Help with Multiple Linux install and Grub [Solved!]
All,
Need some help! I currently have a working system with the following 3 hard drives and partitions: Partition.....Filesys.....Use......................................Notes SDA1..........NTFS.......Win Xp.................................Primary SDA3..........ext3........Debian i386 (Sid)...................Primary SDA4..........ext3........New Deb AMD64 Etch Install....Primary SDA5..........FAT32..Windows_D(share with Linux).......Logical / Extended SDA6..........Linux Swap SDA7..........ext3........Chroot for Deb AMD64 install....Logical / Extended SDA8..........ext3........Debian i386 /usr.....................Logical / Extended SDA9..........ext3........Debian AMD64 /usr .................Logical / Extended The other 2 hard drives have non executable data and home directories for both Linux distributions. The windows XP and Debian i386 installations still work fine and I can boot both of them from Grub without issue. I repartitioned the SDA hardrive with PartedMagic 2.0 (Great Utility!!!), and reduced the win Xp partition and removed 2 other FAT32 windows share partitions, in order to install Debian AMD64 on the SDA4 and SDA9 partitions. I can not get GRUB to find the AMD64 install. I have tried: grub>root (hd0, [+tab key] and I get: partition num: 0, filesystem type unknown, partition Type 0x7grub>find /vmlinuz and only get (hd0,2) as a response ==>SDA3 the i386 install and grub boot partition I would expect to see (hd0,3) for SDA4 listed as well I have also tried: Grub>root (hd0,3) Grub>kernel / [+tab key] and I get an error 2: bad file or directory type I checked all the new partitions and I get an error 2 with the above Grub>root+kernel trick. My old partitions come up fine, listing all files in root directory, but all new partitions give me the same error 2. I would assume this meant that the partitions or file systems are somehow corrupt. I booted into the i386 installation and mounted /dev/sda4, and was able to read *and* copy all files to one of my other hard drives. Vmlinuz is in the root directory. So it would seem that the data is ok. I have done partition and file system checks from the i386 partition and PartedMagic and have not found any problems. Looking at the AMD64 root partition SDA4 from my i386 install, I get: karl2@Cor2Deb:/x64deb/root$ ls -l total 88Based on my system above I would expect the stanza for the AMD64 install in the grub /boot/grub/menu.lst of the i386 install to read: title Debian x64, Kernel 2.6.22-3-amd64 root (hd0,3) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-3-amd64 root=/dev/sda4 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-3-amd64 What am I overlooking? Other notes:
Other pertenant system info: Asus P5WDH mother board - ICH7 Family SATA IDE Controller Intel E6600 Conroe 3x WDC WD3200KS-00P hard drives 2x LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165H6S |
I am not so sure about your partitions as you describe them. I would expect sda4 to be the extended partition, which contains the logical partitions. From your working Debian i386, what is the output of
fdisk -l /dev/sda You say you can boot into Debian i386 and windows so grub is working and does not need to be reinstalled. You need to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst (on your Debian i386) to include the AMD64 Etch Install. If you can identify the partitions more clearly and determine where Etch is located this should not be difficult. |
Quote:
SDA4 is not an extended partition, it is a primary partition, but if I understand the GRUB manual, this should not matter for a Linux disto... Code:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System |
Look at the output of fdisk and see where each partition starts and ends. You will see that the numbering is out of sequence. The order in which they are arranged on the disk is as follows
Primary partitions /dev/sda1 * 1 to 8822 /dev/sda4 8823 to 9430 Extended partition (contains the logical partitions) /dev/sda2 9431 to 38305 Logical partitions /dev/sda9 9431 to 20907 /dev/sda5 20908 to 24986 /dev/sda6 24987 to 25539 /dev/sda7 25540 to 26755 /dev/sda8 26756 to 38305 /dev/sda3 38306 to 38913 From your first post it appears that you do not understand the nature of extended and logical partitions. An extended partition is a kind of container which holds logical partitions. I recommend that you learn more about partitions - try here for a start - http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/partition-types.html I think that the first step in solving your boot problem is to fix your partition naming. Back up important data first. From Debian i386, use fdisk to make the correction ... # fdisk /dev/sda then type x at the prompt to enter expert mode ... Command (m for help): x then type f to fix the naming ... Expert command (m for help): f Type w to commit the changes to disk. ... Expert command (m for help): w Once the naming is fixed, work out which partition contain what, then enter the correct information into /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst. Good luck. |
Problem solved!
As I suspected the x64 distro was on the SDA4 partition. I read a few more GRUB guides and tried this (from the i386 installation): Code:
# grub-install /dev/sda4 Then after reboot from the grub command line: Code:
grub>find /vmlinuz For some reason GRUB did not recognize the SDA4 partition until the boot loader was installed in the first sector with the grub install command. Now I am able to use the stanza I documented in my original post to boot the x64 distro, without issue. Some useful info for anyone else that is having issues: GRUB manual Grub Page - Specifically for dual boot Ubuntu Forum Post on side by side distros |
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:27 AM. |