GRUB is messed up

After a fresh install, I ran "pacman -Suy". It rattled off an error about Grub. After searching around, I found someone had done "pacman -Suyf" to fix the problem. I ran that and everything seemed to go properly. After rebooting, I now get an error:
VFS: Cannot open root device "discs/disc0/part3" or unknown-block (0,0)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option.
Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: unable to mount root fs on unknown-block (0,0)
I did the "auto partition" option when I did my install. I try to boot off the CD and reinstall Grub, but when I go back into the configuration part of the setup, *edit*/boot/grub/menu.lst*edit* is blank. WTF am I doing wrong?

I did the "auto partition" option when I did my install. I try to boot off the CD and reinstall Grub, but when I go back into the configuration part of the setup, *edit*/boot/grub/menu.lst*edit* is blank. WTF am I doing wrong?
You can't just go back and edit menu.list from the install dialog without going through all the steps again. It doesn't work like that.
From the prompt mount the root partition, chroot into it then do your grub stuff.
You shouldn't have to do that though. Arch doesn't reinstall grub on the mbr after each update. You have to do that manually as grub-install /dev/hdx.
The reason you system wont boot anymore is because you used the -f which replaced your config with the generic one.
From the grub screen type 'e' for edit and change the nameing scheme from devfs(/dev/discs/crap) to udev /dev/hdxy. You can type 'b' to boot after you've made the changes.

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] Dual boot with ubuntu w/o installing GRUB? (YES)

Hi all -
This is my first shot at arch, tho I've installed a few other linux distros.
So far I really appreciate the excellent documentation, especially compared to other linuxes!
But I can't find a good answer to this question:
I already have ubuntu installed and would like to dual-boot with arch. (I also have Win7 but boot it from a separate disk selected via BIOS, and usually leave this disk disconnected anyway, so it's not an issue; grub doesn't know it exists).
Q: Before installing, can I make a new LOGICAL ext4 partition (say /dev/sda7),
- then install arch on that **w/o installing grub** and **without messing with the MBR**,
- then edit ubuntu's existing menu.lst to add arch to the boot options?
Current $ fdisk -l
/dev/sda1 ext4 primary/boot (/ for ubuntu)
/dev/sda2 extended
--/dev/sda6 linux-swap
--/dev/sda5 NTFS (data - mp3s, etc)
unallocated 480GB --> Create new ext4 partition /dev/sda7, (logical or primary? Prefer logical)
Current menu.lst entry that I normally boot:
title Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, kernel 3.2.0-24-generic REGULAR
uuid UUIDforSDA1 (file has actual UUID number...)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic root=UUID=UUIDforSDA1 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
and add something like this to menu.lst:
title Arch Linux
uuid UUIDforSDA7
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda7/ARCH ro (??? - from example in arch docs)
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
or
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=UUIDforSDA7 ro (??? - like the ubuntu entry)
I'd really like to NOT mess up booting ubuntu! (Another option might be install arch to a separate disk with the ubuntu disk disconnected, then copy the whole install over via a USB adapter...I've done worse!)
TIA for any help!
Edit: so I guess there's three questions:
1 - Can I install arch w/o installing grub & MBR messing-wth?
2 - What's the correct syntax for menu.lst to access and boot arch?
3 - Will this work?
Last edited by Flemur (2012-05-25 15:24:18)

Well, it worked and booted up first time - no grub install.
The main hassle was merely creating a new ext4 partitions because "Partition Wizard" boot CD screwed up and I kept getting "Unable to update kernel until reboot" messages until I deleted and rebuilt all the partitions in the extended partition with puppy linux & gparted instead of Partition Wizard.
In case others stumble upon this trhread, here's some info:
The entry in the ubuntu (original) menu.lst was this:
title Arch Linux
uuid af7...etc...9f3c
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=af7...etc.f3c ro
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
I'm even posting this from arch/fluxbox/Firefox, although getting X set up with nvidia (PITA!) apparently required using a different pacman source:
File "mirrorlist" now points to
Server = http://mirror.us.leaseweb.net/archlinux/$repo/os/$arch
which wasn't in the original file.
Then
$ pacman -Su --> "/etc/mtab exists" --> delete it and something else broke,
so
$ pacman -Su --force --> worked fine (against official advice)
Also: needed to install nvidia-utils and xorg-xinit
Thanks again!

