Grub install question

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1

I tried last time to install grub and failed.

But first the details. I have two drives, one with Windows the other
with openSUSE.
In grub i got all the information correct. It discovered the partition
and said ok.
But after booting, it showed me always (after several time) a windows
bootscreeen.
How that happend? Did i do anything wrong or did Windows just prevent
that. I had used the usual grub steps (find,root,setup,quit).
But by installing all new (windows and linux) grub is there just fine. I
don’t get it. Where is my error?

–

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2

If I had Windows installed on /dev/sda and openSUSE installed on /dev/sdb and I wanted to boot from openSUSE and select openSUSE or Windows from the Grub OS selection menu, I would have to do several things to make that work:

  1. Select /dev/sdb as my boot device in the PC BIOS.
  2. Install openSUSE onto /dev/sdb, making sure ALL (Grub, / root, /home & SWAP all on /dev/sdb) of openSUSE was installed there.
  3. In the openSUSE install section, before I allowed the installation to begin, make sure that /dev/sdb is listed first before /dev/sda other wise the Grub menu and device.map fies will not be constructed properly.

When you install openSUSE and the boot target is Not the first drive, you must make sure the install knows how it will be when it boots the openSUSE hard disk. This can not be guesed when you boot from a CD or DVD first.

Thank You,

3

On 07.02.2012 18:26, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> JoergJaeger;2438388 Wrote:
>> I tried last time to install grub and failed.
>>
>> But first the details. I have two drives, one with Windows the other
>> with openSUSE.
>> In grub i got all the information correct. It discovered the partition
>> and said ok.
>> But after booting, it showed me always (after several time) a windows
>> bootscreeen.
>> How that happend? Did i do anything wrong or did Windows just prevent
>> that. I had used the usual grub steps (find,root,setup,quit).
>> But by installing all new (windows and linux) grub is there just fine.
>> I
>> don’t get it. Where is my error?
>>
>> –
>>
>> Windows, supports nearly all software, hardware, and viruses.
>> Linux Counter: 548299 https://linuxcounter.net/
>
> If I had Windows installed on /dev/sda and openSUSE installed on
> /dev/sdb and I wanted to boot from openSUSE and select openSUSE or
> Windows from the Grub OS selection menu, I would have to do several
> things to make that work:
>
> 1. Select /dev/sdb as my boot device in the PC BIOS.
> 2. Install openSUSE onto /dev/sdb, making sure ALL (Grub, / root, /home
> & SWAP all on /dev/sdb) of openSUSE was installed there.
> 3. In the openSUSE install section, before I allowed the installation
> to begin, make sure that /dev/sdb is listed first before /dev/sda other
> wise the Grub menu and device.map fies will not be constructed properly.
>
> When you install openSUSE and the boot target is Not the first drive,
> you must make sure the install knows how it will be when it boots the
> openSUSE hard disk. This can not be guesed when you boot from a CD or
> DVD first.
>
> Thank You,
>
>
Mm… well what i did was that i had my linux and windows transfered via
clonezilla to the harddrives.
In theory that should work, but the problem was the bootmanager.
I did not do point 1, but i did check the devices via fdisk.
The point is what i am asking, that grub can be installed regardless. Right?

–

Windows, supports nearly all software, hardware, and viruses.
Linux Counter: 548299 https://linuxcounter.net/

4

Most complications arise with 2 HD’s because users actually get mixed up about boot order. Not only that (in my experience) the installer also gets mixed up. So you have to trawl through the bootloader settings at install to make sure it’s all correct.

5

2 HDs are still OK, because everyone - including user, BIOS, mainboard, SATA controller, kernel - still agree about which is the first one and which is the last one. Tertium non datur! The fun begins with 3 HDs or more …

6

Real men can handle seven or more hard drives I have found. lol! But of course its not the number of hard drives that count, but the number of partitions contained within, right?

Thank You,

7

On 07.02.2012 20:56, caf4926 wrote:
>
> Most complications arise with 2 HD’s because users actually get mixed up
> about boot order. Not only that (in my experience) the installer also
> gets mixed up. So you have to trawl through the bootloader settings at
> install to make sure it’s all correct.
>
>

I assume i mixed it up somehow. It drove me almost crazy because i was
so certain that i was right and the computer wrong.
Or that MS is more evil than i thought.
Anyway, i hope i don’t have to do it again but i am getting better with
grub now to the point that i even remember the commands now. :slight_smile:

–

Windows, supports nearly all software, hardware, and viruses.
Linux Counter: 548299 https://linuxcounter.net/

8

So, what is your situation now with booting openSUSE? Did you understand what was said about booting openSUSE from a second hard drive? Do you have any other questions to ask?

Thank You,

9

you’re kidding. :wink:
The number of partitions is irrelevant actually. 2 hard disks with 60 partitions are easier to manage than 6 hard disks with 1 or 2 partitions. When Grub doesn’t find the partition, most of the time, that’s because it looks on the wrong disk.

