Grub not booting a frugal install

Message

Scoticus · #1 Post by **Scoticus** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 06:32

Following the Puppy Universal Installer I installed 2.16.1 as a frugal install and likewise installed Grub by the same method. On rebooting I went straight into XP with no option to go to Puppy or XP.

Looks very much like I did not fully understand the sequence in the Grub installer, so where did I go wrong ?. When I use MUT I can see the four Puppy files in the ext2 partition and on opening the boot folder Grub is residing there OK.

Where do I go from here to achieve my aim of a frugal install.

Ian

muggins · #2 Post by **muggins** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 11:38

sounds like you haven't opted to install grub to the mbr, so windows is booting as normal. be aware though that windows is a delicate flower, when it comes to not being in control of the mbr, especially those ntfs beasties...

Scoticus · #3 Post by **Scoticus** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 13:35

Muggins

Am I right in thinking that I should remove Grub from the boot folder in the ext2 partition and reinstall Grub ?

How do I install grub to the mbr ? Is it reasonably straight forward using the Puppy installer ? I am really keen to get things working in a straight forward basis and from what I can see the frugal install looks like my best bet.

Your further assistance will be most appreciated

Many thanks

Ian

muggins · #4 Post by **muggins** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 14:28

you could do menu->system->grub bootloader config, then take
simple, standard, /dev/hdax (replace x with relevant partition), then a window will pop up asking you to Select grub destination. down the bottom is :

MBR Install to MBR( possibly unsafe)

the warning is due to the delicacy of windows when it isn't in charge of the mbr. there is a chance that with a grub install, windows might not boot...rest assured though that the windows file system is intact, and can be resuscitated using techniques provided by our resident winpups. (having not used windows much, in last few years, i'm not across the latest win cpr methods).

Scoticus · #5 Post by **Scoticus** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 17:47

Muggins

This gets more like one small step for man. What ever happened to the gaint leap for manhind. I think that I am part of mankind !

I followed your advice but was totally unsure when confronted with :-

Grub was successfully installed on the MBR of /dev/hdb. You should check and edit the '/boot/grub/menu.lst on /dev/hdb2', if needed. You may want to change the location'/boot/vmlinuz' and/or options passed to any Linux kernel listed there.

Not knowing what all this meant I clicked yes and went on to reboot. This time I thought I had got lucky as the boot sequence offered me Windows on one partition and Linux on another with some other info I disregarded thinking all was well.

Accepted Linux only to have a further display come up. This time it showed :-

Kernel panic - not syncing : No init found. Try passing init= option to kernel.

Now it is I who panic.

Once again when a door opens another slams shut in your face. So near so far.

Can you get me to the final stage and help regain my sanity.

Once again my sincere thanks for all your assistance

Ian

alienjeff · #6 Post by **alienjeff** » Tue 10 Jul 2007, 20:58

Edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst again and in the area of the file where the Linux OS is set up, add another line:

initrd /initrd.gz

See if that does the trick. Should you still have problems, please post your menu.lst file so we can see what's going on.

-aj

Scoticus · #7 Post by **Scoticus** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 06:31

Many thanks alienjeff

You are taking me into areas which I am not totally confident of working in. Can you please confirm that my understanding of your post is correct.

When I find the menu.lst there are a series of numbered items from 1 to 35. There is a sequence starting at :

18# Linux bootable partition config begins
19 Title Linux on /dev/hdb2
20 Root (hd0,1)
21 Kernel /boot/vmlinuz root = del/hdb2 ro vga=normal
22 Linux bootable partition ends

If I am following you correctly I should add initrd /initrd.gz within that area. Should this be after the kernel or where should I place the entry.

Can you also advise regarding a folder in the file marked as menu.lst.old.18011 should this also be altered or should I remove this as it could be a possible duplication of my earlier miserable efforts.

Having got so close to my initial aim I do not want to undo everything by wrongly editing the item.