K7n2 Delta Ilrs "Windows Setup cant find hard drives" plzz help

hia guys i know this has been in many posts but my question isnt answerd im affraid ok here we go
im trying to get win XP sp2 installed on my new hard drive (ill get to why i have this new hard drive soon lol
1) boot the system and press Ctrl + F and setup an array (stripe) all says functional etc save and exit
2) put in the xp disk and boot
3) press f6 and install my sata drivers (i got off the main web site)
4) press enter to install windows
5) "windows setup cannot find any hard drives" ???????????
basicly i had ubuntu on my pc using an 80gb sata ii set to sata i all was good and fine i got bored and wanted windows back to play games again so i put in my xp disk and tryed to install it but it said cant find hard drives i thort i had killed the disk with the grub bootloader messing up the mbr so i got a new disk and re set the bios and cmos etc went to instal xp and the same problem remains
all my m8s dono wht to do nore do i were all stumped with this one as the new drive wont be recognized by windows
strange thing is when i put the 80gb back in ubuntu loads up fine (i only have 1 hard drive in at a time)
please help meeeeee
K7n2 Delta Ilsr
barton xp 2800 +
X700 ATI AGP
1.7 gb ddr 400 ram
80gb sata maxtor dimond max (ubuntu)
160gb sata maxtor dimond max (new)
bios "W6570MS V7.6 110703

Quote from: Qtip on 16-September-07, 10:17:09
Also, what are new MBs doing so that one doesnt have to deal with this annoying F-6 step? For some reason I think I heard new MBs dont require this F-6 step.
for his mobo, the drivers are absolutely necessary to be loaded when SATA HDD are used. that is due onboard sata controller.

Install on Flash Stick

Is it possible to install Arch on a flash drive (with enough space of course)?
If it is, how do I go about it? The usual procedure?
Will GRUB get messed up if I install it on the stick too? Or I don't install GRUB?
What if I install GRUB and then forget it sticked in the USB port?
Thanks for explaining
Last edited by Majorix (2008-11-05 09:38:48)

Majorix wrote:
Is it possible to install Arch on a flash drive (with enough space of course)?
If it is, how do I go about it? The usual procedure?
I haven't done it, but I think the usual procedure should work - have you looked in the wiki?
Majorix wrote:Will GRUB get messed up if I install it on the stick too? Or I don't install GRUB?
If you install GRUB on the stick it shouldn't affect the hard disk, there should be no problem.
Majorix wrote:What if I install GRUB and then forget it sticked in the USB port?
That depends on your BIOS settings, maybe the stick will get booted, maybe not.
You can also use larch to install a 'live' Archlinux system (running from compressed system, no disk writes) to a USB-stick.

Grub system boot messed up after windows crash

I have a dualboot system with Win XP and Arch. Yesterday Windows crashed while i was listening to music. Since then, when i boot my computer Grub throws an error message (i think it's error 17) and doesn't start the bootmanager. But if i boot from a normal Ubuntu-Live-CD an choose "boot from first harddisk" i get my grub manager and i am able to boot normally.
I tried to fix this by manually reconfigure grub like this:
1. Pop in the Live CD, boot from it until you reach the desktop.
2. Open a terminal window or switch to a tty.
3. Type "grub"
4. Type "root (hd0,6)", or whatever your harddisk + boot partition numbers are (my /boot is at /dev/sda7, which translates to hd0,6 for grub).
5. Type "setup (hd0)", ot whatever your harddisk nr is.
6. Quit grub by typing "quit".
7. Reboot.
(taken from http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p= … stcount=2)
It seems that my hdX is different to my sdX labels. sda is my linux harddisk, and sdc is my windows drive. But if i type root (hd0,0) i get "Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7", which means that this is an NTFS drive. So i tried root (hd2,0) (in my menu.lst, booting arch is also defined with hd2,0) and then i get "Error 21: Selected disk does not exist".
Now two questions:
1) Why is the labeling different? Why isn't sda1 = hd0 and so on?
2) How to restore my boot process? (this is slightly more important )

Alp wrote:
I think you both understood me wrong.
First, i don't need to alter the menu.lst, because grub doesn't show the boot choose menu at all. It just prints error 17 without any chance of doing something.
Second, i know the naming procedure. But obviously in my case hd0 and hd2 are switched, so that sda = (hd2) and sdc = (hd0). I don't know why.
well - you referred to 'sda1' as 'hd0' in your first post ...
as for the remapping of drives, there's always:
map (hd0) (hd2)
map (hd2) (hd0)

[SOLVED]Unable to install grub "couldn't find /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst"

