Arch linux through vmware in dual boot

Hi guys,
I've reinstalled arch again on a fake (intel) raid system with dual boot with Windows 7. Right now arch runs just fine natively on the machine, but I want to set it up so I can run it from vmware in windows as well. I have most things figured out but I have a small problem which I have yet to tackle.
Natively the disks are mapped through dmraid in the following manner (etc/fstab):
/dev/mapper/isw_cidbgaibjd_Systemp3 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/mapper/isw_cidbgaibjd_Systemp5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/mapper/isw_cidbgaibjd_Systemp6 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/mapper/isw_cidbgaibjd_Systemp2 /mnt/Win7 ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
/dev/mapper/isw_cidbgaibjd_Datap1 /mnt/Data ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
To access from vmware in Win7 I have set up vmware to map the physical (raid) drive where the arch partitions are for the virtual machine. The difference is that in Win7 the raid drive /dev/mapper/isw_cidbgaibjd_System is seen as /dev/sda (vmware abstracts the raid drive as a regular scsi/sata drive).
I've used mkinitcpio to generate a separate profile "kernel26-vmware" to load different hooks to boot arch linux in a virtual machine and create a separate runlevel (runlevel 7) to load different daemons at boot and added a new entry in grub to load the kernel26-vmware mkinitcpio image and go into runlevel 7. The only problem remaining is to switch out /etc/fstab so that it loads proper device paths to the raid drive partitions e.g.:
/dev/sda3 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sda6 / ext4 defaults 0 1
/dev/sda2 /mnt/Win7 ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb1 /mnt/Data ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
So the question is, is there anyway to tell mkinitcpio to rewrite fstab at boot with what I want depending on if I'm booting arch natively through dual boot, or booting from vmware in Win7? I've seen that mkinitcpio has "FILES" directive which enables it to load additional custom files. Can this be used to load two separate fstabs and a small script that will ovewrite /etc/fstab on boot?
Last edited by digivampire (2009-09-24 17:32:48)

Nevermind, I figured out the solution. Since UUIDs are preserved on the filesystem, setting fstab to use /dev/disk/by-uuid... works when booting both native and from vmware.

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] Arch Linux Duke (2007) Fails to Boot