10

Me kidding? What would give you that idea? (and hello tonight please_try_again)

Thank You,

11

On 08.02.2012 17:46, jdmcdaniel3 wrote:
>
> JoergJaeger;2438683 Wrote:
>> On 07.02.2012 20:56, caf4926 wrote:
>>>
>>> Most complications arise with 2 HD’s because users actually get mixed
>> up
>>> about boot order. Not only that (in my experience) the installer also
>>> gets mixed up. So you have to trawl through the bootloader settings
>> at
>>> install to make sure it’s all correct.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I assume i mixed it up somehow. It drove me almost crazy because i was
>> so certain that i was right and the computer wrong.
>> Or that MS is more evil than i thought.
>> Anyway, i hope i don’t have to do it again but i am getting better with
>> grub now to the point that i even remember the commands now. :slight_smile:
>>
>> –
>>
>> Windows, supports nearly all software, hardware, and viruses.
>> Linux Counter: 548299 https://linuxcounter.net/
>
> So, what is your situation now with booting openSUSE? Did you
> understand what was said about booting openSUSE from a second hard
> drive? Do you have any other questions to ask?
>
> Thank You,
>
>

Well, lets just say i fixed it before the answer. I installed my
openSUSe again and Windows was anyway already there.
So for now everything is ok. Next time though, i need to consider that
boot order. In retrospect it does make sense since it wrote it somewhere
but not on the harddrive that boots. Human error then. :slight_smile:

–

Windows, supports nearly all software, hardware, and viruses.
Linux Counter: 548299 https://linuxcounter.net/

12

I could handle seven … of nine, maybe. :stuck_out_tongue:
But I thought last time we talked about hard disks, you still had six. You couldn’t resist to buy another one, couldn’t you? :wink:

13

Yes, I got an external USB 3.0 interfaced 3 TB GPT Partitioned hard drive. I got it just before the prices for hard drives went through the roof due to the flooding of hard drive factories in Thailand. I got it for $150 US at the time and did so to play with Large GPT hard drives. It came partitioned as NTFS and I never did a thing but connected it up to openSUSE and it started working without doing anything but add it to my fstab file. I can say that I don’t look at them as individual drives, but as the many partitions they contain and with my bad memory, often must run fdisk just to see what I have and it is a lot more than I use on a daily basis. Besides playing with a large partitioned disk in Linux, I also backed up everything of value to this drive, but have not needed to use it to do a restore so far.

Thank You,

14

Try gdisk to list the partitions on the GPT disk (although I bet there is only one). fdisk only shows the protective MBR. gdisk is in my repo:

$ **zypper info gdisk  **
Loading repository data...
Reading installed packages...


Information for package gdisk:

Repository: PTA
Name: gdisk
Version: 0.8.2-86.1
Arch: x86_64
Vendor: obs://build.opensuse.org/home:please_try_again
Installed: Yes
Status: up-to-date
Installed Size: 724.0 KiB
Summary: An fdisk-like partitioning tool for GPT disks
Description: 
An fdisk-like partitioning tool for GPT disks. GPT
fdisk features a command-line interface, fairly direct
manipulation of partition table structures, recovery
tools to help you deal with corrupt partition tables,
and the ability to convert MBR disks to GPT format.
15

I installed gdisk from your repository and this is what it says.

james@Linux-Master:~> sudo gdisk /dev/sdk
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.2

Partition table scan:
  MBR: MBR only
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format.
THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by typing 'q' if
you don't want to convert your MBR partitions to GPT format!
***************************************************************

I just quit without doing anything.

fdisk says:

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdk1              63   732563999  2930255748    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

stats: James_HDG: ntfs Total:2,794.5 GiB free:2,624.7 GiB and used:169.8 GiB

Thank You,

16

I believe that gdisk tells the truth. It’s not using GPT. Where is the GTP partition? fdisk should see only this one. Look at the parted and fdisk examples posted in this article http://forums.opensuse.org/content/105-booting-opensuse-uefi-bios-elilo-grub2-windows-dual-boot.html. And if if were a hybrid MBR (who knows?), it would look like this:

# fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00002652

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1      409639      204819+  ee  **GPT**
/dev/sda2          409640   352469031   176029696   af  HFS / HFS+
/dev/sda3   *   352731176   488134983    67701904   83  Linux

Anyway, anytime you run fdisk on a disk with GPT, it should issue a warning and either only display the protective MBR or the hybrid MBR (which main contains 3 other partitions but still has a GPT one). I have no idea how your disk could reach such a size with MBR. It sounds mathematically impossible. But it’s NOT using GPT. Maybe there is a trick.

17

Yes, not sure but it is the factory configuration and I have not changed a thing since I brought it home. I must look at it in Windows and see what it is saying.

Thank You,