[SOLVED] Dualboot w7 + Arch ( where to install grub )

Hello,
I have win 7 already installed,
now i want to install Archlinux on same disk, but on other partitions.
My currently partiotion schema ( MBR ) looks like:
/dev/sda1 win7
/dev/sda2 reserverd for linux boot part
/dev/sda3 reserverd for linux root
I readed beginners guide, and the only one thing is not clear for me,
beginners guide advises not to install grub on any partiorion only on disk's mbr /dev/sda
I can not do that, because it will destroy my win7's mbr( partion table and so on )
Earlier with this configuration i had sabayon linux installed,
with grub on /dev/sda2, both systems booted with bcdedit and all worked fine.
How can I solve this ( grub2 can not be installed in /dev/sdaX )
Thanks for any help.
Last edited by tangram (2013-11-18 09:55:29)

tangram wrote:
henk wrote:... Why do you personally think grub will update to /dev/sda? Do you know how grub works that well? ...
I do not know, I felt it so, earlier linux experiences, maybe better I should write "I suppose".
It is not a question of knowing grub. It is a question of knowing Arch. When pacman updates grub, it does not reinstall to disk, it does not generate a new configuration file and it does not, therefore, touch either the MBR or the BIOS boot partition or any installation to a partition or anything else. The most pacman will do is remind you to do these things, as necessary. And sometimes it does not even do that.
This is why, for example, it is possible to maintain grub.cfg manually in Arch but not in most other distros. Because the system will never, ever run grub-mkconfig unless you tell it to. So a manually maintained configuration file will never be overwritten unless you overwrite it.
The only boot manager/loader I know of where this is not the case is gummiboot and IMNSHO, that makes the gummiboot package a badly behaved one which fails to properly respect the local customs. (And I won't install gummiboot for essentially this reason.)
That said, installing grub to a partition is not recommended because it is very easily broken. So I don't think you should do that. I'm just saying that if you did do it, no pacman upgrade would ever write to the MBR. Nor, for that matter, would it update the installation on the partition. It would do zilch to upgrade the actual installation of the boot loader - it would just update the package files in your system.
Last edited by cfr (2013-11-03 03:15:34)

Similar Messages

Where to install grub

Please forgive this simple question but in my search for an answer in wikis and other places, I cannot find a straightforward answer (and part of my worry is related to problems installing in this post, where it seems like when the kernel was updated it did so in the wrong place).
I have the following setup on my Toshiba Portege R500:
sda1 Windows XP
sda2 Windows/Toshiba rescue partition
sda3 share vfat partition
sda4 extended partition:
sda5 boot
sda6 swap
sda7 /
When I initially installed arch, I installed it in "/dev/sda", which is what it seemed to me most of the advice said to do (and it was the default as well). After I did pacman -Syu and copied over the new pacman.conf I rebooted but it seems to be booting a 2.6.25 kernel and the system is set up for 2.6.26. I'm giving up and reinstalling.
So, my question is:
Should I install grub on "/dev/sda" or "/dev/sda5", and if I can do it on either, what is the advantage of one over the other?

OK, that's settled. In menu.lst, then, should I have:
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda5 ro
title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

(SOLVED) Dualboot Windows + Arch Linux (Windows boot partition)

Hi,
I have 4 partitions.
sda1: Windows boot partition (ntfs) - This has always been there
sda2: Windows Installation
sda3: HP_Tools - I need to keep this for warranty
sda4: Arch Installation
I want to use GRUB to have a dualboot option at startup. Do I need to install GRUB to the boot partition which is NTFS, this should be ext3 according to the tutorial.
Or can I just install grub on the Arch installation in the /boot folder?
Thanks already!
Last edited by AlexCogn (2012-10-02 15:02:10)

Scimmia wrote:
AlexCogn wrote:When I do that Windows just starts.
Then you didn't install grub to the MBR. Don't forget, installing the package isn't enough, you actually have to install grub to sda as a separate step.
So
# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda
# cp /usr/share/locale/en\@quot/LC_MESSAGES/grub.mo /boot/grub/locale/en.mo
and then
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
I forgot the installation ... I'm trying it in half an hour, thanks already for you help guys!

