Error installing GRUB

derekr44 · 2008-02-16 04:17:50

I'm doing a fresh install of Arch, but cannot get neither GRUB nor LILO to install.

Device Name Conversions

/dev/fd0      (fd0)
/dev/hda      (hd0)
/dev/hdb2    (hd1,1)
/dev/hda3    (hd0,2)

Boot Sections

title Arch Linux (Main)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img

Boot Device Options

/dev/sda
/dev/sdb
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
/dev/sda4
/dev/sdb1

I'm not doing anything special here. Help?

Last edited by derekr44 (2008-02-16 04:50:53)

tigrmesh · 2008-02-16 04:29:31

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 48#p331148

Last edited by tigrmesh (2008-02-16 04:30:14)

derekr44 · 2008-02-16 04:41:18

Maybe it's me, but those articles are overkill. I simply have two drives and one OS installed.

Arch is on hda (sda1 is boot, sda2 is swap, etc)
Personal Data is on hdb (formerly my /home)

I'm setting up Arch as a relatively standard install. The only thing out of the ordinary is that I am mounting my personal data drive as a separate partition (/data). I will not be using it as /home.

Last edited by derekr44 (2008-02-16 04:44:21)

derekr44 · 2008-02-16 05:09:53

Ok, so here's a really interesting thing...

I pulled the plug on my 2nd hard drive (was slaved to the primary master) and booted up the computer so it had only a single drive. Booting past BIOS took foreeeeeeever. When I finally made it to the Arch installer, I went to Auto-Prepare, and Arch Setup says there is no hard drive present...

When I plug my slaved drive back in and repeat the process, it goes past BIOS much faster and I have BOTH hda and hdb as prepare options.

Why in the world would I need to have both drives plugged in for the master drive to be detected?

derekr44 · 2008-02-16 05:36:03

Ran an Ubuntu Live cd and deleted all partitions on hda, so now it's just unallocated space. Reran the Arch installer. It still can't see the drive. I attempted to:

fdisk /dev/hda

from the [Arch Linux: /] console, but was greeted with this error:

Unable to open /dev/hda

BIOS says it's there. Gnome partition editor saw it there. Any ideas?

fwojciec · 2008-02-16 06:35:50

Arch doesn't use the hd* notation for ata drives, it calls them sd* (as if they were sata drives) instead. That's a peculiarity of Arch. Run fdisk -l (as root) to see how your "hda" drive is called in Arch (it's probably going to be /dev/sda -- judging by the info in your first post -- but it's best to double check).

jacko · 2008-02-16 15:17:16

title Arch Linux (Main)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img

Do you have a separate boot partition? If not then you need change two lines as follows.

kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

you may also need change change root (hd0,2) line as well, but post the results of fdisk -l as already asked.

derekr44 · 2008-02-19 22:48:14

So I had to do a really roundabout way of getting this straight.

I had to do a live cd boot and completely wipe drive one. I created a single ext3 partition on it and copied all files from drive two to drive one. Then I wiped out drive two and swapped them between primary and secondary. That seemed to work because now it can boot with one drive and doesnt need both.

For some odd reason, the system did not like that drive to sit alone as primary. Regardless of whether the original drive one had a boot partition or not, the Arch installer should have seen that the drive was present in the first place.

Last edited by derekr44 (2008-02-19 22:50:19)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-02-16 04:17:50

Error installing GRUB

#2 2008-02-16 04:29:31

Re: Error installing GRUB

#3 2008-02-16 04:41:18

Re: Error installing GRUB

#4 2008-02-16 05:09:53

Re: Error installing GRUB

#5 2008-02-16 05:36:03

Re: Error installing GRUB

#6 2008-02-16 06:35:50

Re: Error installing GRUB

#7 2008-02-16 15:17:16

Re: Error installing GRUB

#8 2008-02-19 22:48:14

Re: Error installing GRUB

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