How to restore boot loader on Mandriva 09 dual boot ... pruned parts 1
 

//moderator/note: hijack cleanup. For a clean view of this thread see http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...e-11.0-695425/. Apologies to the OP for moving *his* posts and related replies, unfortunately it was easier managable this way.

This is an interesting question.

I am going to install Mandriva 2009.

I have a DVD of Mandriva 2009.

I am going to install it on another computer which has the latest Ubuntu. [ Not on this computer]

The default operating system is Ubuntu.

1. I have installed even old 'open SuSE 10.3' and it works fine.

2. I have installed Windows 2008 server on a primary partition and it works fine.

3. I have installed Windows Vista on a primary partition and it works fine.


So Ubuntu, Windows 2008 server and Windows Vista is on 3 separate primary partitions and open SuSE 10.3 is on a logical partiton.

GRUB works fine to recognize all the operating systems.However, it is bit tardy. First comes Ubuntu's GRUB, Afterwards I get the 'open SuSEs' GRUB.


I want to install Mandriva on a logical partition which is 'sdb5'

Where shall I place Mandriva's bootloader?

How shall I install Mandriva's bootloader?

I want Mandriva to be on the system as the fourth operating system.



........................................................
sdb1 for Windows 2008 server {Primary partition}
sdb2 for Windows Vista {Primary partition}
sdb3 for Ubuntu {Primary partition}
sdb5 --- Empty partiton for Linux installations {Logical
sdb6 --- Empty partiton for Linux installations {Logical
sdb7 --- Small partion (8.0GB) {Linux swap
sdb8 for open SuSE 10,3 {Logical
.........................................................
As a matter of fact I wanted to install open SuSE 10.3 on 'sdb5'. I couldn't dictate terms and it forced me to install on 'sdb8'. I don't know why. It may be I don't have sufficient knowledge of those tricky matters.

If you have an entry similar to the one in post #10 above, that is why it goes from the Ubuntu Grub to the Opensuse Grub

This line: configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst, point it to the menu.lst of Opensuse from Ubuntu. To change that you need your entry to point to the kernel in Opensuse. Look at the entries in post #9 with the kernel and initrd options. Find those in your Opensuse 10.3 menu.lst file and copy them to your Ubuntu menu.lst. Or you could post your Opensuse 10.3 menu.lst with the Ubuntu menu.lst (just the parts referring to 10.3) and someone can give you the correct entries.

You can install Mandriva bootloader (Grub) to the sdb5 if that's where you install it. Then you can put the entry from the Mandriva menu.lst file in the Ubuntu menu.lst file. You can also install Grub from Mandriva to the mbr and hope that it detects all other systems?

Thanks yancek for excellent comments.

I installed Mandriva 2009.
I didn't put the bootloader of Mandria 2009 on MBR. I put it on the root folder of Mandriva.
However, I can't put it to the 'menu.lst' file of Ubuntu. So Mandriva is not working or rather it does not appear as it is not on the 'menu.lst' file.

I don't know the stanzas for Mandriva.

I tried in vain the with the following stanzas.
.................................................................................
title Mandriva 2009


root (hd1,4)

configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst


.................................................................................

I successfully installed it on 'sdb5' partition.

I have 'open SuSE' on 'sdb8' partition. It works as it is on the 'menu.lst' file.


The following is the output of the fdisk file.


The following is the Ubuntu's menu.ist file.
The bottom line is the stanzas for attaching Mandriva 2009 which resides on 'sdb5' partition to Ubuntu's meun.lst file.
I appreciate your help again.

title Mandriva 2009
root (hd1,4)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

With Mandriva on sdb5, the above entry is correct and should work. Possible problems, need a space after root - before (hd1,4) and looks like there is. Same after configfile and before /boot..., looks right.

When you boot into Ubuntu and mount Mandriva, go into the /boot/grub/menu.lst file to verify that you have entries for Mandriva and the kernel and initrd entries in menu.lst are showing files that are actually in the /boot directory, i.e. the vmlinuz and initrd files.

The only other thing might be that you should put the entry for Mandriva in your Ubuntu menu.lst below the DEBIAN Magic Kernels line in menu.lst. Seems I read that somewhere but I don't use Ubuntu. I do have version 7.04 of Ubuntu installed and all the other OS's on my machine have entries below that line.

