Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

Wythe · 2009-11-23 01:31:25

Hi all,
So I've been running Ubuntu for a little while and wanted to switch to Arch because Ubuntu seems too easy and I really want to learn Linux.... unfortunately I'm having a problem loading Arch. I installed using a netinstall disk with no problems, however I didn't install bootloader because I already have GRUB installed for Ubuntu and I've already had headaches from installing GRUB each time I try to load a new version of Linux. So I was reading on the forums and found that I can just add an entry into menu.lst but no matter what I try it always gives error 15 file not found or something like. I can browse the /boot partition or what I'm assuming is the boot partition and I can see kernel26.img and vmlinuz26 so I know they are in there but it just keeps giving me that error. I know my boot partition is on /dev/sdc1 because I'm looking at it right now in Gparted. When I run blkid I see

/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DellUtility" UUID="07D6-0A16" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda2: UUID="20DC0652DC0622A0" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="DellRestore" UUID="0000-0000" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda5: UUID="B8A8CD95A8CD5314" LABEL="PartForXP" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="My Book" UUID="161F-1C3B" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdc: LABEL="NEW VOLUME" UUID="3460-E84A" TYPE="vfat" (this seems fishy to me for some reason)
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="SAMSUNG" UUID="5180-3F80" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sde: LABEL="NEW VOLUME" UUID="D0ED-B01E" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sdc2: UUID="9d272205-d195-4516-bc8c-9004a6c46244" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdc3: UUID="2245dfd0-1b75-4319-83bd-00e89ce14a28" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sdc4: UUID="7bf91ade-2e52-4556-8d18-44f0ea0fdf65" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sde1: UUID="82f02294-46ad-4e11-80fe-fe8b6aaefd71" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sde5: UUID="f6a22c79-805b-4f9c-8a9b-dc8349d42ba8" TYPE="swap"

My ubuntu is on sde and my menu.lst is set up so the Ubunut boot uses the uuid. So here are some entrys I've tried in menu.lst.
I assumed that sdc1 was (hd2,0) from what I've read. However, when Ubuntu is loading it says that IT is booting from (hd2,0) ext3 which struck me as really odd. Here are some of the menu.lst entries I've tried. Please helllp! thanks, Wythe

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-16-generic
uuid 82f02294-46ad-4e11-80fe-fe8b6aaefd71
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-16-generic root=UUID=82f02294-46ad-4e11-80fe-fe8b6aaefd71 ro xforcevesa quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-16-generic
quiet

title Arch Linux1
uuid a4cac1fd-446d-453b-8402-9ef247302741
kernel /vmlinuz26
initrd /kernel26.img

title Arch Linux2
uuid a4cac1fd-446d-453b-8402-9ef247302741
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

title Arch Linux1
uuid 5180-3F80
kernel /vmlinuz26
initrd /kernel26.img

title Arch Linux2
uuid 5180-3F80
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

title Arch Linux new [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

#this is what it read in Arch's menu.lst for some reason, just when I was browsing sdc1

title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd2,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc1 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc1 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd2,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdc1 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdc1 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

Some of these seem random, but after awhile I was just kindof taking a stab in the dark. Anyway sorry this is so long, just wanted to post as much pertinent information as I could. ALSO, I installed on a flash drive. I don't know if that makes a difference or not.
Thanks alot,
Wythe

Mardoct · 2009-11-23 01:35:07

1.Boot the arch disk
2.Reinstall GRUB to the MBR
3. It will auto-generate the needed entries.