Where to install grub?on another partition?or in the / ?

hi
i'm tring to install arch
where i need to install grub?on the root partition(/)?
because after i finished the instaltion and rebooted, windows load up normally:/
Last edited by dids22 (2007-02-06 22:30:22)

jwbirdsong wrote:
Instaling it to the MBR is the most common method....although either CAN work...
to install to MBR, as root
grub-install /dev/h(s)da
More good info on WIKI
so why windows boot up normally and not grub??

[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!

Installing grub

I have Windows on an IDE HDD, and Arch Linux on a SATA HDD. The SATA drive is HDD1, which means the IDE drive is HDD0. Windows was already installed on hdd0. The original Windows mbr is still intact.
After installing arch linux, even after reading the tips and hints here, I can't figure out how to install grub. Main reason I'm asking now is because in my own experience, linux boot records are extremely persistent so I don't want to do something to screw up my Windows install again and run the zero drive test to erase the drive and start over. This takes alot of time, and I don't like doing that, so please help! (I don't mind zeroing the drive later if I want to change system configuration, but I don't want to go through reinstalling another operating system just so I can't back here and yell, "Help!" lol )
I came here after reading the line where it wanted me to specify the root, and I knew something was wrong when it auto-detected hd0 partition3. I'm quite sure that will screw up the Windows drive and arch will still not boot.

You only need the boot partition if your machine has an older BIOS with the 1024 cylinder limit - ie the bootloader must be within the first 1024 cylinders. Most machines with the LBA features shouldn't have this problem. You'll still have a boot directory but within the root partition.
Replacing the MBR is almost required for a dual boot. Note that the MBR is not within a partion so it won't blow away the Windows partition. I say "almost required" since apparently you can configure the Windows boot loader to start other OS's but I've never tried it.
The MBR holds a "dumb" 512 byte program that knows where the bootloader is, loads it, and then runs it. The bootloader could be the Win bootloader, LILO, GRUB, the FREEBSD loader, etc. This lives in the "boot" partition of the OS: so the Win loader lives in the Win partition, GRUB lives in boot or root partition, etc. The loader may present the user with a menu then starts an OS.
Windows installs it's own MBR loader which starts the Windows bootloader. For dual boot you need to replace it with the GRUB MBR loader which will start the GRUB bootloader. Then with the proper Windows config in the GRUB menu the GRUB bootloader can "chainload" the Windows bootloader - hence the chainloader command - Windows never knows GRUB was even run.
For simplicity I'd try just a root partition and a swap partition to start out. So in your case the end result would be:
MBR: GRUB MBR loader
part1: windows bootloader & windows
part6: GRUB bootloader & Arch
part7: swap
During installation edit menu.lst and add Windows then allow GRUB to be installed on the MBR. Note that menu.lst in this case does not describe where to install GRUB but how to start OS's. GRUB installation is done by the Arch installation so leave the Arch stanza alone.
Hope that helps. Good luck.

[PARTIALLY SOLVED] Arch on MacBook4: can't install GRUB

I've been running Arch on my MacBook4 (4 years old now) for quite some time in dualboot mode and have already set up GRUB sucessfully several times. I therefore feel kinda bad that I have to open a new thread this time, but after wasting the whole morning on Google, I don't see another solution.
What has happened is that I had to resize my Linux partitions because there was no space left on my system partition. I have the following partitions:
sda1 - fat32 EFI partition
sda2 - hfs+ Mac partition
sda3 - ext4 Arch system partition
sda4 - ext4 Arch home partition
As mentioned, when I first organized my Arch partitions this way, I could successfully set up GRUB, but it was GRUB1 which I had to set up via grub shell. Now, as it looks to me, GRUB1 is not available anymore but only GRUB2 which doesn't use the grub shell anymore. I've not been able to install GRUB2 the last time (that's why I ended up using GRUB1) and I'm still not able to install it this time!
When I start the MacBook and choose the Linux partition in rEFIt, I get to a black screen displaying GRUB_ and doing nothing more (because I don't have GRUB set up). That's how far I am right now.
Now can anyone help me with setting up GRUB(2)? Thanks in advance for any help!
Last edited by cryptkeeper (2012-09-05 06:13:14)