Thanks again

Ian

WhoDo · #8 Post by **WhoDo** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 06:53

Scoticus wrote:18# Linux bootable partition config begins
19 title Linux on /dev/hdb2
20 Root (hd0,1)
21 Kernel /boot/vmlinuz root = del/hdb2 ro vga=normal
22 Linux bootable partition ends

If I am following you correctly I should add initrd /initrd.gz within that area. Should this be after the kernel or where should I place the entry.

Nope. Change what you have there to the following:

Code: Select all

18# Linux bootable partition config begins
19    title Linux on /dev/hdb2
20     root (hd0,1)
21     kernel /boot/vmlinuz root = /dev/ram0 ro vga=normal
22     initrd /initrd.gz
23 # Linux bootable partition ends

Also check that /boot is really the location of your vmlinuz file, and whether or not initrd.gz is there or in / (partition root). And get out of the habit of capitalising in Linux scripts. It only causes heartache for the unwary.

Hope that helps, Ian.

Scoticus · #9 Post by **Scoticus** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 10:58

Many thanks WhoDo

Sorry about the typos but I have yet to master dragging info over from the directory into a post. I was working from my own notes.

I will see how this gets on when I get home tonight and report back.

Ian

Stands in corner with dunce cap

WhoDo · #10 Post by **WhoDo** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 11:41

Scoticus wrote:Stands in corner with dunce cap

Sorry, Ian. Didn't mean to patronise.

Hope your boot problems are over.

Scoticus · #11 Post by **Scoticus** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 12:38

WhoDo

I should have been more aware on the upper/lower case situation as it could be too easily confused if anyone followed my ramblings

Ian

alienjeff · #12 Post by **alienjeff** » Wed 11 Jul 2007, 16:31

Ian:

Sorry I wasn't more explicit in my suggestion, but WhoDo has steered you right. Thanks, Warren.

You're really very close, so hang in there! Many of us have been tripped up by two items in menu.lst with frugal installs - one being the change from root=/dev/hda1 to root=/dev/ram0, and the addition of the line initrd /initrd.gz ...

When wrestling with my first frugal install, many new grey hairs appeared in my beard. I was fortunate enough to be rescued by IRC user ^Cricket^.

Keep us posted.

-aj

Scoticus · #13 Post by **Scoticus** » Thu 12 Jul 2007, 19:55

Aj you were lucky it was only grey hairs, I am tearing mine out.

Followed WhoDo's guidance and added the information, rebooted only to have the same result. When back over everything and am happy I entered info correctly. Used MUT and looked at /mnt/hdb2 which shows a boot folder. Opening that displayed grub and vmlinuz, initrd.gz is not shown in this folder.

Reference was made to initrd.gz is there or in / (partition root) but I am afraid that this one has gone over my head totally. Could you please clarify what I should be doing to check this item.

Aj has confused me also with the referencce to root=/dev/hda1 to root=/dev/ram0 as I do not see any reference like this in the menu list. Every reference to root displays hd0,1 or hd0.

Can you please guide me further on this as I am getting desperate. I Have been unable to get XP to accept my ethernet connection and am totally unprepared to load anything until I can patch the rubbish. Am totally reliant on Puppy now and am determined to get this properly setup.

Am seriously considering kicking MS into touch if I can convince she who must be obeyed.

Once again thanks

Ian

PS trying everything again there was a reference to installing grup to Linux partition, should I have done this in addition to my earlier effort ?

alienjeff · #14 Post by **alienjeff** » Thu 12 Jul 2007, 20:57

Ian: Please post the contents of menu.lst here so one of us can see what you've got there and offer a rewritten one for you. The file is simple text, so you can merely cut and paste in the body of a message. -aj

Scoticus · #15 Post by **Scoticus** » Fri 13 Jul 2007, 06:07

Thanks vm AJ I had visions of writing copious text and going back and forward between the forum and the menu.

this is what is displayed when I open menu.lst :

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'. Tue Jul 10 18:38:11 2007
#
# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hdb' is
# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hdb.18011'. You can restore it like this.
# dd if=/boot/grub/mbr.hdb.18011 of=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Other bootable partition config begins
title Windows (on /dev/hdb1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# Other bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb2 ro vga=normal
initrd /initrd.gz
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,1)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0,1)
pause Press enter to continue.
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
root (hd0)

I hope this will assist and take me to a stable boot situation.

