Booting another Linux OS.

[sethk23]

Hey, I am trying to boot a version of Ubuntu through Mageia on the SDA7partition and Mageia obviously has better plans. It ask to point to the image and I navigated over to the /boot/vmlinuz-Linux.2.6...etc Its something like that, that is from a 2 day memory so it's not accurate but it was when I put it in, but it won't find the image. And I know its on SDA 7 because I ran a Grub disc to search of Operating systems and it found it and said it was on Sda7 with the /boot/... folder. Any idea on what I could do? I can provide more information if needed.

[doktor5000]

Provide at least your current /boot/grub/menu.lst, but please put the content in Code-Tags.

[linuxero]

This is a reminiscence of MCC when trying to add another kernel on a different partition I guess. I could never do it through MCC.

You have 2 options:

1. Copy the kernel image with its initrd image from the partition it is on to the /boot folder of Mageia, better yet in a subfolder in there, and then try to use MCC to add it. (Don't forget any kernel options, which you could copy from Ubuntu's /boot/grub2/grub.cfg or /boot/grub/grub.cfg). Here your /boot/grub/menu.lst shouLd have something like:

Code: Select all

title Ubuntu
kernel /boot/COPIED-UBUNTU-KERNEL-IMAGE AND ALL THE OPTIONS IT NEEDS
initrd /boot/COPIED-UBUNTU-INITRD-IMAGE


2. Manually add the boot options - as in /boot/grub2/grub.cfg or /boot/grub/grub.cfg - to Mageia's /boot/grub/menu.lst. (Don't forget to add (hdn, n) before /boot) Here your /boot/grub/menu.lst shoud have something like:

Code: Select all

title Ubuntu
kernel (hd0, 6)/boot/UBUNTU-KERNEL-IMAGE AND ALL THE OPTIONS IT NEEDS
initrd (hd0, 6)/boot/UBUNTU-INITRD-IMAGE


Note that in the second option you don't need to copy anything to Mageia's /boot.

[doktor5000]

Why not just add a chainloader entry to Ubuntu's grub, that way you don't have to care about kernel updates or when something inside Ubuntus /boot partition changes. That is easily possible via MCC via the "other OS" function.

[linuxero]

Well sure the 3d option is chainloading as doktor5000 mentioned..gosh! how could I miss that..

[doktor5000]

Maybe you were blinded by the simplicity of it.
No seriously, it's less to type and easier to maintain, and KISS* should always be preferred!

* - keep it small & simple

[sethk23]

I want to use the Graphic Menu of Mageia.

[doktor5000]

MCC -> Boot -> Set up boot system -> Next -> Add -> Other OS (Windows ...) ->
Change the label to what you like and as root select the partition where you installed Ubuntu (which is where Ubuntus bootloader has been installed, i assume)

[sethk23]

So even if I set the OS to Windows it will run Linux?

[linuxero]

So even if I set the OS to Windows it will run Linux?

You don't actually set it to windows!

When installing the new Ubuntu, you should be sure to choose the boot-loader be installed on the First Sector of your Ubuntu Partition - seems to be sda7 in your case. Then in Mageia's MCC you add a new system, of course you should choose Windows or Other OS..

At this step you can key in the Label of your OS; eg. Ubuntu Oneiric Ocelot and be sure to set its Root to the PARTITION WHERE IT WAS INSTALLED - again; in your case, seems to be sda7 .

That's all Don't get confused with the old good friend TM Windows that appears there, think of it as whatever other operating system..Haiku for instance

[wobo]

To show how this may look here is an example:

I installed a minimal Mageia in /dev/sda7 and named it "Bootkontrolle" (boot control). The grub of this installation was installed in the MBR.
All following systems bear their grub in the BR of their root partition. This way whenever I install another system I only add the 3 simpe lines to the menu.lst of the boot control grub. No hazzle with grub2, no hazzle when one of the systems installs a new kernel, etc.

