[SOLVED] Configuring a dual boot Arch and Fedora installation

lenikadali · 03-04-2015, 03:18 AM

I have setup a dual boot system with Fedora 21 and Arch Linux. The problem is that Fedora doesn't see my encrypted Arch installation. The installations are on separate partitions and do not share anything apart from hard disk space. I have run the following commands as root in Fedora:

Code:

grub2-install /dev/sda

Code:

os-prober

Code:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

When I rebooted, Fedora was the only OS entry showing in the GRUB menu.

There was a suggestion from one of the members of the Arch forums that I should write the entry myself into /etc/grub.d/40_custom and then re-build the grub configuration or take the Arch entry from Arch's /boot/grub/grub.cfg and just paste it into the 40_custom in Fedora and rebuild.

How do I boot from a live Arch USB stick into the installed Arch and do as stated above? How would it work? Thanks in advance for your replies.

syg00 · 03-04-2015, 07:25 AM

Posting a duplicate thread here (or anywhere else for that matter) is likely to only cause more confusion.

lenikadali · 03-11-2015, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

Posting a duplicate thread here (or anywhere else for that matter) is likely to only cause more confusion.

Sorry, my bad. Have removed the reference. Thanks

lenikadali · 03-11-2015, 05:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenikadali

I have setup a dual boot system with Fedora 21 and Arch Linux. The problem is that Fedora doesn't see my encrypted Arch installation. The installations are on separate partitions and do not share anything apart from hard disk space. I have run the following commands as root in Fedora:

Code:

grub2-install /dev/sda

Code:

os-prober

Code:

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

When I rebooted, Fedora was the only OS entry showing in the GRUB menu.

There was a suggestion from one of the members of the Arch forums that I should write the entry myself into /etc/grub.d/40_custom and then re-build the grub configuration or take the Arch entry from Arch's /boot/grub/grub.cfg and just paste it into the 40_custom in Fedora and rebuild.

How do I boot from a live Arch USB stick into the installed Arch and do as stated above? How would it work? Thanks in advance for your replies.

I've narrowed it down to creating a 'menuentry' in /etc/grub.d/40_custom for Arch Linux. Arch is installed on /dev/sda2 with LVM on LUKS. Any help on how to write it is appreciated.

syg00 · 03-11-2015, 07:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lenikadali

Sorry, my bad. Have removed the reference. Thanks

What I meant was that you may get conflicting advice from the two threads, and you may do both ... possibly making things worse.

Did you read all the warnings in Pavels blog ?.

Fedora ships with cryptsetup, so you should be able to open the Arch container(s) from Fedora - likewise Fedora includes LVM. Once all the Arch lvs are mounted a grub2-mkconfig should find Arch and add them to grub.cfg. However, as you chose to also encrypt /boot, grub on Fedora is going to need the support you added to Arch grub so when booted it (Fedora grub) can also open the container and find the kernel and initrd.
Simply adding a 40_custom to the Fedora grub will not suffice.

lenikadali · 03-17-2015, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

What I meant was that you may get conflicting advice from the two threads, and you may do both ... possibly making things worse.

Did you read all the warnings in Pavels blog ?.

Fedora ships with cryptsetup, so you should be able to open the Arch container(s) from Fedora - likewise Fedora includes LVM. Once all the Arch lvs are mounted a grub2-mkconfig should find Arch and add them to grub.cfg. However, as you chose to also encrypt /boot, grub on Fedora is going to need the support you added to Arch grub so when booted it (Fedora grub) can also open the container and find the kernel and initrd.
Simply adding a 40_custom to the Fedora grub will not suffice.

Yes I did read all the warnings. As per the conflicting advice, the Arch thread didn't seem to get any new replies, so I went to the IRC channel #archlinux-newbie, where I got the advice to write a custom Arch entry within Fedora. Thanks for the suggestion. Will try it out and let you know.