[SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

Preston C. · 2009-10-30 03:55:53

I have tried installing Arch several times, and, each time after I reboot I get Error 17. I have been using the Auto-Prepare option during installation for the partitioning of the hard drive. Should I try partitioning the hard drive with cfdisk?

Also where should I put the bootloader?

Thanks.

Last edited by Preston C. (2009-10-31 01:43:56)

sHyLoCk · 2009-10-30 04:13:49

Install grub to mbr /dev/sda or /dev/sdb or whatever.

Preston C. · 2009-10-30 04:18:15

So I do not install Grub to the root?

perbh · 2009-10-30 04:35:36

You _can_ install grub on the filesystem, but any pc will _always_ boot from the MBR, no matter what.
The MBR is only 512 bytes long - so there is not much to play with. The traditional loader (as used by a company from the North-West of US - I dont like to mention its name ...) will check for the occurrence of exactly _one_ primary partition with it boot-flag set and then transfer control there ...
If your computer has had windoze on it previously, this is what your MBR will contain. If you dont want to screw up that particular loader, you must have your linux on one of the primary partitions and you must make this 'active' ... otherwise you can save the loader (and the partition table by simply doing a "dd if=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1 of=mbr.img"). So - most people put their grub on the MBR as grub has no problems whatsoever in booting into windoze (if you so desire). If you have multiple linux distros on the one disk - then use a tiny first partition for grub and use it to chainload to the grub loader belonging to each of distros and which is installed on the first sector(s) of the partition with the root filesystem for each distro. (I wish people would read the wiki more or do a search in the forums/google before asking questions ...)

Preston C. · 2009-10-30 05:25:51

Thanks, I used auto prepare to setup my partitions. Now I am configuring the bootloader and am wondering what partition the root resides on. It has in the boot loader (root hd1,0). I am not sure if this is correct seeing as the root partition was either the 3rd or 4th partition? Thanks for any help.

Preston C. · 2009-10-30 05:55:55

I think I have figured out the problem. I have Vista on the first SATA device and am trying to put Linux on the second.

In the Grub configuration file it lists that the root is on (hd1,0). Yet, when I run the command find /grub/stage1 , it tells me it is on (hd0,0)?????

I do not know how it could be on hd0?

perbh · 2009-10-30 14:09:17

*lol*
then there is the problem with which disk is which ...
... and the fact that you are using vista which is notorious.

I wish you had done some consulting about multi-booting with vista (google is your friend) _before_ you went ahead. Vista doesn't really like anyone tampering with the mbr, and given half a chance, it will reset it again.

The proper way (IMHO) is the following:
1) boot vista and if you manage, make it 'repair' the mbr
2) shrink vista (from within vista, nothing else with work) so you can have a 3rd partition (it only needs to be some few megs - say 30 megs)
3) using a live-cd (personally I just l-o-v-e GRML, but most of them will do)
4) using 'fdisk' from the live-cd, create a 3rd partition (it _must_ be primary!!) and set it to be the 'active' one
5) install grub on this partition
6) make the following menu.lst (hd(0,2)/grub/menu.lst):

default 1
timeout 10
title vista
  rootnoverify (hd0,1)
  makeactive
  chainloader +1
title archlinux
  root (hd1,0)
  chainloader +1

You will find that every now and then - particularly when vista gets updated - it will set the 'active' partition back to (hd0,1) and it will boot straight back into vista no grub to be seen.
In this case you need to boot from your live cd again and reset the active partition to be (hd0,2) (ie /dev/sda3)

Last edited by perbh (2009-10-30 14:10:31)

jspaces · 2009-10-30 17:10:14

For my non XP windoze grub entry, I do not have "make active" as an option.

title "Windows"
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

It seems "make active" causes Vista and Windows 7 to take over the MBR. This was not a problem with XP but is with Vista and Windows 7.
Once I removed it, no issues have arisen even with Windows updates. Give it a try.

Preston C. · 2009-10-30 17:24:04

What about this:

# (2) Windows
title Windows Vista
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

fsckd · 2009-10-30 17:36:20

That's similar to what I use:

title           Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root            (hd1,0)
map             (hd1) (hd0)
map             (hd0) (hd1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader     +1

Edit (I should really finish what I'm typing before I hit enter):
I have grub installed to my second hard drive and Windows on my first. (The Windows bootloader is in the first's MBR, however that makes no difference as it is never called.) My bios is set to check my second hdd first, hence grub sees it as the first drive. I use map so that Windows correctly detects C:.

Last edited by fsckd (2009-10-30 17:42:53)

Preston C. · 2009-10-31 01:43:35

This worked for me:

# (2) Windows
title Windows Vista
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Although, I had to change the /root ext. 4 partition from (hd1,0) to (hd0,0). Thanks.

perbh · 2009-11-01 02:30:50

*chuckles*
I'm happy it worked out for you ... the last time I adviced someone to use 'map', they insisted on not doing it ... I just thought that this time, I'll stay away from the remapping ... ahhh, you cant win'em all!!

... and in addition I learned about leaving out 'makeactive' ... :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-30 03:55:53

[SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#2 2009-10-30 04:13:49

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#3 2009-10-30 04:18:15

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#4 2009-10-30 04:35:36

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#5 2009-10-30 05:25:51

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#6 2009-10-30 05:55:55

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#7 2009-10-30 14:09:17

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#8 2009-10-30 17:10:14

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#9 2009-10-30 17:24:04

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#10 2009-10-30 17:36:20

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#11 2009-10-31 01:43:35

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

#12 2009-11-01 02:30:50

Re: [SOLVED] Error 17 after every Arch installation

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