Folks, I have a unique and challenging problem that has exhausted my Arch Linux skills, and so I am now turning to you.
I have a vintage Pentium Pro 200 system (that’s 200 MHz folks! – 200 MHz 686 architecture – the original 686!), two CPUs, running a dual boot between Windows NT 4.0 and Arch Linux Duke (2007). It has 512 MB of RAM and a 120 GB hard drive, partitioned up between Windows NT and Linux. I built this system new in 2007, hence the dated version of Arch. It has run like a charm all these years, granted not getting that much use. After about a year of no use at all, I fired the system up last week to help with a little research for a blog post I was writing on networking Windows NT 4.0 and Mac OS 8.6. Windows NT 4.0 fired right up with no issue, and after I was done testing what needed to be tested I tried to boot over to Arch.
After a year of disuse, Arch unexpectedly and stubbornly refused to boot. The boot process started up just fine, but towards the end, it declared that it could not mount the root file system on the root device and took a kernel panic and stopped. My Arch skills have gotten a bit rusty in the last few years, but I dusted them off and went to work. My guess was a file system or superblock error. Arch wouldn’t boot, but I dragged out my trusty RIPLinux 2.9 Rescue Live CD and fired it up. It came right up and ran, and I was able to mount the Arch partition and view all the files… everything seemed to be there; it just wouldn’t boot. Windows NT 4.0 AND RIPLinux both boot and run on the machine, so the hardware is fine as well.
A little information on the disk layout. Windows NT 4.0 is in the first partition on the hard drive. The extended partition has a second Windows NT 4.0 partition (sort of a /home partition for Windows NT 4.0), followed by the main Arch partition (the one I am trying to boot), followed by a swap partition and then the largest partition, which I use to share data between Arch and Windows NT 4.0 (I have loaded an ext2/3 driver into Windows NT 4.0 and it happily accesses the Linux partitions on the box).
RIPLinux’s e2fsck did find some issues with the Arch partition and I had it repair them all. I checked again afterwards that all the files were still there, and they were. With the partition now known to be clean, and the superblock repaired from one of the backups, all should have been well. However, Arch still wouldn’t (and still won’t) boot.
RIPLinux has a kind of a chain loader function, so I had it attempt to start up Arch for me. However, this was flummoxed by the fact that Arch addresses all my hard drive partitions as /dev/sdax and RIPLinux addresses them as /dev/hdax. Hence, without a common language, it was hard to get the one to start the other. Still, using this function, I have been able to get a crippled version of Arch running on the machine again. No modules had been loaded, and so it couldn’t do almost anything, but there it was (and is), Arch Linux Duke, at the CLI level. From there, I can see all the files, I can move freely in and out of my user account and the root account, but I can’t make the thing actually boot properly.
If you have read this far, you are a trooper. Summarizing what I know, the hardware is good, the file system is clean, the superblock is good, I can mount it cleanly from a live CD and I can chain load a crippled version of Arch. Here is the boot process blow-by-blow. When I try to do a normal boot, the Windows NT 4.0 loader passes control to the Lilo boot sector I have placed on hda1 (sda1 in Duke’s parlance). Lilo takes over, present a menu and when I select Duke, takes off. Arch Linux Duke starts to boot. It gets a good long way along, all the way along to:
:: Loading udev events [Pass]
:: Mount root Read-only
:: Checking file systems
This is where it stops.
The next thing I see is:
/dev/sda6
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2 filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2 filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else) then the superblock is corrupt and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
E2fsck –b 8193 <device>
I then get a sort of character based splash screen that says
**********FILE SYSTEM CHECK FAILED ****************************
* Please repair manually and reboot. Note that the root file system
* is currently mounted read-only. To remount it read-write, type:
* mount –n –o remount,rw /. When you exit the maintenance
* shell, the system will reboot automatically
Give root password for maintenance
At this point, I give the root password and enter the maintenance shell as root. I typed in “mount” and the first entry I got back is
/dev/sda6 on / type ext3 (rw)
This is exactly the root partition that the start up complains about. It is clearly there. I can see it, I can walk around it… it is clearly there. Why won’t it boot? Despite the message, the superblock is fine – it passes every test e2fsck can throw at it.
At this point, I did a “e2fsck /dev/hda6 (which is how RIPLinux would have passed it into Arch” and it says it is “clean”. I suspect that the Superblock message is because Arch sees root as sda6, while RIP passed it in as hda6...
Deciding to see what Arch would be seeing as it tried to set things up in the boot sequence, I tried the following next:
# mknod “/dev/root2” b 3 6
(“3” because RIPLinux refers to my hard drive as IDE, while Arch refers to it by major number “8”, which is SCSI. By the way, it IS an IDE drive – not sure why Arch insists on using the sdx nomenclature instead of hdx)
Then I entered “mount /dev/root2 /mnt/hda6” and “ls /mnt/hda6”
All was well. I can make the node, I can mount it, and I can see the contents. All is clearly well, but something is clearly wrong enough that Arch can’t boot.
I am totally out of ideas. I have tried every trick I know and am out of tricks. I would welcome any insights as to what I could try to get this venerable Arch installation back on its legs.
By the way, the key section of the /etc/lilo.conf file (lest anyone want to know) is:
image = /boot/vmlinuz26
root = /dev/sda6
label = ArchLinux-Duke
initrd = /boot/kernel26.img
read-only
I am stumped. Thanks in advance for any and all pointers you may be able to offer.
Last edited by mac57 (2014-06-02 17:42:21)

Folks, thanks for all your helpful comments, and I wanted to report back to you that I finally overcame the issue, and ArchLinux-Duke (2007) is once again executing flawlessly on my old Pentium Pro 200 system. I won't bother reporting here all the blind allies I went down as I tried to figure out what was wrong, but in the end, literally moments before I was about to give up and overwrite my Arch installation with a new Linux variant (antiX seemed well suited for such old and low power hardware), my attention was drawn to a note I had made in my files back in 2007 about a problem with similar symptoms. In that case, I had just deleted ZenWalk Linux from the hard drive (both Arch and Zen had been on the drive), and merged several partitions to make use of the newly free space. This had changed Arch's view of the drive lettering, and what had been its /dev/sddx root device was now /dev/sdcx. Arch failed to boot, throwing off the same errors I was seeing now. I wish I had recalled that note a month or so ago! It would have saved me a lot of work and a lot of frustration.
At any rate, as a last step, and testing the idea that maybe the drive lettering had changed for some reason, I repeatedly manually booted Arch, specifying root=/dev/sda6, then /dev/sdb6, then /dev/sdd6, and finally, /dev/sdc6. Eureka! Arch now considered itself to be on /dev/sdc6 whereas previously it had been on /dev/sda6. This got me part way there, but the boot failed at the filesystem check stage and threw me into root. I disabled the file system check in /etc/rc.sysinit and got farther. Then I cleaned up /etc/fstab to agree with the new sdc naming, and I was back on the air fully.
So, what had happened was that Arch had changed its view of the drive it was on from sda6 to sdc6. While I could not understand why this "sudden" change had occurred, at least I had a solution, and had Arch back up and running.
Trolling through the rest of my notes, I found the answer. In 2012, the Tekram SCSI card in the machine failed, and I ultimately replaced it with an Adaptec card. The Tekram card did not have a BIOS segment on it. The Adaptec card did. My guess is that this caused the two internal SCSI devices I have built into the system (Iomega ZIP and Jaz respectively) to be enumerated first, claiming the "sda" and "sdb". device names. That left "sdc" for the root device, and that is where Arch went next. This is my guess anyway.
I should have caught this issue back in 2012, at the time, but from my notes, I can see that I tested the new card thoroughly using the Windows NT 4.0 side of the machine, but never thought to bring up Arch as well. Hence, this problem lay dormant for two years, before I attempted to fire up Arch last month and blundered right into it.
It has not all been bad. I have learned more about the ext2 and ext3 file systems and superblocks in the intervening time than I will ever need to use. I have learned how to manually boot Linux on a machine whose BIOS is so old that it cannot address the disk cylinder that the kernel is on and I have completely refreshed the many general Linux skills that used to just flow from my finger tips. It has been a frustrating experience, but ultimately a successful and useful one.
Just wanted to let everyone know that this is now [SOLVED]. I would mark the post as such, but I don't see any obvious way to do that. Thanks again everyone.

