Arch Linux

intense.ego

Member

Registered: 2008-08-30

Posts: 4

Installation problem

I have just tried installing Arch, but I've run into some problems. I did everything as per the guide, until I reached the GRUB section. Here I assumed that since I already had Ubuntu  (and GRUB) installed, I wouldn't need to do anything, so I ignored it.

Evidently I was wrong and when booting up found out that there was no Arch option. So, I rebooted into the installer CD and typed in

 arch root=/dev/sda6

And got into the bash thing (not exactly sure what it is called)

I logged in as root but if I try accessing /boot/grub/menu.lst or any other configuration file, it says "Permission denied"

So, what this post really boils down to is:

1) How do I install GRUB so that the arch option appears? (remember I have already installed the base system)

2) How do I get access to all the configuration files (I need to look over them since my network is not working)?

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm looking forward to being part of the arch community

Last edited by intense.ego (2008-08-30 22:24:28)

KimTjik

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2007-08-22

Posts: 715

Re: Installation problem

Before I answer could you clarify one thing:
- are you still greeted by the Ubuntu GRUB?

If so you should only add to the menu.lst in Ubuntu the Arch entry. If you want to keep the existing GRUB, and why not, you only add new entries into the operating system's menu.lst that controls it.

So what does your fstab in Arch look like?

Last edited by KimTjik (2008-08-30 22:56:41)

intense.ego

Member

Registered: 2008-08-30

Posts: 4

Re: Installation problem

Yes, I am still greeted by the Ubuntu GRUB, but there is no option for Arch. I suppose I could edit the GRUB menu from Ubuntu so that shouldn't be a problem.
http://www.southparkzone.com/episodes/1 … a-Boy.html
I don't have access to the fstab but I will tell you what I know:

/home is on /dev/sda4 (it shares the partition with my /home for ubuntu)
/ is on /dev/sda6
swap is on /dev/sda5

I'm not sure what else you want. As I said I don't have access to the fstab, but if you need anything else just ask me and I will see if I remember.

So, the solution to the GRUB problem seems to be to do it through Ubuntu. But what about the permissions problem? What is happening regarding that?

ThomasBisset

Member

From: Nairn, Scotland

Registered: 2008-07-16

Posts: 22

Website

Re: Installation problem

Are you trying to access /boot/grub/menu.lst as a normal user or as root? If it's the former you should be able to edit the file in Ubuntu using

$ sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst

It'll ask for your password and then open the file in vi. You could replace vi with whatever editor you prefer.

intense.ego

Member

Registered: 2008-08-30

Posts: 4

Re: Installation problem

I suppose my noobness really shows here, but the problem is that I had forgot to put in the text editor before the file name.

i.e.
I put

 /boot/grub/menu.lst

instead of

 nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

Thanks for pointing this out Thomas. I am going to edit the GRUB in Ubuntu right now.

EDIT:

I don't exactly know what to put in a new GRUB entry for Arch.

I know what the title should be, and I know that the root is at hd (0,5) [it is /dev/sda6 so that is correct, right?], but I don't know about the rest.

The Arch linux I am using is 2007.08-2, if that helps, and I have not gone online with Arch yet so everything is how it was on the Core disc I used to install.

Last edited by intense.ego (2008-08-31 00:08:26)

ZenMystic

Member

Registered: 2008-08-25

Posts: 25

Re: Installation problem

Hi
here are my entries, you should be able to edit this for your setup

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/562c7874-cfd0-4f1a-9b1e-f778a3c4f402 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/562c7874-cfd0-4f1a-9b1e-f778a3c4f402 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

intense.ego

Member

Registered: 2008-08-30

Posts: 4

Re: Installation problem

Thanks a lot ZenMystic, but do you know whether the Kernel path you have would be the same as mine? I guess I will try, but it will have to be tomorrow. Its almost 2am here so I'm going to bed. Thanks to all of you for the help so far.

KimTjik

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2007-08-22

Posts: 715

Re: Installation problem

The kernel path will definitely not be the same. You ought to know where you have /boot and /root. Besides that you'll probably have a fairly new install media of Arch so it will also use the disk-uuid as seen in ZenMystic's post.

If disks and partitions aren't auto-mounted in Ubuntu use the terminal to access your Arch partitions. If you forgot the partition lay-out of Arch do as root fdisk -ls and use the information to find /boot and /root.

Make a directory to where you can mount the Arch /root, like mkdir /media/archroot (or whatever name you wish to give it). Then mount the root partition according to what fdisk showed: mount /dev/sdx /media/archroot, where x is the number of the partition. If you mounted the right one you should get the output of fstab by a simple cat /media/archroot/etc/fstab.

I hope it makes sense. Try this and report back.