Ok so I was trying to install windows after I had arch installed, used an ubuntu cd to use gparted to create a partition, tried to go to the windows installation but it would endlessly send me back to restart the installation even after succesfully writting all files...
So now I decided to not install it, went back into ubuntu/gparted, deleted the partition and rejoined the space with my main arch partition and then selected the "boot" flag to boot...
Cannot boot, grub its still on /boot/ but the MBR its obviously tempered with by windows ( which coincidentally couldn't even find itself after writing mbr to its liking....*sigh* ).
So I try to use my arch install cd to reinstall grub but i get this:
"couldn't find /mnt/boot/grub/menu.lst is grub installed?"
I tried to use the select packages thing to make sure the cd is mounted and mounts fine but it keeps getting me that error message. I managed to boot to my system just fine with arch root=/dev/sda1 but obviosly the kernell does not has my nvidia module which means I can't get into x which means i am using links and since my grub is not loaded i can't even get framebuffer so this is rather inconvenient.
Im sure im missing a very simple and stupid thing but im so annoyed my brain must be saying "ok im done somebody else figure it out". I still have a backup copy of my grub menu.lst I made before. Do I just delete /bood/grub/ and try again? Am I missing something on the install procedure to be able to rewrite grub? Can I just do it from the command line or with pacman? Any help appreciate it thanks.
Last edited by Misanthrope (2008-06-01 17:22:32)

If you can get into your arch and cli then you should just be able to reinstall grub with
install-grub /dev/sda
or reinstall grub with
pacman -S grub
if the package is messed up or missing.

Freeze at boot after Grub

So here I am again, baffled by the simple freeze of a computer. I've installed arch Linux to me desktop and didn't receive any errors but when
I boot I barely get past Grub. Computer boots to post, bio's, and grub without problem. I select arch Linux and then I get the following
message.
Loading Linux linux ...
Loading initial ramdisk...
then the screen clears itself and I get
Starting version 218
/dev/sda1: recovering journal
/dev/sda1: clean, 36385/19013632 files, 1491251/76047360 blocks
and then the cursor blinks a couple times before freezing. There's an audible blip on the speakers and the cursor will either be on or off depending on which one it flickered to when it froze.
It's a clean install and I follow the same basic process every time taking from the Installation guide, the beginners guide and "Build a Killer Customized Arch Linux Installation". Nothing happened out of the ordinary and I got no error messages, but I'll show the commands I ran.
Got the arch iso from the download page of the archlinux.org/download/. Scrolled down to the http direct downloads and downloaded the iso from the United States mirror archlinux.surlyjake.com. Created a bootable usb to install the program using the USBwriter and that went without a hitch. Booted to the flash drive like normal and everything goes fine except for a small error at the boot where it says it can't load Nouveau something or other, it scrolls by too quick for me to tell but since everything else runs perfectly I don't think that's the issue. It get's to the root and logs in automatically like normal.
So going along with my normal process I took my 300GB harddrive and formatted it accordingly.
fdisk -l /dev/sda
fdisk /dev/sda
m
p
default
+290.1G
m
p
default
default
t
2
82
the above commands creates a 290.1GB /dev/sda1 partition that would hold arch linux. Then I made an 8GB swap partition (I know that that's large to the point of being pointless but I like solid numbers too much and that's how much ram I already have).
I ran the
mkfs.etx4 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2
swapon /dev/sda2
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
All my partitions made and mounted, I run
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel grub
and it installs the necessary programs. Once it's finished I run:
genfstab /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
I change root into the install:
arch-chroot /mnt
Instead of including all these commands, I'll just say what I did. I edited the locale.gen echo'd and exported LANG=yadayadayada, set and created the symlink for the timezone and ran the hwclock command. I run the systemctl enable dhcpcd@eth0 command to have internet. Configure pacman.conf to add the multilib repository and all ILoveCandy to the miscellaneous options.
next comes
mkinitcpio -p linux
and finally I set the root passwd and ran:
useradd -m -g users -G wheel,storage,power -s /bin/bash terin
passwd terin
to make my account. I edited sudo with
EDITOR=nano visudo
and added the wheel to the group.
Next comes
grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
and
pacman -S os-prober
so I can finalize the dual boot later. I run
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
to finalize the process and exit, umount -r /mnt, swapoff /dev/sda2, and reboot.
This is where I remove the usb stick. The computer posts, bio's, grubs, and everything else fine until I hit the above point and it freezes.
For the sake of giving all the information I can my system is a desktop PC running an msi 970AG46 motherboard, and AMD FX 8320 3.5ghx eight core cpu, a PNY GeForce GTX 750 graphics hard and 8 gb (2x4gb sticks) ddr3 1866 MHx ram. The hard drive is a a Tochiba MK3252GSX 2.5 inch 320 GB sata drive. Hopefully that's all you guys need and we can get the ball rolling and on the right track once more. Thanks in advanced.