I'm not sure what you mean by the above?

Don't understand the above quote. The menu.lst you posted for Ubuntu in your last post does not show an entry for Opensuse?? Are you booting from the Ubuntu or Opensuse Grub??


Am also confused by the above quote as the last line in your posted menu.lst is you vista entry??

Thanks yancek for taking time to reply me.
First I went to work this morning. Afterwards I went to the gym for training and came home about 10 minutes ago. So I was away whole day.

The above means the problem with Ubuntu's menu.lst file.
If I know the exact stanzas, I can edit the file and Mandriva will definitely work.
-------------------------------------------------------

The above means my 'open SuSE 10.3 works fine. It is on the 'sdb8' partition. I could go to the Internet too using 'open SuSE 10.3'.


The following is the menu.lst file from Open SuSE 10.3


When the computer starts, I get the 'open SuSE 10.3' menu.

The default operating system on 'open SuSE 10.3' menu is Ubuntu.

Afterwards it jumps to Ubuntu menu.

The default operating system on Ubuntu menu is also Ubuntu.

If I don't do anything when the computer starts, I get the Ubuntu to the screen.

You have written how to solve the problem of two menus. It is unnecessary to get both menus.

I will try to fix it later. If I ran into problems, I would beg your help on this too.

I am not an expert in these matters though I have been working with Linux for about 10 years.

I may have made an error in the process of installing 'open SuSE 10.3'.

As I wrote this error causes to get the 'open SuSE 10.3's menu first and the Ubuntu's menu second.
[ We can solve this problem later on.]

For the moment, the most important thing is to get Mandriva 2009 working.

I can get Ubuntu, 'open SuSE 10.3', Windows 2008 Server and Windows Vista on to the screen. I can go to the Internet with any one of the above.

Mandriva is hidden

First I must get Mandriva working.

Your thoughts are very welcome.

Here is the latest 'menu.ist' file from Ubuntu.

I am posting only the important lines.

I got the following error message.

root(hd1,4)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partiton type 0x83
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
Error 2: Bad file or directory type
press any key to continue

Ok, I misunderstood, I thought your Ubuntu menu.lst was first. So, if I understand correctly, you just want to boot these systems and don't necessarily want to have this entry (configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst) to experiment with??

Actually, using the configfile entry is useful if you are constantly changing operating systems on a specific partition for development or experimentation. You can leave that entry and install any OS without changing the entry as long as the OS is using Grub.

If you initially get the Opensuse menu.lst, then it would make sense to put the entry for Mandriva in the Opensuse menu.lst
Check the /boot/grub directory on Mandriva by mounting in Opensuse. First create the directory for Mandriva: mkdir /mnt/mandriva, then mount it: mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt/mandriva, then change to the directory and see if you actually have the menu.lst file there and it has entries pointing to the kernel and initrd files. Copy the entry in the Mandriva menu.lst file (for Mandriva) into the /boot/grub/menu.lst of Opensuse. Don't use the configfile, use the separate kernel and initrd lines.

I'm sure you can see by looking at your Opensuse menu.lst file below why your machine boots the way it does. The Ubuntu stanza is the only one with the 'configfile' entry! You could change that so it didn't display the menu.lst from Ubuntu by simply placing the kernel and initrd lines in that stanza. Replace this entry in the OPENSUSE menu.lst:

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic (/dev/sdb3)
root (hd1,2)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

with the following entry in OPENSUSE menu.lst:

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=c5fb4ab5-6767-44e8-b89a-6383b86e2bad ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

Not really, I installed Opensuse 10.3 a year ago and it put similar "configfile" entries for the other OS's on the system during the install.

Further questions or problems, just post.

yancek

I work whole day. Afterwards I went to the gym for circuit training.
I just came home. I will eat something and sleep. It is too late here; almost midnight here.

I will attend this tomorrow evening.
I profoundly appreciate your help.
Please keep a good watch on the thread.

I'll keep watching. I'm curious about the bad file or directory error you get from Grub. Mount that partition and see what is actually there.

yancek

I logged on as a superuser in open SuSE 10.3.

I created a directory mandriva as you suggested.

I tried in different ways.

It seems there is no entry about 'sdb5' in the 'fstab file.



..................................................................