Ian

John Doe · #16 Post by **John Doe** » Fri 13 Jul 2007, 07:39

Scoticus wrote:...I installed 2.16.1 as a frugal install...

just noticed tonight that frugal grub boot is broken in 2.16 (perhaps it work with *.1).

working menu.lst would look like this (with files on 4'th part of 1'st drive):

Code: Select all

default 0 
timeout 15

title Puppy HD 2.16
root (hd0,3) 
kernel (hd0,3)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=idehd
initrd (hd0,3)/initrd.gz
boot

title Puppy USB 2.16
rootnoverify (hd0,3)
kernel (hd0,3)/vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 PMEDIA=usbflash
initrd (hd0,3)/initrd.gz
boot

alienjeff · #17 Post by **alienjeff** » Fri 13 Jul 2007, 15:20

Ian,

Here's an edited menu.lst for you to try on your machine and a couple of notes.

1) I've separated various sections with full lines of #-marks. This is so you can more easily locate the portion of menu.lst that pertains to Puppy, as well as makes things a bit easier on sometimes tired eyes.

If a line starts with a #, the line is ignored by Grub. Similar conventions are used in other scripting languages and are convenient for making notations within code. Barry frequently does this in his scripts.

2) I've found that it's good to leave an audit trail when debuggering a file like this. What I do is prepend any line I want to change with a #, and then start a new line directly above it. An example is the "vmlinuz" line in the Puppy configuration area.

This way, should my Brilliant Change fail, it's easy to fall back on the original instead of rely on sometimes feeble memory.

3) I assume that "she who must be obeyed" uses either 95, 98 or XP. I've made note of that in the display menu selection. You can easily edit that to match the version installed.

4) The "frugal Puppy" configuration is based on my installation of Puppy v2.11. There may be a very minor tweak or two with v2.16.1 which I am unaware of. I sense WhoDo waiting in the wings should they be needed.

5) Instead of the Grub screen waiting for a menu select, I've edited the "timeout" line so that if there is no keyboard input in 10-seconds, Grub will automagically start loading Windows. This timeout/default is in the interest of maintaining peace with "she who must be obeyed."

That's about all I have right now, Ian. Give it a try and let us all know if it plays.

-aj

################################################################
# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'. Tue Jul 10 18:38:11 2007
#
# The backup copy of the MBR for drive '/dev/hdb' is
# here '/boot/grub/mbr.hdb.18011'. You can restore it like this.
# dd if=/boot/grub/mbr.hdb.18011 of=/dev/hdb bs=512 count=1
################################################################
# Start GRUB global section
timeout 10
# was timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
################################################################
# Start Windows bootable partition configuration
title Microsoft Windows 95/98/XP (on /dev/hdb1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# End Windows bootable partition configuration
################################################################
# Start Linux bootable partition configuration
title Puppy Linux v2.16.1 Frugal (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd0,1)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/ram0 ro vga=normal PMEDIA=idehd
# was kernel /boot/vmlinux root=/dev/hdb2 ro vga=normal
initrd /initrd.gz
# End Linux bootable partition configuration
################################################################
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,1)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hdb2)
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0,1)
pause Press enter to continue.
title - For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title - For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
################################################################

Scoticus · #18 Post by **Scoticus** » Sun 15 Jul 2007, 07:47

Aj you area hero. Everything worked perfectly !

I am glad you told me earlier that I could cut and paste the info or I would have run scared.

My sincere thanks to both you and Warren for all your kind assistance

Ian

alienjeff · #19 Post by **alienjeff** » Sun 15 Jul 2007, 13:04

Glad to help and great to hear you've got that problem fixed! Now with a bit of wind in your sail, you can do some tinkering. Enjoy!

-aj

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum