[SOLVED] openSUSE 11.0 strange grub problem - recognised by Arch but not by Mint

[Jonathan183]

I decided to install openSUSE 11.0 from DVD last night, during the install I selected install grub to root partition of openSUSE ... thought I would keep my Linux Mint grub menu which already called openSUSE 10.3. Everything went well until I tried to reboot and grub refused to access the openSUSE menu. I used rescue option to install grub to the mbr and restarted the system ... which boots correctly ...
Then I decided to change back to my Linux Mint grub menu ... which worked for everything except openSUSE 11 ! I started Arch and installed Arch grub menu and this can access openSUSE 11. I can even select my Linux Mint menu and then select openSUSE from it and it works

openSUSE 11.0, Arch Linux and Linux Mint all look to be using the same version of grub but I get different results when I run find from Linux Mint I get ...

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst
 (hd0,7)
 (hd0,8)
 (hd0,9)
 (hd0,10)
 (hd0,11)
 (hd0,12)
 (hd0,13)
 (hd0,14)

grub>

but with Arch Linux I get ...

    GNU GRUB  version 0.97  (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

 [ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported.  For the first word, TAB
   lists possible command completions.  Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
   completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst
 (hd0,5)
 (hd0,7)
 (hd0,8)
 (hd0,9)
 (hd0,10)
 (hd0,11)
 (hd0,12)
 (hd0,13)
 (hd0,14)

grub>

openSUSE is on sda6 - listed by Arch but not by Mint. Any ideas why ...

[devils casper]

Hi Jonathan183 !

I had exactly same problem with Debian's GRUB a few months back. It couldn't chainload Ubuntu. Those were very busy days and I hadn't much time to look into problem. I re-installed Ubuntu's GRUB in MBR.
I will check it out this weekend.
Do let us know if you find any info or solution.

[Jonathan183]

Thanks devils casper ... a bit more information ... I'm pretty sure its not an issue with my Mint install because I get the same message when I try running grub from the Mint live cd.

[Jonathan183]

Some more information on the grub issue ... I decided to start Debian (not used it for a while) the menu was displayed but when I selected Debian the kernel and initrd files were found be grub reported error 15 ... file not found

I installed grub for the debian install ... restarted the system and Debian works but openSUSE does not

From Debian grub ...

grub> find /boot/grub/menu.lst
find /boot/grub/menu.lst
 (hd0,7)
 (hd0,8)
 (hd0,9)
 (hd0,10)
 (hd0,11)
 (hd0,12)
 (hd0,13)
 (hd0,14)
grub>

... no openSUSE grub on (hd0,5) ... also

grub> root (hd0,5)
root (hd0,5)
 Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
grub> configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

Error 2: Bad file or directory type
grub>

Ed: I'm just doing the 97 updates since last time I used Debian ... one of the updates is grub ... I'll post back if the update fixes the problem for Debian

[daark.child]

There is something about Debians grub that does not play nicely with other distros. I spent a couple of days trying to boot Debian from CentOS grub and failed miserably. In the end I installed Debians grub on the Debian root partition and then chainload from the CentOS grub. Try installing openSUSE grub to the MBR, then install Debians grub to the Debian root partition and then chainload Debians grub from the openSUSE grub.

[Jonathan183]

Thanks daark.child it could be a Debian based distro issue ... I've go a couple of distros on the laptop and will try each to see if it is just Debian based that cause an issue ... I'll also try chainloading openSUSE grub and see if that works.
It's funny that this problem has only started for me using openSUSE 11 ... 10.3 seems to work fine. I'll post back after trying a few combinations ... Mint and openSUSE 10.3 work on the desktop fine & used to work on the laptop fine as well.

[Jonathan183]

Well ... using

root (hd0,5)
chainloader +1
boot

works ... thanks for the tip daark.child.

This allows boot from Mint and Debian even when

root (hd0,5)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

does not ... strange ... Ubuntu actually works either chainloading or using the configfile approach

The good news is chainloading allows the boot ... but I still don't really understand why the configfile approach does not work every time

Arch Linux works ... I must have managed to trash my Gentoo grub ... when I fix it I will try it out.