The following is the 'fstab' file in open SuSE 10.3


----------------------------------------------------------------
The following is the 'mtab' file in open SuSE 10.3

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

The following is the 'fdisk -l' output from open SuSE 10.3.

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

The following is the 'open SuSE 10.3s menu.lst file.

I have two hard disks on this computer. The Samsung disk has 500GB capacity. The system recognizes it as 'sdb'.

As I mentioned before, sdb1 and sdb2 are for Windows 2008 server and Windows Vista. Both of them are primary partitions.

I have Ubuntu on sdb3 and it is also a primary partition.

The above 3 operating systems are working fine. I have no complains about them.

I installed 'open SuSE 10.3' on sdb8. It is a logical partition.
My open SuSE 10.3 works fine.

I installed 'Mandriva 2009' on sdb5 and it is a liability.
The partition sdb5 is a logical partition.
Your thoughts are welcome.

PS
I hope to install some other Linux distros on Maxtor hard disk later on.
The system recognizes it as sda. I think Samsung and Maxtor belongs to one company. Maxtor has 250GB.

You have the mandriva directory under /mnt as seen below.

You did the mount command incorrectly, do this:

mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt/mandriva

Should work, if it doesn't you may need filesystem type and I think it is ext3 so do:

mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb5 /mnt/mandriva

Then change directory:

cd /mnt/mandriva

Then do ls -l, you should see the mandriva files. If you see the mandriva files, go to /boot/grub and find the menu.lst file. Copy the entry for mandriva to the bottom of the Opensuse menu.lst file


If you see the mandrivaa files, put this entry in /etc/fstab of Opensuse:


/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_MAXTOR_STM35003_9QM357QE-part5 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 0 0

This is for the second drive on which you have Opensuse and Mandriva. The only changes you should need from Opensuse are from "part8" to "part5", and changing the "1 1" at the end of Opensuse to "0 0" for mandriva. The above entry includes those changes.

You don't have an fstab entry for mandriva in Opensuse because you installed mandriva after Opensuse.

I'm not sure if this will solve the "bad file or directory" error? Maybe the files arent there? Is sdb set to boot first?

If you get errors or have problems, post again.

Yes, it worked.

I will attend the rest gradually.

I changed the 'fstab' file in open SuSE 10.3.

I will reboot and see whether I am in business now.

The following is the new file.

yancek

I got the same old error message.
I rebooted twice.
Ubuntu and open SuSE 10.3 comes to the screen.

What would be the next step?

-----------------------------------------
I installed all the programs on the sdb drive.
So bootloader and mbr are on the sdb.

You did the entry for /etc/fstab in Opensuse but slight error:

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_MAXTOR_STM35003_9QM357QE-part8 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1

The entry above is for Opensuse, the entry below is for Mandriva

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_MAXTOR_STM35003_9QM357QE-part5 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 0 0

The differences above are in red, need a space between zeroes like: 0 0

You didn't indicate whethere you took the entry from Mandriva's menu.lst and put it in Opensuse menu.lst. Without that entry, it won't work

cd /mnt/mandriva
cat menu.lst

Look for the Mandriva stanza and copy it to the Opensuse menu.lst file. Below is my entry for Mandriva, yours won't be the same but similar

title Mandriva
kernel (hd1,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/hdb12 splash=silent acpi=ht vga=788
initrd (hd1,4)/boot/initrd.img

(You may need to re-mount again if you have re-booted and the fstab entry is not right)

I'll check back tomorrow. Good Luck!

Thanks yancek for the latest comments.
I just came home from the gym.

The following is the Mandriva's menu.lst file.


It seems Mandriva gets some strange figures.

You will read (hd0,0) , (hd0,1) , (hd0,2), etc.



I did the minor change in fstab file in open SuSE 10.3. You have noticed an error. I made an silly error.

The following is the corrected file.

I don't have to post the menu.ist file from open SuSE 10.3.
It is already here. I posted yesterday.

Please tell me the next step.
I hope you will find time to look at this.

I think there are some glitches.

I twice rebooted the system.

The following is the Mandriva's menu.lst file.

1] I got the open SuSE 10.3 the screen.

2] I mounted the Mandriva partition.

3] I changed into Mandriva's grub folder.

4] I used the cat command to read Mandriva's menu.lst file.

The following is the file.
It is different from the previous one.
I don't know these things.
Have I made an stupid error?

