Boot Menu Help Needed

Ray2047 · 05-20-2006, 08:56 AM

I installed Linspire 5.0 but it failed to add Debian/Sarge on my second Hard Drive to the boot menu.

A search gave me instructions for finding and editing the boot menu but they don't seem to work on my install. The instructions I found said to go to the file manager, click System, click Boot, right click grub and choose "open with". Well I'm not finding Grub.

Second question I have is what specifically do I need to add to get Debian/Sarge on the menu.

Thanks in advance

davcefai · 05-20-2006, 03:27 PM

You may be using lilo. Look for the file /etc/lilo.conf. If you have it then edit it as per "man lilo.conf"

Ray2047 · 05-20-2006, 09:56 PM

Thanks. Took a bit of looking but found it. I'd looked a bit for LILO when I couldn't find Grub but just didn't see it. Now I just have to find the correct format for the Debian entry. I'll post over at Debian for that.

Quote:

then edit it as per "man lilo.conf"

Ok, you lost me on that. Could you please explain "man".

davcefai · 05-21-2006, 12:10 AM

Sorry, maybe I went too fast.

man is the command to see manual pages. So you type:

man lilo.conf

to read all about modifying lilo.conf.

Better still, install dwww which gives you a web browser interface to indexed documentation.

Something like this will do the trick for you:

Code:

## Mandriva 2006
image=/mnt/mdk2006/boot/vmlinuz
    label="Mandriva2006"
    root=/dev/sdb5
    initrd=/mnt/mdk2006/boot/initrd.img
    append=" resume=/dev/sda9 splash=silent"
    vga=788

In the above, I am booting Mandriva on the second hdd from the boot menu on the first. Note that:

The mandriva root has been mounted on /mnt/mdk2006. You need to do this for lilo to find the files.

In your case Debian will probably be on hdb1.

If you can boot Debian by selecting the boot drive you can look at its lilo.conf and copy the releveant parameters. Otherwise mount the disc and look at its lilo.conf that way.

Hope this helps.

Ray2047 · 05-21-2006, 06:33 AM

Thank you for your helpful answer. Unfortunately what was my boot drive is the one I installed Linspire on so I can't check that because it was erased. Guess I'm screwed because when I tried to get help for the Debian part of this post in the Debian forum the moderators locked the post.

Moderators do you see any direct help on the Debian side of the issue. I don't so why block me getting help in the appropriate forum?

Guess I'm going to be blocked here to but I need to vent about my treatment by what up to now I thought was a good place to post.

davcefai · 05-21-2006, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Guess I'm going to be blocked here to but I need to vent about my treatment by what up to now I thought was a good place to post.

Did you double-post? That's a no-no here.

Let's take this stepwise. It's really rather easy as long as you have the requisite knowledge.

Do you know how to mount the second hard disc?

Edit /etc/fstab and add the following lines:

Code:

# Debian
/dev/hdb1     /mnt/debian    ext3    defaults    1    1

I'm assuming that you formatted as ext3 (default). If not the ext3 above needs to be changed.

Save, exit. Now create a subdirectory in /mnt named debian. I've never used Linspire but it probably has an /mnt directory. If not, create it first.

Now become root and issue

mount -a

If there's an error, report it. If all is OK you will simply be returned to the command prompt.

Now if you fire up your file manager you should see your Debian Disc under /mnt/debian. You need to be root for this to work.

Next time you boot the 2nd hard disc will be mounted automatically.

Please come back with the results of this and we'll take it to the next stage. Incidentally nothing of this is Debian specific, All distros work this way.

Ray2047 · 05-21-2006, 05:50 PM

Sorry for the vent earlier but I don't consider what I posted a duplicate post. I didn't ask about finding the boot manager in Linspire.

I think the whole thing has gone a bit off course. I was only asking how to add Debian to the boot menu. I thank you for letting me know how to mount it but all I really wanted to do was to add it to Linspire boot menu. That question was answered here. That's why I went to Debian to find out the specific structure of what I needed to add to LILO to have it boot from Linspire's menu.

Edit: Thanks to a poster on another forum I now understand that i must mount my Debian drive to get info for Ilio. I also now understand there are not distro specific entries which was why my post in Debian was considered a double post.

aus9 · 09-15-2006, 08:55 AM

well now might be a good time to acquire a live cd such as knoppix or kanotix or a small download of RIP.

boot the live cd

open a terminal and mount the relevant partition to a folder then access it I assume you will be using knoppix as RIP differs due to GUI

eg
su
mkdir /new
mount -t ext3 /dev/X (X needs more info) /new
konqueror

then navigate to /new to read your files

I must be drunk but I can not see where you have mentioned your drive (s) and their partitions

(2) can you be kind to a dinosaur and tell us what they are again pls?
I am not confident its hdb1

(3) after going to the correct partition you can edit it if its mounted as read-write......the above command does this by NOT defining the mount command with a read only (ro) parameter.

aus9 · 09-15-2006, 08:59 AM

let me know if you have downloaded RIP and I will give you more info....boot it once and choose the X (for X windows ) with NO keymap prompt if you have a std keyboard.
tell me what is the first menu item you see when you right hand click an empty space on the screen.....this confirms to me....you have a good burn etc

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=rip