openSUSE installation problem (dual boot with Windows XP)
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openSUSE installation problem (dual boot with Windows XP)
Hi everyone
I’m absolutely new for Linux and already had screwed it up. Here is how I did it. I have DELL Dimension 3100. That is Windows XP Home Edition that initially had 80 GB RAID disk. I split the raid up and got master-slave with 80 Gb for each and then made two logical disks on the second one. I was happy with it for years until today when I decided to install openSUSE Linux as dual boot. For that I got a new IDE Hard Drive, 80 GB. Well that was not actually new but it’s new for my dell configuration. The first surprise was when my XP recognized the new H.D as removable disk. I did some googling and realized people sometimes have similar problems but could not find any fix. Then I decided that is XP’s problem if it cannot properly recognize the drive. So, I inserted my openSUSE dvd and started the installation. It went smoothly! It absolutely saw all hard physical and logical drives! I accepted newly installed HD as storage for Linux. The installation successfully finished, I was happy. Then I rebooted my PC and sadly got: “Welcome to GRUB! Error: no such device: <some_address_or_ID>”. In spite of niceness of that guy, GRUB the result is disastrous. Could you guys please help me? There is no way I can fix it by myself. But I can carefully follow instructions, especially if they are kept simple . And, please forgive me if I sent it to wrong place.
Thank you.
Go to the site below and read the instructions for using the bootinfoscript, download it and run it using the Opensuse CD and post the output (results.txt file) here. It will provide detailed information on your drives/partitions and boot files and someone should be able to assist you. It's looking for a UUID which apparently doesn't exist.
it took some while for me to do that I was kindly advised by yancek. I appreciate if someone could take a look on the text file though I understand that is a big work. Can someone help me please? here is the file
Boot Info Script 0.61 [1 April 2012]
============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================
=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
in partition 98 for .
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP: NTFS
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sdb5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub2-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
set default="${saved_entry}"
if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
menuentry_id_option=""
fi
export menuentry_id_option
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}
function load_video {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
else
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod ieee1275_fb
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
fi
}
if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then
font=unicode
else
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd2,msdos2'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd2,msdos2 --hint-efi=hd2,msdos2 --hint-baremetal=ahci2,msdos2 --hint='hd2,msdos2' b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
fi
font="/usr/share/grub2/unicode.pf2"
fi
if loadfont $font ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd2,msdos2'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd2,msdos2 --hint-efi=hd2,msdos2 --hint-baremetal=ahci2,msdos2 --hint='hd2,msdos2' b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
fi
insmod gfxmenu
loadfont ($root)/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/ascii.pf2
loadfont ($root)/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/DejaVuSans10.pf2
loadfont ($root)/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/DejaVuSans12.pf2
loadfont ($root)/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/DejaVuSans-Bold14.pf2
insmod png
set theme=($root)/boot/grub2/themes/openSUSE/theme.txt
export theme
if sleep --interruptible 0 ; then
set timeout=8
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'openSUSE' --class opensuse --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd2,msdos2'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd2,msdos2 --hint-efi=hd2,msdos2 --hint-baremetal=ahci2,msdos2 --hint='hd2,msdos2' b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
fi
echo 'Loading Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.4.6-2.10-desktop root=UUID=b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45 video=1024x768 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380023A_3KB11ZBT-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd-3.4.6-2.10-desktop
}
submenu 'Advanced options for openSUSE' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45' {
menuentry 'openSUSE, with Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop' --class opensuse --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.4.6-2.10-desktop-advanced-b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd2,msdos2'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd2,msdos2 --hint-efi=hd2,msdos2 --hint-baremetal=ahci2,msdos2 --hint='hd2,msdos2' b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
fi
echo 'Loading Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.4.6-2.10-desktop root=UUID=b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45 video=1024x768 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380023A_3KB11ZBT-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd-3.4.6-2.10-desktop
}
menuentry 'openSUSE, with Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop (recovery mode)' --class opensuse --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.4.6-2.10-desktop-recovery-b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd2,msdos2'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd2,msdos2 --hint-efi=hd2,msdos2 --hint-baremetal=ahci2,msdos2 --hint='hd2,msdos2' b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
fi
echo 'Loading Linux 3.4.6-2.10-desktop ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.4.6-2.10-desktop root=UUID=b0285fd1-c7b9-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd-3.4.6-2.10-desktop
}
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_ppc_terminfo ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_ppc_terminfo ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry 'Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda1)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-CC1CADD91CADBF38' {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos1'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos1 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos1 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos1 --hint='hd0,msdos1' CC1CADD91CADBF38
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root CC1CADD91CADBF38
fi
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# 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.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then
source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg
elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/90_persistent ###
### END /etc/grub.d/90_persistent ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Which release of Opensuse are you using? The last version I tried was 12.1 which still used the Grub Legacy bootloader. Your bootinfoscript output only has a Grub2 boot file. Was that the default or did you install Grub2 after the initial installation?