I don't know why your Mandriva menu.lst file shows Mandriva as (hd0,4). This is usually a result of changing the boot order in the BIOS during/between installs. The entry below from the Mandriva menu.lst should be copied to the /boot/grub/menu.lst file in OPENSUSE!!

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=6460a523-8375-40e3-9958-31c179210b3a resume=UUID=743165c2-5731-4133-9976-0fc7fd90d02c splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

No, actually you didn't. You are looking at the Opensuse menu.lst. Look at your last post, part of which is below. That's Opensuse and you can tell because of the "Modified by YaST2" line. Mandriva doesn't use YaST2!


Also, if you were in the Mandriva menu.lst the prompt would read:

SuseLinux103:/mnt/mandriva/boot/grub # (here is where you enter cat menu.lst.

The menu.lst in your last post is Opensuse, the post prior is Mandriva. So the Mandriva menu.lst HAS NOT changed. Put the entry above for Mandriva in the Opensuse menu.lst file. Before doing this, I would suggest you again mount Mandriva and look in the /boot directory to be sure you have a "vmlinuz" file and an "initrd.img" file. If the entry aabove does not work, change the (hd0,4) entries to (hd0,1).

I did the change you suggested in the open SuSE 10.3's menu.lst file.

The following is the file.

I got the following error message when tried to get 'linux suggested by yancek' on to the screen.

kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=6460a523-8375-40e3-9958-31c179210b3a resume=UUID=743165c2-5731-4133-9976-0fc7fd90d02c splash=silent vga=788
Error:15 file not found
Press any key to ...

What would be the next step?

You suggested the following:

If the entry aabove does not work, change the (hd0,4) entries to (hd0,1).

I tried the above just now.

The following is the output:

kernel (hd1,4)
Filesystem type is ext2f ...
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
Error2: Bad file or directory
Press any key to ...
--------------------------------------

I would like to hear from you again.

Another idea crossed my mind.
I have Acronis program. By using it I can selectively remove/format the partition which contains Mandriva 2009.; this is sdb5.

Then I can reinstall Mandriva 2009 again taking little bit more time than before.
I can erase all the entries pertaining to Mandriva 2009 in Ubuntu and open SuSE 10.3. I mean the entries in menu.ist files. Before any reinstallation it is imperative to make sure that there are no traces of Mandriva 2009.

I am a bit unsure about removing entries in fstab files of Ubuntu and open SuSE 10.3. I need your help to carefully edit fstab files.
Your thoughts, on this, are welcome.

Above was my mistake, meant to change to (hd1,4)

I would again suggest you again mount Mandriva and look in its /boot directory to be sure you have a "vmlinuz" file and an "initrd.img" file.
Make sure you are in the Mandriva /boot directory and not Opensuse.

In your last post you indicate you tried the (hd0,1) entry and your output shows the error below, not the "kernel (hd1,4)??

kernel (hd1,4)
Filesystem type is ext2f ...
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
Error2: Bad file or directory
Press any key to ...

Do you have an other entry for Mandriva with the configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst? If it's not right, you would get an error message but it would show kernel (hd0,1) not the (hd1,4).

I changed again the menu.lst file again. You said you made a mistake. I always make mistakes.

The following is the menu.lst file in open SuSE 10.3

I got the following error message.

root(hd1,4)
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partiton type 0x83
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
Error 2: Bad file or directory type
press any key to continue

Gins:

You posted again your menu.lst for Opensuse. Is this the complete menu.lst, you don't need to post anything with a hash mark (#) to the left. Looking through this menu.lst, the only entry you have for Mandriva is:

Yet your error message says:

The error message should have the kernel line in it from the first entry and not the configfile entry. Your Opensuse menu.lst does not have a Mandriva entry with "configfile"?? I don't know where that's coming from??

Let's see if I understand your setup. When you boot initially, you get the Opensuse menu with different options. Your default is to boot to Ubuntu so if you take no action and make no selection, your system will boot to the Ubuntu menu.lst file and you will get your options again. If you make no choice, it boots to Ubuntu as Ubuntu is default in your Ubuntu menu.lst. Is this correct?

