GRUB Boot Loader fails to add Arch LTS kernel to boot menu

dynosaw · 2018-07-16 07:10:47

Dear people,

Repeated attempts to reconfiure GRUB following a recent installation of the Arch LTS kernel fail to insert the LTS kernel alongside the original kernel (4.17.5-1) in the boot menu. The question is how to set up the boot menu.

Some background information is in order.
We are talking about a stand-alone multi-boot desktop (at home) booting from a traditional "legacy" BIOS using MBR.
This desktop has three hard disks in a KISS (keep-it-simple) installation, allocated as follows:
sda (500GB) Debian 9 "Stretch" includes the normally active GRUB boot loader used on power-up; This is the "workhorse" distro.
sdb (150GB) Debian 8 "Jessie" (has an inactive, not updated GRUB) Kept for legacy stuff in /home + possible rescue;
sdc (500GB) Arch Linux (kernel 4.17.5-1) which also has dormant GRUB loader. (Recently added, self-training installation)
[sdb and sdc are recycled HDs from old PCs]

Arch was installed by disconnecting the Debian hard disks and (temporarily) connecting the Arch target HD as sda. GRUB-install
worked and the Arch kernel 4.17.5-1 booted. Thereafter the hard disk connections were put back to the old configuration shown above.

The Debian GRUB loader was reconfigured (update-grub in Debian) and it found "Arch Linux" on sdc and added it to the boot menu
The GRUB loader on sda boots Arch on sdc. A general pacman -Syu update was done yesterday (15jul).

The same day (15jul) I booted into ARCH and installed a second kernel the LTS kernel and the LTS-headers using pacman.
(These have not yet been tested.) A listing of [ARCH on sdc] /boot shows the following files:
vmlinuz-linux initramfs-linux.img initramfs-linux-fallback.img
vmlinuz-linux-LTS initramfs-linux-LTS.img initramfs-linux-LTS-fallback.img

Then I rebooted into Debian 9 and mounted sdb and sdc. Updating GRUB (on sda) failed to find the ARCH LTS kernel and add it to the boot menu alongside "ARCH Linux on sdc".

I considered, but rejected, "fudging" the files in the ARCH /boot directory by renaming "vmlinuz-linux-LTS" as "vmlinuz-linux",
calling the original vmlinuz-linux file something else and applying changes mutatis mutandis to the initramfs images.
But I reason that the next upgrade with pacman -Syu would probably undo all that. And I would like to apply an elegant solution
to this problem.

Can anybody help, please?? Thanks in advance.
Dynosaw
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WorMzy · 2018-07-16 10:32:51

So you are using debian to manage your bootloader, and it fails to detect all your kernels on your Arch partition? Why do you think this is an Arch problem?

Also

dynosaw wrote:

   sdc  (500GB)   Arch Linux (kernel 4.17.5-1) which also has dormant GRUB loader.

[...]
A listing of [ARCH on sdc] /boot shows the following files:

      vmlinuz-linux           initramfs-linux.img        initramfs-linux-fallback.img
      vmlinuz-linux-LTS     initramfs-linux-LTS.img   initramfs-linux-LTS-fallback.img

These two statements contradict each other. From your file listing, Arch has no grub. I'm not sure why you would install it anyway, if you aren't intending to use it.

dynosaw · 2018-07-17 07:22:15

Thanks for your reaction to my post.
Of course, it is really a GRUB2 issue, but I thought grub was a component of the Arch distro.
And as I said in my original post, Grub was also installed on sdc. I took /boot/grub as read.

I opened the box and repositioned the SATA plugs with Arch now on sda. As I just said GRUB
was already installed. The results were interesting; but I won't trouble you with what I found
then you won't be upset again.

More generally:
As I understand the chain loading action of GRUB, it cuts in second (after MBR or UEFI)
and at that point, vmlinuz has not been run so no operating system has yet been started,
I don't understand what you mean by "managing a bootloader with Debian". Is a grub.cfg
file specific to a particular distro??? And does it matter which hard disk it sits on, as long
a grub can find it??

My Arch installation is only a few days old and I've been a member of this forum for an
even shorter time. Perhaps I should accept that joining this forum was mistake and share
questions and experiences elsewhere. Thankyou for your response.

Dynosaw
--

WorMzy · 2018-07-17 08:08:24

Deliberately withholding information is more likely to upset people than simply sharing it.

Arch has grub in it's repositories, if that's what you're asking, but you said that:

The Debian GRUB loader was reconfigured (update-grub in Debian) and it found "Arch Linux" on sdc and added it to the boot menu
The GRUB loader on sda boots Arch on sdc
[...]
Then I rebooted into Debian 9 and mounted sdb and sdc. Updating GRUB (on sda) failed to find the ARCH LTS kernel and add it to the boot menu alongside "ARCH Linux on sdc".

This seems to illustrates a problem with Debian's grub.cfg, which is specific to Debian. But as you seem to think it is an Arch problem, so I asked you why you thought this.

You keep insisting that GRUB is installed on sdc, but it wasn't listed alongside the kernels and initrds. Can you explain this? If you say one thing, and the filesystem says another, I am more inclined to believe the filesystem.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-07-16 07:10:47

GRUB Boot Loader fails to add Arch LTS kernel to boot menu

#2 2018-07-16 10:32:51

Re: GRUB Boot Loader fails to add Arch LTS kernel to boot menu

#3 2018-07-17 07:22:15

Re: GRUB Boot Loader fails to add Arch LTS kernel to boot menu

#4 2018-07-17 08:08:24

Re: GRUB Boot Loader fails to add Arch LTS kernel to boot menu

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