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Old 02-14-2012, 11:30 PM   #1
hypnopanda
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Registered: Sep 2011
Posts: 2

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Question Can't understand why chainloader doesn't work.


I've been trying for quite some time to make my Acer ZG5 netbook boot the multiple operating systems I have installed on it. I even bought the Linux Genius Guide, Vol. 2 simply because it had what I thought were the ultimate instructions on multibooting a Windows XP partition with several Linux OS's using a chainloader. All of the Linux OS's (except the first one on the extended Linux partition) have been installed with their respective boot-loaders on there own partition (not the master boot record), as directed by the Linux Genius Guide instructions. I went into the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file and entered something like this (with each linux name different):

menuentry "AV Linux Loader" {
set root=(hd0,7)
chainloader +1
}

As well as the other linux entries, I have an entry for Windows:

menuentry "Windows XP Loader" {
set root=(hd0,7)
chainloader +1
}

I have done this for each OS installed.

I also did a sudo chmod -x /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober as instructed by the article in order to disable the os-prober of grub2 that, according to the article in the Genius Guide magazine, "actually adds unbootable boot menus because it detects the root FS for other operating systems in an incorrect way."

Anyhow, the net result is that I can only boot the first of 6 Linux operating systems on an extended partition and the Windows XP partition, but none of the other Linux operating systems.

Does anyone out there have any good advice?
 
Old 02-15-2012, 12:35 AM   #2
bigrigdriver
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Registered: Jul 2002
Location: East Centra Illinois, USA
Distribution: Debian stable
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Quote:
set root=(hd0,7)
Unless I'm sorely mistaken, set root should point to the root partition of each OS, and not all pointing to the same partition.

Example:
set root=(hd0,1)

set root=(hd0,2)

and so on, substituting the actual partition numbers for each OS.
 
Old 02-15-2012, 12:56 AM   #3
syg00
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Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Australia
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I'm not even going to try and guess what your system now looks like.
Go here, do as it says, post the output.
 
Old 02-15-2012, 11:36 AM   #4
RockDoctor
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Registered: Nov 2003
Location: Minnesota, US
Distribution: Fedora, Ubuntu, Manjaro
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It appears that your system is set up somewhat similar to mine - I've got WinXP, three versions of Fedora, and two versions of Ubuntu on my ZG5. My system is set up with legacy grub (grub-0.97) in the MBR pointing to a separate boot partition with the rest of the grub files. Each installaed distro has grub2 in its partition. The chainload stanzas look something like this one:
Code:
title=Fedora 16 LXDE sda10
     rootnoverify (hd0,9)
     chainloader +1
Note that the rootnoverify line in each points to each distro's partition.

If you're using grub2 as your bootloader, the syntax will be a little different; more like this (and I'm guessing here, I don't have my multi-distro desktop PC handy:
Code:
menuentry "Fedora 16 LXDE" --class fedora --class-gnu-linux --class os {
	insmod part_msdos
	set root='(hd0,msdos10)'
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root be9788df-c302-4e22-8ed2-53a314c
	chainloader +1
 
Old 02-15-2012, 02:51 PM   #5
Knightron
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Registered: Jan 2011
Location: Australia
Distribution: openSUSE
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sorry I can't help u with your issue, but here's my advice. forget about it. make your boot partition with grub legacy instead. it is just so much simpler and easy to edit as needed.
 
Old 02-16-2012, 08:34 PM   #6
hypnopanda
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Sep 2011
Posts: 2

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: Disabled
To BigRigDriver - Thanks for noticing that both menu entries are pointing to the same partition. However, that was the result of a typo and not what I actually did (I copied the first XP entry and forgot to change the partition number along with the OS name just for the LQ thread).

To RockDoctor and Knightron - Thanks for the detailed advice. Very nice of your both. I'm going to give your ideas a try and post my results soon.
 
  


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