Add Suse To Grub On Floppy

Hi,

I've got a multiboot pc with xp and kubuntu on one hdd, and osx86, w2k, fc8 and os11 (beta) on another. I let o-s install the mbr (to the first hdd), and its own grub bootloader, and it boots everything from the hdd fine (except for osx86, but that's another story). However, I'd like to also add o-s to a working grub boot floppy as a backup.

The floppy boots everything else, but I can't get it to boot o-s. I tried adding it to the menu.lst in various ways, however, grub cannot seem to 'get at' the file system, even from the command line ("find (hd1,6)/[tab]"). I even tried copying the menu.lst entries from o-s's grub to the floppy, but it's still returning a 'can't mount file system' error.

Is there some particular option or syntax I need to use in menu.lst?

Thanks!

this may help:
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...howtopic=50570

this may help:
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/in...howtopic=50570
[/b]

Hmmm, yeah I saw that already, and it's not quite what I had in mind... I have a working, 'generic' grub boot floppy installation, and I would like to add a new entry to menu.lst in order boot suse from it, too.

Call me perverse, but I'm just curious why conventional grub syntax doesn't seem to be working here (as it does for all the other distros listed in my post above).

Is there something idiosyncratic about how suse accepts the mbr pointer and/or grub commands, and if so, what should I use in menu.lst to get it to work?

I guess I'll have to post both menu.lst's when I get home later this evening and maybe someone can spot the problem...

well,
unless you post your grub and fstab, it may be difficult to help

well,
unless you post your grub and fstab, it may be difficult to help
[/b]

Fair enough...

suse's fstab (note the 160G is actually a PATA):

/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part7 / ext3 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part6 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part7 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part2 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.I SO-8859-1 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part1 /windows/D ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.I SO-8859-1 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part3 /windows/E ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.I SO-8859-1 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part8 /windows/F vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part9 /windows/G vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part5 /windows/H ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.I SO-8859-1 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part8 /windows/I vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part9 /windows/J ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.I SO-8859-1 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part10 /windows/K vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part11 /windows/L vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part12 /windows/M vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AAKS-_WD-WCAS84142073-part13 /windows/N vfat users,gid=users,umask=0002,utf8=true 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
usbfs /proc/bus/usb usbfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0[/b]

menu.lst on hdd (generated by yast2):

# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed May 7 18:57:47 EDT 2008
default 2
timeout 30
gfxmenu (hd1,6)/boot/message

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25-rc9-17
root (hd1,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-rc9-17-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part7 vga=0x314 resume=/dev/sda6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-rc9-17-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25-rc9-17
root (hd1,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25-rc9-17-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD1600JB-00_WD-WCAL95631099-part7 vga=normal showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume edd=off 3
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25-rc9-17-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (/dev/sdb6)###
title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (/dev/sdb6)
root (hd0,5)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Fedora (2.6.24.4-64.fc8) (/dev/sda3)###
title Fedora (2.6.24.4-64.fc8) (/dev/sda3)
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
chainloader (hd1,2)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 2###
title XP
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
chainloader (hd0,0)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 1###
title 2K
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
chainloader (hd1,1)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows 3###
title windows 3
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
chainloader (hd0,2)+1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
chainloader (hd0)+1[/b]

menu.lst on floppy (copied from ubuntu grub installation). Note failed attempt to chainload suse (last entry). I've also tried using the same model of the other linux distros, with kernel and inited, and pasting the suse items directly from the yast2 version pasted above...

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=57d57c0a-0a08-4478-9fba-25912c14fa59 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=57d57c0a-0a08-4478-9fba-25912c14fa59 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

title WORKING XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

#title Fedora 8, kernel 2.6.23.1-42.fc8
#root (hd1,2)
#kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.23.1-42.fc8 ro quiet splash
#initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.23.1-42.fc8.img
#quiet

title Fedora 8, kernel 2.6.24.5-85.fc8
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.24.5-85.fc8.img
quiet

title Fedora 8, kernel 2.6.24.5-85.fc8 (recovery mode)
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.5-85.fc8 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.24.5-85.fc8.img

title Fedora 8, kernel 2.6.24.4-64.fc8
root (hd1,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24.4-64.fc8 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.24.4-64.fc8.img
quiet

title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25-rc9-17
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
chainloader +1[/b]

what is the exact error?
something like
"Kernel panic, not syncing: VFS: can't mount file system on unknown
block (0,0)"

or the error information is different?

what is the exact error?
something like
"Kernel panic, not syncing: VFS: can't mount file system on unknown
block (0,0)"

or the error information is different?
[/b]

Nope, it's not a kernel panic. It's "can't mount file system", i.e. it's not getting far enough to even have a kp. This includes grrub command line stuff as described in my original post. The partition according to grub is hd1,6 (7th partition on the 160G ide disk).

Interestingly, I can't mount this partition from my other linux installations, or with an ext3 reader app from xp, even though they can mount/read every other partition (including each other's roots) on my pc, except for the hfs.

so maybe, there is a problem with partition?

so maybe, there is a problem with partition?
[/b]

ah... should I reinstall windows?

as long as you have managed to install ...windows on ext3 partition that fails to be mounted by other OSes (linux or windows), then yes reinstall windows

seriously, I don't know why this particular partition is different. You would have to do more diagnosis and decide if you want to re-create partition and install OS again.