Aliens ate my boot loader

[kortsen]

I had a very happy dual boot setup with W2K and Kubuntu. But since I hadn't booted anything but Kubuntu in months I got the idea of playing with Slackware on the 'spare' partition and installed VectorLinux. As you can guess by the subject, it installed LILO and would only boot VL. I used the instructions at http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0 and am now able to post to Kubuntu Forums (do NOT ask about VectorLinux).

But VL is like a scab that I can't stop picking at. The problem is that GRUB is back to giving me a choice of Kubuntu and Windows. If I chose Windows (which is now VectorLinux) at the boot menu I get an error about an unrecognized executable. How do I get GRUB to give me a choice of Kubuntu and VectorLinux?

Hard drive in question is:

HD0,0 VectorLinux , EXT3 (Formerly NTFS), Flagged Active
HD0,1 Kubuntu, EXT3
HD0,2 Swap

[toad]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

Boot this, grub from a disk. http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/?section=download

Once you are back in your system do a

 sudo grub-install

[Qqmike]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

Hi kortsen,

I'm not sure! The limited experience I had with Slackware caused me to avoid it whenever possible
I admire your courage.

IF LILO is installed to the boot sector of the first partition, and if GRUB is installed to the MBR of that drive, then I think you can simply chainload your VectorLinux from GRUB. See Reply #17 in my how-to you referenced:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0 an
--- Use GRUB to Chainload LILO Reply #17

So, in the GRUB menu.lst (which should be found at /boot/grub/menu.lst of the Kubuntu partition), you would have a boot entry for VectorLinux like this:

title VectorLinux -- I can't resist it!
root (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

(space after root and space after chainloader)

That's it. If not, I'm not quite (yet) sure what to do. The key is that LILO must be fully, correctly installed to the VectorLinux partition, and I've never messed with LILO except to chainload it AFTER it was already installed to some partition.

Good luck, let us know.
--Mike

[kortsen]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

The original menu.lst for Windows was a chainloader. The only difference was the title. Since that gave me Error 13 I assume LILO was not set up properly for that option. And to me chainloading boot loaders seem not only redundant, but also redundant.

I posted the problem on the VectorLinux forums and found a solution. I added VectorLinux to Grub's menu.lst.

title Vector LInux 
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.14 root=/dev/hda1 ro splash=silent
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd
boot

The full discussion is at http://www.vectorlinux.com/forum2/in...p?topic=5280.0

[Qqmike]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

Ha! Good! The obvious, too. Gosh, I didn't think about loading it directly with GRUB

You can simplify it to:

title Vector LInux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.14 root=/dev/hda1 ro splash=silent
initrd /boot/initrd

(no need to repeat the root; no need for boot in the menu.lst -- only need boot command if working manually at a grub> prompt; it is implied in the menu.lst boot entry.)

Thanks for this excellent feedback--I wish everyone would do the same. I was a bit foxed, frankly, because once I had trouble booting Slackware by GRUB--could only get it by chainloading the installed LILO from GRUB in my MBR.

Thanks, again.

[kortsen]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

title Vector LInux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.14 root=/dev/hda1 ro splash=silent
initrd /boot/initrd

I had orginally tried

title		VectorLinux GUI
root		(hd0,0)
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz
initrd		/boot/initrd

It started booting VectorLinux but I got a kernel panic when VFS tried to mount <NULL>. Paul AKA toothandnail at VectorLinux forums had this answer.

You need to tell the kernel where to look as well. This is how I would create the Vector entry in /boot/grub/menu.lst

title Vector LInux 
root (hd0,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinux-2.6.22.14 root=/dev/hda1 ro splash=silent
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd
boot

Unless you pass the root= argument to the kernel, it will panic and fail. I also set the frame buffer mode (vga=791 for 1024x768) on the same command line. Calling the kernel specifically rather than using the symlink vmlinuz also allows an easy way of adding other kernel entries should you need them later.

paul

You may notice the typo in 'LInux" in my earlier posts. I cut-n-pasted his code into menu.lst and it worked.

[Qqmike]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

Yes, you need to pass root=/dev/hda1 to the kernel, for its use, along with any options, that is correct. As for the GRUB root, (hd0,0), you only need to set it once, not 3 times.

[kortsen]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

Oh, I see. The essential entries are

root (hd0,0)

and

kernel yada yada yada root=/dev/hda1

Making the second and third

(hd0,0)/boot/yada yada yada

redundant.

[toad]

Re: Aliens ate my boot loader

and don't forget

initrd