HOWTO: Repairing a headless Arch Linux system that fails to boot

The scenario...
I have a "headless" (no monitor or input peripherals) Arch Linux computer that is connected to a local network via a wireless adapter, and accessed from other computers via SSH.
Earlier today I accidentally broke its kernel so it did not boot anymore.
Idea: Temporarily connect a monitor to the computer, boot from a live CD (like the Arch Linux install CD), then chroot into the system and fix it.
Problem: I didn't have a compatible monitor at hand.
Idea: Log in to the live CD session from another computer via SSH.
Problem: The live CD can't auto-configure the headless computer's wireless connection, and setting it up manually while working "blind" would be a major hassle. A direct LAN connection to the router wasn't available either.
Idea: Connect directly with a laptop via an Ethernet cable, and then use SSH from the laptop => This solution worked for me!
If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can follow this tutorial which describes the solution that worked for me in detail...
You need:
a copy of the Arch Linux install CD (I used the 2013-05-01 version)
an Ethernet cable
a keyboard (might be dispensable, with additional preparation)
a functional Arch Linux laptop (or other computer within physical range)
Step 1) Prepare the live CD...
I used the plain Arch Linux install iso, burnt to CD.
By creating a carefully customized version of the live CD using Archiso, you might be able to eliminate the need for steps 2 and 4 - however that's not covered in this tutorial.
Step 2) Prepare the laptop...
The laptop needs to be configured in such a way, that the live CD's attempt to automatically establish an Ethernet connection with it will succeed:
a) IP address
In my case, the Laptop's wireless adapter had an IP address in the range 192.168.1.*, connecting it to the local network and Internet via the central router 192.168.1.1.
The Ethernet connection between the laptop and the headless computer becomes a separate mini-network, for which I decided to use IP addresses in the range 192.168.0.* (note the different third number). Specifically, I set the IP address of my laptop's Ethernet card to 192.168.0.1. You can do this by running the following as root (replace "eth0" with the name of your Ethernet interface):
ip link set eth0 up
ip addr add 192.168.0.1/24 dev eth0
b) IP forwarding (optional)
While we're at it, we might as well enable IP forwarding, so that the live CD session on the headless computer will be able to directly use the laptop's outgoing Internet connection (which will make it much more convenient to install/upgrade packages during the repair session). To enable this, run the following as root (replace "eth0" and "wlan0" with the names of your laptop's Ethernet and wireless interfaces, respectively):
iptables --table nat --append POSTROUTING --out-interface wlan0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables --append FORWARD --in-interface eth0 -j ACCEPT
sh -c "echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward"
c) DHCP
The live CD will assume there's a router on the other side of the Ethernet link, and ask for an IP address via DHCP. So all we need to do, is run a dhcp server on the Laptop that will answer this request. It's surprisingly easy: Just install the package dnsmasq, and put the following in the file /etc/dnsmasq.conf (again replacing "eth0" as appropriate):
interface=eth0
dhcp-range=192.168.0.2,192.168.0.2
By setting the start & end values of dhcp-range to the same IP address, we enforce that this specific IP address will be used by the live CD on the headless computer.
Then start the daemon by running the following as root:
systemctl start dnsmasq.service
Step 3) Connect everything and boot up the live CD...
Connect the laptop and the headless computer via the Ethernet cable.
Connect the external keyboard to the headless computer.
Then put the Arch Linux install CD into the headless computer's drive, and boot. Wait a minute or so to give the CD time to load its boot menu (you should hear the CD drive spin up and settle down again). Then hit ENTER on the connected keyboard, to activate the default menu choice (which will boot straight to a live Arch Linux session with root privileges).
You can check whether it booted up and successfully initialized the Ethernet connection, by ping'ing the IP address that was specified in step 2c) from the laptop:
ping -c3 192.168.0.2
Step 4) Start the SSH server...
Unfortunately, the Arch Linux install CD doesn't automatically start its SSH server, and also it uses a randomized root password. To make SSH connections possible, you will have to use the connected keyboard to type in some stuff "blindly" (but it's simple enough):
type "passwd" (without the quotes)
type in a new password of your choice
press ENTER
type in the same password again
press ENTER
type "systemctl start sshd" (without the quotes)
press ENTER
Step 5) Connect from the laptop via SSH...
Now you can open an SSH connection, by executing the following on the laptop (when it asks for the password, enter the one you chose in step 4):
ssh [email protected]
Step 6) Profit!
Within this SSH shell on the laptop, you can now do whatever you would usually do to fix an Arch Linux system from a live CD.
You'll probably want to chroot into your Arch root partition, which is very easy thanks to the arch-chroot tool that is included on the live CD (replace "/dev/sda3" with the name of the headless computer's root partition):
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
arch-chroot /mnt
If you set up IP forwarding as described in step 2b), then Internet access should magically work in this shell without any further configuration, so you can freely use pacman etc. inside the chroot.
Enjoy!
Last edited by sas (2013-07-26 22:17:03)

