[SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

matierpixel · 2014-08-10 18:55:47

Hello, Arch Linux Community!
I just get to the chase and say that right now, I have a dual-booted Windows 7 and Arch Linux on separate drives.

Windows 7 is on a internal Seagate drive.
Arch Linux is on a internal Toshiba drive.

The problem is that I can only boot on my Windows drive and the Arch drive is sitting idly.

At the moment, I have a fondness for SysLinux because of it's simplicity, so because of that, the Arch drive has SysLinux as the bootloader.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to get SysLinux recognized by Windows, so it has become deadweight.

I have consulted the forums already and found someone else with the same predicament at this link. However, the post creator is booting with GRUB, whereas I will proceed with SysLinux.

My original plan was to:

Format /dev/sda1 (Windows Boot partition) to ext4.
Install SysLinux with Arch's automated command.
Modify syslinux.cfg to add /dev/sda (Windows) and /dev/sdb (Arch).

Should I carry out this plan? Or is GRUB the easier option when executing this task?

Last edited by matierpixel (2014-08-11 08:36:50)

jasonwryan · 2014-08-10 19:03:25

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … ther_drive

WonderWoofy · 2014-08-10 19:05:29

Syslinux can chainload the windows system. So without testing this myself, I would think that you could simply set your Arch disk as the primary boot disk in the bios. Then just add a chainload entry in syslinux.cfg and point it to the other disk.

The problem lies with the possibility that windows might be installed via UEFI. Then I don't think that chainloading from syslinux would be possible.

Edit: Damn, JWR is quick...

Last edited by WonderWoofy (2014-08-10 19:06:14)

anatolik · 2014-08-10 19:14:02

Syslinux should work perfectly fine for your use-case. It works with BIOS motherboard and recently got EFI support as well (though I personally prefer to use gummiboot for UEFI systems).

In your case I would recommend to leave windows bootloader at /dev/sda and install syslinux to /dev/sdb. Do not forget to change boot order in your BIOS, set sdb harddrive to be the first in the line. Then use chain bootloader for Windows as recommended above.

matierpixel · 2014-08-10 20:26:33

Thanks for the quick reply, guys!
@jasonwryan I got the chainloading idea and implemented it, so one problem solved.
@WonderWoofy I don't think I have an UEFI system, the BIOS is a Phoenix AwardBIOS, if that means anything.
@anatolik I told the BIOS to load Arch first and set /dev/sdb1 bootable, so that's also done.

That problem now is that SysLinux is hanging on boot. I used everyone's suggestions for this.
- Changed boot priority / 1st is Toshiba
- Uncommented and added MBR boot code to chainload Windows

Any suggestions?

anatolik · 2014-08-10 21:59:41

matierpixel wrote:

That problem now is that SysLinux is hanging on boot

Provide more information. At what step it hangs?
- Do you see the syslinux menu?
- Are you able to boot Arch?
- Are you able to boot Windows?

What messages do you see from syslinux?

What filesystem do you use for your Arch's partition where /boot/syslinux/.. lives?

Post your syslinux config.

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 00:31:01

anatolik wrote:

Provide more information. At what step it hangs?
- Do you see the syslinux menu?
- Are you able to boot Arch?
- Are you able to boot Windows?

Unfortunately, no. I cannot see the SysLinux menu. The system hangs where a blinking cursor on the top left happens (this happens with Windows also, but it is usually a 2-5 second wait whereas Arch takes on a whole minute). I was able to boot into Windows by making /dev/sda bootable and specially selecting it from the bios boot menu (I changed the order of boot priority). At the moment, Arch is not bootable.

Actually, before I booted Windows, I got the "Missing Operating System" error. I just made the drive bootable and all went well.

The filesystem for /dev/sdb1 (Arch's boot partition) is ext4, like it's root partition.

Here's the link for the SysLinux.cfg.

