -l this is what it tells me:
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2GB, 1000203804160 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000bd4e4
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 13 96256 83 Linux
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 * 13 24328 195312640 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 24328 24936 4881409 5 Extended
/dev/sdb4 24936 121602 776469504 83 Linux
/dev/sdb5 24328 24936 4881408 82 Linux swap / Solaris
(NB: I also have an 80GB hard drive which is /dev/sda)
Please help.
Last edited by Lucius (2010-10-03 22:06:58)
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Would be good to know where & how you installed grub2 from the live cd, and where did you install Ubuntu's and Arch's grub before?
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I can't completely understand what you're saying. You installed ubuntu (which version?). Then you installed arch and upgraded to grub2 (first with pacman and the running grub-install?). And after this? You can't boot up to Arch nor Ubuntu?
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You dont install grub on both OS, but on just one. Normally grub2 can detect other OSes on hard drives accessible at the time of running mkconfig, so installing it on either of the OS will add entry for the other OS. Refer either Archwiki or Ubuntuwiki for instructions.
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*chuckles* 's true as they say "grub2 is an OS in need of a bootloader"
I can't tell you what you have done wrong, but I can tell you what _I_ do - and I've never had any problems ;-)
1) set off a small partition for grub (and not grub2!! - I abhor it) - 50 megs is more than sufficient - and put grub on the MBR.
2) for each distro, install its grub on the root filesystem (and you dont need a seperate boot-partition)
3) make your menu.lst in the first partition chain to the bootloader for each distro
This way - everything is kept under each distro and you do not need to worry about whether or not a grub2 will 'see' all your distros
There is one caveat they I came across using linuxmint - it wouldn't let me install grub2 on the root filesystem (complaining about reiserfs not setting off enough space at the start of the partition). That was a little setback - but not that much - I installed grub on that partition instead so linuxmint is actually using grub rather than grub2. Earlier versions of linuxmint (pre-9) didn't have this problem but the not-so-helpful mint forum never deigned to solve it ...
I always keep grml_2009.05.iso around as this live ubuntu clone uses grub (rather than later versions which use grub2).
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