It is definitely able to recognize the USB and DVDs as separate drives; it gives the option of booting from USB, and it gives the memory capacity of the USB drive I used as a live USB, and the memory used for the live CD. But when it comes time to actually boot, something is going wrong.
I would suspect it is a problem with the BIOS, if not for the fact that I had a similar issue on my previous system, which used a completely different motherboard. If it is the same issue, it would either have to be a problem with the DVD drive (although I don't know why it would be against loading some live CDs but not others) or perhaps the way I created the live CDs. Although, again, I don't understand why the Linux Mint 32-bit DVD would work fine, while both 64-bit DVDs would not.
I will try using a different DVD drive to boot the DVDs, and if that does not work, I'll try creating a new Arch live CD to see if I can resolve the issue. But if anyone has any ideas, it would still be greatly appreciated.

Vmware VS Dual boot for two diferent OS

I am sandbox with Essbase, Planning and HFM on a new machine i just order...The machine is a intel 3610QM I7 Chip Passmark @ 8442.... that has hyperthreading 8 Gb Ram and a 750 GB Hard drive. shipped with window 7
I have not had much luck with the whole VMware thing ..... I have try VMware workstation 9 and other Virtual mahcines ... with not much luck ....so my thought process is to set a dual boot with one OS - Windows 7 and and other OS for my Sandbox using server 2008r2
any thought
Please advise

The Laptop I am getting does not have any partition on it the C: Drive has all 750 gb on it
so i am think to make a disc image with the factory widows 7 information
then do the two partition C: Window F: Server 2008r2 sp1
c: Windows 7
F:Server2008r2 sp1
Essbase, planning and HFM Sand Box
Please advise
Edited by: Next Level on Sep 28, 2012 5:12 AM

Arch Linux USB installation does not boot Correctly [SOLVED]

Hello,
I created a bootable USB stick with Universal USB Installer on a Windows System.
When I try to boot it, it shows me a Gummiboot Boot Loader Switch, where I can switch between two EFI shells and ArchLinux installation media.
When choosing the installation media, the screen flashes and after that, it shows the following lines:
:: running early hook [udev]
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents ...
:: running hook [memdisk]
:: running hook [archiso]
:: running hook [archiso_loop_mnt]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_common]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_nbd]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_http]
:: running hook [archiso-pxe_nfs]
:: Mounting '/dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201403' to '/run/archiso/bootmnt'
Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201403 ...
[ 5.060855] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[ 5.060960] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Asuming drive cache: write trough
[ 5.062636] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[ 5.062688] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Asuming drive cache: write through
[ 5.064566] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
[ 5.064614] sd 6:0:0:0: [sdc] Asuming drive cache: write through
ERROR: 'dev/desc/by-label/ARCH_201403' device did not show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive promt
You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you are finished
sh: can't accsess tty; job control turned off
[rootfs /]#
In UEFI menu I unabled secure boot and fast boot.
Can anybody tell me what I can do to boot the istallation media correctly?
Thanks for your suggestions
Last edited by outschi (2014-03-20 00:31:18)

Welcome to arch. I suspect this is the problem:
outschi wrote:I created a bootable USB stick with Universal USB Installer on a Windows System.
The error message you get is the same as those encountered by people who try to use unetbootin (eg here). I know Unetbootin does not work to create bootable arch media - perhaps the windows tool also doesn't.
Did you see and follow the tip here? It seems that tool will create working usbs, but you have to fix the label.
Last edited by Trilby (2014-03-19 16:52:22)

I have TB on XP. I added Linux Mint as a dual boot. Can I use the XP document store with the Linux version of TB? TIA

XP has been running for years and has a lot of documents and history in the Thunderbird folders. Linux Mint was installed on a different physical drive. Can I point the Linux version Thunderbird to the XP data directory and use both XP and Linux versions of Thunderbird with one set of data files?

