Arch Linux

Matunopsis

Member

Registered: 2011-06-18

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] menu.lst root = wrong partition

Hello everyone,

I'm actually trying to install parabola instead of arch but parabola is quite new with few users so I think I can find more help here. I hope thats not a problem.

When Im trying to install it the root on resides on sda8 but the menu.lst after install says root = sda3.
But sda3 doesnt exist.

this is the output of fdisk -l

 Schijf /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 121601 cilinders, totaal 1953525168 sectoren
Eenheid = sectoren van 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sectorgrootte (logischl/fysiek): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
in-/uitvoergrootte (minimaal/optimaal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Schijf-ID: 0x08000000

 Apparaat Opstart   Begin       Einde     Blokken   ID  Systeem
/dev/sda1   *        2048  1723871231   861934592    f  W95 Uitgeb. (LBA)
/dev/sda4      1723871232  1953515519   114822144    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda5            4096     4208639     2102272   82  Linux wisselgeheugen
/dev/sda6         4210688    46153727    20971520   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        46155776   989878135   471861180   83  Linux
/dev/sda8       989878272  1021347839    15734784   83  Linux
/dev/sda9      1021349888  1033926655     6288384   83  Linux
/dev/sda10     1033928704  1042313215     4192256   83  Linux
/dev/sda11     1042315264  1067487231    12585984   83  Linux
/dev/sda12     1067489280  1715487119   323998920   83  Linux
/dev/sda13     1715488768  1723871231     4191232   82  Linux wisselgeheugen

Schijf /dev/sdf: 1500.3 GB, 1500299395072 bytes
255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 182401 cilinders, totaal 2930272256 sectoren
Eenheid = sectoren van 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sectorgrootte (logischl/fysiek): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
in-/uitvoergrootte (minimaal/optimaal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Schijf-ID: 0x00026023

 Apparaat Opstart   Begin       Einde     Blokken   ID  Systeem
/dev/sdf1            2048  2930272255  1465135104    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

and this is the content of menu.lst

# (0) Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre 
title  Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre  [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

I wanted to boot it with the grub of opensuse and tried many things as shown below with many variation including changing sda3 in sda8 and (hd0,0) to (hd0,7) but nothing seemed to work

# (0) Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre 
title  Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre  [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda8 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

#test parabola
title test 1
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1


#test parabola 2
title test 2
root (hd0,0)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

#test parabola 3
title test 3
root (hd0,7)
chainloader +1


#test parabola 4
title test 4
root (hd0,7)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

The problem seems to be that it somehow thinks the root is installed on sda3 while it not exists. I had before installed opensuse and ubuntu next to eachother but eventually removed ubuntu and the drives wich I added to the /home partition of opensuse. after that I shrinked the home partition again to make disks for the parabola install. apparently something went wrong there. Does someone know how to fix this. Can I for boot into a livecd and change sda8 to sda3?

Thanks in regards,

Last edited by Matunopsis (2011-06-19 07:29:40)

SiegeMachine

Member

Registered: 2009-03-26

Posts: 157

Re: [SOLVED] menu.lst root = wrong partition

You may have to reinstall grub.  If you go to the grub page on the arch wiki its got a section about it.  What you could do is boot off a liveCD/USB and go into the grub shell by using the grub command in a terminal.  Following the wiki it will help you find the root and possibly fix grub and then fix your menu.lst to coincide with it.  The wiki also has tips when editing your menu.lst that might help you find out the problem.

What I see though which might be your issue has to do with when booting Linux through grub boot manager you have to have a kernel line in your menu.lst. For example my grub menu.lst looks like...

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/db52bddd-6cb4-4226-9345-e15086418$
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

Like I said, the wiki should help you figure it out.

Last edited by SiegeMachine (2011-06-18 22:02:23)

AurosGamma

Member

From: San Cristobal,Venezuela

Registered: 2011-02-22

Posts: 132

Re: [SOLVED] menu.lst root = wrong partition

If reinstalling grub doesn't work (or maybe you want to try this before you do):

Note: I use this commands to illustrate my answer, maybe you can't use commands because you can't boot to tty, anyway you can take this info using a live-cd.

$ df
Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev               10240       0     10240   0% /dev
run                10240     224     10016   3% /run
/dev/sda1       30963708 3398072  25992772  12% /
shm              1548468       0   1548468   0% /dev/shm
/dev/sda2          99150   15820     78210  17% /boot
/dev/sda5      272471496 6451280 252179476   3% /home

And:

$ ls -lF /dev/disk/by-uuid/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 18 14:10 4dd1b3f4-0e4c-47b9-a352-a2b75e5aa53e -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 18 14:10 5e36ad74-f945-4651-9527-5b71bbc9c10d -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 18 14:10 be80ec8f-64d6-4c3d-a888-80dd9932feb4 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Jun 18 14:10 e4d40892-e592-40a7-b57b-489a7f9ad530 -> ../../sda5

Take a look to the uuid of each partition and modify your menu.lst (this is an example made with the info above):

# (0) Archlinux
title  Archlinux
root   (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/4dd1b3f4-0e4c-47b9-a352-a2b75e5aa53e ro
initrd /kernel26.img

root   (hd0,<x>) : Replace <x> with the location of your "/boot" partition, if you do not have a "/boot" partition then the location of the "/" partition, where:

x = 0
/dev/sda1
x= 1
/dev/sda2
x = 2
/dev/sda3
...
...

root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/<uuid> : replace <uuid> with the uuid of your "/" partition.

And try to boot...
Greetings

Last edited by AurosGamma (2011-06-18 23:34:58)

Matunopsis

Member

Registered: 2011-06-18

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] menu.lst root = wrong partition

Hello, The problem is solved.
My parabola menu.lst looks like this

# (0) Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre 
title  Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre  [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/87351025-d2c1-494e-819d-5b8be2fbe71e ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

and my opensuse menu.lst looks like this

# (0) Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre 
title  Parabola GNU/Linux-Libre  [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root   (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/87351025-d2c1-494e-819d-5b8be2fbe71e ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

#test parabola 4
title test 4
root (hd0,7)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

when I click the original option I get an error. but when I click test 4 Im redirected to another opensuse grub menu with only 1 option. and that option loads parabola.

Thank u very much for the help.