If you look at the very top of the bootinfoscript you will see Grub2 is installed in the MBR of sda, that's your first drive, a windows drive. The problem comes when it looks in partition 98 for boot files and of course there is not partition 98. In your initial post you indicate that the error you get is no such device and an ID number, that would be the UUID. It would be helpful if you could check that and get exactly what it is and compare it to the Device UUID Label in the bootinfoscript. The partition UUID for your Opensuse should begin with: b0285.... Reading further in the output, your Opensuse installation appears to be on sdc2. That is where the Grub2 boot files are. You have no boot files in the MBR of sdc, the Opensuse drive.
I haven't used Opensuse with Grub2 so I'm not sure how to reinstall. I did some searching online and all I came up with is the following command which you could use booted from the Opensuse CD, logging in to a terminal as root:
Code:
grub2-install /dev/sdc
That should install Grub2 on the mbr of sdc. You would then need to set sdc to first boot priority in the BIOS to boot Opensuse. There doesn't seem to be much info on Grub2 and Opensuse, at least that I could find. You might try searching online for more info. Check the link below, it might help.
thank you yancek. I'm trying to understand details in your last post and GRUB in general. and about your questions: no I did not install GRUB2 separately, it was a part of the entire installation. as I could understand openSUSE 12.2 uses both legacy GRUB and GRUB2
The UUID you listed in your last post is the one which contains the Opensuse boot files on sdc2:
Quote:
grub complains about device b0285fd1-c769-45b8-9c1c-8c886ecceb45
Opensuse 12.2 uses Grub2 so the command below should work logged in to a terminal from the Opensuse installation CD.
Quote:
grub2-install /dev/sdc
Before running the command I would suggest you verify. First run the blkid command from a terminal in Opensuse CD to verify again that sdc2 is the UUID above and then run: fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command) to verify that sdc is your Linux drive.
oh... the situation has been changed. I restored MBR with XP cd and then Windows started ok but no Linux of course. Then I re-installed openSuse with two different settings: found option for GRUB instead of GRUB2 (as I understand now it can be easier to work with) and chose install GRUB on root (instead of MBR). After rebooting Windows was still ok but no way to launch Linux. Then I reinstalled openSUSE again with GRUB and booting from MBR. Now it gives error 21. Before new installations I got my new added drive accepted by Windows as HD (F) - initially it was recognized as removable. The last thing may be not relevant, just mentioning. So now I have old GRUB and error 21. Should I still try bootinfoscript?
I would suggest running the bootinfoscript again. Error 21 is Selected disk does not exist so it again is not finding the partition. Opensuse has a lot of options for bootloader installation. During the installation, you should come to a page called "Live Installation Settings" which has a number of items including System, Partitioning, Booting. The one you are concerned with is Booting. You need to check the items under Booting to see what will be done. You also need to click Booting and you will get another window with more settings. There are two tabs, Section Management and Bootloader Settings. Check all of these if you need to reinstall and also verify you are installing to the correct drive/partition which will show under Partitioning. If I recall correctly, the default is not to install to the mbr but I'm not really sure.
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