[SOLVED] LILO/GRUB issue? Dual boot half broken

wingman358 · 06-26-2010, 12:46 PM

Hello all

I've run Debian on my laptop for quite some time now with no problems.
I installed Slack to a new partition created in the free space of my hard drive, and I thik this was my mistake: I let Slack automatically configure the MBR with lilo (can't remember - I should stop operating on the MBR at 4 AM.) Now Slack runs just fine, but upon bootup I would like to be able to boot either Debian or Slack, but instead I just have a Slack splash and the only option is to press enter to boot Slack.

FYI:

Code:

root@slacjb400:~# lilo -A /dev/sda
/dev/sda1

I believe sda1 is the root directory of my Debian install.

Code:

root@slacjb400:~# fdisk -l

[...]

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          43      345366   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              44       14962   119836867+   5  Extended
/dev/sda3           14963       22432    60002775   83  Linux
/dev/sda5              44         651     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6             652        1016     2931831   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            1017        2460    11598898+  82  Linux swap
/dev/sda8            2461        2509      393561   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            2510       13518    88429761   83  Linux
/dev/sda10          13519       14962    11598898+  82  Linux swap

In the above table, sda10 is the swap I created for Slack and sda3 is the root directory for Slack. All other partitions were there before (my initial Debian install).

Thus my partitions are apparently intact and visible by the MBR (is it correct that the MBR holds the list of partitions on a disk?) but for some reason I don't have the option to boot Debian at all - just Slack.

I have a feeling this is a LILO/GRUB issue, but I don't know where to start.

EDIT: more poking around seems to reveal that it is the configuration of LILO that is the problem. Observe the following output:

Code:

root@slacjb400:~# cat /etc/lilo.conf
# LILO configuration file
# generated by 'liloconfig'
#
# Start LILO global section
# Append any additional kernel parameters:
append=" vt.default_utf8=0"
boot = /dev/sda

[...]

# Linux bootable partition config begins

image = /boot/vmlinuz
  root = /dev/sda3
  label = Linux
  read-only

# Linux bootable partition config ends

saikee · 06-26-2010, 01:29 PM

Suggestion

Log on Slackware and make sda3 "chainloadable" by command

Code:

lilo -b /dev/sda3

Then try Task B5 of Just booting tips in my signature. No need to use a Live CD. Just do it from Lilo and mount sda1 and do a grub-install to sda to get back your Debian in the MBR.

Inside Debian's /boot/grub/menu.lst add this entry to fire up Slackware

Code:

title slackware in sda3
root (hd0,2)
chainloader +1

You can also make Debian chainloadable by Lilo if the Grub-install is pointed to sda1 instead of sda. In which case you add entry to /etc/lilo.conf to boot Debian

Code:

other=/dev/sda1
label=Debian_in_sda1

and re-compile Lilo by command

Code:

lilo -b /dev/sda

Lilo and Grub can be used in any way you want. In fact you can have both of the above schemes implemented so that you can jump between Lilo and Grub menus.

wingman358 · 06-28-2010, 12:51 AM

In Slack I tried making sda3 "chainloadable":

Code:

root@slacjb400:~# lilo -b /dev/sda3

Warning: Ignoring entry 'boot'
Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed
Warning: Partition 3 on /dev/sda is not marked Active.
Added Linux *
3 warnings were issued.

and then:

Code:

root@slacjb400:~# fdisk -l

[...]

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1          43      345366   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              44       14962   119836867+   5  Extended
/dev/sda3           14963       22432    60002775   83  Linux
/dev/sda5              44         651     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6             652        1016     2931831   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            1017        2460    11598898+  82  Linux swap
/dev/sda8            2461        2509      393561   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            2510       13518    88429761   83  Linux
/dev/sda10          13519       14962    11598898+  82  Linux swap

so I decided to activate sda3 and verified it with fdisk -l:

Code:

root@slacjb400:~# lilo -A /dev/sda 3

pt[1] ->  0
pt[3] -> 80
The partition table has been updated.

root@slacjb400:~# fdisk -l  

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1          43      345366   83  Linux
/dev/sda2              44       14962   119836867+   5  Extended
/dev/sda3   *       14963       22432    60002775   83  Linux
/dev/sda5              44         651     4883728+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6             652        1016     2931831   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            1017        2460    11598898+  82  Linux swap
/dev/sda8            2461        2509      393561   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            2510       13518    88429761   83  Linux
/dev/sda10          13519       14962    11598898+  82  Linux swap

I then rebooted and at the Slack splash screen, pressed <Tab> to bring up the LILO prompt. I was presented with

Code:

Linux
boot:

and typed "mount sda1" which returned "No such image. [Tab] shows a list."

Any ideas?

saikee · 06-28-2010, 01:49 AM

You mount sda1 "inside" a Linux not before you boot up one.

Following Task B5 and adjust the device name to suit your own situation.

wingman358 · 06-30-2010, 11:54 PM

Saikee, I followed your directions up to the "grub-install" part where it threw me the error Could not find device for /boot: Not found or not a block device."

I then followed the directions below: (taken from http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=504678 )

Boot from the liveCD and open a terminal window. Do:
Code:
sudo grub
That should change the prompt to "grub". Then the following:

Code:
find /boot/grub/stage1 < the "1" is the number one
That will return a value that looks like

(hdX,Y)

where X and Y are numbers. Remember the values. Then:

Code:
root (hdX,Y)
where X and Y are the values returned by the find command. This tells GRUB where the boot partition of your linux installation is now located. Then:
Code:
setup (hd0) < the "0" is the number zero.
This writes the updated GRUB stub loader (now with the correct boot partition location) to the MBR (first 512 bytes) of the current boot drive.

Code:
quit
to exit the grub terminal,