Dual booting problems

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I just installed OpenSuse 11.1 alongside of Ubuntu 9.10. After finishing up the installation I find that I can’t get into Ubuntu. I have tried adding Ubuntu to the OpenSuse /boo/grub/menu.lst but it doesn’t seem to be working.ANy help would be great.

#2

Hi kjb34
Put an entry similar to this into the openSUSE menu (/boot/grub/menu.lst) and it will boot Ubu 9.10:

#Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: none#
title Ubuntu 9.10 booting via symlinks
root (hd0,8)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda9 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img

The full explanation and details are here: HowTo Multiboot Ubuntu from openSUSE using the GRUB bootloader

#3

Thank you I’ll have to try that

#4

That didn’t work. I upgraded from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.1 so I still have GRUB 1 as my bootloader.

#5

It doesn’t matter what version of Grub you have in Ubuntu. If you’re booting it from the openSUSE loader, that code will work. If it doesn’t work you’ve likely made a typo or targeted the wrong partition, mistaking which partition is Ubuntu. So check (a) for typos and/or (b) that you have targeted the correct partition.

#6

Won’t that fail if the Ubuntu kernel is on an ext4 partition?

#7

It works with ext4 Ubu

#8

Thx John - I had forgotten abt the patch.

#9

Okay.I copied just like it was. I believe I had targeted the right partition. I’ll try again

#10

To know for sure how grub sees the Ubuntu partition, you can hit Escape to drop from the graphical menu to a text menu, and then the ‘c’ key to drop into the grub shell. Then do:

find /boot/initrd.img

and grub will return the partition using its notation. Type “quit” to return to the menu. Highlighting a menu entry with the cursor and hitting the ‘e’ key allows you to edit the entry on-the-fly; hit the ‘b’ key to boot that entry.

#11

Correction – do not use: find /boot/initrd.img

  • When searching for openSUSE use: find /boot/initrd
  • When searching for Ubuntu use: find /initrd.img
#12

Only if initrd.img is on a separate /boot partition. If Ubuntu’s /boot is on the root partition, then the grub shell (when run separately from the OS) must be given the fully qualified path. That reminded me to check previous posts; that may be the problem with the suggested menu.lst syntax (unless I missed somewhere that there is a separate /boot partition).

#13

I ending up using find /initrid.img to find that the location is hd (0,0) which means the location is sda1. I think I made mistyped it I will try it later on tonight.

#14

You’re missing my point:

  • The symlink is named initrd.img in Ubuntu and it is located in the root of the root directory so the full path is /initrd.img.
  • The symlink is named initrd in openSUSE and it is located in the boot directory so the full path is /boot/initrd.

In both cases I’ve written the “fully qualified path”. There is no problem with the suggested menu, the wording I gave is exactly what’s needed when booting Ubuntu from openSUSE.

#15

Yes, what you need is this:

#Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: none#
title Ubuntu 9.10 booting via symlinks
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img