Arch Linux

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Cannot boot arch

I can't get grub set up.

Arch is installed on sda2 but during the installation it won't install grub.

So I decided to use my existing grub on (hd0,4) and add arch to it.

title        Arch Linux
root         (hd0,1)
kernel    /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501 ro
initrd        /boot/kernel26.img

title          Arch Linux
uuid         783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501
kernel         /boot/vmlinuz26 root=UUID=783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501 ro
initrd         /boot/kernel26.img

Top one says it cannot mount the partition and the second says it cannot find the files. I'm rather stuck on this, I had no problems installing arch on my desktop or USB drive...

ZaQ

Member

Registered: 2009-12-12

Posts: 106

Re: Cannot boot arch

From wiki:

# (0) Arch Linux (/boot is it's own partition)
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

Can it be, that you need root (hd0,0)??
Sry, but I don't have time to proof that atm...

TaylanUB

Member

Registered: 2009-09-16

Posts: 150

Re: Cannot boot arch

Be sure you have /etc/mkinitcpio.conf configured correctly.
You might need to add 'usb' to HOOKS; the default configuration doesn't have it.

Regarding the second entry, are you sure there even is a command called 'uuid'?
GRUB should actually give an error message for invalid commands (or not?), but if that command is invalid and GRUB doesn't get its root set correctly, it makes sense that it cannot find the files.

---

``Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.''
~ Albert Einstein

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

Can it be, that you need root (hd0,0)??

Grub isn't on its own partition though

Why would i need to add USB to HOOKS for it to boot?
uuid command works fine for booting ubuntu from uuid

I'll put more of my menu.lst in

title        Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-21-generic
uuid        b4a57d78-1996-4dc5-9446-10d4bf63fc35
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic root=UUID=b4a57d78-1996-4dc5-9446-10d4bf63fc35 ro quiet splash 
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic
quiet

title        Ubuntu 9.10, kernel 2.6.31-21-generic (recovery mode)
uuid        b4a57d78-1996-4dc5-9446-10d4bf63fc35
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic root=UUID=b4a57d78-1996-4dc5-9446-10d4bf63fc35 ro  single
initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic

#title        Arch
#uuid        783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501
#kernel        /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-21-generic root=UUID=783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501 ro quiet splash 
#initrd        /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-21-generic

title        Arch Linux
root         (hd0,1)
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501 ro
initrd        /boot/kernel26.img

title          Arch Linux
uuid         783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501
kernel         /boot/vmlinuz26 root=UUID=783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501 ro
initrd         /boot/kernel26.img

Last edited by burton247 (2010-04-07 19:01:11)

HoboJ

Member

Registered: 2010-04-04

Posts: 28

Re: Cannot boot arch

Try changing "root (hd0,1)" to "root (hd0,4)" on your first arch entry. You did mention that grub is currently installed on hd0,4 so that's where you need to tell grub to look for its files.

TaylanUB

Member

Registered: 2009-09-16

Posts: 150

Re: Cannot boot arch

Why would i need to add USB to HOOKS for it to boot?

You had mentioned a USB drive... But this Arch is on the same HDD (another partition) as Ubuntu, right? Then i was wrong.

uuid command works fine for booting ubuntu from uuid

Interesting...

Anyway, i think Hoboj is right in the above post.

---

``Common sense is nothing more than a deposit of prejudices laid down by the mind before you reach eighteen.''
~ Albert Einstein

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

I still can't get this to work. I tried changing the root to (hd0,4) I might try changing it to the UUID of the drive, and check the locations of my kernel images.

I probably should have been clearer, I was saying i successfully installed arch on my desktop and a USB drive. I'm now trying to install it on my laptop

schuay

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 564

Re: Cannot boot arch

There's way too much misinformation and guessing in this thread..

Let's get the facts straight - we are talking about grub, not grub2, right? I'm assuming you have grub 1.

The root line tells grub where to look for the paths specified on the kernel and initrd lines. So in your case it should point to sda2 - so (hd0,1) should be correct.

The root= parameter on the kernel line tells grub where to look for init (which continues the boot process after grub has finished) and this should point to your arch partition - so again, sda2 would be the correct choice (I'm assuming your arch install is on a single partition).

What I would do next is trying without UUID.. see the following config:

title        Arch Linux
root         (hd0,1)
kernel    /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda2 ro
initrd        /boot/kernel26.img

If it still doesn't work, post your complete partition layout.

