Getting grub to add Linux Mint 8 KDE CE (pre openSUSE installed)

clgy15 · April 4, 2010, 12:59am

Hey Guys,
just installed OpenSUSE this weekend and I already had two different OSs on the laptop. Windows 7 and Linux Mint 8 KDE CE. Well during installation Windows was automatically added to grub but Mint wasnt. And When I go to the bootloader tab, and I add a new image it asks me the kernel image and initial RAM disk. Well This is what is in the boot folder on the Mint Partition

{

 boot (folder only contains a jpg file)
 grub (the grub installed on KDE... inactive)
 abi-2.6.31-16-generic
 config-2.6.31-16-generic
 initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
 memtest86+.bin
 System.map-2.6.31-16-generic
 vmcoreinfo-2.6.31-16-generic
 vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic

}

A: I cant find the initial RAM disk, i tried initrd.img
B: Im 99% sure the kernel image is vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic
C: When I put those settings in and restarted the computer and selected Mint it gave me an error saying that the file couldnt be found. Well duh i forgot to delete the path that OpenSUSE used to get to the Mint partition. Well boot loader didnt like that saying the file could not be found. So I tell it to avoid it but it still deletes the boot entry so now im stuck
=/ please help

swerdna · April 4, 2010, 1:08am

There’s a way to do this fairly easily, but I need some info first to get it accurate. Can you boot into openSUSE and mount the Mint partition (e.g. at /mnt/mint) and then run these three commands and report back here what you get:

ls -l /mnt/mint
ls -l /mnt/mint/boot
ls -l /mnt/mint/boot/grub

I’m looking for the way Mint arranges its symlinks and initrd’s etc, and don’t know exactly, but we’ll see from that.

clgy15 · April 4, 2010, 4:22am

Im assuming you want the root folder then the boot folder then the grub folder in the boot folder and I mounted it in media and called it Mint8KDE

so here is root folder /media/Mint8KDE/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-03-01 21:51 bin
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-03-01 21:52 boot
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 2010-02-25 20:43 cdrom → media/cdrom
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2009-10-28 17:39 dev
drwxr-xr-x 157 root root 12288 2010-04-01 21:17 etc
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2010-02-27 23:10 home
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 33 2010-02-25 20:59 initrd.img → boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
drwxr-xr-x 19 root root 12288 2010-03-30 21:43 lib
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 2010-02-25 20:43 lost+found
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2010-03-31 16:46 media
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-10-19 20:04 mnt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-10-28 17:32 opt
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-10-19 20:04 proc
drwx------ 32 root root 4096 2010-03-23 18:04 root
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-03-31 15:57 sbin
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-10-19 19:05 selinux
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2010-03-30 21:43 srv
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2009-10-19 11:18 sys
drwxrwxrwt 17 root root 12288 2010-04-01 21:17 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 2010-02-25 21:10 usr
drwxr-xr-x 15 root root 4096 2010-03-01 21:39 var
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 30 2010-02-25 20:59 vmlinuz → boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic

then the boot folder /media/Mint8KDE/boot
total 15624
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 629174 2009-12-08 03:03 abi-2.6.31-16-generic
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 2009-12-05 21:53 boot
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 111371 2009-12-08 03:03 config-2.6.31-16-generic
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2010-02-25 21:00 grub
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 9544071 2010-03-01 21:52 initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 128796 2009-10-23 12:11 memtest86+.bin
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1665323 2009-12-08 03:03 System.map-2.6.31-16-generic
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1196 2009-12-08 03:05 vmcoreinfo-2.6.31-16-generic
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3892032 2009-12-31 22:56 vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic

