ARCH BOOTLOADER installation
 

Hello fellas my prob is :-
I installed (well tried) arch linux 0.7.1 and from cd most of packages didnot get installed probably media was corrupted so i googled and got way 2 install frm ISO without burning it , everything went fine but i couldnot INSTALL ANY BOOTLOADER , when i selected either it said BOOTLOADER INSTALLATION FAILED check /dev/tty5 for detail [or SORTA THING ] or it got installed and i run it sez cant find the device or doesnot exist

Ok dude, chill a moment.

What do you have on the computer atm? Do you have another version of linux? Windows? or just Arch?

What loaders have you tried, how and what degree of sucess has each given?

What state is the system now? Can you boot anything?

Arch 0.71 uses Grub 0.97 by default.

If you can access it the boot loader is already there. i.e. if you get a Grub shell out by typing
Otherwise just following Appendix of Grub Manual.

It is only 4 lines of commands and takes 5 to 10 minutes build Grub from scratch.

Having got Grub the instruction to put Grub into the MBR is

I had a similar problem with Slack. Suprise, suprise. The problem is, that in some distros th bootloader tries to install into hda's MBR. What if you have only hdb,hdc and cdrom on hdd? Yeah, it is non-standard, but I have such config. That could be a problem. We cannot assume that everyne has the same hardware config.

I don't think it matters at all whether you have hdb, hdd, sda, sdb as your first bootable disk.

You have to tell the installer "what partition" you want to install the Linux. The boot loader destination is always quoted as either the MBR or the root partition. In rare situation you may given a list of hard disks to choose from. The installer therefore cannot possibly put a boot loader on an imaginary disk or always in hda.

Grub has none of this confusion because it uses a numbering system. Its first disk (hd0) can be hdb, sda or whatever you've specified in the BIOS setting. It just receives the information from the BIOS and uses it and couldn't care less about what it is.

What tend to happen is the installer fails to implement the boot loader installation and causes the distro temporarily inaccessible.

A Linux user in this case should learn to use a Live CD as a stepping stone to "hoop" (using the change root command) back the unbootable Linux to do the rescuing work.

-- I HAD WINDOWS (XP AND 98 ) THEY TOO DONT RUN
I DONT CARE ABT WINDOWS(s)
I want LINUX INSTALLED andi dooo see an option in the linux bootloader (yeah its GRUB) and it has arch linux written on it and when i press enter on it it shows DEVICE DOESNOT exist
AND I CANT BOOT ANY OS.and ITS " bdb " in bios its SECONDARY SLAVE

I HAVE GNOPPIX (a live CD ) show do i fix it please would u tell me ?

Boot to the Gnoppix
click terminal, do a
to see your own partitioning scheme. You only mentioned Arch 0.71 so we assume its root is in hda1 but ajust it according to your own partitioning scheme.

You invoke a Grub shell and ask Grub to setup itself in the MBR using the information from the root of Arch 0.71, as follow
If Grub reports everything done and no error then on a reboot you will have Grub the boot loader.

A Linux cannot rescue a Windows if it wasn't bootable before. If your systems were working before then Grub will boot them.

Paste the screen information of
here plus the content of Arch's /boot/grub/menu.lst for further assistance.

I repeat, your Windows must be in working condition before because Linux can't fix them. A linux can "boot" them only.

Maybe you are right. Maybe it works in arch. Muhhamad, saikee is right, give us a prinout of grub's error, if any. Good luck, SHOUTER GEEK :) ;)

Well, from what I see, arch 0.71 is still not too mature. Grab arch 0.7 ISO and burn it, boot and go from there. Make sure your media isn't messed up.

Anyway, here is that section of my menu.lst, if it helps.



# Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/discs/disc1/part1 ro


(I have Arch on my second disc. If it's on the first, change (hd1,0) to (hd0,0), and disc1 to disc0)

WELL I M GETTIN FRUSTATING FELLAS , i have only 1 hd connected and it is shown as HDB , my swap partition is HDB6 and root is HDB7 (with reiser FS) now can any one be kind enough 2 tell me how 2 write a menu.lst for my self or just tell me what to paste whree in grub menu.lst so i might run my grub



------------- YOUR PREVIOUS REMEDIES --------
I tried em all but noting but surprisingly when i ran my live CD (of gnoppix) when i configured grub just how saikee said it didnot seem 2 work however when i REBOOTED my system , MY WINDOWS XP AND WIN98 were back without any HINT of LINUX .......


I m forry for any bugging 2 u all (my windows 98 is in HDB1 and XP in HDB2 )

You did it to yourself because you never told us there were other systems in your disk and so we all assumed Arch was in the first partition.

You can correct the mistake by going through my post #8 again but this time to setup Grub into MBR with Arch's root. That is after booting to Knoppix you type
For us to write a Grub menu.lst from scratch we need the content of /boot of your Arch Linux.

also i read in a post someone said cant read partition or sorta thing because in kernel compilation he forgot to put in some support for FILE SYSTEMS , in arch linux , u install ur kernel and it tells BUILDING KERNEL or sorta thing so is there any possibility of such things also it prints out to modify some links of kernel , i did [BEFORE TRYING GNOPPIX that i earlier mentioned] and then when i selected the thing it showed error 23 ERROR PARSING THE LINE

and SAIKEE this
grub
root (hd0,6)
setup (hd0)
quit
thing doesnot work says invalid STRING i REMIND AGANIn
MY SWAP IS HDB6
MY ROOT (with reiser fs is ) HDB7


-=--- SORRY FOR THE HEADACHE ---=-

If you have only one drive the (hd0,6) is the 7th partition of the first disk as Grub counts from 0.

