[Solved] Karmic netbook release and grub2

[Fintan]

I was really excited today and downloaded the karmic-netbook release to day:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ku...ne/002956.html

Of course it wouldn't burn to a disk and rog kindly pointed out that I was getting blind no not really but he did point me in the right direction:

https://wiki.kubuntu.org/Kubuntu/Netbook

>>> Kubuntu Netbook wiki

Kubuntu Netbook Edition
Kubuntu Netbook Edition is a new Kubuntu flavor optimized for netbook computers. These computers generally have small (less than 10") screens, less processing power, and less RAM/disk space than traditional laptops. The Karmic (9.10) development cycle is the first for Kubuntu Netbook Edition and there is a lot of work to do...

Anyway I put it on a stick and it loaded nicely. Very quick and responsive on this old HP Pavilion.

Now for the bad part.

I installed it and put grub(2?) in the partition where karmic was going as I wanted to keep my mbr.

Well I couldn't figure out how to get karmics new grub into /boot/grub/menu.lst.

Menu.lst is gone and grub.cfg seems to have taken its place. So I copied the relevant lines over to the default grub/menu.lst but they are not recognized.

So I reinstalled and put grub(2?) into the mbr.

This gives me the following love letter upon boot:
Grub error:
cannot read filesystem...
>grub rescue

I didn't format in ext4 as I read somewhere that there were still some problems with grub2 and ext4.

I had to reinstall grub to the mbr from a livecd.

What went wrong??

[Fintan]

Re: Karmic netbook release and grub2

Update:

I changed the grub2 entry from karmic:

menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-3-generic" {
set root=(hd0,4)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 082b89db-4196-44b8-8c07-17b548b1177c
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-3-generic root=UUID=082b89db-4196-44b8-8c07-17b548b1177c ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-3-generic
}

to:

title Kubuntu Netbook, Linux 2.6.31-3-generic
root (hd0,4)
Kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-3-generic root=UUID=082b89db-4196-44b8-8c07-17b548b1177c ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-3-generic

this showed up in my mbr grub list.

wow!

Then I get:
Error18: Selected cylinder exceeds max. suported by bios.

blkid:

kubuntu@kubuntu-laptop:~$ blkid
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda1: UUID="b91170ae-6234-41e9-b8e9-0e2c82ae4e33" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda3: UUID="3002d39f-e2f6-4c71-a5e3-6ba4262a521a" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda5: UUID="13accb1e-1bfb-4b98-9b1f-f413eec72138" TYPE="swap"
kubuntu@kubuntu-laptop:~$

But I can open that partition in dolphin.

Could it be that my bios only supports 2 primary partitions??

Nope, it doesn't like my karmic on a logical drive either.

I tried installing on sda3 (formaly JJ) now grub2 in mbr tells me it is out of disk!

Will now reinstall grub from my ubuntu partition on sda1 and see what happens.

Reinstall ubuntu's grub gives me:
Error18: Selected cylinder exceeds max. suported by bios.

and again blkid does not see the partition >

[kevinc]

Re: Karmic netbook release and grub2

when I installed Karmic as a dual boot with Jaunty, I probably went a little too fast at pressing the 'enter' key and didn't notice the new 'GRUB2' instead of GRUB and had the same problems that you describe.

In the end I booted from a Jaunty alternate CD in rescue mode, mounting my Jaunty / partition, copied the relevant lines from Karmic grub.cfg to my Jaunty menu.lst, mounted my /boot (on a separate partition), did a grub-install onto Jaunty /boot, then rebooted. This restored my MBR using Jaunty and allowed me to dual boot.

The other problem is each time I do a apt-get upgrade in Karmic, it overwrites my working MBR and I have to do the same thing. In the end I replaced Karmic, which doesn't seem to offer much more than Jaunty with Sidux Aether.

[Fintan]

Re: Karmic netbook release and grub2

Yes, I read you trials

What I don't get is the:

Error18: Selected cylinder exceeds max. suported by bios.

bit.

[Rog131]

Re: Karmic netbook release and grub2

Here, not netbook but new installation from the alternate CD.

Installing to the ext4 partition and trying to install the Grub2. The installation program is detecting MS Windows and other Linuxes. Giving promise to put the Grub2 to the mbr - no error messages.

Booting - it is still booting with the Legacy Grub (from the Jaunty) .
Well - the Legacy G is still good option so adding to the Jaunty's menu.lst (Other operating systems):

title		Karmic (development branch), kernel 2.6.31-3-generic
uuid		66d15cbe-ef37-488b-aaf0-f6c1cc3a4170
kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-3-generic root=UUID=66d15cbe-ef37-488b-aaf0-f6c1cc3a4170 ro quiet splash 
initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-3-generic
quiet

There is a strange thing, the Jaunty's Infocenter (and Dolphin) are showing small 1K Minix partition . The "sudo fdisk -l" don't show it.

[Fintan]

Re: Karmic netbook release and grub2

That is wierd.

I installed Karmic alpha3 on my ex JJ partition as for some reason my pavilion machine doesn't like three OS partitions and netbook definitely does not want to be installed.

any way to downgrade from karmic to netbook?

I digress.

I let Karmic install grub2 to the mbr.

Upon reboot I got a grub splash with a nice blue box listing my karmic and my ubuntu installation (came with the laptop).

Booting karmic gave me some weird message with the correct uuid and the no such device....bla bla..

Booting ubuntu went as usual.

Now I will try to install the "normal" karmic alpa3 to it's own partition

Edit:
Okay that went well, had to put my karmic grub lines into the ubuntu grub (mbr) but it worked.

It is a bit sluggisch though.

I would love to test the netbook install though

[Fintan]

Re: Karmic netbook release and grub2

I think I got this now. (I have time for this stuff on saturday mornings)

I went here:
http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/GRUB

and read the error18 notes.

So I made a /boot partition at the beginning of the disk.

Then I deleted my karmic partition which was primary and made it a logical partition.

At install I designated the boot partition as /boot and my new logical partition as /.

Now everything seems to be working and I am the proud tester of a netbook karmic

[kevinc]

Re: [Solved] Karmic netbook release and grub2

Thanks Fintan, that is an excellent link. Good clear description, examples and solution.

Next time I add another distro, I'll seriously think about my partitions first, as I haven't changed them for a couple of years now, they worked without problems when dual booting Kubuntu Jaunty and Ubuntu Jaunty but I have noticed problems with different versions such as Intrepid and Jaunty or Jaunty and Karmic.

Good to know that you have Karmic working now.

[Fintan]

Re: [Solved] Karmic netbook release and grub2

Your welcome , there still are some minor hiccups.

I started a new thread for that:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...105336.new#new