I've succeeded in working around the problem of installing GRUB2 after I found out that grub-legary is nothing else but GRUB1. So all I had to do to get back a running system was:
- removing the GRUB2 installation
- installing grub-legacy
- copying my old menu.lst to /boot/grub/
- grub shell: root (hd0,2); setup (hd0); quit
Now it works like a charm again.
Still I only consider this thread half solved because I still don't know how to install GRUB2 on my system. It's not of vital interest to me anymore (I don't care too much why, that is, due to which boot loader, my system boots, as long as it boots), but a solution would nonetheless be nice since this thread is opened anyway.
So: How can GRUB2 be installed on a MacBook dualboot system with rEFIt such as mine?

[solved] Cannot install grub on Arch installation!

I'm trying to install Arch on my new Laptop. Almost everything works fine until I come to the point where GRUB will be installed (to the MBR). Installaton fails and I'm told to have a look on tty5 for error messages. Doing so I read:
grub> root (hd0,3)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
grub> setup (hd0)
Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition
grub> quit
AnyIdeas what I could do?
By the way, I'm installing the 64Bit Version 0.8 on a computer that currently runs "bad, bad Vista". I'm going to kill Vista anyway, sooner or later, but I wanted to have a try on getting them both on one computer. Might that be a problem?
Last edited by saciel (2007-06-06 00:31:15)

The layout preset by the factory is the following:
sda1: some sort of windows configuration backup blabla
sda2: Vista System
then there is roughly one gigabyte of free space then
sda4: which was a preset ntfs partition for data
I decided to turn 4 in arch root partition, leaving everyting else unchanged for an instance (no additional swap/boot partition).
By the way, I tried to install Grub directly on partition 4 (it is an ext3 now), too afterwards, which failed with the same error.
Last edited by saciel (2007-06-06 00:16:07)

[SOLVED]Shift my Arch install to a new (smaller) PC/HDD?

Hey all, I've looked around all sorts of forums for the answer to this, but none of them seem to cater exactly to my need, so I'll post my problem here!
Essentially I bought a new harddive. Well actually, I bought a whole new PC-worth of parts, but it's the harddrive causing problems.
I've had this Arch install for quite a while, and as such it's pretty well tweaked and messed about with, so I REALLY don't want to start again with a clean install, so I want to (For lack of a better terminology) Copy-paste my entire Arch install into the new harddrive.
I looked into Clonezilla, but there's a slight issue... My new drive is smaller than my old one. I know this was a dumb mistake on my part, but really I don't need anything bigger (Even with a load of movies, VM's and Wine games that can easily be deleted I'm only using 60-70GB of drive right now) And the only reason I really needed a new drive was because the new motherboard doesn't have an IDE slot, and my old drive is an IDE (I know there's adaptors for that, but they sound a bit dodgy at best)
My current partitions on my drive are also numbered a bit funny, which I think is where this went wrong when I attempted it, due to me distro-hopping a bit before landing on Arch.
So, is there an easy way to go about this, that I'm overlooking? Are there more config files that I should have editted (All I did upon clonezilla-ing the main partition was change the grub menu.lst file to say sda1 instead of sda3, and the same in fstab)
What I tried first time round, was to use Clonezilla, and only clone my /dev/sda3 partition (That's the one with Arch installed, sda1 is just an empty box that I occasionally store junk in) And this put a partition on the new drive, sda1, which was the reason for editting the menu.lst/fstab.
I then (Upon the above failing to boot) used GParted (Using a Mint LiveCD) To shrink my partitions down so they're approx. 65GB each (My current drive is 200GB, split equally in half, and my new drive is 160gb) Hoping Clonezilla would believe my drive was only 130GB (This still didn't work, it still told me the destination drive's too small)
Is there anything else I can do that I'm missing?
Last edited by Reded (2012-07-15 17:12:58)

Phew, thread is solved!
To R00KIE, your post actually helped me quite a lot - It turns out I was missing installing grub + regenerating initramfs
So how I did it:
GParted the new drive so it had a filesystem
Boot from a Ubuntu LiveCD,
mount both drives
copy-paste drive-to-drive (literally... used the cp command)
chroot into the new drive
adjust fstab/menu.lst
grub-install /dev/sda
mkinitcpo -p linux
reboot
PROFIT!
You're right ROOKIE, that whole process was far simpler than some websites make it out to be Thread closed!