Last edited by Mardoct (2009-11-23 01:36:23)

Wythe · 2009-11-23 02:50:07

ok i looked at the option install grub to mbr (hd0,0) or something like that. This is my internal hard drive and I have two windows partitions on there. My Ubuntu is on another external ...sde I believe and I'm pretty sure the grub is installed on there as opposed to on my first hard drive then the windows bootloader is chainloaded from Grub. should I adjust or just go ahead and install it to MBR (hd0,0) anyway or will that cause some sort of conflict? Theres no way for me to just add an entry manually into my preexisting Grub?

perbh · 2009-11-23 16:37:59

Hmmm - it really dpends whether or not you have a seperate /boot partition for archlinux ...
Seeing all your attempts above - I would say such is the case - and it is on /dev/sdc1. Also, your root partition would seem to be on /dev/sdc3 (but it may also be /dev/sdc4)

Probably, what you need is this:

title archlinux
  root (hd2,0)
  kernel /vmlinuz26 ro root=/dev/sdc3
  initrd /kernel26.img

There is no need to install the arch grub - the ubuntu one will be equally good.

Wythe · 2009-11-23 21:22:22

hey thanks ... I tried it. It didn't work, still getting error 15. I tried it with and without /boot in front on sdc1 through 5 and still nothing. I don't understand. I'm also a little confused as to why when Ubuntu starts up it says its booting from (hd2,0) because this is not the harddrive it's installed on. My whole Ubuntu partition is on /dev/sde/ and hd2 is my flash drive where I installed arch, and I did a clean install so it doesn't really make sense on my flash drive ... apparantly hd2. ... Also I did try installing GRUB to the MBR on (hd0,0) like Mardoct said but it gave me an error and wouldn't even let me do that. Any other ideas?

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 04:11:07

If you run grub and do a "find /boot/grub/stage1" that should tell you where the valid menu.lst files are located. Choose the Arch one and then install grub to the MBR with that as root... For example, inside grub:
root (hd0,2)
setup (hd0)

That would install grub to the MBR and tell it sda3 is root (the place to find its /boot/grub).

Also, I encountered that error 15 and it turned out my menu.lst had "savedefault" at the end of the entries. That's what was causing the error - removing that line solved the problem. So see if there is any indication which line is causing the error (what is displayed before it).

perbh · 2009-11-24 04:16:45

Ok - there just _may_ be some discrepancies in how the sd's are seen.
Within ubuntu, give us the content of /etc/fstab
and then try the following (as root - ie. sudo su -):

mkdir /mnt/tmp
mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/tmp; ls /mnt/tmp; umount /mnt/tmp
mount /dev/sdc3 /mnt/tmp; ls /mnt/tmp; umount /mnt/tmp

and see if this coincides with /boot and root (ie '/') for archlinux
I have a sneaking feeling that your 'book' (sdb) is not available when the system boots up - in which case possibly your archlinux is on /dev/sdb?

@IgnorantGuru:
No way! (hd0,2) = /dev/sda3 and it doesn't even exist!!
If you plan to multiboot, you don't overwrite the MBR unless you know exactly what you are doing!!

Last edited by perbh (2009-11-24 04:20:20)

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 04:29:02

perbh wrote:

@IgnorantGuru:
No way! (hd0,2) = /dev/sda3 and it doesn't even exist!!

hd0,2 was just an example to demonstrate the syntax. As I said, "for example". The actual root would be selected from those listed when he runs find /boot/grub/stage1

If you plan to multiboot, you don't overwrite the MBR unless you know exactly what you are doing!!

He needs to get the MBR so grub is pointing to the menu.lst he wants. Helps to have a live cd (I recommend SystemRescueCD) so you can get in and edit menu.lst in case of trouble. But you're right that grub needs to be used carefully, especially if it's your only means of booting your system.

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 05:23:56

Actually, re-reading the OP I misunderstood - sorry I was a little distracted. Doesn't sound like you want to change the MBR for now as you want to keep your current menu.lst. But you do need to find out exactly what is on each partition. grub's find command might still help and it doesn't make any changes - only "setup" does.

As for why you're getting the error, though, I don't see it. I think it may be something else in the file, not the locations - mainly because you've tried so many possibilities. Grub doesn't give very helpful errors.