Trilby · 2014-08-11 00:38:23

matierpixel wrote:

Unfortunately, no. I cannot see the SysLinux menu. The system hangs where a blinking cursor on the top left happens (this happens with Windows also, but it is usually a 2-5 second wait whereas Arch takes on a whole minute).

What does this mean? You first say you do not even get to the syslinux menu, but then you describe the outcome of both options, each of which must be selected from the syslinux menu.

anatolik · 2014-08-11 01:22:59

matierpixel wrote:

I cannot see the SysLinux menu

Do you see a message something like "Syslinux (C) Peter Avin 19xx-2014"?

If not then syslinux MBR was not properly installed. arch-chroot into your Arch installation and reinstall syslinux. Make sure that "syslinux-install_update -i -a -m" returns no errors.

If you see that message then it means that you do not have active partition at /dev/sdb.

Post partition tables for your drives: "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdX".

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 01:42:34

Trilby wrote:

What does this mean? You first say you do not even get to the syslinux menu, but then you describe the outcome of both options, each of which must be selected from the syslinux menu.

The blinking text cursor had been on Windows long before I installed Arch. I guess I just added that for unnecessary tidbit thinking it might be connected. I guess it just some random thing I noticed every time I turned on the computer.

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 01:58:33

anatolik wrote:

matierpixel wrote:
I cannot see the SysLinux menu
Do you see a message something like "Syslinux (C) Peter Avin 19xx-2014"?
If not then syslinux MBR was not properly installed. arch-chroot into your Arch installation and reinstall syslinux. Make sure that "syslinux-install_update -i -a -m" returns no errors.
If you see that message then it means that you do not have active partition at /dev/sdb.
Post partition tables for your drives: "sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdX".

Ok, I will make a edit about it.
The only error I got when I installed was that the Legacy BIOS could not be installed. Sorry if that part was important, I sort of forgot about that.

anatolik · 2014-08-11 02:09:04

matierpixel wrote:

The only error I got when I installed was that the Legacy BIOS could not be installed. Sorry if that part was important.

Yes, it is important. Most likely syslinux was not properly installed into MBR. Post exact error message. And post partition tables for your harddrives.

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 02:35:51

anatolik wrote:

matierpixel wrote:
The only error I got when I installed was that the Legacy BIOS could not be installed. Sorry if that part was important.
Yes, it is important. Most likely syslinux was not properly installed into MBR. Post exact error message. And post partition tables for your harddrives.

Here is the error I get when I installed SysLinux.

Syslinux BIOS install successful
FAILED to set attribute Legacy BIOS Bootable on /dev/sdb1

Here is the Toshiba's partition table.

Disk /dev/sdb: 232.9 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x54992bb3

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *           63   4000184   4000122   1.9G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2         4000185 484391879 480391695 229.1G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3       484391880 488397167   4005288   1.9G 83 Linux

WonderWoofy · 2014-08-11 04:42:19

matierpixel wrote:

Syslinux BIOS install successful
FAILED to set attribute Legacy BIOS Bootable on /dev/sdb1

This is quite important here. Syslinux finds the configuration file by searching for the partition marked as bootable. Once it finds that partition, it searches for /boot/syslinux (or /syslinux when you have a separate /boot partition). So without this partition flag set, it can't find its configuration.

The syslinux-install_update script relies on gptfdisk in order to set that legacy boot flag. Without this, the flag cannot be set with the script. Now that the script has been run and the other two parts of the installation have completed, you can set this manually. Or you can simply install gptfdisk and then run the script again.

anatolik · 2014-08-11 04:55:35

syslinux-install_update is confused, it thinks you use GPT table but in fact you use DOS (the old partition style). The script uses unreliable way to find the partition type - "dd if=/dev/sdb skip=64 bs=8 count=1". It might show "EFI PART" string if it was a GPT partition that was converted to DOS. Anyway, install syslinux manually https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … tion_table

PS Another issue I see is that your partitions are not aligned. The recommendation is to align partitions to 2048 sectors. And leave 2048 before the first partition.