For the sake of nice look in the boot menue I changed the order of the entries:

Code: Select all

timeout 10
color black/cyan yellow/cyan
gfxmenu (hd0,6)/boot/gfxmenu
default 0

title Mageia 1 Official
root (hd0,7)
chainloader +1

title Mageia Cauldron
root (hd0,8)
chainloader +1

title Mageia Test
root (hd0,9)
chainloader +1

title Mandriva Desktop 2011
root (hd0,10)
chainloader +1

title Ubuntu 11.10
root (hd0,11)
chainloader +1

title windows
root (hd0,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

title Bootkontrolle
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=linux root=UUID=bab16689-6d7c-4190-91b3-bc1054227f21  nokmsboot resume=UUID=6a0f535e-8d04-435b-8303-53101ad17044
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img

title Bootkontrolle (RL1)
kernel (hd0,6)/boot/vmlinuz BOOT_IMAGE=failsafe root=UUID=bab16689-6d7c-4190-91b3-bc1054227f21  nokmsboot failsafe
initrd (hd0,6)/boot/initrd.img


I respect your wish to use the GUI but OTOH you can't do something like this with the GUI only. As they say: "To do it right you must get your hands dirty"

[doktor5000]

I respect your wish to use the GUI but OTOH you can't do something like this with the GUI only. As they say: "To do it right you must get your hands dirty"

I don't see anything there that can't be done by the GUI. All the chainloader entrys, the reordering, and changing the titles can all be done from drakboot.

[wobo]

I don't see anything there that can't be done by the GUI. All the chainloader entrys, the reordering, and changing the titles can all be done from drakboot.

Ah, ok, that's fine. I don't know much about drakboot, I did not care because I did not need it except for setting the place where the BR goes.
BTW: to keep it small my boot control system does not have any drakxtools nor a GUI. In another machine I don't even have a Mageia system but an old grml as boot control system

Good news for the GUI people! Will have a look at drakboot next time

[doktor5000]

FWIW, if you launch it from a terminal, launch drakboot --boot, without it you get the GUI for the desktop auto-login, which is also part of drakboot's functionality.

[wobo]

As I said, a minimal installation: no drakboot, no other draktools, not even a network access, just the basic system. In this scheme the boot control system has no other task than providing the boot loader including an editor to change the menu.lst (vim). The partition for that system is not larger than 500M. I could even make it smaller if I would invest the time to do it
Having a drakboot gui (even one based on ncurses) would take twice as much.

But I think this is going off topic here.

[linuxero]

Still until Mageia used GRUB2 you could not exagerate adding other systems. I had a problem with GRUB not being able to boot partitions with a relatively high first sector.

[wobo]

Fact 1: This is something of the past, before grub. I have a 1TB disk and grub boots partitions (/sdh and more) which are located in the highest 20 percent of the harddisk.
Fact 2: Using grub I once sported 16 different Linux installations on one harddisk without problems.

So, no, I don't have any problems with grub adding a lot of systems.

[linuxero]

Fact 2: Using grub I once sported 16 different Linux installations on one harddisk without problems.

Still GRUB Legacy is limited to booting far partitions..proved and confirmed

[doktor5000]

What are "far partitions" and how is it limited? If it's proved and confirmed, where, please?
You can perfectly use grub to boot from the first partition, which starts at the beginning of the drive,
and so is by definition not far. So you're obviously wrong with that statement.

[linuxero]

What are "far partitions" and how is it limited? If it's proved and confirmed, where, please?
You can perfectly use grub to boot from the first partition, which starts at the beginning of the drive.

I had a computer with some 2TB hard disk. I had about 17 partitions at least two for windows, two for BSD, one for BeOS, three for three different linux distros and then my own messy scheme for my main OS Mandriva Linux. I always wanted to use Mandriva to boot any of the mentioned systems. But I had a problem that the /boot partition of Mandriva came too far after all the mentioned partitions and there has been no way to boot using Mandriva, even though Grub installed
perfectly.

Now, this might have been due to limits in the BIOS, but at that time I used Ubuntu's GRUB2 which booted nicely any of the systems installed.

So you might be right doktor5000 but I am sure that I am right too..maybe Grub Legacy depends a lot on BIOS, so for those who need large hard disks, they should be sure to update their BIOSes accordingly so that Grub Legacy works fine.

By Far Partition I meant to say a partition whose first sector starts beyond 1.5TB.

Correct me if I made a mistake, please. But this is my own experience and I am sure that I understand partitioning pretty well..I even programmed my custom boot-loader 5 years ago and a disk partitioning programme.