aWas at work so I'm only just now getting all this. I only reference the killer guide as a third source to the process as I do prefer some of his methods. Things like making the user account while chrooted in and he explained the EDITOR=nano visudo thing which I never see in the beginner or install guides. I prefer setting it up when I'm chrooted in as well. I know I could always go to the Sudo page for that line but Then I don't see the different methods of installing arch linux and seeing what changes effect what outcomes. Anyway, a moot point. I use the install as my primary source and the beginners guide as my secondary source when installing or reinstalling Arch Linux (a process I've done some 25 times over the years usually without headache if you don't count the 15 times I didn't really know what I was doing and the 5 times I broke the os messing around)
As far as the questions, yes I can chroot into my install and I turned off the quiet parameter for this session and rebooted. It froze again but with different stuff on the screen I'll detail below:
starting version 218
:: Running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...
:: Performing fsck on '/dev/sda1'
/dev/sda1: clean, 36431/19013632 files, 1489292/76047360 blocks
::mounting '/dev/sda1' on real root
:: running cleanup hook [udev]
Welcome to Arch Linux!
Expecting device dev-sda2.device...
[ OK ] Reached target Remote File Systems.
Expecting device sys-subsystem-net-devices-eth0.device...
[ OK ] Created slice Root Slice.
[ OK ] Created slice User and Session Slice.
[ OK ] Created slice System Slice.
[ OK ] Created Slice system-getty.slice.
[ OK ] Created slice system-dhcpcd.slice.
[ OK ] Listening on Delayed Shutdown Socket.
[ OK ] Listening on udev Kernel Socket.
[ OK ] Listening on udev Control Socket.
[ OK ] Listening on /dev/initctl Compatibility Named Pipe.
[ OK ] Listening on Journal Socket (/dev/log).
[ OK ] Listening on Device-mapper event daemon FIFOs.
[ OK ] Reached target Slices.
[ OK ] Reached target PAths.
[ OK ] Listening on LVMZ metadata daemon socket.
[ OK ] Reached target Encrypted Volumes.
[ OK ] Set up automount Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System Automount Point.
[ OK ] Listening on Journal Socket.
Starting Remount Root and Kernel File Systems...
Mounting Temporary Directory...
Starting Journal Service...
Mounting Debug File System...
Starting Create list of required static device nodes for the current kernel...
Mounting Huge Pages File System..
Starting Apply Kernel Variables...
Mounting Configuration File System
Starting udev Coldplug all Devices...
Mounting POSIX Message Queue File System...
Starting Setup Virtual Console...
[ OK ] Started udev Coldplug all Devices.
[ OK ] Started Create list of required static device nodes for the current kernel.
[ OK ] Started Apply Kernel Variables.
[ OK ] Started Setup Virtual Console.
[ OK ] Mounted Huge Page File System.
[ OK ] Mounted POSIX Message Queue File System.
[ OK ] Mounted Configuration File System.
[ OK ] Mounted Debug File System.
[ OK ] Mounted Temporary Directory.
[ OK ] Started Remount Root and Kernel File Systems.
Starting Load/Save Random Seed...
Starting Create Static Device Nodes in /dev...
[ OK ] Started Load/Save Random Seed.
[ OK ] Started Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
Starting udev Kernel Device Manager...
[ OK ] Reached target Local File Systems (Pre).
[ OK ] Reached target Local File Systems.
[ OK ] Started udev Kernel Device Manager.
[ OK ] Started Journal Service.
Starting Flush Journal to Persistent Storage...
[ OK ] Reached target Sound Card.
[ OK ] Found Device TOSHIBA_MK3252GSX 2.
Activating swap /dev/sda2...
[ OK ] Started Flush Journal to Persistent Storage.
Starting Create Volatile Files and Directories...
And then it freeze, I mean it is still frozen. It stayed that way long enough for me to hand type all that in the code bracket. Hopefully this helps.