PPS Show output of '# gdisk /dev/sdb'

Last edited by anatolik (2014-08-11 05:02:02)

WonderWoofy · 2014-08-11 05:08:34

anatolik wrote:

syslinux-install_update is confused, it thinks you use GPT table but in fact you use DOS (the old partition style).

Whoops, I missed that part of the output. Don't mind me... I'm confused too.

anatolik · 2014-08-11 05:20:43

WonderWoofy wrote:

Whoops, I missed that part of the output. Don't mind me... I'm confused too.

You are not the only one. I had something similar some time ago and it took me some time to understand what is going on. If anyone knows a reliable way to distinguish between MBR and valid GPT from command line then we can fix the syslinux script.

Last edited by anatolik (2014-08-11 05:57:25)

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 05:46:26

anatolik wrote:

PPS Show output of '# gdisk /dev/sdb'

I ran that command. I think it might help greatly because I heard about GPT and MBR before. However, on Windows, I use the disk utlility to make sure the Toshiba drive I started on was blank.

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10

Partition table scan:
   MBR: MBR only
   BSD: not present
   APM: not present
   GPT: present

Found valid MBR and GPT. Which do you want to use?
   1 - MBR
   2 - GPT
   3 - Create blank GPT

Your answer:

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 05:58:35

I searched around the forums for questions like mine and came upon this link. I tried it the code without the -a in the command and now I got the Missing OS and Missing operating system error. I'll have to go fix it now.

EDIT: Just realized that my syslinux.cfg points to /dev/sda2, which is the Windows OS partition instead of the /dev/sdb2 which is Arch Linux OS partition.

Last edited by matierpixel (2014-08-11 06:41:57)

matierpixel · 2014-08-11 08:33:11

I don't know if some forum moderator can delete this thread, but I decided to erase my Arch and start over with different instructions. Thank you for the tremendous help though, I might try to install GRUB instead of SysLinux.

swordfeng · 2014-08-11 09:35:14

GRUB is complicated but powerful, and works well with both BIOS legacy as well as UEFI.
Be careful, if you have a GPT you should create a 1007 KiB partition at the beginning of the disk(sector 34-2047), setting the type to ef02.

Last edited by swordfeng (2014-08-11 13:40:32)

Slithery · 2014-08-11 09:37:13

There was no need to re-install, you could have just installed grub on your current setup.

anatolik · 2014-08-11 20:29:11

matierpixel wrote:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.10

Partition table scan:
   MBR: MBR only
   BSD: not present
   APM: not present
   GPT: present

Found valid MBR and GPT. Which do you want to use?
   1 - MBR
   2 - GPT
   3 - Create blank GPT

Your answer:

So you have partition table that recognized both as MBR (dos) and GPT. I recommend to avoid things like this. Just use GPT and use partitions aligned to 1M (i.e. 2048 sectors). Fixing this issues would resolve the problem with syslinux, I think.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-08-10 18:55:47

[SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#2 2014-08-10 19:03:25

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#3 2014-08-10 19:05:29

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#4 2014-08-10 19:14:02

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#5 2014-08-10 20:26:33

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#6 2014-08-10 21:59:41

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#7 2014-08-11 00:31:01

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#8 2014-08-11 00:38:23

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#9 2014-08-11 01:22:59

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#10 2014-08-11 01:42:34

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#11 2014-08-11 01:58:33

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#12 2014-08-11 02:09:04

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#13 2014-08-11 02:35:51

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#14 2014-08-11 04:42:19

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#15 2014-08-11 04:55:35

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#16 2014-08-11 05:08:34

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#17 2014-08-11 05:20:43

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#18 2014-08-11 05:46:26

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#19 2014-08-11 05:58:35

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#20 2014-08-11 08:33:11

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#21 2014-08-11 09:35:14

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#22 2014-08-11 09:37:13

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

#23 2014-08-11 20:29:11

Re: [SOLVED?]Install Arch onto a second hard drive....with Syslinux

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