ARCH BOOTLOADER installation

khaleel5000 · 01-01-2006, 12:13 PM

Hello fellas my prob is :-
I installed (well tried) arch linux 0.7.1 and from cd most of packages didnot get installed probably media was corrupted so i googled and got way 2 install frm ISO without burning it , everything went fine but i couldnot INSTALL ANY BOOTLOADER , when i selected either it said BOOTLOADER INSTALLATION FAILED check /dev/tty5 for detail [or SORTA THING ] or it got installed and i run it sez cant find the device or doesnot exist

jollyjoice · 01-01-2006, 02:45 PM

Ok dude, chill a moment.

What do you have on the computer atm? Do you have another version of linux? Windows? or just Arch?

What loaders have you tried, how and what degree of sucess has each given?

What state is the system now? Can you boot anything?

saikee · 01-01-2006, 03:26 PM

Arch 0.71 uses Grub 0.97 by default.

If you can access it the boot loader is already there. i.e. if you get a Grub shell out by typing

Code:

grub

Otherwise just following Appendix of Grub Manual.

It is only 4 lines of commands and takes 5 to 10 minutes build Grub from scratch.

Having got Grub the instruction to put Grub into the MBR is

Code:

grub-install /dev/hda

BinJajer · 01-01-2006, 04:29 PM

I had a similar problem with Slack. Suprise, suprise. The problem is, that in some distros th bootloader tries to install into hda's MBR. What if you have only hdb,hdc and cdrom on hdd? Yeah, it is non-standard, but I have such config. That could be a problem. We cannot assume that everyne has the same hardware config.

saikee · 01-01-2006, 05:39 PM

I don't think it matters at all whether you have hdb, hdd, sda, sdb as your first bootable disk.

You have to tell the installer "what partition" you want to install the Linux. The boot loader destination is always quoted as either the MBR or the root partition. In rare situation you may given a list of hard disks to choose from. The installer therefore cannot possibly put a boot loader on an imaginary disk or always in hda.

Grub has none of this confusion because it uses a numbering system. Its first disk (hd0) can be hdb, sda or whatever you've specified in the BIOS setting. It just receives the information from the BIOS and uses it and couldn't care less about what it is.

What tend to happen is the installer fails to implement the boot loader installation and causes the distro temporarily inaccessible.

A Linux user in this case should learn to use a Live CD as a stepping stone to "hoop" (using the change root command) back the unbootable Linux to do the rescuing work.

khaleel5000 · 01-02-2006, 12:47 AM

-- I HAD WINDOWS (XP AND 98 ) THEY TOO DONT RUN
I DONT CARE ABT WINDOWS(s)
I want LINUX INSTALLED andi dooo see an option in the linux bootloader (yeah its GRUB) and it has arch linux written on it and when i press enter on it it shows DEVICE DOESNOT exist
AND I CANT BOOT ANY OS.and ITS " bdb " in bios its SECONDARY SLAVE

khaleel5000 · 01-02-2006, 12:48 AM

I HAVE GNOPPIX (a live CD ) show do i fix it please would u tell me ?

saikee · 01-02-2006, 06:37 AM

Boot to the Gnoppix
click terminal, do a

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

to see your own partitioning scheme. You only mentioned Arch 0.71 so we assume its root is in hda1 but ajust it according to your own partitioning scheme.

You invoke a Grub shell and ask Grub to setup itself in the MBR using the information from the root of Arch 0.71, as follow

Code:

grub
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

If Grub reports everything done and no error then on a reboot you will have Grub the boot loader.

A Linux cannot rescue a Windows if it wasn't bootable before. If your systems were working before then Grub will boot them.

Paste the screen information of

Code:

fdisk -l

here plus the content of Arch's /boot/grub/menu.lst for further assistance.

I repeat, your Windows must be in working condition before because Linux can't fix them. A linux can "boot" them only.

BinJajer · 01-02-2006, 10:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saikee

I don't think it matters at all whether you have hdb, hdd, sda, sdb as your first bootable disk.

You have to tell the installer "what partition" you want to intall the Linux. The boot loader destination is always quoted as either the MBR or the root partition. In rare situation you may given a list of hard disks to choose from. The installer therefore cannot possibly put a boot loader on an imaginary disk or always in hda.

