GRUB, dualboot and sda & sdb

[trinidad]

Hello guys!

I have just finished installing Linux on my laptop. Having some troubles to use it though...
I have 2 HD in my machine, two 80GB SATA hard disks.
The one called sda, I did not touch. It has WinXp installed, and I thought that it should have it installed for some time...
The one called sdb, I did partition into:
sdb1, SWAP
sdb2, boot
sdb3, /
sdb4, /home

I then chose to install GRUB to sdb, since it was not recommended to install it to sda.
When I do try to boot the machine, I am not able to log into the Linux distro, GRUB gives me this output:
Error 17: Cannot mount the selected partition

I have no clue, to what kind of info GRUB should have, so I was kind of hoping that you guys could give me some nice inputs???
Today, I am presented with these data:
Linux
root (hd0,0)
Kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

And for Windows
rootnoverify (sda, 0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Any help would be highly appreciated, since I do not have any experience with GRUB...

[spencerf]

root (hd0,0)
Kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

And for Windows
rootnoverify (sda, 0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

can you boot into windows?

Anyways, you need to change the root (hd0,0) to (hd1,1)
the give it a try.

If you can't get into distro to change you can manually edit your linux entry right at the grub screen for a temp. fix

just press e over your linux entry and edit.

[trinidad]

Hello, thank you for the tip.
But it did not work that either.

I am not able to start windows from Grub, but I think the boot priority is set to boot from sda first, and since I loaded GRUB to sdb, I manually have to chose to boot from sdb, but that is no problem for me. I will try to correct that as soon as I have GRUB loading my Linux distro and Windows correctly.

Changing root into:
root (hd1,1)
Just gave me an new error message...

Booting command-list
root (hd1,1)
Error 22: No such partition
Press any key to continue...

I know the partition exists.. I used cfdisk, as explained in the guide. Well i diverted from the guide on one point, I do not know if that could be the problem? All the partitions is ext3???

[AlexK]

Ah question,
shouldn't this line: Kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
have sdb3 instead of hda3?

and shouldn't rootnoverify (sda, 0)
be rootnoverify (hd0, 0) ?

Now which distro are you trying to install? it should be possible to just use your distro's installation cd's to boot and tell it to boot into a rescue mode or to boot the present system.

[trinidad]

Well, I did try the /devsdb3 option now, but I still end up with the error 22 message as quoted earlier.

I am currently trying to get arch linux on my machine. So far, without success..

If I do try to edit the Windows boot parameters, I get this error message:

Booting command-list
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format
Press any key to continue...

But, for the time being, I do not care if I get win to work... Just looking for an solution to get my arch linux up and go..
The only time I need windows, is when I need to use my tv-tuner, which is currently not supported by others...

I have not fiddled with the rescue options, or anything else, since i thought it might be something simple that I overlooked in GRUB?

[spencerf]

root (hd0,0)
Kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

And for Windows
rootnoverify (sda, 0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

try

title = arch linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hda3 ro
initrd /initrd26.img

title = windows
rootnoverify (1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

[trinidad]

That actually made me able to boot Arch. I really thought that I had tried that...
But after I issued the command reboot, and I manually chose to boot from sdb, it will not enter GRUB. All I now get, is a black screen with the output "Missing operating system".
I am still able to boot Win from sda.
I only changed the content for the arch part in GRUB.

I really appreciate you guys helping me, thanks!

[spencerf]

That is very weird indeed? You didn't do anything else other than edit the entry in menu.lst? Because just editing this doesn't actually effect where grub is installed or anything just where grub looks for stuff.

My personal suggestion, and it is just a suggestion, is keep you boot order the same in your bios and just install grub to sda. The reason being is that when you change the boot order in your bios this confuses grub. So the reason I changed (hd1,1) to (hd0,1) is because when you change your boot order grub now thinks that /dev/sdb is actually /dev/sda because it gets the information from the boot order. At least this is what I've been led to believe. So if you just install grub to /dev/sda and don't mess around with the boot order or your harddrives again you won't be confusing grub.

So these are the steps I would do:

1. Boot up with the Install CD. Press ENTER at the boot prompt.

# mount /dev/sdb3 /mnt
# mount /dev/sdb2 /mnt/boot
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
# mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
# mount -t sysfs none /mnt/sys

2. Now chroot into your main system.

# chroot /mnt /bin/bash

then edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst

title = arch
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro    (you might need hdb3 not sure)
initrd /initrd.img

title = Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

then reinstall grub

grub --no-floppy
grub> root (hd1,1)          (Specify where your /boot partition resides)
grub> setup (hd0)           (Install GRUB in the MBR)
grub> quit                  (Exit the GRUB shell)

then reboot

if for some reason windows or arch won't boot you can repeat step 1 + 2 above but change the entry in grub. If you really get into a jam and can't access windows you can just boot with your windows install cd and enter console mode and type: fixmbr then you should be able to get back into windows until you are ready to tackle grub again.

[haznedarj]

Hi Trinidada, I had the saem problme and the way I fixed is is as follows. I also do have 2 80GB HD drives both SATA. I went into my bios 9this is on a 64-bit dell and changed the drive types from SATA (serial ATA) to PATA (paralell ATA). And it worked. I don't knwo how your bios is but go into it and see under HD if there is a way to change it. It worked for me fine. Accordign to Suse Linux Rep Linus does not at this point support SATA. Godd Luck

[spencerf]

Hi Trinidada, I had the saem problme and the way I fixed is is as follows. I also do have 2 80GB HD drives both SATA. I went into my bios 9this is on a 64-bit dell and changed the drive types from SATA (serial ATA) to PATA (paralell ATA). And it worked. I don't knwo how your bios is but go into it and see under HD if there is a way to change it. It worked for me fine. Accordign to Suse Linux Rep Linus does not at this point support SATA. Godd Luck

I believe you were given incorrect information. Many people on these forums are using SATA drives and linux.