How to set the default boot kernel in /etc/default/grub or /etc/grub.d

and without messing with /boot/grub/grub.cfg ?
I need this so that new kernels show up but do not change the default boot kernel
Is there a way to do it by file name instead of position within the menuentry / submenu list?
I found some ubuntu and fedora sugestions but all by position, none by name
AND how to set the kdump kernel as the default?
Arch is putting this kernel under a submenu - would this pose problems for setting it as the default?
Last edited by Sanjeev K Sharma (2015-04-06 12:59:22)

Sanjeev K Sharma wrote:
and without messing with /boot/grub/grub.cfg ?
I need this so that new kernels show up but do not change the default boot kernel
Is there a way to do it by file name instead of position within the menuentry / submenu list?
I found some ubuntu and fedora sugestions but all by position, none by name
AND how to set the kdump kernel as the default?
Arch is putting this kernel under a submenu - would this pose problems for setting it as the default?
In /etc/default/grub you can use the name of your entry you wish to use as default
GRUB_DEFAULT='Arch Linux, with Linux core repo kernel'
You can tell grub to stop using submenus by doing:
GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y
Or you can just make a purely custom menuentry in /etc/grub.d/40_custom if you'd like:
menuentry "Other Linux" {
linux <KERNEL IMAGE HERE>
initrd <INITRD IMAGE HERE>
EDIT: /etc/grub/default -> /etc/default/grub
Last edited by Slabity (2015-04-07 11:16:22)

Grub doesn't detect Windows partition (UEFI)/ xorg won't start either

Hey guys,
1) Looking for some help here. I've installed Arch on to my desktop and I'm running into some issues with my dual boot (UEFI).
When I went to create my Arch partitions I was running into some issues with cgdisk, but I was able to fix it and able to create a successful partition table. However, I don't think for some reason my windows installation had an EFI partiton. Which is odd, because I'm pretty sure it was setup with GPT & UEFI, which if I understand it correctly needs an EFI partition. Anyways I created my own efi partition and made a directory in /boot/efi for grub. I installed grub and it worked fine, detected Arch and everything. I followed the step to install os-prober first too. I think the error lies in the fact that I didn't mount the windows EFI, I created my own. Which again brings me back to: should I have had an EFI partition created by windows? I'd like to be able to get back to my windows system if possible, if I messed something up with the windows bootloader and it's not salvageable, it's not a huge deal.
The table is the following
sda1 ntfs system reserved (windows)
sda2 ntfs (windows partition)
sda3 ext4 (root partition)
sda4 fat32 (efi boot partiton-not windows)
sda5 ext5 (home partition)
2) I'm also having issues get X started. I think it is a driver issue but I can't be sure. I have 2 nvidia GTX 660s in SLI. I installed xorg-server and then installed both nvidia and nvidia-304xx. But whenever I try to run startx I get the following error
(EE) no screens found(EE)
xinit: giving up
this is with gnome installed and my .xinitrc file in my user directory.
I check out the log file of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and get the following errors
(EE) Failed to load module "nouveau" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "nv" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) no drivers available
(EE) so screens found
Not sure what I am missing here. I've tried reinstalling xorg and gnome and all the drivers I could think of that the error above listed. However it always throws the same error.
Thanks for you time, if you need anything else I would be happy to provide it!

FWIW: reFind doesn;t mind multiple GPTs. I can't speak for GRUB. But shouldn't you be able to boot into the setup (what used to be "BIOS") and see if there is a boot order there or something? If your firmware is similar to mine, you can set "boot options" and allow the machine to let you pick a boot device. Windows should show there if it's available.

How to install Linux on UEFI systems where GRUB fail to install?

A few of us are asking:
How to install Linux on UEFI systems where GRUB fail to install? Because after installing Linux, my MBR is messed up, and I get a "no operating system found" at system startup.
abvasili
I'm just a volunteer. I like to help others where I can. Do my ideas work? I hope so. o_O
Who helped you today? Do not forget to thank him.
My hardware: TP x120e 0596-2ru. Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit, English, installed in UEFI mode.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi again,
I would like to answer to another question, just in case:
Question: Can I dual boot Win7 and Linux on a UEFI capable bios?
Answer: Yes you can. If your HDD is formatted in MBR partition table (or msdos) than you can install first windows 7 and than the distro of your choice. BUT, careful, if you install windows from a DVD media it will convert your HDD in GPT partition table and dual boot will be almost impossible... (or will give you a lot of headache) to avoid this, dump the win7 iso to an usb using Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Installing from USB will not change the hdd in GPT partition table.
take care
abvasili
I'm just a volunteer. I like to help others where I can. Do my ideas work? I hope so. o_O
Who helped you today? Do not forget to thank him.
My hardware: TP x120e 0596-2ru. Windows 7, sp1, 64Bit, English, installed in UEFI mode.

How should I install GRUB to dual-boot 2 distros on two diff hd drves?