then the grub folder /Mint8KDE/boot/grub
total 1240
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 8224 2010-02-25 20:59 915resolution.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 10568 2010-02-25 20:59 acpi.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4612 2010-02-25 20:59 affs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5056 2010-02-25 20:59 afs_be.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4832 2010-02-25 20:59 afs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1048 2010-02-25 20:59 aout.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7880 2010-02-25 20:59 ata.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2272 2010-02-25 20:59 ata_pthru.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2248 2010-02-25 20:59 at_keyboard.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4948 2010-02-25 20:59 befs_be.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4724 2010-02-25 20:59 befs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4188 2010-02-25 20:59 biosdisk.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2440 2010-02-25 20:59 bitmap.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2024 2010-02-25 20:59 blocklist.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 512 2010-02-25 20:59 boot.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2568 2010-02-25 20:59 boot.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 19340 2010-02-25 20:59 bsd.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1960 2010-02-25 20:59 bufio.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1952 2010-02-25 20:59 cat.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 512 2010-02-25 20:59 cdboot.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2332 2010-02-25 20:59 chain.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2128 2010-02-25 20:59 cmp.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1558 2010-02-25 20:59 command.lst
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1812 2010-02-25 20:59 configfile.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 25074 2010-02-25 20:59 core.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2788 2010-02-25 20:59 cpio.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1572 2010-02-25 20:59 cpuid.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1740 2010-02-25 20:59 crc.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1820 2010-02-25 20:59 datehook.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2272 2010-02-25 20:59 date.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1241 2010-02-25 20:59 datetime.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 15 2010-02-25 20:59 device.map
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 512 2010-02-25 20:59 diskboot.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1844 2010-02-25 20:59 dm_nv.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5540 2010-02-25 20:59 drivemap.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1924 2010-02-25 20:59 echo.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6436 2010-02-25 20:59 efiemu32.o
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 11003 2010-02-25 20:59 efiemu64.o
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 25076 2010-02-25 20:59 efiemu.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4404 2010-02-25 20:59 elf.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5460 2010-02-25 20:59 ext2.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3828 2010-02-25 20:59 extcmd.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5744 2010-02-25 20:59 fat.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7208 2010-02-25 20:59 font.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2196 2010-02-25 20:59 fs_file.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2764 2010-02-25 20:59 fshelp.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 121 2010-02-25 20:59 fs.lst
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2132 2010-02-25 20:59 fs_uuid.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 8536 2010-02-25 20:59 gfxterm.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3728 2010-02-25 20:59 gptsync.mod
-r–r–r-- 1 root root 3815 2010-02-25 21:00 grub.cfg
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1024 2010-03-31 16:46 grubenv
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7732 2010-02-25 20:59 gzio.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1468 2010-02-25 20:59 halt.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 272 2010-02-25 20:59 handler.lst
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2056 2010-02-25 20:59 handler.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 7312 2010-02-25 20:59 hdparm.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1220 2010-02-25 20:59 hello.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2116 2010-02-25 20:59 help.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3112 2010-02-25 20:59 hexdump.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5912 2010-02-25 20:59 hfs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5788 2010-02-25 20:59 hfsplus.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5992 2010-02-25 20:59 iso9660.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5592 2010-02-25 20:59 jfs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5900 2010-02-25 20:59 jpeg.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 31060 2010-02-25 20:59 kernel.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2012 2010-02-25 20:59 keystatus.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4864 2010-02-25 20:59 linux16.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 217979 2009-12-23 08:36 linuxmintkde.png
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 8644 2010-02-25 20:59 linux.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1024 2010-02-25 20:59 lnxboot.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5576 2010-02-25 20:59 loadenv.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3084 2010-02-25 20:59 loopback.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1300 2010-02-25 20:59 lsmmap.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4112 2010-02-25 20:59 ls.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4184 2010-02-25 20:59 lspci.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5496 2010-02-25 20:59 lvm.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1772 2010-02-25 20:59 mdraid.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2104 2010-02-25 20:59 memdisk.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2184 2010-02-25 20:59 memrw.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4028 2010-02-25 20:59 minicmd.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4368 2010-02-25 20:59 minix.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 8592 2010-02-25 20:59 mmap.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1657 2010-02-25 20:59 moddep.lst