Last edited by schuay (2010-04-08 10:00:55)

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

That's what I had originally and it doesn't work. I just checked again. It's the same issue that I first posted - grub cannot mount sda2.

Yes it's grub 1, well 1.5 I believe.

sda1 - tiny thing with Dell rubbish in
sda2 - Arch / (used to be vista backup)
sda3 - windows 7
sda4- extended
sda5 - Ubuntu /
sda6 - /home (for both arch and Ubuntu)
sda7 - swap

I also tried reinstalling Arch, it didn't help. What is interesting though, both installations Arch failed to install grub... but I didn't mind as I thought it would be easy enough to add it to my existing grub.

I also tried setting up grub again via:
sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1 (just to check it was where I thought it was)
root (hd0,4)
setup (hd4)

and this runs fine but didn't solver anything

schuay

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 564

Re: Cannot boot arch

Ok - I'm running out of ideas.

You can try using grub tab completion .. in the boot menu, edit the kernel line (I think the edit key is 'e'), then go to the /dev/sda2 spot, delete up to /dev/sd and press tab to see which partitions grub sees.

/* guessing start */

Maybe your arch install is on ext4 and your grub can't mount that?

Or try the root=UUID=783b42da-8728-43cc-b710-0ade2fa26501 configuration from your earlier post but without the uuid line and with the root line.

/* guessing end */

Sorry - I've never configured by UUID so I can't help any further there.
Plus, I'm still confused about your grub version.

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

Ignore that rubbish I just said, according to synaptic its grub 0.97 which is the latest version of grub. obviously there's grub2 but that's another package.

Gparted says it is ext3. I'll give your suggestion ago. Thing is I had root (hd0,1) and the uuid on the next line to start with, first thing I tried when I couldn't get it to work with /dev/sda2. That line doesn't effect grub error 17 that it cannot mount the partition surely?

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

Getting closer. Tabbing there didn't work, tabbing when choosing the file only showed files on hd(0,5)

Tabbing at the root line showed that according to grub (hd0,1) is NTFS. Well it had the same format code as my windows partition

schuay

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 564

Re: Cannot boot arch

Post the output of 'sudo fdisk -l'

Can you mount /dev/sda2 from ubuntu?
Mount it, then post the output of 'mount' and 'ls SDA2MOUNTPOINT'

Last edited by schuay (2010-04-08 10:54:00)

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

I can't get an output of fdisk -l

burton@burton-laptop:~$ sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/iso
[sudo] password for burton: 
burton@burton-laptop:~$ mount
/dev/sda5 on / type ext3 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
/dev/sda6 on /home type ext3 (rw,relatime)
none on /proc/fs/vmblock/mountPoint type vmblock (rw)
/dev/sda2 on /mnt/iso type ext3 (rw)

[edit]
should've tried sudo

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9f7139f1

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           5       40131   de  Dell Utility
/dev/sda2               6        1918    15360000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3   *        1918       26817   200000000    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4           26818       60801   272976480    5  Extended
/dev/sda5           26818       33041    49994248+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6           33042       60178   217977921   83  Linux
/dev/sda7           60179       60801     5004216   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Why do some things think it's ext3 and others think ntfs?

Last edited by burton247 (2010-04-08 11:04:34)

chpln

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2009-09-17

Posts: 361

Re: Cannot boot arch

Why do some things think it's ext3 and others think ntfs?

I believe some are looking at the partition table, others are looking at the partition itself.  I'd start by modifiying the partition table to correctly reflect the filesystems.

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

Sorry, I don't know how to edit my partition table. Can you help?

schuay

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Austria

Registered: 2008-08-19

Posts: 564

Re: Cannot boot arch

Plenty of tutorials on the net

The following search terms will get you started: fdisk / cfdisk / gparted

Or: in fdisk, t to change partition type, w to write to partition table, q to quit.

Be careful when you're doing this. Doing the wrong thing will screw up your pc.

Oh, and you might want to read the beginners guide if you haven't already.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide

Last edited by schuay (2010-04-08 12:00:30)

burton247

Member

Registered: 2010-02-19

Posts: 15

Re: Cannot boot arch

Thanks for your help guys. Changed the ID and it all boots fine now.

Yeah I've used that guide a couple of times now. Still going to have it up on one laptop while I'm configuring the install on this one though lol

Thanks again