Suse 11 - problem with booting from external HDD

orangina · 06-25-2010, 07:48 AM

Now i am rly fcked up

@syg00 - i cant boot live CD anymore w/o my usb-hdd, i get grub error 21 (didnt try script yet because you write LiveCD)
@thorkelljarl - when i write that i got application chrash

Code:

kdeinit4: preparing to launch /usr/lib/libkdeinit4_klauncher.so
kdeinit4: Communication error with launcher. Exiting!          
KCrash: Application 'kwrite' crashing...                       
sock_file=/root/.kde4/socket-linux-760b/kdeinit4__0            
KCrash cannot reach kdeinit, launching directly.               

[1]+  Stopped                 kwrite /boot/grub/menu.lst

Now i cant even run my XP

thorkelljarl · 06-25-2010, 08:01 AM

An alternative...

Boot SUSE on the USB-HDD as root and open the file "/boot/grub/menu.lst". Post the results.

What did you do that was different to now require the USB-HDD connected before you can boot the live-cd?

If you choose the device to boot from the one-time-boot menu the problem may go away, allowing you to deal with one thing at a time.

orangina · 06-25-2010, 08:07 AM

I wasnt do nothing, didnt touch anything. Since i was install openSUSE on my ext HDD i work on them, didnt try start XP before.

and about /boot/grub/menu.lst
I got permission denied (loged as su)

btw thanks for helping

thorkelljarl · 06-25-2010, 08:16 AM

Not as "su"

I did not mean to use a terminal, but to change users and become "root". You can either log out or switch users, and then log in as username "root"

orangina · 06-25-2010, 08:34 AM

Lol i cant. I try with login root but "Login failed" try even with password "toor" but failed.. starting pissing off

thorkelljarl · 06-25-2010, 08:58 AM

?...

I open the SUSE menu, go to the red "Leave" button, choose "logout", and, when the login screen appears, type "root" as the username and my root/su password. A desktop opens with the same privileges that are found as Administrator in Windows.

orangina · 06-25-2010, 09:11 AM

Finaly got it

Code:

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Jun 25 12:25:58 CEST 2010
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,2)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2
    root (hd1,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SAMSUNG_HM320II_CT1105082434-0:0-part3 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SAMSUNG_HM320II_CT1105082434-0:0-part2 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2
    root (hd1,2)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SAMSUNG_HM320II_CT1105082434-0:0-part3 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x317
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
    rootnoverify (hd0,0)
    chainloader +1

thorkelljarl · 06-25-2010, 09:48 AM

I have to google around...

Is it true that you cannot boot XP under any circumstance, neither with the USB HDD attached nor without, nor if you use the one-time-boot menu to choose the internal HDD, trying both with and without the USB HDD?

If you have an XP installation cd, you can begin by googling to find out how you use it to restore your Windows boot manager. As you describe the facts, with nothing booting, GRUB is the present boot loader and is not pointing correctly at anything to boot.

If you repair Windows, you should be able to deal with GRUB afterwards. Since you want XP to be able to boot without the USB HDD attached, I would repair XP without the USB HDD attached.

If you don't have an XP installation cd, you need to boot into XP and then repair the XP boot loader, something that you cannot now do. Grub can boot into XP; this is something I have no experience with, but I know that the Super Grub Disk will boot XP. There must be information if you google.

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

We need more eyes and more help on this problem.

yancek · 06-25-2010, 10:49 AM

Your fdisk output shows sda as the drive with Linux (sda) while your Grub entries show it as the second drive (hd1). sdb shows windows partitions and your Grub entry for the second drive shows (hd0) which is the opposite of what it normally is. This usually happens when devices are plugged/unplugged during installation. I would suggest you login as root and go to the grub prompt and enter the geometry commands to find out which drive Grub sees as which:

geometry (hd0) - hit enter for output
geometry (hd1) - hit enter for output

One will have ntfs (windows) the other will have Linux.

yancek · 06-25-2010, 10:50 AM

Your fdisk output shows sda as the drive with Linux (sda) while your Grub entries show it as the second drive (hd1). sdb shows windows partitions and your Grub entry for the second drive shows (hd0) which is the opposite of what it normally is. This usually happens when devices are plugged/unplugged during installation. I would suggest you login as root and go to the grub prompt and enter the geometry commands to find out which drive Grub sees as which:

geometry (hd0) - hit enter for output
geometry (hd1) - hit enter for output

One will have ntfs (windows) the other will have Linux. You may need map commands but don't know without seeing output.

thorkelljarl · 06-25-2010, 11:16 AM

Thanks yancek...

The GRUB prompt will appear if you type the command "grub" in a terminal as "su".

orangina · 06-25-2010, 08:40 PM

Here it is geometry

Code:

rub> geometry (hd0)
drive 0x80: C/H/S = 14593/255/63, The number of sectors = 234441648, /dev/disk/
by-id/ata-HITACHI_HTS541612J9SA00_3H_SB2E41H7D305UE
   Partition num: 0,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
   Partition num: 4,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0xe

grub> geometry (hd1)
drive 0x81: C/H/S = 38913/255/63, The number of sectors = 625142448, /dev/disk/
by-id/usb-SAMSUNG_HM320II_CT1105082434-0:0
   Partition num: 0,  Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xc
   Partition num: 1,  Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
   Partition num: 2,  Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

EDIT: I successfuly fix my windows boot and now i can boot w/o ext HDD
EDIT 2: I formated my ext HDD
Now question: What i should do now? how can i install working openSUSE to my extHDD ?

orangina · 06-26-2010, 01:51 AM

Well i success now

I have now openSUSE on my ext HDD and XP on internal HDD with working GRUB. Problem was in GRUB - i didnt install GRUB to /dev/sdb. It was all time in /dev/sda.
It was neccessary to switch disk order nothing else. All works ok now except i can go on internet. Status is online (wireless) but i cannot open pages. Thats the only problem what i got. so thank you guys for helping me, i realy appreciate that.

oldrifle · 10-01-2011, 02:38 PM

Remove laptop HDD (unplug cable or just unscrew and remove - usually 2 screws)
Plug in USB HDD (nothing else including SD cards)
128 MB or less boot partition followed by ROOT SWAP and HOME partition either using gparted or using windows before removing HDD.
I installed openSUSE 11.0 11.3KDE and UBUNTU 11.3
All worked ok.
will try DUALBOOT soon