Also it worked before because it restored your Windows boot loader at (hd0,0) back to the MBR.

The only reason that it fails to work is that your Grub in hdb7 is "incomplete" and cannot be setup.

You can investigate it as follow. Boot it to Gnoppix and type
Once you have done the "chroot" you will be inside Arch Linux and able to see if you have got menu.lst by
You can invoke the Grub inside Arch to try the Root+setup statements as described in Post #12 again if the grub-install statement fails.

If you haven't got /boot/grub/menu.lst inside Arch then it is a different ball game and you will need an additional tool to boot Arch.

Ya I just did and it doesnot work , the thing is it gets well till CHROOT but not furthur i also tried the step in # 12 but nothing , fells it would b better if u could write a nu bootloader and gimme so i could INSTALL {PUT IT IN MBR} it with a 3rd party programme

MY MENU .LST IS this (made changes b4 installing nu bootloader when i re-installed my archlinux 5th time in attempt 2 install GRUB the right way



# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
#
# Old /dev DevFS Grub
# -----------------------------------------------
# /dev/fd0 /dev/floppy/0 (fd0)
# /dev/hda /dev/discs/disc0/disc (hd0)
# /dev/hdb2 /dev/discs/disc1/part2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/hda3 /dev/discs/disc0/part3 (hd0,2)
# /dev/hdb7 /dev/discs/disc1/part7 (hd1,7)
# /dev/hdb7 /dev/discs/disc1/part7 (hd1,6)
#


# FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
# ----+--------------------------------------------
# 256 | 0x301=769 0x303=771 0x305=773 0x307=775
# 32K | 0x310=784 0x313=787 0x316=790 0x319=793
# 64K | 0x311=785 0x314=788 0x317=791 0x31A=794
# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+

# general configuration:
timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
# TIP: To use udev, add "devfs=nomount" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd1,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdb7 ro
initrd /boot/initrd26.img

# (1) Arch Linux 2
Title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26]
root (hd1,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdb7 ro
initrd /boot/initrd26.img

# (2) Arch linux 3
Title Arch Linux2 , kernel 2.6.x
root (hd1,7)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdb7 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

# (3) Arch linux 4
title Arch linux 4 ,kernel 2.6.x
root (hdb,7)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdb7 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

Here is my Grub menu.lst that boots ARch 0.71
Your menu.lst has been amended and Entries (1) to (3) will not work because

(1) (hd1,7) is a Grub reference meaning the 8th partition of the 2nd disk, as Grub counts from 0. Therefore the root=/dev/hdb7 is wrong. If it were right then the root statement should have been root (hd1,6) but that is exactly choice #0. Therefore you should have hdb8 and not hdb7 in root= statement.

(2) Same error as above but both vmlinuz26 and initrd26.img are now obtained from "/" directory and not the normal "/boot" directory. It is possible but my version has no such files in "/" directory.

(3) This has to be done by you as Grub never use (hdb,7). The disk no. is always hd0, hd1 etc.
-------------------------------------
Thus unless you have the necessary files in "/" directory I suggest you delete the entries No. (2) and (3).

Use hdb8 in place of hdb7 in Entry #1.

You should then concentrate on replicating the Grub by either

(a) using "grub-install /dev/hda" after you have "chroot" into Arch.

or

(b) Invoke a Grub shell from Knoppix and outside Arch to replicate Grub by the "root" and "setup" statement already given to you.

If you are using a 3rd party boot loader together with Grub that would be bad news. You should only use one but not both.

--------------------------------------------------

If everything fails then you will have to boot Arch manually. To do that you need a Grub floppy. Read Section C.1 of this thread to make one, have it ready and let us know if you need to go down that route.

CAN U JUST PLEASE MAKE ME A NEW GRUB ENTRY WHICH I CAN COPY AND PASTE IN MY MENU.lst coz its still not working or better yet , i used suse 9.2 but wasent so fast so someone recommended me ARCH LINUX if u can suggerse me any such simple but very fast and stable distro , i can dump that arch headache
AND THAT GRUB INSTALL THING IS NOT WORKING .
THANKYOU FOR YOUR PAITENCE

I might be of target. But is this maybe related too the limit where you need to have the boot partition under. For example on a 486 you need to have the boot partition in the first 500MB of the harddrive. On newer computers that limit is at 2GB, 8GB, 32GB, 128GB, ... Maybe you need to have a /boot/ partition under a limit like that. Since you only have linux on the 7th partition...

By the way, when booting and you are in grub you can edit the bootup entries live. Just press "e" when you are above the entry you want to edit. That's faster then starting a livecd.

If the above doesn't work it is possible that your ARch installation is faulty and no version of menu.lst can save it.

The way I told to to edit the menu.lst "is" the copy you can paste yourself.

Arch is not known to be well put together. If you want a fast Linux to work with try

Slax, Troppix and Puppy.

The Latest Suse 10.1 is a lot faster than 9.2.

thanks man then its done TRY SLAX Or any other , My arch linux copy is probably faulty


TIPIC IS ADJOURNED ..... THANK U ALL PPL ESP SAIKEE AND BINJAR


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