Wythe · 2009-11-24 06:02:06

Ok..... heres what I got....

grub> find /boot/grub/stage2
(hd2,0)

;this is what came up, but during Ubuntu boot it also says it is booting from
;this drive which confuses me qutie a bit

fstab file from Arch /

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0

#/dev/cdrom /media/cd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/dvd /media/dvd auto ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
#/dev/fd0 /media/fl auto user,noauto 0 0

/dev/sdc1 /boot    ext2 defaults    0 1
/dev/sdc2 swap    swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdc3    /    ext2 defaults    0 1
/dev/sdc4 /home ext2 defaults 0 1

fstab file from Ubuntu:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'vol_id --uuid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sde1 during installation
UUID=82f02294-46ad-4e11-80fe-fe8b6aaefd71 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sde5 during installation
UUID=f6a22c79-805b-4f9c-8a9b-dc8349d42ba8 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

wythe@wythe-desktop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt/tmp; ls /mnt/tmp; umount /mnt/tmp
mount: /dev/sdc1 already mounted or /mnt/tmp busy
mount: according to mtab, /dev/sdc1 is already mounted on /mnt/tmp
grub kernel26-fallback.img kernel26.img lost+found System.map26 vmlinuz26
umount: /mnt/tmp is not in the fstab (and you are not root)
wythe@wythe-desktop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sdc3 /mnt/tmp; ls /mnt/tmp; umount /mnt/tmp
bin dev home lib64 media opt root srv tmp var
boot etc lib lost+found mnt proc sbin sys usr
umount: it seems /mnt/tmp is mounted multiple times

Thanks for all your help guys

Wythe · 2009-11-24 06:07:56

...i did the sudo mount /dev/sdc1 command first by accident because i didn't realize you could string commands together like that

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 06:29:09

Wythe wrote:

Ok..... heres what I got....

grub> find /boot/grub/stage2
(hd2,0)
;this is what came up, but during Ubuntu boot it also says it is booting from
;this drive which confuses me quite a bit

Now I'm confused. Generally Ubuntu puts /boot and / on the same partition. Grub only found itself on sdc1, so it appears it's finding the Arch /boot partition on sdc1, which is confirmed by the /mnt/tmp results. But I don't know why it's not finding the Ubuntu /boot folder on sde1. And where does Ubuntu report itself booting from (hd2,0)? If it's grub saying that, then maybe it's a mapping problem with the drives. If there's a /boot/grub/device.map file (on sde1), see what it says. Should be something like...
(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
...

If the numbers don't match the letters, then that could be one problem. Although I don't know how it would have gotten that way. And it wouldn't explain why the UUIDs aren't working.

Also your blkid said

/dev/sdc1: LABEL="SAMSUNG" UUID="5180-3F80" TYPE="vfat"

which of course doesn't look like an ext2 filesystem. Where did you get the "a4cac1fd-446d-453b-8402-9ef247302741" uuid from for sdc1?

You could try

mount -t ext2 /dev/sdc1 /mnt/tmp

to see if it's really ext2.

Last edited by IgnorantGuru (2009-11-24 06:30:33)

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 06:39:39

At any rate, as perbh suggested, I think the grub entry would be one of these

title archlinux
root (hd2,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img


title archlinux
root (hd2,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=UUID=2245dfd0-1b75-4319-83bd-00e89ce14a28 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

And I would definitely check that device.map file to make sure grub thinks hd2 is sdc.

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 06:43:49

You could also try

title archlinux
root (hd2,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

I'm new to Arch and I'm not used to having /boot on a separate partition, so I'm not sure what "root (hdx,y)" refers to in this case - the /boot partition or the kernel root. An Arch person would know, and perbh suggested "root (hd2,0)" so I assume that's correct.

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 06:51:48

Wait, I think I see the problem (sorry for all the posts). We're telling grub its root is on sdc1, but actually it's on sde1. So I think this is what you want:

title archlinux
uuid        82f02294-46ad-4e11-80fe-fe8b6aaefd71
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

The file not found is probably the Ubuntu version of grub complaining it can't find something it wants in the Arch grub folder.

EDIT: No I don't think that's right either - root (hdx,y) refers to the kernel root, so it should be (hd2,0), not sde.

