[SOLVED] Kubuntu 20.04 and OpenSuse Tumbleweed dual boot
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Hello,
I use to have Kubuntu 18.04.4 LTS and OpenSuse Tumbleweed on the same HDD, as a dual boot.
I deleted the Kubuntu 18.04.3 LTS partiion and created a logical partition for / and a swap partition. I installed Kubuntu 20.04.
Now, only Kubuntu 20.04 boots up. There is no GRUB menu.
I edited the GRUB file so that I can see the menu but it does not list OpenSuse. There is Ubuntu, ubuntu advanced, memtest86+ and another memtest86+.
Code:
=======/etc/deafult/grub
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR= THE typical stuff here
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=””
==========================================
There was another command to show the partitions on the HDD. I know that OpenSuse is on sda7, which is the first partition.
The first partition should always be sda1, though it isn't always. Sometimes repartitioning gets the device names out of order, which can cause the frustration you have encountered, and other problems.
Depending on the brand of PC, laptop or motherboard, you can strike F12 or F9 or F8 or some other key before a Grub menu should appear to bring up a BIOS menu where you should be able to select openSUSE instead of Kubuntu. Alternatively, you should be able to change the default and/or boot priorities via your BIOS or UEFI setup.
If both Kubuntu and openSUSE are installed in the same mode, either MBR/Legacy or UEFI, and the mode is UEFI, then you should be able to use the efibootmgr command to view and/or change (-o switch) the boot order to start with openSUSE rather than Kubuntu.
You should be able when POST completes to strike ESC or some other key to make Kubuntu's Grub menu appear and hopefully select openSUSE to boot, but it may be that you need Kubuntu's Grub to load the BTRFS module for this to work. You can see the name and usage of the module that openSUSE's Grub uses if you have the openSUSE root filesystem mounted and examine its boot/grub2/grub.cfg.
It should also be possible to boot Kubuntu, mount openSUSE's / filesystem and chroot to it, then use YaST to update its Grub to include 20.04.
There are multiple ways to fix this.
Depending on the brand of PC, laptop or motherboard, you can strike F12 or F9 or F8 or some other key before a Grub menu should appear to bring up a BIOS menu where you should be able to select openSUSE instead of Kubuntu. Alternatively, you should be able to change the default and/or boot priorities via your BIOS or UEFI setup.
I think you are talking about selecting which HDD to boot from. That works if you have 1 OS installed per HDD.
In my case, I have a single HDD, with 5 partitions.
1 has OpenSuse
1 is the swap for OpenSuse
1 has Kubuntu
1 is the swap for Kubuntu
1... I don't know what this one is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmazda
If both Kubuntu and openSUSE are installed in the same mode, either MBR/Legacy or UEFI, and the mode is UEFI, then you should be able to use the efibootmgr command to view and/or change (-o switch) the boot order to start with openSUSE rather than Kubuntu.
The mobo is a AsRock 970 Extreme3. It has a UEFI BIOS. How can I be sure that UEFI mode was used?
I check out the man pages but I'm not sure what bootnum is. https://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrmazda
There are multiple ways to fix this.
It should also be possible to boot Kubuntu, mount openSUSE's / filesystem and chroot to it, then use YaST to update its Grub to include 20.04.
Isn't Yast something that runs under OpenSuse? How can I run it from Kubuntu?
Also, the OpenSuse partition is automatically mounted. I can see most folders. For some reason, the Home folder is empty.
I think you are talking about selecting which HDD to boot from.
It's the same BIOS BBS, but not exclusively about which disk. https://www.asrock.com/support/faq.asp?id=27 is about what boot selection to boot from via UEFI BIOS firmware control, (F8 or F11) before seeing any Gnu bootloader menu via the more sophisticated UEFI BIOS BBS. I have no UEFI ASRocks to test on, only MSI (F12), Gigabyte (F12) or Asus (F8). With UEFI enabled along with Legacy/MBR, with only one disk partitioned GPT and two operating systems installed, there can easily be 6 or more selections, e.g.:
DISK 0
DISK 0 UEFI
Partition n
Partition n, UEFI
openSUSE UEFI
Kubuntu UEFI
If running via UEFI, /sys/firmware/efi will exist, otherwise not.
Quote:
I'm not sure what bootnum is.
Code:
efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002,0001
Boot0000* opensusetw
Boot0001* Hard Drive
Boot0002* UEFI OS
0000, 0001 & 0002 are bootnums.
Quote:
Isn't Yast something that runs under OpenSuse? How can I run it from Kubuntu?
Also, the OpenSuse partition is automatically mounted. I can see most folders. For some reason, the Home folder is empty.
The one you cannot identify is likely an EXT4 or XFS partition that gets mounted to /home when openSUSE is booted. If your openSUSE filesystem is mounted, take a look at /etc/fstab to see if there is a unique filesystem mounted on /home.
Just about any time you start a thread involving multiboot, you should include output from fdisk -l and/or parted -l or other text equivalent, so people can have a sense of what you're working with, and the meanings of some of your words used.
If I press F11 during POST, I get a menu
Please select boot device:
UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell
SATA: HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-H30N (This is my DVD drive, SATA interface)
SATA: WDC WD10EZEX-60WN4A0 (This is my GDD drive, a WD 0.909 TB drive)
If I choose the UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell
I get a list of 5 options
blk0 to blk5
If I type blk0, it says it doesn’t recognize it as a command.