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Sharing_a_profile_between_Windows_and_Linux

Canon PIXMA MP640 WiFi on Arch Linux x86_64

I have a Canon PIXMA MP640 series multifunctional device connected wirelessly to my home router. On Windows Vista the device works flawlessly, I can print or scan without any problems. Now I decided to configure at least the printer part on my Arch Linux x86_64, which I dual-boot with Vista on the same laptop.
I went through the Wiki entry for CUPS and SAMBA. I did install all the necessary packages, that is:
1) cups (ver. 1.4.6), ghostscript (ver. 9.01), gsfonts (ver. 1.0.7pre44) - for CUPS
2) cnijfilter-mp640 (ver. 3.20) and its dependencies: cnijfilter-common (ver. 3.00), lib32-libcups, lib32-popt - drivers for this particular model
3) samba (ver. 3.5.6) and gamin (ver. 0.1.10) – for SAMBA
Then I added cups and samba to DAEMONS section of the /etc/rc.conf file
DAEMONS=(@syslog-ng !network @netfs @crond hal alsa wicd bluetooth laptop-mode !openntpd @cups @samba)
copied Samba configuration file
cp /etc/samba/smb.conf.default /etc/samba/smb.conf
in which I changed only one entry – name of my workgroup, and then I restarted my system.
In System Settings as root I went to Sharing→Samba and checked if everything seems fine – see print screen below.
http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/300/samba1.png
Then in Printer Configuration I chosed New network printer and I tried to fill all the boxes with information I have about my printer – see below. I also pointed to the specific .ppd file - /usr/share/cups/model/canonmp640.ppd.
http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/6650/samba2.png
The printer name and it's localization I got from my router – see below.
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3982/samba3.png
As you all see on print screen No 2 I'm getting “Bad URI – need printer name” error from CUPS. I “googled” about it, but still haven't been able to solve this issue. What am I doing wrong?
Last edited by Zibi1981 (2011-03-07 18:13:31)

No hints??? I believe it's related to Samba. I don't know how to configure it properly, so it can find my WiFi printer.

[SOLVED] Longwinded beginner - Dual-boot & partition questions

Hello,
I'm interested in installing Arch Linux alongside Windows XP (dual-boot). I have little previous linux experience, although I have rented some servers that have used it in the past, as well as compiling some stuff with it while at University (studying Computer Science). Nevertheless, I am relatively confident that if I can still boot into XP, I will be able to acccustomise myself and like the fact that this distribution seems to be hands-on and leaves a lot up to the user.
I've been reading the Beginner's Guide and the dual boot guide, and I would like to get started, however, I'm not going to go ahead with this until I am certain that I will be left with a system that can still boot into Windows XP. I assume that it'll take me a while to get to grips with Arch, and in the meantime it would be massively inconvenient if I couldn't work/play/etc...
What I already know
Anyway, currently I have a 250GB hard drive that I use for Windows (as well as 3 other hard drives full of stuff). I have partitioned the drive with Windows XP on it with gparted like so:
(in order)
UNALLOCATED 32GB
SDB1 (Windows XP) 50GB
SDB2 (Downloads) 150GB
I hope to use the unallocated space to hold linux (and then have access to my other windows drives in the future, using ntfs-3g), however, I am a little confused over what partitions I 'should' have and how large they should be, considering that I will use the OS to mainly develop, browse the web, listen to music, etc...
I was thinking:
/boot -- ext2 -- 100MB
/ -- ext4 -- 15GB
swap -- -- 1GB
/home -- ext4 -- 12GB
/var -- ReiserFS -- 4GB
Questions
• Is 30GB too little, even though most of my stuff is on other NTFS hard drives?
• How large should / be? I've read that it contains /bin, /dev, /etc and others. How do I know how much space these need? Am I misunderstanding things?
• Is a /var partition unnecessary? How large should it be?
• 10GB for /home, 1GB for swap, 100MB for /boot?
• Do I need a /tmp or /usr? This is a single-user machine, but I don't want it to get messy!
• I was thinking of giving /boot ext2, and /var ReiserFS, and then giving every other partition ext4. That okay?
• Do I need to set these partitions up when installing, or can I set them up in advance with gparted - it might be simpler.
• Due to already having 2 NTFS primary partitions on the hard disk, I presume that some of the above will need to be logical partitions in an extended partition? How is this done?
Once the partitions have been set up, and linux is installed, I presume it's just a matter of completing the rest of Part I of the guide, and then ammending /boot/grub/menu.lst to include 'Windows XP'? At that point I am able to restart Windows XP, and only delve into Arch when I want to continue with the configuration, fixing, and so on...
Sorry for the wall of text, and thanks for your patience. (:
Last edited by Bedtimes (2009-09-27 14:21:55)

