triple boot

[cliowa]

Hi all,
I'm relatively new to kubuntu (and linux in general) and I'm having some trouble setting up grub. I have two harddisks in my computer, one of them with two linux partitions (kubuntu and mandriva) and one win xp (the other hd's just for storage). The problem now is that grub does not recognize my mandriva partition. As a consequence I can't boot mandriva at all. I tried updating/installing grub again, but as my mandriva kernel image resides on a different partition then the kubuntu kernel image, grub won't "see" it. I also tried manually editing the menu.lst, adding an entry for mandriva, but when I want to start that one I end up with a critcal error even before I can perceive anything mandriva-like. What are the correct entries (root, etc.) for that menu.lst, or is there another, maybe even better way of fixing this issue? Thanks alot in advance.

I did notice that in this forum there have been several requests of a similar kind, but as I'm a beginner I easily lose overview and can't quite follow the instructions given and by no means slightly adjust/change them to fit my scenario. Therefore I would be very thankful for precise "dummy" instructions to fix this. Here's some data about my computer:
Mandriva is installed on: /media/hde7
(K)ubuntu on: /media/hde2
Win XP: /media/hdf1
Best regards...Cliowa

[analyticalman]

Re: triple boot

Editing your menu.lst is the right thing to do and you should be able to boot mandriva OK. Basically you need to add the correct image (found at /boot) at the correct partition to your menu.lst

Here is a section of my menu.lst which triple boots linux from hdb with windows on hda to give you some pointers

title Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.15-26-386
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386 root=/dev/hdb1 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.15-26-386
savedefault
boot

title Fedora Core (2.6.17-1.2157_FC5) (on /dev/hdb6)
root (hd1,4)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.17-1.2157_FC5 ro root=LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet
initrd /initrd-2.6.17-1.2157_FC5.img
savedefault
boot

title Zenwalk (on /dev/hdb3)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb3 ro splash
initrd /boot/initrd.splash
savedefault
boot

Here is a link to the grub manual which is invaluable
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html

[cliowa]

Re: triple boot

Thank you very much for your help, analyticalman. There still is one question I haven't found an answer to: How can I find out what I need to list as root? It seems to me this is not a choice the user's making, rather some property of the system, as your (hd0,0), (hd1,4), etc. look rather specific. How do I find that out?
Thanks again...Cliowa

[analyticalman]

Re: triple boot

All that is is the disk and boot partition where the OS gets booted from. Grub starts counting from zero so the first hard disk is 0 and the first partition is zero thus hd0,0 is the first partition of the first hard disk (hda), hd1,4 is the 5th partition of the second hard disk (hdb). You have given details of where you think things are mounted - below, not the actual partition info which is what you need to work this out - do you know your exact partitioning?

[cliowa]

Re: triple boot

If what I posted is not everything I need, then I definitely don't know my actual partitioning. How do I find that out?
Thanks alot and best regards...Cliowa

[analyticalman]

Re: triple boot

Easiest way is to use a graphical partitioning tool. You may already have one in Windows (Partition Magic)??

If you don't, as you can boot Kubuntu, grab QTparted or Gparted from Adept or apt-get and post a screenshot of the partition info (or just copy it out)

[cliowa]

Re: triple boot

Ok, here comes the screenshot. Looks like quite a mess. Probably this is because the different kubuntu installers did not recognize mandriva and set up swap and all that on its own. Thanks again...Cliowa

[analyticalman]

Re: triple boot

Well its pretty funky and probably not the best use of space but everything looks to be there so you should just try editing your kubuntu /boot/grub/menu.list to boot it. You need to do this with admin privileges like this from within Kubuntu

kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.list

then add the commands as in the menu.list example below: if Kubuntu is found at root (hd0,1) (for example) then I guess Mandriva is going to be found at (hd0,6), you just need to follow the same scheme. You need to know your mandriva kernel image and if you don't you'll need to either mount mandriva from within Kubuntu to find it like this from within a terminal

mkdir /mnt/temp
mount /dev/hde7 /mnt/temp
chroot /mnt/temp


or use a live CD like knoppix. - Go to the Mandriva /boot/grub menu.list and see what kernel and initrd commands were used to boot mandriva and add them to the menu.list in kubuntu. Then reboot and see what happens (but first I recommend backing up your menu.list where you can get at it if things go wrong)

[cliowa]

Re: triple boot

Ok, thanks. I tried that, but I encountered a different problem: I can't seem to find my mandriva kernel images! Is there any way of adding them afterwards, i.e. after they have been lost? There simply is no kernel image in my boot folder from mandriva, only some short cuts which are pointing to nowhere are left. What can I do?

As to my formidable partitioning: Can I do anything about this mess (whithout reinstalling and setting it all up again?
Best regards...Cliowa

[analyticalman]

Re: triple boot

Maybe Mandriva put it in a different place (I'm grasping at straws now) type this command into a terminal to look for Kernel images across your system - does it reveal anything?

sudo find / |grep vmlinuz

Regarding your partitioning - If we can't find your kernel, starting again may be your best option

[Teppic]

Re: triple boot

If it possible that hde5 was Mandriva's /boot partition? Looks about the right size.


If you do end up doing a reinstall may I make a suggestion; about 2 years ago I was trying loads of distros at the same time to 'make my choice'. In the end I had 4 5gig patitions at then end of a disk for 'experiments', and had each one set up as a 'chainload' in the main menu.lst. Then when I installed a different os on each one, I allowed the distros installer to put grub on the partition as opposed to the MBR, meaning the main grub and it's config never got touched and the distro being installed got to setup it's own grub.conf/menu.lst however it wanted to.

[analyticalman]

Re: triple boot

I agree - thats how I have mine installed - sometimes you have to make the choice anyway. You'll see scrolling back through these posts that I have Zenwalk installed. A lovely distro - but natively it uses lilo to boot. Everything else I have uses Grub - so I had to get my Grub configuration right

regarding what the boot partition for Mandriva is, I'm hoping that the command sequence I suggested will smoke it out!

[Teppic]

Re: triple boot

regarding what the boot partition for Mandriva is, I'm hoping that the command sequence I suggested will smoke it out!

At the end of the day if you can get hold of the kernel rpm from mandriva, file-roller (gnomes archive manager) can open the .rpm file and you can install the kernel image manually.

[cliowa]

Re: triple boot

Maybe Mandriva put it in a different place (I'm grasping at straws now) type this command into a terminal to look for Kernel images across your system - does it reveal anything?

Yes, It outputs this:

/man/boot/vmlinuz
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-23-386
/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.15-26-386
/root/.Trash/vmlinuz-2.6.12-12mdk
/vmlinuz
/vmlinuz.old

What now?

[cliowa]

Re: triple boot

If it possible that hde5 was Mandriva's /boot partition? Looks about the right size.

Mandriva's definitely on hde7, I simply gave it some more space.

How would this chainloader thing (what that, anyway?) help me with my fatal partitioning? Could I do it without having to reinstall my kubuntu, which I like very much the way it is just now?
BTW: Can I use the same swap partition for two different distros?