[SOLVED] Chromebook: help partitioning /dev/sda7 to install GRUB

My goal is to dual boot Arch and Chrome OS on an Acer C720. I repartitioned the drive using the Chrubuntu script. Following the Wiki, I created the file system for Arch on /dev/sda7.
The next step in the Wiki reads
Following the instructions for installing GRUB on GPT, use gdisk to create a 1007kb partition and set the type to EF02.
I don't understand what to do. Do I really make another partition on sda? I've read that if you change the partitioning, it will not boot into Chrome OS.
Can someone please help me understand how to create the 1007kb partition for GRUB? Thanks!!
Last edited by Watney (2015-05-10 00:32:05)

There aren't details of what you've done, think of what we can comment here.
What says
# parted -l /dev/sdX ### could be /dev/sda
Or even better what's your actual partitioning scheme and how the partitions are laid out.
The note is clear (for me) and the link in it will show more details. The real point is to have the Post-MBR gap where GRUB will use to write its files.
If you don't have that Post-MBR gap then you need to shrink the first partition from the beginning to leave that Mb gap.

Would I be able to load Arch from wubi based grub [solved]

Hello,
This one of my experience where I am trying to see if I can load Arch (installed on partition not like lookback disk) from grub that is installed on wubi installed ubuntu file.
So far, I could install Arch on disk without installing grub and added entries as follows. But somewhere I am missing something, it is not able to boot when I select option of Arch in the boot.
Could you help me.
Few additional details required to debug this issue:
1. grub.cfg file of ubuntu grub
menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos5'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos5 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos5 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos5 01CD7BB998DB0870
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01CD7BB998DB0870
fi
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-19-generic root=UUID=01CD7BB998DB0870 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-19-generic
submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.5.0-19-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.5.0-19-generic-advanced-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos5'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos5 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos5 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos5 01CD7BB998DB0870
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01CD7BB998DB0870
fi
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
echo 'Loading Linux 3.5.0-19-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-19-generic root=UUID=01CD7BB998DB0870 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-19-generic
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.5.0-19-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.5.0-19-generic-recovery-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
insmod gzio
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos5'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos5 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos5 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos5 01CD7BB998DB0870
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01CD7BB998DB0870
fi
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
echo 'Loading Linux 3.5.0-19-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-19-generic root=UUID=01CD7BB998DB0870 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro recovery nomodeset
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-19-generic
### END /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###
menuentry 'Linux, with Linux core repo kernel' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-true-0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641'{
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,msdos8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos8 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos8 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641 ro quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
menuentry 'Linux, with Linux core repo kernel (Fallback initramfs)' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-fallback-0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,msdos8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos8 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos8 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641 ro quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
2. lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 39.2M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 19.8G 0 part
├─sda3 8:3 0 205.1G 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 333.7G 0 part /host
├─sda6 8:6 0 233.4G 0 part
├─sda7 8:7 0 100.4G 0 part
├─sda8 8:8 0 100M 0 part
├─sda9 8:9 0 14.7G 0 part
├─sda10 8:10 0 21.4G 0 part
└─sda11 8:11 0 3G 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
loop0 7:0 0 29G 0 loop /
3. blkid
/dev/loop0: UUID="fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DellUtility" UUID="5450-4444" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="RECOVERY" UUID="78C4FAC1C4FA80A4" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="OS" UUID="DACEFCF1CEFCC6B3" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="01CD7BB998DB0870" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="01CD7BB99CA3F750" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="Windows 8" UUID="01CDBFB52F925F40" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda8: UUID="cdbb5770-d29c-401d-850d-ee30a048ca5e" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda9: UUID="0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda10: UUID="2e7682e5-8917-4edc-9bf9-044fea2ad738" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda11: UUID="6081da70-d622-42b9-b489-309f922b284e" TYPE="swap
Any help is appreciated
Last edited by ameyjah (2012-12-19 14:20:25)