That's the thing, I expect that I'm doing something wrong with the GRUB loader - and I admit my hard disk layout has been quite strange for a long time before installing linux.
Basically, it currently looks like this:
/dev/sda1 ntfs Music 250GB
/dev/sdb3 ext2 /boot 120MB
/dev/dsb4 extended
---- /dev/sdb5 linux-swap 1GB
---- /dev/sdb6 ext4 / 20GB
---- /dev/sdb7 ext4 /home 12GB
/dev/sdb1 ntfs Windows XP 50GB
/dev/sdb2 ntfs Downloads 150GB
/dev/sdc1 ntfs TV & Movies 950GB
• This list is in order that the entries appear on the hard disk, hence /boot is in the first 1024 cylinders of the hard disk, but as you can see the sdb numbers are actually in the chronological order that I created them.
• I used an extended partition with logical partitions inside since I had read that there was an issue with more than 4 partitions in a hard disk, and I already had 2 NTFS partitions.
• When it asked me to install GRUB to the MBR, I installed it to SDB as opposed to SDBx as it asked me to in the manual. This is the drive that contains /boot!
• I just managed to amend something in the menu.lst, in order that I can boot into Windows XP. Therefore my machine is not totally fucked up any more. (: Unfortunately, what I changed doesn't make sense to me, since I would have expected Windows XP to be on a different hard disk.
The contents of sdb3:
grub kernel26-fallback.img kernel26.img
lost+found System.map26 umlinuz26
When typing the command /sbin/blkid:
/dev/sda1: UUID="D0..." LABEL="Music" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="A8..." LABEL="Windows XP" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb2: UUID="557..." LABEL="Downloads" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="2676..." TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sdb5: UUID="0474..." TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb6: UUID="0886..." TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdb7: UUID="519becf..." TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sdc1: UUID="46AC59" LABEL="TV & Movies" TYPE="ntfs"
Inside /boot/grub/menu.lst:
timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# (1) Windows XP
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
# (2) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/0886... ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (3) Arch Linux (Fallback)
title Arch Linux (Fallback)
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/0886... ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
edit: I'm able to access all of the installation partitions with gparted-live's terminal (by mounting the devices I need to access into folders in my root folder), so is there anything else you want me to check/change in order to find my linux root/boot partition?
Last edited by Bedtimes (2009-09-27 12:54:24)

[SOLVED]How to install Arch Linux UEFI to dual-boot?

Hey,
so I have a Lenovo G50-70 on which I want to have a Windows-Arch dualboot. I followed the Beginner's Guide, installed Arch but ended up with an inaccessible Windows. I could boot into Windows from the BIOS utility, but not from the gummiboot bootloader.
The guide said if I wanted to dual-boot, I must leave windows EFI partition alone, which I did. I have my Windows partitions set up the Windows way, with the system reserved and EFI and recovery partitions, and I have my Windows partition of course and a data partition. After that I have some unallocated space, on which I made the Arch partitions, /dev/sda6 as an ESP partition for the EFI files, /dev/sda7 as root, /dev/sda8 as swap and /dev/sda9 as /home. The install process went without any error, then I made some configurations and installed dosfstools & efibootmgr. After that, I installed gummiboot and ran "gummiboot --path=/boot install". After that I created the configuration files exactly like in the guide, unmounted the partitions, rebooted and saw that there's no (easy) way getting into Windows. So my question is: how can I install Arch to have a working dual-boot system?
Thanks for any help in advance!
Regards, Matteussz
Last edited by Matteussz (2015-02-11 20:41:37)

Hey,
Writing to you on my working dual-boot with ArchLinux (Windows 8.1 64-Bit, UEFI)
So first step I've done is creating free space of an existing partition in the windows disk management (windows button and r and then type diskmgmt.msc). At this step, you have to record which partition your efi partition is (just take a look at your efi partition and remember the mb of this partition for later)
Then go into the uefi settings (bios) and disable secure boot as well as fast boot, otherwise it could cause data crash.
Boot your Arch Live CD and follow the beginners guide all the way along till you reach the disk management.
If you want to have swap, you can create yours right now, should be a primary partition of about 4gigs.
Next partition is gonna be your home, system partition (I've didn't created two partitions for home and for the system but you could do this as well as just go with one partition) this partition gonna be formatted in ext4
Next step, you have to mount your windows-efi partition in /boot/efi but don't format it dont remeber if it asks you how to use the partition but if so, just use as fat32.
After the disk management go ahead with your arch installation and follow the beginners guide. (Make sure you're using the grub bootloader)
After finishing the installation, restart your system, hopefully you will recognize the opening grub menu. (but dont scare, windows wont show in the grub menu at this time so you have to boot your arch)
Arrived in arch linux type the command
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Reboot and your done with your Arch Linux, Windows 8 dual boot, hopefully

Dual boot: Arch and another Linux (GRUB issue)

