Arch Linux

Xs1t0ry

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2007-07-01

Posts: 181

Dual-boot problem

/dev/sda

sda1 Windows
sda2 Linux [Boot]  (0,1)
sda3 Linux [Swap] (0,0)
sda4 Linux [root] (0,1)

I am having a GRUB problem where I can boot into Windows but not arch or arch fallback. Upon trying to boot into arch or arch fallback, I am confronted with this:

root (hd0,0)
     Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
     kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro vga=773

     ERROR17: Cannot mount selected partition

     Press any key to continue...

and when I press a key I am redirected back to the GRUB selection screen. I think the culprit may be the menu.lst file because everything else would appear to be alright. In that file, I changed the default 'root' line on both arch and arch fallback from their defaults (according to /mnt/etc/fstab) which was (0,1) to (0,0). I also took away the comments (#) in front of the windows entry. Windows has the root line (0,0) and I left it that way. This is how I got into this problem. This is what my menu.lst looks like (with the things I changed in bold):

# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS 
#
#  Linux           Grub
# -------------------------
#  /dev/fd0        (fd0)
#  /dev/hda       (hd0)
#  /dev/hdb2      (hd1,1)
#  /dev/hda3      (hd0,2)
#

#  FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#          | 640x480    800x600    1024x768   1280x1024
#      ----+--------------------------------------------
#      256 | 0x301=769  0x303=771  0x305=773   0x307=775
#      32K | 0x310=784  0x313=787  0x316=790   0x319=793
#      64K | 0x311=785  0x314=788  0x317=791   0x31A=794
#      16M | 0x312=786  0x315=789  0x318=792   0x31B=795
#     +-------------------------------------------------+

# general configuration:
timeout   7
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
[b]root   (hd0,0)[/b]
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro [b]vga=773[/b]
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
[b]root   (hd0,0)[/b]
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda4 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

# (1) Windows
[b]title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1 [/b]

When I tried to edit it using advice I found in a different thread, to type in 'vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4' in the boot: after booting from the .iso CD, I got this:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0)

My question is what do I need to change the root lines to in order to make this work and get rid of the error? How do I edit this if I can't login and what do I edit it to? I desperately need help on this matter and can now understand why so many people despise Linux. I retain hope but until this is solved I only have half a computer. Please, help.

aveightor

Member

Registered: 2005-04-24

Posts: 33

Re: Dual-boot problem

change root (hd0,0) to root (hd0,1) your boot is on sda2

Xs1t0ry

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2007-07-01

Posts: 181

Re: Dual-boot problem

Yes, thank you. I did that and now it seems to be working. I was really hopeless for a second there!