Typing ? gives some information but I have no idea what all that is.
I don’t know how to run blk0.
The Kubuntu folder
/sys/firmware/efi
does not exist
but it does have folders named
acpi
dmi
memmap
The OpenSuse folder
/sys/firmware/
does not have any folders.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=a71510c3-af65-42e0-93a0-9fc1688a6ce2 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=bcd058cf-7d43-4375-bd8a-fe00db489da5 none swap sw 0 0
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=5755f4d9-ddd0-4a47-a59e-d62b4765499e none swap sw 0 0
fdisk -l from Kubuntu 20.04 gives
Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 931.53 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EZEX-60W
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x475cc1c6
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1335429117 1335427070 636.8G 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 * 1335429118 1953523711 618094594 294.7G 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1335429120 1394020351 58591232 28G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 1394022400 1882302463 488280064 232.9G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 1882304512 1953523711 71219200 34G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 4 does not start on physical sector boundary.
Ok, looks like I was wrong. It is not sda7 that has OpenSuse, it is sda1, the 636.8 GB partition.
Please use CODE ( # ) for pasting command output, not QUOTE. When I try to quote your pastes, the quotes disappear. Code wraps persist. Please edit your #5 post accordingly.
The fstabs indicate UEFI is not in use by the installed operating systems, so using the F11 menu can be of no help.
At this point you need help from someone familiar with the process of either rescue booting or chrooting to an openSUSE installation on BTRFS, and/or someone familiar with reconfiguring Kubuntu's Grub to recognize BTRFS and provide a boot selection for openSUSE. I never use either BTRFS, or Kubuntu's Grub, or any Grub2 for that matter, except on systems using UEFI booting. openSUSE's installation media's "boot Linux system" is broken. Otherwise, I would recommend it to reconfigure your PC via YaST to boot using openSUSE's Grub, which automatically generates a selection(s) for booting other distros regardless of / filesystem type unless you direct it not to do so.
The general procedure, for which no details can I give, but should be discoverable via web search, includes reconfiguring Kubuntu's Grub to include running os-prober and regenerating grub.cfg via [update-grub,grub-mkconfig] with the assurance that BTRFS support in its Grub is enabled. It may be that Kubuntu's Grub currently has GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="true" and needs it changed to false.
Another option, possibly the easiest, would be to use the latest Tumbleweed installation media to upgrade your Tumbleweed to the current version 20200716, which would automatically restore openSUSE's Grub. This could be the NET install version, and quick download you can boot from your DVD drive after burning the iso to CD. It's even possible to download only the installation kernel and initrd and load them with Kubuntu's Grub to initialize the upgrade.
OK, but the thing I don’t understand is that why is it that when I installed Kubuntu 20.04, OpenSuse no longer appears in the GRUB menu? Does this have something to do with the fact that OpenSuse is using the BTRFS filesystem?
On top of that, when I am running Kubuntu, it automatiicaly mounts the OpenSuse volume. In other words, it has no troble seeing it.
On top of that, why can I see the OpenSuse Home folder but inside it, it appears empty. There isn’t even a single user folder?
I opened a terminal and did sudo su.
I went to the OpenSuse Home folder and still, it appears empty.
Does OpenSuse store the user folder in Home or not?
If I had known that BTRFS was such a bizarro thing, I would have avoided it. It was OpenSuse choice to use BTRFS.
So, I inserted the OpenSuse DVD and booted up. A OpenSuse menu appears. I chose Upgrade.
OK, but the thing I don’t understand is that why is it that when I installed Kubuntu 20.04, OpenSuse no longer appears in the GRUB menu? Does this have something to do with the fact that OpenSuse is using the BTRFS filesystem?
It has everything to do with it.
Quote:
On top of that, when I am running Kubuntu, it automatiicaly mounts the OpenSuse volume. In other words, it has no troble seeing it.
The kernel supports it by default, unlike Kubuntu's Grub.
Quote:
On top of that, why can I see the OpenSuse Home folder but inside it, it appears empty. There isn’t even a single user folder?
Kubuntu's fstab isn't mounting anything of openSUSE's, so it's hard so say exactly, but obviously something is wrong with Kubuntu's automounting of BTRFS.
Quote:
I opened a terminal and did sudo su.
I went to the OpenSuse Home folder and still, it appears empty.
Does OpenSuse store the user folder in Home or not?
It does whatever its fstab says it does.
Quote:
If I had known that BTRFS was such a bizarro thing, I would have avoided it. It was OpenSuse choice to use BTRFS.
Actually not. openSUSE lives on a SUSE Linux Enterprise foundation. It was SLE's decision to default to BTRFS. Still, it's only a default. Many users, including me, don't use defaults.
Quote:
So, I inserted the OpenSuse DVD and booted up. A OpenSuse menu appears. I chose Upgrade.
Most likely by using the Kubuntu bootloader, possibly creating the same problem in the future with each system update that includes a new kernel. It's this kind of problem, in part, that the designs of UEFI and GPT were intended to mitigate. When you find it comes time for a new SSD or HD, or wiping the existing WD, consider installing each afresh using UEFI and GPT to reduce the proclivity of each to interfere with booting the other.
BTW, openSUSE is the only correct way to spell openSUSE. "OpenSUSE", "openSuSE", OpenSuse" and other variations are all wrongly formatted.
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