How Can I Repair Linux Multiboot? - Only One Distro Boots After Install Difficulties
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How Can I Repair Linux Multiboot? - Only One Distro Boots After Install Difficulties
I have a linux multiboot setup that I have damaged and am trying to recover. I first installed Debian Etch using the entire disk drive, so it is on the first partition of my single disk system (SATA). Later I installed FC10 by resizing the first partition and creating a second partition. After this install Fedora's grub install booted the system. It worked ok until I added Ubuntu (again resizing FC's partition and creating a third partition.) Ubuntu seemed to install without problems, but during the installation, GRUB did not properly install.
Now when I boot I still get Fedora's splash screen and am able to boot Debian but an attempt to boot fedora from this menu will return "Volume group "VolGroup00" not found. mount: error mounting /dev/root on sysroot as ext3: No such file or directory."
No listing for Ubuntu is shown.
When I examine /boot/grub/menu.lst I find the entries for booting Debian, but this is not the list that is being displayed at boot.
So where is the list that the system is booting from? I assume it must be either in the MBR or on the first partition, because the above error message seems to indicate that the second partition is now not mountable.
cat kernel-img.conf returns:
# Kernel image management overrides
# See kernel-img.conf(5) for details
do_symlinks = yes
relative_links = yes
do_bootloader = no
do_bootfloppy = no
do_initrd = yes
link_in_boot = no
postinst_hook = update-grub
postrm_hook = update-grub
I don't have data on the FC or Ubuntu installs, so if I need to reinstall I'm not too concerned, but I want to 1) avoid doing something that will trash my ability to access Debian, and 2) avoid this happening again. If there is a way to repair the boot loader, that would be the best solution of all, of course.
Thank you for any suggestions.
In the distro that does boot, mount the other distro's /boot (or root partition) and access the /boot/grub/menu.lst of the first two distributions and use the information to add entries for the first two distributions.
On your first two distro's one or more may use device names like (hd0,1) or /dev/sda instead. Resume= refers to the swap partition. You probably have only one so that entry will be the same. AFAIK, the first root entry in the example refers to the partition that contains the kernel. The second one refers to the root partition (/) that contains the other directories of the distro. In the example above, the root= entry on the kernel line refers to /dev/sdb3. The root (hd1,0) entry on the second line is the /boot directory.
When installing multiple distros using LVM, I recommend first creating your volume groups and logical volumes manually (preferably with a separate LiveCD) and then instructing each distro which VG's and LV's to install itself onto. If you let the distros do their own LVM creation automatically, you can end up with different distros trying to create VolGroup00 which causes conflicts. Ubuntu doesn't particularly like to be installed on LVM unless you use the "alternate installer" (not the standard LiveCD).
Also, it is good to have a separate /boot partition. This is my /dev/hda1. Each distro mounts /dev/hda1 as /boot (it is shared between them all). /dev/hda1 contains my grub bootloader, all my different distro kernels, initrd's, etc., and the single menu.lst to controls it all. As I install each distro, before letting them mess with the bootloader, I make a backup copy. Then they normally overwrite was was previously in menu.lst. After they've done that, I manually fix menu.lst by re-adding in the stuff from the old menu.lst backup copy.
Note that /dev/hda2 is "System Rescue CD", and is the fallback boot if one of the other distros fails to boot. I also have a System Rescue CD LiveCD to boot from in emergencies, but this gives me the option to continue booting from the hard disk during "semi-emergencies" where I don't have to go all the way to a bootable CD for repair.
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