Grub has none of this confusion because it uses a numbering system. Its first disk (hd0) can be hdb, sda or whatever you've specified in the BIOS setting. It just receives the information from the BIOS and uses it and couldn't care less about what it is.

What tend to happen is the installer fails to implement the boot loader installation and causes the distro temporarily inaccessible.

A Linux user in this case should learn to use a Live CD as a stepping stone to "hoop" (using the change root command) back the unbootable Linux to do the rescuing work.

Maybe you are right. Maybe it works in arch. Muhhamad, saikee is right, give us a prinout of grub's error, if any. Good luck, SHOUTER GEEK

johndoe0028 · 01-02-2006, 03:46 PM

Well, from what I see, arch 0.71 is still not too mature. Grab arch 0.7 ISO and burn it, boot and go from there. Make sure your media isn't messed up.

Anyway, here is that section of my menu.lst, if it helps.

# Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/discs/disc1/part1 ro

(I have Arch on my second disc. If it's on the first, change (hd1,0) to (hd0,0), and disc1 to disc0)

khaleel5000 · 01-03-2006, 04:30 AM

WELL I M GETTIN FRUSTATING FELLAS , i have only 1 hd connected and it is shown as HDB , my swap partition is HDB6 and root is HDB7 (with reiser FS) now can any one be kind enough 2 tell me how 2 write a menu.lst for my self or just tell me what to paste whree in grub menu.lst so i might run my grub

------------- YOUR PREVIOUS REMEDIES --------
I tried em all but noting but surprisingly when i ran my live CD (of gnoppix) when i configured grub just how saikee said it didnot seem 2 work however when i REBOOTED my system , MY WINDOWS XP AND WIN98 were back without any HINT of LINUX .......

I m forry for any bugging 2 u all (my windows 98 is in HDB1 and XP in HDB2 )

saikee · 01-03-2006, 04:39 AM

You did it to yourself because you never told us there were other systems in your disk and so we all assumed Arch was in the first partition.

You can correct the mistake by going through my post #8 again but this time to setup Grub into MBR with Arch's root. That is after booting to Knoppix you type

Code:

grub
root (hd0,6)
setup (hd0)
quit

For us to write a Grub menu.lst from scratch we need the content of /boot of your Arch Linux.

khaleel5000 · 01-03-2006, 04:39 AM

also i read in a post someone said cant read partition or sorta thing because in kernel compilation he forgot to put in some support for FILE SYSTEMS , in arch linux , u install ur kernel and it tells BUILDING KERNEL or sorta thing so is there any possibility of such things also it prints out to modify some links of kernel , i did [BEFORE TRYING GNOPPIX that i earlier mentioned] and then when i selected the thing it showed error 23 ERROR PARSING THE LINE

khaleel5000 · 01-03-2006, 04:41 AM

and SAIKEE this
grub
root (hd0,6)
setup (hd0)
quit
thing doesnot work says invalid STRING i REMIND AGANIn
MY SWAP IS HDB6
MY ROOT (with reiser fs is ) HDB7

-=--- SORRY FOR THE HEADACHE ---=-

saikee · 01-03-2006, 04:54 AM

If you have only one drive the (hd0,6) is the 7th partition of the first disk as Grub counts from 0.

Also it worked before because it restored your Windows boot loader at (hd0,0) back to the MBR.

The only reason that it fails to work is that your Grub in hdb7 is "incomplete" and cannot be setup.

You can investigate it as follow. Boot it to Gnoppix and type

Code:

mkdir /mnt/hdb7
mount /dev/hdb7 /mnt/hdb7
chroot /mnt/hdb7
grub-install /dev/hdb
exit

Once you have done the "chroot" you will be inside Arch Linux and able to see if you have got menu.lst by

Code:

less /boot/grub/menu.lst

You can invoke the Grub inside Arch to try the Root+setup statements as described in Post #12 again if the grub-install statement fails.

If you haven't got /boot/grub/menu.lst inside Arch then it is a different ball game and you will need an additional tool to boot Arch.