[SOLVED] Problem with salix. Grub2 culprit

Rip van Vinkle · 03-27-2013, 03:39 PM

After a lot of fight against Grub2 and questions not answered in other forums, I come here to ask for help at wise people of LQ. I hope this is the correct sub-forum.

My computer has two Linux OS inside: aptosid, a Debian derivative, and Salix, a Slackware based, as you know. As a consequence of an aptosid's dist-upgrade, I cannot boot salix.

It is, obviously, a Grub2 issue, which is the bootmanager of aptosid, having salix as second OS. In my battles with Grub2 I've learned (in some forum; don't ask me what forum, I don't remember) that the script /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober is not always reliable. Because that, I've annulled the mode "x" of this script and configured 40_custom instead. Here is as it looks now:

Code:

lluis1@aptosidbox1:~$ cat /etc/grub.d/40_cus*
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
    menuentry "Salix-Slackware 13.37 (on /dev/sda3)" --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
       insmod part_msdos
       insmod ext2
       set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
       search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 17405d87-e0a8-4b36-94cd-27682c750d50
       linux /boot/vmlinuz root=UUID=17405d87-e0a8-4b36-94cd-27682c750d50
    }

lluis1@aptosidbox1:~$

As far as I'm able to see, this configuration must go, but if I try to boot Salix-Slackware 13.37, I get:

Code:

Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0)

For more information I've run bootinfoscript, which results are here

Any advice will be very appreciated.

Rip van Vinkle

Alien Bob · 03-27-2013, 04:12 PM

This is a Slackware forum. Slackware is not Salix. Slackware also does not contain grub2. Perhaps you are better off finding help in the Salix forum : http://www.salixos.org/forum/

Eric

Rip van Vinkle · 03-27-2013, 04:27 PM

Apologies if I've bothered you. I think you don't need to be impolite.

Of course, I've asked at salix forum, but nobody could find a solution. If salix is a derivative of Slackware, then the knowledge of Slackware is applicable to salix.

And in the first paragraph I've said "I hope this is the correct sub-forum". If not, please said me what other subforum is.

volkerdi · 03-27-2013, 04:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rip van Vinkle

Apologies if I've bothered you. I think you don't need to be impolite.

The response you got looked pretty factual to me.

Quote:

Of course, I've asked at salix forum, but nobody could find a solution. If salix is a derivative of Slackware, then the knowledge of Slackware is applicable to salix.

Not when you're asking about a component that Slackware has never included. Obviously that wouldn't be derived from Slackware in any way.

Quote:

And in the first paragraph I've said "I hope this is the correct sub-forum". If not, please said me what other subforum is.

I have no idea. Good luck with your search for an answer, though.

ruario · 03-27-2013, 04:50 PM

I would ask in Linux General (this reads like a Grub2 issue). The Slackware forum is the least appropriate IMHO given that Slackware is one of the few that does not include/use Grub2.

w1k0 · 03-27-2013, 05:41 PM

Rip van Vinkle,

I published here my experience concerning GRUB2 in Linux Mint and LILO in Slackware Linux.

Since Salix is a derivative of Slackware I assume it uses LILO. LILO is much more reliable – in my opinion – than GRUB. So you could try to install LILO on MBR and GRUB Legacy on the partition with aptosid using the method that I described in the mentioned post. Then use LILO to run both your systems. That should work.

JWJones · 03-27-2013, 05:53 PM

Yup, I'd say grub2 or aptosid issue, as, like Slackware, Salix uses lilo, rather than grub.

w1k0 · 03-27-2013, 06:03 PM

eyeofliberty,

The issue which I described in the mentioned post concerns GRUB2 in Linux Mint. I think that the similar method will solve the problem with GRUB2 in aptosid.

Beelzebud · 03-27-2013, 06:41 PM

Have you actually tried using os-prober, or did you just assume it wouldn't work because someone said it wouldn't?

Richard Cranium · 03-28-2013, 09:04 AM

One of the nice things about grub and grub2 is that you can interactively run boot loader commands during the boot so that you can figure out exactly what's wrong with your configuration file and boot the system so you can make the changes. Win win!

Judging from the error message, I'd advise you to put the boot process in interactive mode and list out your disk partitions. I'm pretty sure that (hd0,msdos3) isn't correct (or isn't an ext2 partition).

syg00 · 03-28-2013, 04:12 PM

An altogether unsatisfactory and unhelpful thread until that last post.
By the time the message the OP sees is issued the boot-loader (whatever it is) has done it's job. That is a kernel message from a Slackware derived distro. You'd think the Slack community would try to help, but apparently not.

Unless things are different in Salix, you will need to include an initrd to get all the support pre-loaded for the kernel. Add it immediately after the kernel line.
That grub setup does look a mess - open another thread for that if you want; general as suggested will probably be a better choice.

volkerdi · 03-28-2013, 05:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by syg00

An altogether unsatisfactory and unhelpful thread until that last post.
By the time the message the OP sees is issued the boot-loader (whatever it is) has done it's job. That is a kernel message from a Slackware derived distro. You'd think the Slack community would try to help, but apparently not.

We don't ship grub2. The kernel message (almost certainly not our kernel, either) is simply saying that it couldn't mount root, very likely because the initrd or the boot loader were not set up properly. I don't know, but suspect that the initrd construction is different from what we do as well.

Salix may have forked from Slackware, but it differs in a lot of ways. This is one of them.

Sorry you weren't satified, but asking for support in the wrong place (from a project that has nothing to do with the software in question) isn't likely to produce helpful answers.

ruario · 03-28-2013, 05:21 PM

They (SalixOS) use a huge kernel by default and do not encourage (in any of their documentation) the use of a generic kernel with initrd (so I suspect most users do not bother). That all said, I fully agree that this isn't the right forum and should either be in general or in Salix's own forum.

jd3v · 03-29-2013, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Richard Cranium

I'm pretty sure that (hd0,msdos3) isn't correct...

I would agree. According to your Boot Info script, that's a swap partition. Your salix root partition is on the second hard drive (hd1,3), not the first (hd0,3).

I would recommend you revisit/reevaluate the documentation used to create your custom entry. Or run os-prober and let that take care of it for you.

Rip van Vinkle · 03-29-2013, 03:05 PM

Finally, a salix mate has advised me in the right way.

Thanks to everybody who has tried to help me.

Van Vinkle