After installing grub no boot says "no setup signature found" ??:(

linus72 · 06-13-2009, 09:49 PM

So, anyone ever had this issue?
What does it mean?
this happpened after I installed slitaz on hda4, then installed dsl-frugal
on hda2 and now slitaz won't boot (it did before installing dsl)

so what can I do??
thanks

repo · 06-14-2009, 01:28 AM

Are you using grub?
Try to reinstall grub.

dv502 · 06-14-2009, 03:09 AM

Can you boot into dsl-frugal?

If you can boot into dsl, edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add

title slitaz
root (hd0,3)
chainloader +1

Save and reboot.

Note: hd0,3 points to the forth partition. Partitions are counted as 0,1,2,3 respectively.

If you can't boot into either one, you can setup grub like this.
First, you need to known what partition(s) has the linux kernel. From the grub prompt, type

Code:

grub> find  /sbin/init

(hd0,0)

This is the output of my linux box. If you have other linux's on your box you will see other hdx,x possibilities. Once you decide which linux to make as your default, enter its hdx,x below.

The next commands are as follow.

Code:

grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> reboot

The above is an example of setting grub on the first partition i.e /dev/hda1

If you want to use dsl-frugal as the main OS to boot other linux OSs type:

Code:

grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> reboot

Or to make slitaz your default OS, type:

Code:

grub> root (hd0,3)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> reboot

Once you got dsl or slitaz booted up. Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst file and add the other linux OS like so

title linux distro name
root (hdx,x)
chainloader +1

hdx,x is where the other linux resides.

Remember, when installing multiple linux's do not install the other boot loaders. It overwrites the default one. Use your main linux OS to control the other linux OS via the grub menu

linus72 · 06-14-2009, 05:01 AM

Ah....Guess what it was guys?
( http://ramses.smeyers.be/varia/grub/ )

I was using slitaz "cooking" to install grub, and slitaz and DSL both must use older version of Grub; as when I used Tinycore-2.0, which has grub-097, all worked beautifullY!
Note, this is about a multiboot qemu-img vhd with tc-2.0/dsl-4.4.10/slitaz and webserverpupy
all on a 1GB vhd!

Anyway, solved.
Oh, seems cause I'm using vhd that the partition order is off or skewy
as "root (hd0,0), etc etc"
doesn't work
I had to use "grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/hda1 /dev/hda"
which worked good
thanks peeps!

linus72 · 06-14-2009, 05:40 AM

Also, If it works as is,
should I still use "makeactive" "chainload +1"
etc?

here is my menu.lst entries below
All of them boot, so Do I need to edit them more?

Code:

title Portable-TinyCore_2.0
       root (hd0,0)
       kernel /boot/bzImage quiet vga=789 desktop=jwm restore=hda1/tce tce=hda1 home=hda1 opt=hda1
       initrd /boot/tinycore.gz

title Portable-WebServerPuppy-1
       root (hd0,2)
       kernel /boot/vmlinuz pmedia=atahd pfix=copy
       initrd /boot/initrd.gz

title Portable-Slitaz GNU/Linux 1.0
      root (hd0,3)
      kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-slitaz root=/dev/hda4 vga=normal

title  Portable-SliTaz GNU/Linux (Kernel 2.6.29.3-slitaz)
       root (hd0,3)
       kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.29.3-slitaz root=/dev/hda4

title Portable-MyDSL-4.4.10
       root (hd0,1)
       kernel /linux24 quiet root=/dev/hda2 nomce noapic restore=hda3/mydsl mydsl=hda3 knoppix_dir=KNOPPIX BOOT_IMAGE=knoppix frugal
       initrd /minirt24.gz

so, does that look OK, as all partitions boot.
If I need to add makeactive or whatever please tell me...?
thanks

dv502 · 06-14-2009, 08:29 AM

It looks fine, nothing to be done.

As for the chainloader +1 thing, I remember reading an article about multi-booting operating systems. It mentioned that when people try adding other OSs to the grub menu.lst file, people mess up on the root, kernel and initrd line.

The article mentioned that as long as you have the root device correct, the chainloader will take care of the rest. I did what the article said, and he was right.

A few years ago, I had arch, pclinux2007 and openbsd in the same computer. I used arch as my main OS. To boot pclinuxos2007 or openbsd from arch's grub menu I added these lines to my /boot/grub/menu.lst file from arch.

title pclinuxOS 2007
root (hdx,x)
chainloader +1

title openbsd
root (hdx,x)
chainloader +1

Don't remember the hd addresses of the partitions as this was done three
years ago. But anyway, it did work like the article said.

I rebooted. The grub menu came up and saw three choices. I selected pclinuxos and it boot up fine.

I rebooted again, and selected openbsd and it came just fine.

Finally, I rebooted again and selected arch and it came up just fine.

I was happy that it worked. Arch, pclinuxos and openbsd boot up with no problems.

If I can find the article, which I read three years ago, I will post the link. I hope it is still online or cache somewhere on the internet.

- Cheers

linus72 · 06-14-2009, 08:43 AM

Cool, so can I ask you a question dv502?
I have installed these distro's to a partitioned qemu-img 1GB; however, when trying to install grub with "root (hd0,0)", "setup (hdx)", etc it says either the partition doesn't exist or the stage3 or something can't be found.
Now, when I do "grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/hdxx /dev/hdx" it works
flawlessly. Wonder why?

Also, do you use a portable partitioned os or have ever made one?
I would like to know your experiences...?
Thanks

dv502 · 06-14-2009, 09:38 AM

I installed tinycore linux 1.2 awhile back in virtualbox. I follow these directions from tinycore website http://tinycorelinux.com/install.html and it installed just fine.

Did you copy the grub files as mentioned in the link above. And, did you type grub at the terminal to get a grub prompt? Once you have a grub prompt, you need to type

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

I never tried installing multiple linux's on one virtual drive. In theory, it should work the same as real drives and partitions. I have to try this myself. I am going to install tinycore and dsl linux on one virtual drive. I will post back if grub can handle multiple linux's in a VM.

And, for the last question. I never used a portable partition OS.

I'll get back later and post my results.

linus72 · 06-14-2009, 10:05 AM

OK, I did try grub prompt "grub"
and root ,etc
didn't work on vhd
grub-install did work

Now, I never made a Vbox img cause there's no portable vbox that I know of...
anyway I attached screenshots of new multiboot-portable
this one is dsl-4.4.10/tinycore-2.0/slitaz-cooking, ansd webserverpuppy1
all running on a 1GB qemu-img vhd with 4 partitions/no swap
(didn't know if vhd could handle extended partitioning, testing now)
I also have tc-2.0 portable now at site, but haven't finished it
I got a whole section of portables
( http://multidistro.com/downloads/por...portables.html )
all you really need to get started is "portable-qemu"
which has the scripts, etc to make-vhd/install and run xxx distro
known working distro's with portable-qemu are slack/dsl/feather/dsl-n
tinycore-2.0, fedora, wolvix, goblinx
it plays on Dindows too.
so, i was told that you can't partition a vhd, etc, but that's not true

So, my dsl2hd portable is fastest cause it doesn't run in ram.

anyway, please hit me back with your thoughts and if your interested we
could/should start a new thread on partitioning vhd's or something-yes?

dv502 · 06-14-2009, 01:55 PM

It didn't work the way I wanted. Installing multiple linux's on a single Virtualbox hard drive did not work well.

I guess it's one OS per virtual drive

At least in the real world, I can install multiple linux's on real hard drives and partitions.

Anyway, I glad you got your multi-boot portable working.

Cool screenshot of the skeleton spash screen.