Are you seeing the Mandriva entry on your initial Opensuse menu? You have seven entries, do they all show on the initial screen? Are you letting the default boot from Opensuse go to the Ubuntu menu.lst before selecting Mandriva or do you select Mandriva from the Opensuse menu.lst? Do you have an entry in either Opensuse or Ubuntu menu.lst that has a "configfile" line for Mandriva? Don't know where that's coming from?? You have no entry like that in the Opensuse menu.lst you've posted?

Let's see if I understand your setup. When you boot initially, you get the Opensuse menu with different options. Your default is to boot to Ubuntu so if you take no action and make no selection, your system will boot to the Ubuntu menu.lst file and you will get your options again. If you make no choice, it boots to Ubuntu as Ubuntu is default in your Ubuntu menu.lst. Is this correct?
[ The above is absolutely correct.]

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

Are you seeing the Mandriva entry on your initial Opensuse menu?

No.
-------------------------------

The following are the items on the initial Opensuse menu.

Ubuntu ...
Open SusE ...
Windows 1
Windows 2
Windows 3
Floppy
Linux suggested by yancek
Failsafe open SuSE ...
--------------------------------
So there are 8 entries on the initial Opensuse menu.
If I selected the item 'Linux suggested by yancek', I would get the following message which you have already written here.

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

The second menu has the following:

Ubuntu ...
Ubuntu ...
Ubuntu ...
Mandriva 2009
Other operating systems:
Windows ...
Windows ...
--------------------------------
If I selected 'Mandriva 2009, I would get the following error message:

[ I have installed Windows Vista and Window 2008 Server; that is the reason to get two Windows on the menu.]

I suggested removing Mandriva 2009 and reinstall again. Did you read it?
If you think it is a good idea, I need help to remove the entries in fstab files.

That's a YES, you do see the Mandriva entry in Opensuse you just have it labelled "Linux suggested by yancek"

When you select this entry, what happens? Do you see the message below on the screen? Any error message with it?

I believe you should have a line entry below the kernel line with an "initrd" entry. Can you mount your Mandriva and go to the /boot directory and see if there is an "initrd" file there, also a "vmlinuz" file? These files should be in the /boot directory, not the /grub directory.

There is really not much point in booting from Opensuse and then from Ubuntu again. I would suggest you add the Ubuntu entry I suggested in post #17. You can leave the current Ubuntu entries, just put a hash mark (3) to the left of the title line so it is not read. You can always change it back if you want.

If you don't have both the vmlinuz and initrd files in your Mandriva /boot directory that may be the problem. Mandriva definitely won't boot if they are not there.

To see how Grub actually views your partitions run these commands. Log in as root, at the prompt type: grub, you should get the grub prompt which is "grub>". At that prompt type each of these command in sequence and post the output:

find /vmlinuz
find /boot/vmlinuz
geometry (hd0)
geometry (hd1)

Thanks yancek

I am leaving home around 5 o' clock tomorrow morning. I must sleep now. It is getting late here.
I must work tomorrow. After work I will go to the gym. I will attend this tomorrow evening.

I profoundly appreciate all your help.
Please keep a good watch as usual on the thread.
By the way, where are you based?
I am in Sweden.
I have written the location as Germany. As you know people use fictious names and false identities for Internet forums.
I use the name Gins for a several Internet related activities.

Southwestern USA, Arizona. I'll check the post tomorrow.

yancek wrote the following:

I believe you should have a line entry below the kernel line with an "initrd" entry. Can you mount your Mandriva and go to the /boot directory and see if there is an "initrd" file there, also a "vmlinuz" file? These files should be in the /boot directory, not the /grub directory.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I started open SuSE 10.3 and mounted Mandriva 2009.
The following is the contents of its boot directory.

So those two files are in place.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the output of grub.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Only the following command was negative.
The message was Error 27.

/boot/vmlinuz

You forgot the "find", shoud be at grub prompt, grub>find /boot/vmlinuz

It shows with your ls command in Mandriva so it's not needed to run again.
Below is the entry you posted earlier from Mandriva menu.lst. The kernel line has (hd0,4), from information you have given, it should be (hd1,4). I know you changed that so the only other things I could suggest is to put a line "root (hd1,4) between "title linux" and the "kernel..." entry. Also, make sure the line "initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img" is in the Opensuse menu.lst entry for Mandriva.

title linux
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=6460a523-8375-40e3-9958-31c179210b3a resume=UUID=743165c2-5731-4133-9976-0fc7fd90d02c splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd.img

Not really sure if this will work or what else to suggest?