If sda8 is a separate boot partition for Arch, you don't need /boot for the linux and initrd lines in the grub entry. E.g.
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641 ro quiet
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
Removing "quiet" will result in more informative failures. (There are debug options which will get even more info.)

Arch 0.7 ISO -- Grub Install Bug?

I only encountered two odd issues during the installation of Arch using the 0.7 final ISO. One of them was that when I attempted to install grub to the root partition, the installer only gave me a list of existing partitions up to dev/hda9 as possible options. Although there were several more (including the arch root and home partitions), the list would not scroll down past that hda9 partition.
I submitted to the will of the installer, and instead edited the lilo.conf file by changing the boot directory to boot=/dev/discs/disc0/part12, which is where I would have installed grub if given the option. But lilo installed fine of course using this method and all is well.
I would have preferred grub, but lilo is fine and I am familiar with using it as a bootloader so in the end it's no big deal. I just wondered if this might be a bug in the installer ... or ... horror, an operator error.

That was a bug in the installer. Fixed for the next release.
Thanks!

Can't seem to install GRUB (Triple boot OSX + WIN7 + Arch.)

Alright I've partitioned my drive into 3 using disk util sda1 default mac boot or whatever, sda2 main OSX, sda3 arch, sda4 win7.
I've installed win 7 already, and attempted to install arch... I think I've done it, but all the tutorials said to skip installing the boot loader and install it manually from the live cd.
So basically I booted the live cd again, and did this:
grub-install /dev/sda3
but I get this:
/dev/mapper/../dm-0 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive
However, my compter works , and rEFIt detects OSX and Win7...
I really want to be able to use Arch, I'd appreciate it greatly if anyone can help me to get grub to work/or ger Arch to somehow boot alongside the other 2 OSes.\
PS. My computer is a MacBook Pro 15" i7 from late 2011.
Thanks!!
EDIT: Could it be because sda3 is ext4?
Last edited by SkullTraill (2012-04-10 00:17:56)

Self Solved:
Do not reboot after install, install grub directly after exiting arch installation.

[solved] Cannot complete install, grub fails to boot the new install

I'm using the 2009.08 USB image.
I've tried this 2 weeks ago, tried it again today, same result. (I'm on Win7 meanwhile).
I'm installing arch, everything goes fine.
I've tried 2 setups:
a)
100GB ext4 /
12GB swap
(no separate /boot, should work)
b)
100MB ext3 /boot
100GB ext4 /
12GB swap
Neither a) or b) will boot.
When the newly installed grub boots, I get a error saying:
filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7
I get this for the ext3, ext4, and windows partitions.
I get it for both a) and b) setups.
I have doublechecked the menu.lst file. I've even created another entry setting root=/dev/sdb1 (as opposed to the default /dev/disks/by-uuid/..).
I should mention, I have two disks, the first (sda) is currently with a Win7 installation, the 2nd (sdb) is the one I'm trying to install Arch again (and failing).
After the reboot, I've tried booting into the livecd again and manually trying to mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt, it works.
Why isn't my grub boothing from ext{3,4}?
Last edited by Frantic (2009-11-05 18:35:15)

Rede wrote:
I was getting that error but after re-installing grub and making some changes to the menu.lst file it was fixed.
I was able to at one stage boot into arch but it gave problems with the root. Now it just seems to freeze while trying to load grub.
I am currently trying yet another install of grub. I have been noticing though that my menu.lst file has been rolling back or not updating when I chroot back into my install after changing it earlier.
Try mounting your /boot partition under /mnt/boot.

[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.

[SOLVED] Dualboot w7 + Arch ( where to install grub )

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