Well, I actually have two questions. I'm using the FTP install CD and noticed I don't have the Install Kernel Option after Configure System. Does this mean that the kernel was installed when I did Configure System automatically? Or that it wants me to run make && make modules_install manually? I couldn't quite figure that one out.
Now as for my main question... I pretty much got through the install okay but am a bit paranoid about just saying Install Bootloader. I currently have Gentoo on another hard drive on my computer and don't want to wipe out GRUB on Gentoo.
If this helps, this is my partition scheme:
/dev/hda1 swap (for both Gentoo and Arch)
/dev/hda2 / for Gentoo
/dev/hdb1 /usr/portage for Gentoo
/dev/hdb2 / for arch
So how should I go about installing the boot loader? And I am assuming I would have to appropriately edit the lines of my grub.conf in Gentoo.... this is it currently...
title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.23-r3
# Partition where the kernel image (or operating system) is located
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.23-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/hda2
title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.23-r3 (rescue)
# Partition where the kernel image (or operating system) is located
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/kernel-2.6.23-gentoo-r3 root=/dev/hda2 init=/bin/bb
So would I just add
title=Arch Linux
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdb2 initrd /boot/kernel26.img
to my Gentoo's grub.conf? Or am I just completely off here? Then in addition to that what else would I have to do to get it to dual boot without overwriting my Gentoo's GRUB? I'm just afraid I'll mess it up.
PS: In Arch, all my hard drives are showing up as /dev/sda1, etc., not hda1, if that makes a difference. :-p I was like SCSI? *blinks* XDDDDD But that's normal, right? But I figured since it's Gentoo's GRUB I should use hd*
So woud I just choose to install GRUB for Arch on /dev/sdb2 then, the partition that it's on, since I'm planning on using Gentoo's bootloader, and then just edit gentoo's grub.conf file?
Last edited by violagirl23 (2008-01-30 04:12:20)

tesjo wrote:
Basically right but you should add
title= Arch Linux
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/hdb2 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
Arch uses a newer library I forget the name, which identifies drives as sdX instead of hdX
Well, I got it working. Thanks! Turns out this is what I needed:
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb2 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
I tried (sd1,1) and root=/dev/sdb2 at first but it barked at me for the (sd1,1), so I changed it back, and with root=/dev/sdb2 all seems to be well. Thanks!

[SOLVED]Grub-Install can't Find Kernel and/or initrd, mkinitcpio Fails

Hi all,
I have recently installed Arch on my new build (with UEFI firmware). I successfully set up xorg, alsa/pulseaudio, xfce, etc... things were looking pretty good. Then, I tried to blacklist the pcspkr in order to silence the annoying beep every time I selected "Log Out" inside xfce. I executed
mkinitcpio -p linux
and was presented with the following errors:
==> Building image from preset: 'default'
-> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> ERROR: specified kernel image does not exist: `/boot/vmlinuz-linux'
==> Building image from preset: 'fallback'
-> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> ERROR: specified kernel image does not exist: `/boot/vmlinuz-linux`
There were no such files anywhere on /boot. I tried doing
find / -name vmlinuz-linux
and nothing was found. I wasn't quite sure why that was happening, but I tried uninstalling/reinstall grub (grub-common and grub2-efi-x86_64). I installed grub to /boot using
grub-install --directory=/usr/lib/grub/x86_64-efi --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id="Arch Linux" --boot-directory=/boot --recheck --debug
and then generated /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I tried rebuilding the initramfs again but got the same error. I was tired and frustrated so I removed the old grub efi entry with
efibootmgr -b 0 -B
and then went to sleep.
I didn't have the chance to turn the computer back on until tonight... I was then presented with a grub2 shell. Since I didn't know where the kernel/initrd were located I tried
set root=(hd1,gpt1)
chainloader +1
but grub told me
error: invalid EFI file path
So that's about it. It appears that grub-mkconfig is having trouble locating the kernel/initrd so it doesn't make any entries, dropping me right into a shell. I've tried booting up with my installation USB and chrooting in and reinstalling grub again but nothing seems to work. So what I'd like to try to do is just boot up into my system and then modify add the grub boot entries entries I want... but I just can't figure out what's causing all these issues.
Sorry if I mess up any terminology... still learning the ropes here. Thanks for any input.
Last edited by cogeary (2012-09-17 05:35:51)

