Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

dagnasty · 2009-03-05 08:19:25

Hi,

I absolutely cannot get grub to load. I really have know clue why it wont boot because I have installed grub to the mbr of my 1st disk.

I am dual booting with Windows and have decided to ditch Debian a bit to try Arch. After failure, i followed this how to verbatim -

http://www.red91.com/2008/03/20/dual-bo … -with-grub

I have 2 drives

sda, sdb

Windows Vista is located on the very first partition and Arch is on the second one. Thanks all there is to it.

I am pretty stumped because the way I always install grub with dual boot isn't working properly. I have gotten so used to the Debian installer that I suppose I don't really know which partition needs to be set to boot.
I always set the root linux partition in Debian to boot but after you leave the partitioner to view the changes, it show both Vista and Debain partitions as boot, Which leaves me to thing Debian toggles the option once you write the changes.

Setting the Linux partition to boot fails with "missing operating system" and leaving the boot option on the windows partition boots as normal without grub.

Also, does grub boot ext4 natively? I have been selecting ext3 but just curious as to mixed answers in google searches.

Thanks for reading. I am stumped.

Last edited by dagnasty (2009-03-07 06:22:23)

toad · 2009-03-05 09:18:45

I have no idea about dual booting with M$, but these two should get you up and running:

http://apcmag.com/the_definitive_dualbo … bystep.htm
http://vista.blorge.com/2007/11/03/how- … a-machine/

Last edited by toad (2009-03-05 10:18:06)

bernarcher · 2009-03-05 10:13:10

Will you please show us your menu.lst and fstab. This might help a step further.

vacant · 2009-03-05 10:38:55

On some linux distros I've installed, when I've gone for "sdb" (spare drive), the liveCD unhelpfully installs grub pointing to this disk as hd0. Rebooting after installation failed until I edited the grub boot lines to reference hd1.

markisthejob · 2009-03-05 19:59:45

When you say grub wont load, do you mean grub itself wont load or that arch and windows wont load from grub? Will you post your fstab and menu.lst

dagnasty · 2009-03-06 05:08:19

Sure

here is menu.lst

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

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS 
#
#  Linux           Grub
# -------------------------
#  /dev/fd0        (fd0)
#  /dev/sda        (hd0)
#  /dev/sdb2       (hd1,1)
#  /dev/sda3       (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
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#  for more details and different resolutions see
#  http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_Resolution 

# general configuration:
timeout   5
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
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e0892479-5851-4fe6-8c7c-0c54b4469deb ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/e0892479-5851-4fe6-8c7c-0c54b4469deb ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img

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

fstab

# 
# /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

UUID=e0892479-5851-4fe6-8c7c-0c54b4469deb / ext4 defaults 0 1

Trying to re install grub on the MBR leaves me with this

Booting 'Install Grub to hd0 Mbr'

root (hd0,0)

Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7

setup (hd0)

Error:17 Cannot mount selected partition

thanks.

And Grub itself never loads, it just goes and boots windows right away

Last edited by dagnasty (2009-03-06 05:11:10)

toad · 2009-03-06 07:05:13

This is from your menu list

root (hd0,1)

i.e. hda2

root (hd0,0)

but when you install grub you tell it that hda1 is root (which is prolly your swap partition). Adjust that and everything should work as advertised

dagnasty · 2009-03-06 14:41:15

Am I supposed to install grub to the linux partition? How does grub boot then if you dont install it to the MBR of the 1st disk?

When I reach the end of the installer, It asks were I want to install grub and I select /dev/sda not /dev/sda2 because It says usually the MBR not the partition. Which is how I usually do it.

the root (hd0,0) is the windows partition. I have tried setting the linux partition (hd0,1) with the boot flag and installed grub to it (/dev/sda2) but that also fails with 'missing operating system'.

Thanks for all the help so far. And I currently have only 1 Linux partition no swap because I was just testing this install to see if it would work. I feel as if I have plenty of ram anyway.

toad · 2009-03-06 14:46:56

This from info grub:

grub> setup (hd0)
This command will install the GRUB boot loader on the Master Boot
Record (MBR) of the first drive. If you want to put GRUB into the boot
sector of a partition instead of putting it in the MBR, specify the
partition into which you want to install GRUB:

If I understand you correctly, you may getting root and setup confused...

dagnasty · 2009-03-07 06:20:57

Aha! truth in that statement. I dont know why I was confusing those 2 things. Also, the reason it was so troublesome was because the linux partition was WAY out of range for my BIOS. I think it was something like 900GB/200GB ratio with Vista first causing GRUB Error 18 issues. I have reorderd my partitioning as well and now I have my linux installs first and Windows as the last. Thanks to all who have posted very helpful. And I finally got the radeonhd driver working which I cant seem to do in Debian. I am looking forward to the distro!

thanks again

Last edited by dagnasty (2009-03-07 06:22:02)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-05 08:19:25

Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#2 2009-03-05 09:18:45

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#3 2009-03-05 10:13:10

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#4 2009-03-05 10:38:55

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#5 2009-03-05 19:59:45

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#6 2009-03-06 05:08:19

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#7 2009-03-06 07:05:13

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#8 2009-03-06 14:41:15

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#9 2009-03-06 14:46:56

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

#10 2009-03-07 06:20:57

Re: Can't boot grub[SOLVED]

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