Hi, everybody,
I've got two SATA hard drives: sda and sdb. There is a Linux on sdb, and the GRUB in it's MBR. Here's /boot/grub/menu.lst (sdb):
timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,0)/usr/share/gfxboot/themes/pclinuxos/boot/message
default 0
title linux 2.6.22.15.tex2
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22.15.tex2 BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.22.15.tex2 root=/dev/sdb1 acpi=on resume=/dev/sdb2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd-2.6.22.15.tex2.img
title linux old kernel
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=/dev/sdb1 acpi=on resume=/dev/sdb2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
title linux-nonfb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux-nonfb root=/dev/sdb1 acpi=on resume=/dev/sdb2
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
title failsafe
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=/dev/sdb1 failsafe acpi=on resume=/dev/sdb2
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.img
title Arch Linux
root (hd1,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
chainloader +1
#title FreeBSD
#rootnoverify (hd1,0,a)
#kernel /boot/loader
#chainloader +1
#title windows
#root (hd1,0)
#makeactive
#chainloader +1
The Arch entry won't work: GRUB Error 13: - something wrong with the kernel image...
I tried to install the Arch's own GRUB into the sda MBR; now Arch is booting successfully from it's own GRUB - provided the sda is first in the BIOS boot order. Now I have to change the BIOS boot order depending on what system I want to boot, which is less then a satisfactory arrangement .
/boot/grub/menu.lst (sda, Arch's own):
# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst
# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
# Linux Grub
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/hda (hd0)
# /dev/hdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/hda3 (hd0,2)
# FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
# ----+--------------------------------------------
# 256 | 0x301=769 0x303=771 0x305=773 0x307=775
# 32K | 0x310=784 0x313=787 0x316=790 0x319=793
# 64K | 0x311=785 0x314=788 0x317=791 0x31A=794
# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# general configuration:
timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
# (1) Windows
#title Windows
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
#chainloader +1
I'd be happy to boot into Arch from sdb; what am I to change in the /boot/grub/menu.lst (sdb)?

See this for chainloading to another MBR:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual … 02fWindows
OK right.
PCLOS grub=MBR of sdb (hd1)
ARCH grub=MBR of sda (hd0)
You'll want something like this in PCLOS grub:
title Arch Linux
unhide (hd0)
hide (hd1)
rootnoverify (hd0)
chainloader +1
makeactive
If that doesn't work then its just a case of swapping the ones and zeroes around (i hope).
Then something like this in arch grub (as long as the kernel is in the fifth partition of the first hard drive). Typo first time round, (hd1,4) should be (hd0,4):
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
Last edited by dyscoria (2008-04-07 11:07:17)

Dual boot with WinXp and Arch-Solved

Hi friends,
I was using windows boot loader to boot into arch instead of grub. I used this:
dd if=/dev/hda7 of=arch.lnx bs=512 count=1
to get the first 512 bytes of the partition in which I installed arch and then added a line directing towards arch.lnx (moved to windows partition) in boot.ini. But now after reinstalling arch, when i do the same to get first 512 bytes of the partition, it generates a blank file and hence using that I'm not able to boot into arch. Grub is installed in this partition only. Any hints about this issue.
EDIT: I dont know what was the problem exactly, but after I reinstalled grub by "grub-install /dev/hda7" and then did the above command, it worked fine.

moderator comment: This is a question on Kubuntu installation but it seems to me OP specifically wants to know how to set up his partitions without harming Arch. As long as the discussion remains about Arch Linux this thread can stay. I'm going to have to move this from Installation to Newbie Corner.
Annorax wrote:I assure you that I am doing my own research. I am new to Linux and new to dual booting and was just looking for some pointers and a place to start reading.
Please see this. I advise you to read the links 2ManyDogs gave. You also need to give us more information about your partitions, such as what is mounted where. I suspect you only have primary partitions and will need to convert one into an extended partition.

Arch Linux help - boot up, black screen

OK, i will try to explain to the best of my ability what happened when i was done installing arch and rebooted.
Well i booted into arch core-iso and set my time [UTC] and date.
and then i made for partitions as follows,
sda 1 - 20 gb - /root, boot, type 83
sda2 - 12 gb - /var type 83
sda 3 - 8.3 gb - type 82 - /swap
sda 4 - rest of memory - type 83 - /home
then wrote it
Then went onto install the Base, base-devel + sudo, wirelesstools, ndsiwrappers, wpa - supplicant, ssh, and net - cfg,
then installed it, then went on the config the system with nano
- click - /etc/rc.conf
edited the following
hostname = "baxxan"
eth0 = "dhcp"
gateway= "dhcp"
ctrl - x, y, enter
- clicked /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
then uncommented the [#] next to the url
"http://mirrorit.edu/archlinux/$repolos/1000"
and the ftp to
then set the root password
Then went onto install bootloader [ the hdd was empty so not much work there]
installed it on /dev/sda
then rebooted
upon reboot i preformed system update
[pacman -Syu] as the root user
then through pacman installed xorg, gnome, gnome-extra, and alsa-utils
then configed the /etc/rc.conf files [ nano /etc/rc.conf]
and added "hal" and "gdm" to the daemons
then typed "adduser"
and completed on the required asked for information for adding that user
then went onto /etc/sudoers [nano /etc/sudoers]
and under,
root ALL= (ALL) + ALL
wrote,
username ALL = (ALL) + ALL
THEN saved and rebooted. and was happy i was done with my arch linux install!
BUT WHEN I REBOOTED, and went into arch linux through the new bootloader, NOTHING but a BLACK SCREEN, comes up with two little white lines near the top! i even tried booting into the fallback option and its the same black screen with 2 little lines near the top!
WTF IS GOING ON!
Please help
Thank you,
P.S -
dont send me the dam link to the beginners cause i READ It, believe me.
Thanks!

