How do I get OpenSUSE to recognise Ubuntu?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Well, I installed OpenSUSE and now I can’t boot my Ubuntu partition! There is no option for it in the boot loader, but it exists because I can mount it when I am on my desktop and see all my files.

PS. First time I tried OpenSUSE, and it has a great KDE integration! It’s really nice!

2

What version of openSUSE and Ubuntu?

Give us the result of this from a su terminal

fdisk -l

and

cat /etc/fstab

and

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
3

and, assuming you mounted your Ubuntu partition in /mnt:

grep -e 'set root' -e '/boot'  /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg
4

Are you sure the Ubuntu installation is still there? When I tried to install 11.2 after Ubuntu, 11.2 targeted my Ubuntu partitions for deletion, as though it didn’t even recognize there was anything on them.

5

I have Ubuntu 9.10 and OpenSUSE 11.2

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000116d8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6528 52428127 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 13996 14593 4803435 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 * 6528 13995 59986679 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 13996 14593 4803403+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

cat /etc/fstab:

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_HM121HI_S18JJDNQ700973-part5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_HM121HI_S18JJDNQ700973-part3 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

And finally, cat /boot/grub/menu.lst:

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Wed Dec 9 20:18:18 GST 2009

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

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

default 0
timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,2)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.2
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_HM121HI_S18JJDNQ700973-part3 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_HM121HI_S18JJDNQ700973-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.5-0.1-default

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.2
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.5-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-SAMSUNG_HM121HI_S18JJDNQ700973-part3 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x317
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.5-0.1-default

Thankyou for replying

6

Yes, I’m sure I still have my Ubuntu installation in my other partition. I shrunk my 'buntu partition in the install and made a new one for OpenSUSE. In openSUSE, I can mount my Ubuntu partition and look around in it. Everything is still there, and I can access my old documents

7

It gives me:

grep: /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg: No such file or directory

8

It’s possible that Ubuntu is here as highlighted red

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000116d8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6528 52428127 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 13996 14593 4803435 5 Extended
/dev/sda3 * 6528 13995 59986679 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 13996 14593 4803403+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Question is, do you or have mainly used Ubuntu. In which case we might be best getting Ubuntu to manage booting. Follow these directions, **but you could do with checking once you do the mnt of sda1 and see if you can see
/boot/grub/grub.cfg **

Boot with the Ubuntu live cd and when in the desktop open a terminal and do:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

next

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

next

sudo chroot /mnt

Now do

update-grub

then

grub-install /dev/sda

Then to finish off
Press Ctrl+D to exit out of the chroot

then do

sudo umount /mnt/dev

sudo umount /mnt
Reboot

9

Does it have to be the 9.10 Live CD? I only have the 9.04 live CD… I have the 9.10 minimal Beta CD.

10

PS, This is what I get in terminal after doing “grep -e ‘set root’ -e ‘/boot’ /mnt/boot/grub/grub.cfg” from the Ubuntu 9.04 live CD (I assume this is the same as doing this from my openSUSE partition- I already had the LiveCD booted so I thought it would be easier):

if  -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
set root=(hd0,1)
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro single 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-15-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-15-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro single 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-15-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro single 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-11-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro   quiet splash
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-11-generic
	set root=(hd0,1)
	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-11-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro single 
	initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-11-generic
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin
	linux16	/boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
11

So you can add the following boot entry for Ubuntu in you /boot/grub/menu.lst on openSUSE:

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: Ubuntu###
title Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) - kernel 2.6.31-16-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-16-generic root=UUID=74c3a951-7cec-4391-a669-61aa6b532cb0 ro   quiet splash
initrd	/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-16-generic
12

It worked perfectly! Thanks! I’m going to stick to openSUSE anyway, I just keep ubuntu for the debs…