Grub issue

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hey guys

ok basically i have 2 hard disks

one Seagate 500GB Sata, and one Western digital SATA

my windows 7 is on the western digital and i think thats sda1, and opensuse is on the seagate

the grub loader is on the western digital, and earlier today everything booted fine , till i went to boot windows

i had 2 “other” options, i selected the first one and it failed, the second other booted to windows, after about 3 hours on windows and doing nothing

i went to reboot and go to opensuse, and got a “grub loading stage 1.5., please wait” and it loads forever and nothing happens, it just idles

im currently on the livecd just to get an operating system to use to get the net

2

i cant even load windows 7 now. i really need some help on this

3

P.S , i read some forums and tried doing a “configure new boot thing” in the boot loader but it keeps saying it fails due to not been able to mount my hard disk

4

Have you tried any of these threads

Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic

Edit the Grub Menu to add Windows entries.

SDB:All about GRUB - openSUSE

5

I have a dual-disk setup (SATA and IDE) between Linux and Windows 7 too.

Just for clarity:
Seagate=openSUSE (“S” for “Suse”)
WD=Windows (“W” for “Windows”)

Was Grub on the WD because of a previous installation, or what was your thinking behind that?

On my setup I have the Linux on the Primary (SATA) slot with Grub, and Windows (IDE) on the second hard drive. That way, if Windows disk is removed, I can boot to Linux without any issues (grub comes up as expected), and if I remove the Linux disk and move the Windows to the primary spot it won’t even notice something not there anymore.

What are the entries in Grub for the Windows choices? I’m not in front of a Linux box to figure out where the file is, at this moment.
Also, can you verify which is first and which is second?

6

That is the easiest way to get the job done.

7

i dont have any on ide, there just plugged into sata ports on the motherboard

everything was fine after installing opensuse, i did recently have fedora but got bored of it

The seagate is the opensuse driver
the boot drive in the bios is the western digital
the grub menu is on the western digital
windows 7 is on the western digital

the grub menu about 2 hours ago gave me opensuse 11.4, other 1, other 2, and opensuse failsafe

After booting other 2 and going to windows 7 and playing some games for a phew hours, i rebooted my pc to access opensuse to play with it, and i got that loading message and nothing happens

now to even get online im using the livecd for opensuse 11.4

8

Use the link pointed out earlier for PartedMagic and install the GRUB where the openSUSE is, in your case, the Seagate.

9

how do i burn it to a usb stick, i cant take the livecd out whilst using the livecd to boot opensuse

P.S heres my grub config file but i think this is from the livecd, no idea its from my opensuse installation

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Fri Apr 15 14:00:40 UTC 2011

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 30
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu
##YaST - activate

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.4
kernel quiet showopts vga=0x31a
initrd

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Linux other 1###
title Linux other 1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Linux other 2###
title Linux other 2
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.4
kernel apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: memtest86###
title Memory Test
kernel

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Kernel-2.6.37.1-1.2-desktop
kernel quiet showopts vga=0x31a
initrd

10

I don’t know if it works in openSUSE, but I had an update lose my Windows options in the Grub menu in Ubuntu. The suggestion I got was to run, I think,

sudo grub-config

I don’t know if this is something more Ubuntu-specific, but it seemed as though it rescanned and reentered my Windows option back in.

That link looks handy, I’ll have to keep it in mind next time.

11

ill try that, but problem is , i cant access the grub menu at all. it says loading please wait and just hangs for ages

linux@linux:~> sudo grub-config

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.

sudo: grub-config: command not found

12

I’ve never used parted magic as a usb.

Here is a link I found, I’m not sure if it works. UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads

If that doesn’t work, are you able to locate your OpenSuse iso file and make a live usb

SDB:Live USB stick - openSUSE

Than you will have your remote system and have your dvd burner open to make a parted magic cd.

13

andddd imagewriter doesnt read my 4GB toshiba usb stick, says, cant initiate HAL

and that unetbootin after installation loads up a ball game

14

Does your live environment read the usb stick at all?

15

Sorry, that above link is dead
UNetbootin, Universal Netboot Installer | Download UNetbootin, Universal Netboot Installer software for free at SourceForge.net

16

I don’t know if UNetbootin works with openSUSE. It didn’t in the past.

If you have a LiveCD, you could probably run that and access the Grub settings on the WD.

17

nankura,

Are you not able to access a terminal in your live distribution? If you are, you should be able to run
Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic

Step 2

2. Once in the live desktop start a RoxTerm, this has root power by default. I have included a video of this being done. We need to start grub, find the menu.lst file, setup grub.

You type: grub
Terminal: grub>

You type: find /boot/grub/menu.lst
Terminal: (hd0,1) (N.B. You may get different, replace your numbers in the next step)

You type: root (hd0,1) (Or different depending what previous step gave for you)
Terminal: Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83

You type: setup (hd0)
Terminal: Checking if /boot/grub/stage1 exists ... yes Computer finally returns this-- Succeeded.......Done

You type: quit
reboot

When I had to reinstall Grub, I could not get Parted Magic to work, and had to use a OpenSuse live disc.

18

i ended up just reinstalling suse

but i want to prevent this happening in the future, i wish i knew the cause of it so i can stop it ever happening again, i dont want to have to reinstall again

19

Did Re-Install Grub Quickly with Parted Magic
not work for you?

i ended up just reinstalling suse

but i want to prevent this happening in the future, i wish i knew the cause of it so i can stop it ever happening again, i don’t want to have to reinstall again

Many times the fix takes longer than reinstalling, but having patience to learn how to fix the issue (as hard as that is at times) really helps learn went wrong. Many people are contributing who are willing to walk you through the problem, but they need time to get to your responses.

Which version did you install of OpenSuse, and is your grub fixed?

20

i appreciate the help you guys provided

i reinstalled 11.4, but then when i rebooted, and loaded up windows 7, and rebooted again to go back to opensuse to test it

the problem happened again, it seems to occur whenever i load up windows 7