DSpider wrote:
==> ERROR: specified kernel image does not exist: `/boot/vmlinuz-linux'
Probably because you have a separate boot partition (not just the 512 MB "UEFISYS" FAT32 partition), which you forgot to mount (in fstab).
Post your /etc/fstab.
Thank you for your reply!
However, I do not have a separate boot partition apart from the "UEFISYS" partition. Here is my fstab:
# UUID=3ec307aa-0ead-4d33-b292-42bbe783d6ee
/dev/sda2 / ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 1
# UUID=B192-6C57
/dev/sda1 /boot vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 2
When I first looked at the fstab I saw that both of the entries repeated themselves. This was because I had even tried reformatting /boot so I had to generate a new fstab, but for some reason I used ">> /mnt/etc/fstab" rather than "> ..."
So I executed
genfstab /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
and reinstalled grub, but still no difference... mkinitcpio fails and I reboot to a grub shell.
Last edited by cogeary (2012-09-16 18:15:51)

Inconsistent grub error 17, dual booting issues

Hello,
I've recently installed Arch as a second OS on my computer, but I'm having a bit of trouble when it comes to booting it. I'm a bit new to Linux in general, but I've tried to research the problem, and seem to have run into a wall. Any comments, insight, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Preemptive apologies for being windy, I'm trying to give as much relevant info as possible here
****************Here are the details:******************
-1st hard drive (sda): Windows 7
-2nd hard drive (sdb): Arch
Partitioning scheme:
sdb1 = boot, about 100Mb, ext2
sdb2 = swap, ~2gig
sdb3 = root, ~20gig, ext3
sdb4 = home, the rest (HD is 500gb total), ext3
-grub is installed on the MBR of sdb
-windows has no problems booting independently (when i disconnect my second hard drive), so sda hasn't been touched at all
in grub's menu.lst:
arch has root set to (hd1,0)
windows 7 has rootnoverify set to (hd0,0), with chainloader +1 after.
**************The issue:********************
when choosing to boot arch from grub, (this is booting off of the second hard drive), i get an error 17, saying the filesystem is unrecognized and the partition type is 0x7.
if i then enter into the command line mode for grub, and try
find /grub/stage1
it spits out (hd0,0), which is incorrect. it should be (hd1,0) since my boot partition is the first partition on the second hard drive, and (hd0,0) is an entirely different hard drive with nothing but windows on it.
An interesting complication:
If I boot the USB iso image of arch I used to originally install it, and I highlight the option "boot existing OS", press tab to change hd0 0 to hd1 0, it loads up Grub, and from there on Grub boots perfectly fine to Arch - implying that at the very least Arch installed on the hard drive properly. Also, Grub run in this fashion seems to realize that (hd1,0) is ext2.
After booting arch as in the previous paragraph^ (note, this is arch as installed on the hard drive, not the liveCD version), i run:
grub
grub> find /grub/stage1
and it replies that stage1 is in hd(1,0), which is where it should be.
Googling suggests my partitions are somehow messed up, but I'm not completely sure of that. Booting from the USB image and running
fdisk -l
seems to give the right partition order and sizes.
However, there could be a problem stemming from how I partitioned the second hard drive in the first place: it's an Advanced Format drive, and using Western Digital's guidelines - http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5655 - i ran:
parted -a optimal /dev/sdb
and created my partitions, then used the Arch installer to establish their file systems and do the rest.
I don't have any concrete ideas about what's going on, except that Grub is somehow having trouble mounting/recognizing the file system when I try to run it from the MBR directly.
Once again, sorry for such a long post, and any help at all is greatly appreciated.

Ok, so I've tried to reconfigure my grub/menu.lst as described in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … t_managers .
When I try to boot after that, it claims that the device /dev/disk/by-uuid/*the uuid i got for my boot partition* cannot be found.
This next paragraph might be a bit of a facepalm moment; in retrospect, it seems like it should be obvious that this would happen (like lifeafter2am is saying, my drives are getting switched at boot up):
After booting up grub in a bunch of different configurations, I've managed to determine that what my computer does is this:
- In the bios, I changed the boot order to be USB -> 2nd hard drive (the one with arch on it) -> first hard drive (since I use a USB for a liveCD, and the 2nd hard drive's MBR has grub on it, which i want to use to dual boot both arch and windows, windows being on the first hard drive).
So every time I insert the usb, it changes what grub perceives to be hd0 and hd1. When I insert the usb, the usb becomes hd0, and the other drives are renumbered. When I try to boot without the USB, having the BIOS boot from my second hard drive makes the second hard drive become hd0.
What with ^ going on, I simply went in to the grub/menu.lst and changed arch's (hd1,0) to (hd0,0), and now it recognizes that (hd0,0) is indeed an ext2 fs, partition type 0x83, etc.
The problem now is: no matter what I try to set the root in menu.lst to be, whether it's sdb1, sda1, some uuid label, grub starts booting and then says error: unable to mount the real root device, and dumps me into a shell with a good luck message.
Is there a way to figure out what i should set grub's root in menu.lst to be, from the arch iso on my USB, keeping in mind the fact that inserting the USB renumbers the hard drives?
I don't wanna make the analogy to quantum mechanics, but this almost seems like an observer disturbing the results type of thing >_<
Last edited by sergs (2012-02-12 01:18:54)

