Re: Grub boots from command line but not menu

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:53:28 -0700, Douglas Mayne wrote:

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:04:49 +0000, imotgm wrote:

On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 08:01:16 -0700, Douglas Mayne wrote:


I wrote about grub and an idea for the layout of multibooting with more
than one Linux distribution here:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.setup/msg/17d3cfcff0cf2d0f

Notice: That link is the start of the thread.


I guess that this will have to stop working then, because there is no
grub, or lilo installed in the Slackware partition. It's really a shame,
as it's worked so well up until now.

title Slackware 9.1 - slack partition
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 vga=788 hdb=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi

title Slackware 9.1 - slack partition 2.4.22
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz-adaptec.s-2.4.22 root=/dev/hda9 vga=788 hdb=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi

[root@fatman boot]# ls -l

<snip>

Grub needs to be installed exactly once, by one OS. All other additional
OS need only have a stanza added to the single menu.lst used by that

Yes. That's one way to do it!

single installation of grub. If there is a separate boot partition, it
will be found in /grub/menu.lst. If there is no boot partition, it will be
found in /boot/grub/menu.lst on the partition of the OS from which grub
was installed.

For Red Hat/Fedora menu.lst will be renamed grub.conf.

As you choose to chainload multiple grub installations, I can see why
you'd be confused about how grub actually works. I have one grub, on a
boot partition, with multiple stanzas for the various OSs, seven at
present, and all boot just fine. If OP has the problem that he states,
there is most probably a syntax error in the Slackware stanza in his
menu.lst.

Note: comment inline.
Here we go again. _You_ still want me to diagnose why _your_ system
is not broken:
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.misc/browse_frm/thread/a9862aca6be39f5c/27dbc9715f086943?lnk=st&q=%22douglas+mayne%22+diagnose&rnum=5&hl=en#27dbc9715f086943

Smartass, I remember that. ;)

Your system boots because your kernels are being read from the same boot
partition where grub is installed. Re-read this thread and tell me that
your system would boot if one kernel was on (hd0,6) formatted XFS and
another kernel was to be read from (hd0,7) formatted ext2.

You didn't look closely enough. None of the stanzas I posted are booting
from kernels on the boot partition. At the moment, I'm doing housekeeping
on the boot partition, and no kernels reside there, at all, only the grub
directory, and the files therein. Each kernel is in the /boot directory of
the OS's / partition. look again.

title Slackware 9.1 - slack partition
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda9 vga=788 hdb=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi

title Slackware 9.1 - slack partition 2.4.22
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz-adaptec.s-2.4.22 root=/dev/hda9 vga=788 hdb=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi

title PCLinuxOS
kernel (hd0,11)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda12 devfs=mount hdb=ide-scsi hdd=ide-scsi vga=788 splash=verbose show0pts
initrd (hd0,11)/boot/initrd.img

Here are some more.

title SUSE LINUX 10.0
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda6 vga=0x317 selinux=0 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=verbose showopts
initrd /boot/initrd

title SUSE LINUX 9.3 (/dev/hda5)
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda5 vga=0x317 selinux=0 splash=verbose console=tty0 resume=/dev/hda2 showopts
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/initrd

title Mandriva 2006 Current
kernel (hd1,2)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc3 vga=791 resume=/dev/hdc2 splash=verbose
initrd (hd1,2)/boot/initrd.img

title Mandrake 10.1 -26 ###
kernel (hd1,4)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc5 resume=/dev/hdc2 splash=verbose vga=788
initrd (hd1,4)/boot/initrd.img

I don't use XFS, but having read the stanzas on menu.lst, grub doesn't
seem to mind whether the kernels are on ext3, or reiserfs partitions. Try
this yourself. I think you'll find that grub is even more flexible than
you think.

Note: I did telegraph that I was entering WAG to the OP due to lack of
specific information from him.

Always a safe policy. ;) I've been known to use that, as well as request
additional information, or post the "smartquestions" link. I may have even
resorted to, "WTF are you talking about?" a time or two, for a truly
obnoxious, and totally clueless poster, but I try to keep that to a
minimum. There are already too many posters that use the latter as their
standard reply, to every gnubie poster. I'd rather try to be helpful, if I
can, or at least add a little humor, when things get stressed a might.

You have provided more than him, hence, I believe your system is not
broken ;-) and should boot.

It's not, and it does. ;-)

If you have further comments to this, please don't think me rude if it
takes a while to get back. I just bought a 160GB Seagate drive, for
$69.95, then ran into a sale that got me a 200GB Seagate for $29.95, so
I'm going to be busy moving some OSs over to the bigger drives,
deleting some of the older OSs, and installing the 32bit versions of
Mandriva 2006, and SUSE 10.0, to run comparisons against the 64bit
versions already installed.

I'm also building an AMD 64 based computer for a friend, or rather
supervising him, while he does the actual building. He's never owned a
computer before, and wants it to run Linux, as he likes what he sees on
mine, so I'm going to start him on a dual boot Mandriva, SUSE. This should
be a trip, and keep me AWOL from the NGs for a while. ;-D

Douglas, I do enjoy talking with you, doing a little needling, receiving a
little needling back, but always in good humor. Much more pleasant than
with some of the more froggy folks one runs into in the NGs. 'Til later.

Cheers. ;-)

--
imotgm
"Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a
month or two, but never lost."


.

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