Last edited by IgnorantGuru (2009-11-24 07:01:52)

Wythe · 2009-11-24 07:01:42

Thats what I thought about it finding the Arch boot... it really didn't make any sense. It says that when its actually booting Ubuntu, like right after I actually select the Ubuntu entry in Grub. BUT, despite this I actually tried taking the flash drive out during boot which is supposed to be hd2 or sdc.... which also coincides with what device.map said.... and it still boots (from (hd2,0) somehow)!!! i'm fully ...fully confused. here's the device.map. everything looks as it should be.

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
(hd2) /dev/sdc
(hd3) /dev/sdd
(hd4) /dev/sde

I got that uuid from looking at properties of the different partitions of Arch that show up on my desktop ... three of them called
NEW VOLUME. That was the uuid for the one thats the boot partition. I don't understand why it would say that it has a different uuid than what blkid reported.

I ran that mount command with ext2 ... it mounted. It didn't report anything back though. i'm not sure if its supposed to. i don't really know that much about mounting ... seems like now would be a good time to learn though.
I'll try those grub entries and get back to you. Thanks again for your help.

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 07:11:03

mount wouldn't return any output unless it wasn't ext2, in which case it would have given you an error. Sounds like blkid is wrong for some reason.

I'm stumped on this one at the moment. I would definitely leave the flash drive out of the equation for now! Maybe blkid is seeing that as sdc, and maybe that means grub is too?

Wythe · 2009-11-24 07:17:52

I don't know either... I'm confounded ...but thats where I installed Arch (the flash drive I mean) so it should be sdc shouldn't it? I tried those entries with no luck .... oh well .. one day I'll have Arch and I have a feeling Ill really appreciate it when the day finally comes haha.

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-24 07:22:36

Oh I didn't realize Arch was on the flash drive - missed that. Flash drives can be a bit weird, to use a technical term. As the blkid output is revealing. I would try it on a regular hard drive. I don't know much about grub and flash drives, but it sounds like trouble to me.

FYI Arch fits comfortably on a 6 or 7 gig partition, and you don't need to put /boot on a separate partition, though it is recommended (don't know why yet but maybe I'll learn the hard way).

EDIT: Also, Ubuntu and Arch can share a swap partition. Just make sure the Arch install doesn't format it (or you will need to set the new UUIDS in Ubuntu). Should you need to do so, here are my notes on that (for Ubuntu):

swapon -va
vol_id -u /dev/sdxx   # or use blkid  - sub your swap partition for sdxx

(put that UUID in fstab):
    UUID=xxx none swap sw 0 0

Edit /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
    RESUME=UUID='your correct swap UUID'

update-initramfs -u
# reboot

Last edited by IgnorantGuru (2009-11-24 07:29:36)

perbh · 2009-11-24 14:06:35

Ya know what?
Use a live-cd, only have whatever flash-devices are required (like the one arch is installed on) and then run the 'fdisk -l' command and give us the output.

One thing about booting from a flash-device is that you need a 'delay=?' in the kernel-line of menu.lst (delay=8 should be ok) [[ now I start to wonder if it is rootdelay or bootdelay or just delay - sorry ]] because the device needs time to settle, it is not immediately recognized - hence the required delay

Wythe · 2009-11-25 01:32:01

Disk /dev/sdc: 8032 MB, .......bytes
248 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 15376 * 512 = blahblah bytes
Disk Identifier 0x6f20736b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 14 107631+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 15 49 269080 82 Linux swap /Solaris
/dev/sdc3 50 982 7172904 83 Linux
/dev/sdc4 983 1020 292144 83 Linux

This was just the flash drive part ( I can get the rest if need be but I would prefer not to since I have to type it out).... The first time I ran it though it showed up as sdB, which was strange then I rebooted and did it again to check and it went back to sdc. Also I should note that I upgraded Ubuntu to some server version to get full mem capabilities just out of curiosity and in the process it messed with my Grub and when Ubuntu loads now it says its loading from (hd3,0).