SuseLinux103:/home/ni # mount /dev/sdb5 /mnt/mandriva
SuseLinux103:/home/ni #


grub> find /boot/vmlinuz
find /boot/vmlinuz
(hd1,7)
grub>
-----------------------------
I hope the above is fine.

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

...................................................


As you see, I opened open SuSE 10.3 and attached the 'mandriva'.

I made the minor changed you suggested. I just inserted (hd0,4)

I rebooted the computer and selected the following from the menu.

'title linux suggested by yancek'

The following is the error message:

Your results for the output of the grub geometry commands don't fit with your partitions. You have a vmlinuz file in (hd1,7) and in (hd1,2), your Opensuse and Ubuntu partitions. There Should be another for Mandriva in (hd1,4), why that doesn't show ??? When you mount Mandriva, you can see the files with the "ls" command??

I believe you have already tried having the stanza in Opensuse menu.lst for Mandriva of (hd1,4) and it didn't work. Might try that again?

What do you have on sda, the Linux partitions? I'm not sure what else to try now.

This is just an idea, because I don't want to intrude on your excellent troubleshooting efforts, yancek; but it might help to see the output of meierfra's boot_info_script.txt in order to help pinpoint Gin's booting problem. If you are interested in running the script, Gins, how about downloading the "boot_info_script.txt" to your desktop, and then do the following as root user, but replace <username> with your username:
That will create a "RESULTS.txt" file in the same directory from where the script is run, namely your desktop; please copy/paste the contents of that file to your next post. That will help clarify your setup and hopefully what your booting problem might be.

Earlier you posted your menu.lst file from Mandriva. All of the entries in Mandriva showed your partitions as (hd0) in Grub, Mandriva (hd0,4), Ubuntu (hd0,2), Opensuse (hd0,7). Your Ubuntu and Opensuse menu.lst files show all these entries as (hd1). Also, as I indicated in my last post, there is a problem with the grub commands which do not see the Mandriva boot files! Since grub does not see the files, there is no way for grub to boot Mandriva.

Did you change the boot order between Opensuse install and Mandriva install?

Try the script CJS suggests in his post.

I did what CJS suggested. It resulted a long .txt file

I tried invain to send it as an attached file. The result is from open SuSE 10.3. I didn't mount Mandriva

SuseLinux103:/home/ni # bash /home/ni/Desktop/boot_info_script.txt
Finished. The results are in the file RESULTS.txt located in /home/ni/Desktop
SuseLinux103:/home/ni #

How do I send/past it here?

It exceeds 25000 characters and impossible to past here.

You could split up the output into two posts if you want. Also, when you copy/paste the results into the message box, be sure to highlight it and click the little pound sign # graphic in the forum message box to put code tags around the text for easier viewing.

OK, according to the results of the script, it is clear you are booting your sda drive on start up, so it is (hd0), and since the sdb drive is your only other drive, that means it must be (hd1) on start up. Therefore, your Mandriva Grub entries should use (hd1,4), but currently your Mandriva menu.lst uses (hd0,4) in all the entries. Also, since your Mandriva install uses gfxmenu, you might want to boot it using the chainloader technique so you can get the eye candy that you would expect with gfxmenu. How about trying the following as root user:
Change "gedit" to "kate" if you are using KDE instead of Gnome; also the cp command above is to copy a fresh Grub stage2 file to your Mandriva /boot/grub directory, because your Mandriva's current stage2 file incorrectly points to the first partition for the menu.lst. In the menu.lst that pops up with gedit/kate, modify all your Mandriva entries to use (hd1,4) instead of (hd0,4), similar to:
You might also want to change the "title" line to Mandriva, rather than just "linux" as the menu.lst currently uses. Then in your OpenSUSE menu.lst, change the Mandriva entry to:
And then I think you should be able to boot Mandriva OK. How about giving it a shot and let us know how it goes.

CJS

Before executing the commands you suggested, I would like to know a few things.

I didn't install anything on sda drive.

I installed everything on sdb drive.

I installed Windows Vista and Windows 2008 server on sdb1 and sdb2:

I installed Ubuntu on sdb3.

