[solved]kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

[houndhen]

I multiboot Windows and 5 Linux distros. I have one main distro that I use most of the time and others that I can use if needed. I also use some of the distros to learn Linux and the difference between the distros.

I installed Kubuntu 10.04. I have a 2 gb swap partition; installed Kubuntu on the sda9 partition; and used sda10 as a common /home partition for all the distros. My login menu is grub and not grub2. I told the Kubuntu install to put grub on sda9. I edited my menu.lst file in grub and edited the menu option for Kubuntu. Then after getting an error when I tried to boot Kubuntu from the grub menu, I looked at /boot/grub/grub.cfg and see that root is listed as (hdo,9). This is incorrect - it should be (hdo,8).

I edited the grub.cfg file and changed all the hdo numbers to the correct number. Still get the error. Can't remember the error. Something about 15. I don't use grub2 because I know how to edit menu.lst in grub and don't know the ins and out of grub2.

I have re-installed and made sure that I was telling grub to be written to sda9 but everything was the same again. How do I get the install to change from hdo,9 to hdo,8?

Thanks,
Harold

[claydoh]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

Which distro is your main one, the one that has the grub you actually boot with? That is the one you need to edit the menu.list file for. If you have installed grub to (hd0,9) - correct for grub2 - then you should be able to either use the chainloader - in your primary OS's grub - to use (hd0,8) - correct for grub1, or create a custom entry in /boot/grub/menu.list for Kubuntu if your primary Linux does not have a way to autodetect new OS's

[dibl]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

There are potential problems with a shared /home folder -- if you're not totally committed to it, you might want to reconsider that approach.

PROBLEMS: Desktop environments (Gnome, KDE, Xfce) write their own hidden "settings" folders in your user's home directory. Moreover, so do application packages and some drivers, such as the proprietary Nvidia driver. Use your file manager and click "View" > "Show Hidden" to see these.

So, the problems begin when your second (or third) OS provides a different version of a DE or package, and that one writes into the same hidden folder, and the settings info is inconsistent. Over time, you'll have no end of fits trying to sort why applications are throwing goofy errors, crashing, and otherwise not behaving.

A better approach is to let each OS have its own /home directory within its own root filesystem, and then save your data in separate disk partition(s) -- you can label them "MUSIC", "IMAGES", "VIDEOS", or whatever. You make one directory on each such partition, named the same as the partition, and give it your user's permissions. Then, you symlink those directories into the /home/user folder on each OS. Doing it this way, there's no interference, and there's never a risk of loss of data should you decide to install your next distro over your last distro. So, you can make a DATA folder in your /home/houndhen directory, and do this with your other partitions:

ln -s /usr/local/houndhen/data/Music
ln -s /usr/local/houndhen/data/Documents
ln -s /usr/local/houndhen/data/Pictures
etc

[claydoh]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

this is only a problem if you use the same username in more than 1 distro, the OP didn't mention if that is what he is using (and it has no bearing on the boot issue ).

I have been using a common home directory for 10(!??!!!) years now, and have never had any problems, except for when i forgot and used the same username twice - a quick chown fixed it in that case

[houndhen]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

Which distro is your main one, the one that has the grub you actually boot with? That is the one you need to edit the menu.list file for. If you have installed grub to (hd0,9) - correct for grub2 - then you should be able to either use the chainloader - in your primary OS's grub - to use (hd0,8) - correct for grub1, or create a custom entry in /boot/grub/menu.list for Kubuntu if your primary Linux does not have a way to autodetect new OS's

OK let me further explain. Mepis 8.5 is my main distro and it is on sda7 which is hdo,6. The root of Mepis is where grub1 menu.lst resides and that is the one that I edited. I use a different username for each distro. All of my distros and the partition where the /home folders reside is formated to ext3. I don't know whether or not Mepis has a way to autodetect the other distros or not. I usually manually edit the menu.lst file.

About the /home folder... Each distro has its own /home folder but all of the /home folders are put on the same partition, which is sda10 (hdo,9).

When I edited the menu.lst I put the menu entry to look for Kubuntu root at hdo,8 but the kubuntu grub.cfg file in sda9 has the root listed as hdo,9 and it should be hdo,8. This is my main problem. What do I need to do to get Kubuntu to look for root at hdo,8 (sda9)?

I hope this clarifies some of my confusing things in the first postl
Harold

[dibl]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

I use a different username for each distro.

Cool. As claydoh says, if you can use a different user name for each OS, then there is no conflict in the common /home partition.

/boot/grub/grub.cfg is, of course, the configuration file for Grub 2. You aren't supposed to edit it directly -- it is a dynamic file built by the grub-mkconfig utility. If os-prober is not finding the other OSs correctly, then you need to make your edits in the script files in /etc/grub.d/. These are used to update grub.cfg when you run update-grub.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106368.0

If you are using the Grub in Mepis for your boot menu, then I think that is "legacy" Grub, aka ver. 1.97. That one is controlled by /boot/grub/menu.lst. AFAIK, you can use the "configfile" notation to have legacy Grub boot an OS that uses Grub 2 for its boot manager.

[houndhen]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

/boot/grub/grub.cfg is, of course, the configuration file for Grub 2. You aren't supposed to edit it directly -- it is a dynamic file built by the grub-mkconfig utility. If os-prober is not finding the other OSs correctly, then you need to make your edits in the script files in /etc/grub.d/. These are used to update grub.cfg when you run update-grub.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106368.0

If you are using the Grub in Mepis for your boot menu, then I think that is "legacy" Grub, aka ver. 1.97. That one is controlled by /boot/grub/menu.lst. AFAIK, you can use the "configfile" notation to have legacy Grub boot an OS that uses Grub 2 for its boot manager.

Thanks for the info. In the grub.cfg menu entry for Kubuntu there was a line that pointed to the kernel that didn't start with the word kernel but instead had the word linux. I edited my grub1 menu.lst menu entry for Kubuntu and changed the word linux for kernel and kubuntu booted. Don't really understand it all but it is working for now. If it continues to work after update is thru then I will come back and mark this solved.

Harold

[claydoh]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

it does! you should try to run the command line tool update-grub, I think as Mepis is Debian based that this should work there as it does in Kubuntu

http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php/Chainload_GRUB
But I do not know how well grub1 handles grub2 in a chainloading situation with the differing drive numbering scheme

[houndhen]

Re: kubuntu thinks sda9 is hdo,9

Thanks claydoh. That link is really interesting and informative. I'm not too knowledgeable about chainloading. I will also try the update-grub from the mepis command line and see what happens. I will make a copy of menu.lst first though.

Harold