Should I just try a fresh install? If I do is there anyway to install Grub so it isn't the default and then I can just chainload it... like if I installed it to the flash drive or something would my computer try to boot from the flash drive first or is the MBR only on (hd0,0) .... I don't really understand it that much ... (obviously or I wouldn't be having my current problem).
Anyways thanks

Last edited by Wythe (2009-11-25 01:34:11)

Wythe · 2009-11-25 01:33:14

Also when grub loads it says loading stage 1.5 or whatever it says and 1.5. I think now that I may remember remember reading that that could be a problem when I first installing? Is that possible?

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-25 20:35:06

Wythe wrote:

This was just the flash drive part ( I can get the rest if need be but I would prefer not to since I have to type it out).... The first time I ran it though it showed up as sdB, which was strange then I rebooted and did it again to check and it went back to sdc. Also I should note that I upgraded Ubuntu to some server version to get full mem capabilities just out of curiosity and in the process it messed with my Grub and when Ubuntu loads now it says its loading from (hd3,0).

I would think this would be one problem with flash drives and grub - flash drives are mounted more dynamically.

Should I just try a fresh install? If I do is there anyway to install Grub so it isn't the default and then I can just chainload it... like if I installed it to the flash drive or something would my computer try to boot from the flash drive first or is the MBR only on (hd0,0) .... I don't really understand it that much ... (obviously or I wouldn't be having my current problem).

When I installed Arch, I had it install grub to the MBR of my second hard drive. That way my 'real' MBR was unaffected. Then when I was ready to switch over to Arch's grub, I just reinstalled grub to the MBR of my primary drive. I figured this way Arch would setup a /boot folder for me, but it wouldn't be activated. That worked fine.

Your computer will try to boot from the flash drive if the MBR has grub on it, IF the BIOS is set to boot from USB. So that would be one way of doing it, if you turned off the USB booting in the BIOS.

Personally, I still think you'd be better off creating a 7GB test partition on one of your hard drives and skip the flash drive. It's handy to have anyway, and it will give you a better feel for the real speed of Arch. Flash drives can introduce various problems and complexities - you might encounter problems testing from the flash drive that wouldn't exist on a hard drive (in fact you already are).

If you really want a screeeaming system, buy a OCZ Vertex and install Arch on that!

IgnorantGuru · 2009-11-25 20:38:00

Also check this out...
How The Computer Boots - The MBR Explained
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_To_Bac … _Explained

There are grub and MBR backup instructions in that book too.

In short, your BIOS deterimes which MBR is active (it determines which is the boot drive). So installing grub to other drive's MBRs won't do any harm.

Wythe · 2009-11-27 08:23:00

ok welll I had an old laptop that I thought was worthless thats been sitting in my garage for a long while ... upgraded the memory and its not as bad as I remember.... anyway got Arch up and running fiiinally... thank god. Thanks for all your help. next time I think I'll just skip the whole flash drive install. Thanks alot.
Wythe

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-23 01:31:25

Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#2 2009-11-23 01:35:07

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#3 2009-11-23 02:50:07

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#4 2009-11-23 16:37:59

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#5 2009-11-23 21:22:22

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#6 2009-11-24 04:11:07

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#7 2009-11-24 04:16:45

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#8 2009-11-24 04:29:02

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#9 2009-11-24 05:23:56

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#10 2009-11-24 06:02:06

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#11 2009-11-24 06:07:56

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#12 2009-11-24 06:29:09

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#13 2009-11-24 06:39:39

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#14 2009-11-24 06:43:49

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#15 2009-11-24 06:51:48

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#16 2009-11-24 07:01:42

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#17 2009-11-24 07:11:03

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#18 2009-11-24 07:17:52

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#19 2009-11-24 07:22:36

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#20 2009-11-24 14:06:35

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#21 2009-11-25 01:32:01

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#22 2009-11-25 01:33:14

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#23 2009-11-25 20:35:06

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#24 2009-11-25 20:38:00

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

#25 2009-11-27 08:23:00

Re: Adding Arch grub entry to menu.lst HELP!

Board footer