litemotiv wrote:
please don't put text like URGENT or HELP! in your topic titles, it will only distract people from the actual problem
about your issue, it could be a problem with [wiki]KMS[/wiki]. first thing to try is to disable it (see the wiki page and search the forums for topics concerning your specific brand/type of card and bootup problems)
k r u sure this is the problem, also the KMS link you sent me, is that the wiki?

[SOLVED] Dual-boot Arch/Windows - 2 hard drives

Hi Everyone
I've just installed Arch and I'm having a bit of a problem dual-booting between Arch and Windows XP, which are each on a seperate Hard drive.
I've done this successfully before with Mepis Linux and Windows XP, but for some reason it's not working this time.
The difference is that I've recently purchased a new computer and both Windows and Arch are on SATA drives whereas last time they were both on IDE drives. Also I'm not sure whether or not to enable SATA AHCI mode in the BIOS (apparently it doesn't work with XP anyways), or SATA port 0-3 Native mode. Although I've tried all possible combinations and it doesn't seem to work at all.
Here is my menu.lst file:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/0df05d3b-537c-4576-ad36-1f90a6b01ec0 ro vga=773
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Windows
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
When I boot into Arch from Grub it works fine, but when I try to boot into Windows from Grub, I get this:
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
and then nothing....No error message or anything. It just hangs. Does anyone have any ideas as to what's happening? Thanks in advance.
edit: It seems I solved the problem by adding these lines to the menu.lst file:
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
root (hd1,0)
I can now boot into either Arch or Windows from the Grub menu
Last edited by axle (2008-09-30 02:35:54)

This is a question that can very easily be answered by doing a simple google serach. Google is your friend. I suggest you start there and come back if you run into issues.

Dual Booting Windows and Arch (SOLVED!)

Hello all, I'm having trouble getting a windows partition activated again. (Windows was on here for many years, then I installed arch on a separate partition.)
Here is the layout of fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 7833 62918541 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 7834 12039 33784695 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 12040 12161 979965 82 Linux swap / Solaris
sda1 is the windows partition, and sda2 is the arch partition. The linux partition SHOULD be primary bootable (have the * next to it),but all my attempts to do this have failed. (I've used "testdisk" to change the flags, but for some reason it keeps reverting back to setting sda 1 as primary bootable after a reboot or 2).
This is the pertinent section of /boot/grub/menu.lst:
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/f3be3baa-3b62-460c-8801-64b0b1cca$
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/f3be3baa-3b62-460c-8801-64b0b1cca$
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
# (1) Windows
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
I have a . . . modified . . . copy of XP Professional, which comes with a recovery console to reinstall the MBR if it's necessary.
From what I've researched, I somehow need to reinstall grub to the second partition, make the second partition primary bootable, then rewrite the MBR on the first partition, and correct any command errors in menu.lst, but I haven't really figure out a way to do it.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Last edited by mongoose088 (2008-12-20 21:48:18)

I read up on some documentation of installing GRUB to the MBR.
So far, I went into ArchLive (from the cd) and did the following
grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> setup (hd0)
The installation reports success with no errors, but the problem persists. Arch linux will boot fine, but when I select XP it flashes my configuration, like so:
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
then kicks me back to the OS select GRUB screen. Did I install it to the wrong place?
EDIT:
I decided to issue this command:
grub> setup(hd0,1)
It reported some errors, then arch couldn't mount the ntfs partition because of possible MFT cluster errors.
Using testdisk, I repaired the boot sector and MFT clusters, then using ArchLive reinstalled grub with grub>(hd0)
Arch and Arch Fallback will boot correctly, but now the windows side shows an error:
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
Loading stage2Read Error (or something to this extent)
I wonder if this error brings me closer or farther to a solution?
Thanks for the replies so far!
Last edited by mongoose088 (2008-12-20 05:41:43)

Dual Boot OS X and Linux

I'm currently using OS X 10.3.9 on my G4 Mac Mini and have around 20gb of free space left. I would like to split off 15gb or so to install Debian Linux and have a dual boot setup.
Does anyone know of any software that I can use to create a new partition without affecting the OS X partition? Something similar to partition magic, that will leave the current OS alone?
Thnx.

There are several commercial utilities available such as SpeedTools, iPartition, etc. Look for them at VersionTracker or MacUpdate.

Arch linux through vmware in dual boot

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