Above 3 operating systems comes on to the screen. I don't have any problems.

Even open SuSE 10.3 comes to the screen.

I installed it on sdb8.

I installed Mandriva on sdb5.

My sdb4 is an extended partition.

I didn't install anything on sda drive, as yet.

Am I wrong?

You browsed the file and gathered information.
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I hope to install open SuSE 11.1 and Slackware 12.0 on sda when time permits.

I have downloaded them.

Actually when you installed your distros on the sdb drive, most distros by default install Grub to the MBR (Master Boot Record) of /dev/sda, which they assume to be the drive you boot from. So you do have Grub currently installed to the MBR of your sda Vista drive, and it points to OpenSUSE on your sdb drive for its boot files (menu.lst and stage2). Also, the reason you can boot Ubuntu and OpenSUSE OK is because their entries in the menu.lst use (hd1,2) and (hd1,7) respectively; that would mean that Mandriva, being on the same drive, must use (hd1,4) rather than (hd0,4), because (hd0) is your Windows drive and (hd1) is your Linux drive. Grub on start up sees the order of drives the same as the BIOS boot order, so whichever drive you boot from is (hd0), and the other drives will then be (hd1), (hd2), etc.

CJS

The /usr/lib/grub/*/* directory is typically where Grub keeps its original stage files in the distros I've used, but I haven't used Mandriva, so I could be wrong for Mandriva. Since you can't copy over the stage2 file, try this instead (while you still have sdb5 mounted on /tmp/sdb5), and please post the output:
And we can work from there.

I would agree with CJS about grub stage1 being on sda as the default install is to the mbr of the first drive. I expect this happened with the Opensuse install as that is the menu which comes up first.

I'll be interested to see if your suggestions work.

Post 16 shows root (hd1,4)configfile entry from Ubuntu menu.lst giving "bad file or directory" error
Post 20 shows NO Mandriva entry in Opensuse menu.lst.
Post 26 shows the Mandriva menu.lst and all the entries for the different OS's show the sdb drive as (hd0)??
Post 29 shows what should be a correct entry for Mandriva in the Opensuse menu.lst but the stanza has (hd0) instead of (hd1)
Post 35 shows a correct entry for Mandriva in theOpensuse menu.lst but no initrd lines (cut off in the post?)

Interesting that Mandriva grub sees itself on (hd0) while the other systems see (hd1)?

First I mounted sdb5.

The following procedure worked fine.

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The following is the part of the output:
Please suggest the next step.



PS
CJS wrote the following:
I don't know those peculiar things. I guess those things border bugs.

It was not my intention to install open SuSE 10.3 on sdb8.
The installation procedure dictated terms and installed on sdb8.
I just obliged because I wanted an old open SuSE version.

On the other hand I am no expert in these matters. If you know everything, it may be possible to select the partition.

Mandriva is different. It gives you all the choices to select partitions, programs etc.

I would like to say it has the most user friendly installation procedure.

You might wonder why I need an old version of open SuSE.

I bought about 200 CDs and 50 DVDs about 4 years ago. I didn't use them because in most cases, like the other people, I use or rather burn programs onto DVDs.

When you install a latest version of linux distro, you get the latest version kb3 burning program.

My old CDs and DVDs are not compatible with the latest version of k3b burning program.
When burning a CD or a DVD, I get an error message. The funny error message comes at the end of the DVD/CD burning.

I installed the old version of open SuSE which is 10.3 to test.

All my old CDs and DVDs are working fine in open SuSE 10.3. So it is obvious that nothing wrong with the my CDs and DVDs.

OK, looks like Grub was installed successfully to your Mandriva partition boot sector, so how about following the commands from post #58 in order to modify your Mandriva menu.lst, but omit the "cp" command. Also be sure to add the Mandriva entry at the bottom of that post to your OpenSUSE menu.lst, then reboot, and let us know exactly what happens when you try and boot Mandriva. We can go from there.

CJS

The following is from post 58.
Could you please write the exact commands you want me to try?

OK, how about trying:
And replace "gedit" with "kate" in the above commands if you are using KDE instead of Gnome. Then modify all your Mandriva entries in the menu.lst as shown in post #58; once you are done with that, open your OpenSUSE menu.lst and add the Mandriva entry to it given at the bottom of post #58. Let me know how that goes or if you run into problems.