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2376 2010-02-25 20:59 msdospart.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 15072 2010-02-25 20:59 multiboot.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 34572 2010-02-25 20:59 normal.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3260 2010-02-25 20:59 ntfscomp.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 8500 2010-02-25 20:59 ntfs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4500 2010-02-25 20:59 ohci.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2104 2010-02-25 20:59 part_acorn.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2308 2010-02-25 20:59 part_amiga.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2700 2010-02-25 20:59 part_apple.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2764 2010-02-25 20:59 part_gpt.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 62 2010-02-25 20:59 partmap.lst
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3472 2010-02-25 20:59 part_msdos.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2288 2010-02-25 20:59 part_sun.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 22 2010-02-25 20:59 parttool.lst
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4520 2010-02-25 20:59 parttool.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1964 2010-02-25 20:59 password.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 848 2010-02-25 20:59 pci.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2072 2010-02-25 20:59 play.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6496 2010-02-25 20:59 png.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2664 2010-02-25 20:59 probe.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1024 2010-02-25 20:59 pxeboot.img
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2424 2010-02-25 20:59 pxecmd.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3536 2010-02-25 20:59 pxe.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1380 2010-02-25 20:59 raid5rec.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2828 2010-02-25 20:59 raid6rec.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5888 2010-02-25 20:59 raid.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1548 2010-02-25 20:59 read.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1124 2010-02-25 20:59 reboot.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 9876 2010-02-25 20:59 reiserfs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3268 2010-02-25 20:59 scsi.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3516 2010-02-25 20:59 search.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5604 2010-02-25 20:59 serial.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 690 2010-02-25 20:59 setjmp.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4144 2010-02-25 20:59 sfs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 12076 2010-02-25 20:59 sh.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2208 2010-02-25 20:59 sleep.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2820 2010-02-25 20:59 tar.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 9536 2010-02-25 20:59 terminfo.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5164 2010-02-25 20:59 test.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2892 2010-02-25 20:59 tga.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 1272 2010-02-25 20:59 true.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5072 2010-02-25 20:59 udf.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4712 2010-02-25 20:59 ufs1.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5032 2010-02-25 20:59 ufs2.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4896 2010-02-25 20:59 uhci.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3272 2010-02-25 20:59 usb_keyboard.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4196 2010-02-25 20:59 usb.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3800 2010-02-25 20:59 usbms.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2968 2010-02-25 20:59 usbtest.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2740 2010-02-25 20:59 vbeinfo.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6152 2010-02-25 20:59 vbe.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3048 2010-02-25 20:59 vbetest.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3672 2010-02-25 20:59 vga.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 2692 2010-02-25 20:59 vga_text.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 16224 2010-02-25 20:59 video_fb.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 5264 2010-02-25 20:59 video.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3820 2010-02-25 20:59 videotest.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6084 2010-02-25 20:59 xfs.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 24732 2010-02-25 20:59 xnu.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 4224 2010-02-25 20:59 xnu_uuid.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 6332 2010-02-25 20:59 zfsinfo.mod
-rw-r–r-- 1 root root 24284 2010-02-25 20:59 zfs.mod

swerdna · April 4, 2010, 4:45am

Looks like Mint is another Debian derivative that has Grub1-bootable symlinks in the root directory despite it uses Grub2. Therefore, to boot Mint from the openSUSE bootloader you put this code into the menu.lst file for Grub in openSUSE:

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

This example uses the Mint root partition is sda9 (hd0,8). Change that to match where your Mint root partition actually is e.g. if it’s sda5 then make changes so they become (hd0,4) and sda5. Whatever.

Reference is another Debian derivative, Ubuntu, same principle: HowTo Multiboot Ubuntu from openSUSE using the GRUB bootloader

clgy15 · April 4, 2010, 3:13pm

It almost has it but it gives me an error after it reads the line root=/dev/sda5 ro quiet splash
It gives me Error 11: Unrecognized device string

swerdna · April 4, 2010, 4:01pm

Sorry, I had a typo. I have fixed it now, the post is correct now.
I had this on two lines:

kernel /vmlinuz
root=/dev/sda9 ro quiet splash

which should be like this, on one line:

kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda9 ro quiet splash

a typo