Booting OS X from grub legacy

Hi!
I have just installed Mavericks just to test it in another HDD as you can see here:
Disk /dev/sda: 465,8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00080fa8
Disposit. Inicio Start Final Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 976768064 488384001 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 126 52436159 26218017 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 52436223 54540674 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 54540738 976768064 461113663+ 83 Linux
Disk /dev/sdb: 298,1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 43082D18-323A-4A1C-A3FC-29211AF16D5F
Disposit. Start Final Size Tipo
/dev/sdb1 40 409639 200M EFI System
/dev/sdb2 409640 624880263 297,8G Apple HFS/HFS+
sda is where all Arch stuff is and sdb is where all OS X stuff is.
I've tried to boot OS X from grub legacy (I don't like too much grub 2) but I'm no capable.
Here is my menu.lst
# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst
# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
# Linux Grub
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/sda (hd0)
# /dev/sdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/sda3 (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
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# for more details and different resolutions see
# http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_Resolution
# 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 init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd fastboot acpi_enforce_resources=lax
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
# (2) Arch Linux Bootchart
title Arch Linux Bootchart
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro init=/sbin/e4rat-preload fastboot logo.nologo quiet init=/sbin/bootchartd
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (3) Mac OS X
title Mac OS X
root (hd1,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1
I've tried with both (hd1,0) and (hd1,1), but they on't work
Any idea? As you can see I'm a newbie here
Thanks
Last edited by eherranzr (2014-04-07 15:34:26)

Inxsible wrote:
eherranzr wrote:Is there any way to boot a HDD with a GUID Partition Table (GPT) from grub legacy or I must upgrade to grub 2?
No grub legacy does not support GPT partitions as stated in the wiki. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … cessary.3F
try syslinux. its simpler than the mess that is grub2 (IMO, of course )
So, as I have read what I have to do is the following:
Install syslinux
Execute
# syslinux-install_update -i -a -m
for an "automatic" installation
Create and configure syslinux.cfg (I think I'll ask for some help here)
Make it graphical:
# cp /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/vesamenu.c32 /boot/syslinux/
Reboot
It should work like that. Am I right?

Grub and uuid for the windows case

I was very glad to discover that it is possible to use uuid's instead of the old (hdx,y) in /boot/grub/menu.lst (as well as in fstab), like this :
title Arch Linux
uuid 210f9206-0b3d-46a2-80e6-0a8a0856a3a9
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/210f9206-0b3d-46a2-80e6-0a8a0856a3a9 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
That is because i've a removable ide disk that i use for backup.This wasn't a problem on my old slackware because it was always /dev/hdb, the other resident ide /dev/hda, and the two sata , /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. Now on arch, to my surprise everyone is sd, the first disk is either sdd or sdc (starting from the bottom then), depending on whether the removable disk is on the tray or not, so uuid was more than welcome, since i imagine that the grub (hdx,y) nomenclature would also get messed up. Problem is, windows entry has this little trick to it, namely
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
and as far as i could search, there is no way to use uuid for disks, only partitions, since this identifier pertains to file systems, not hardware. So my question is, how can i boot windows in a removable disk situation , that is, how can i write those two lines in a way not affected by the number of disks present ??

I was very glad to discover that it is possible to use uuid's instead of the old (hdx,y) in /boot/grub/menu.lst (as well as in fstab), like this :
title Arch Linux
uuid 210f9206-0b3d-46a2-80e6-0a8a0856a3a9
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/210f9206-0b3d-46a2-80e6-0a8a0856a3a9 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
That is because i've a removable ide disk that i use for backup.This wasn't a problem on my old slackware because it was always /dev/hdb, the other resident ide /dev/hda, and the two sata , /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. Now on arch, to my surprise everyone is sd, the first disk is either sdd or sdc (starting from the bottom then), depending on whether the removable disk is on the tray or not, so uuid was more than welcome, since i imagine that the grub (hdx,y) nomenclature would also get messed up. Problem is, windows entry has this little trick to it, namely
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
and as far as i could search, there is no way to use uuid for disks, only partitions, since this identifier pertains to file systems, not hardware. So my question is, how can i boot windows in a removable disk situation , that is, how can i write those two lines in a way not affected by the number of disks present ??

GRUB is messed up

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