How to load kernel?

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Following a zypper dup and turning my computer off for a few hours; when I rebooted, I got a message saying, "error: you need to load the kernel first press any key to continue . . . " And then it goes back to the grub menu for of the same if I select openSUSE 11.2.

SystemrescueCD won’t boot it. I’ve tried to “repair installed system” and “rescue” with my openSUSE 11.1 DVD – it won’t even acknowledge (as it were) the presence of 11.2 or the system on the other hard drive (though it does recognise the partitions).

The PCLinuxOS 2009 KDE and GNOME live CDs will redo the MBR of installed systems (at least, as far I know, PCLinuxOS is one of systems). In my experience, the 11.2 live CD won’t. I was hoping the 11.1 DVD would. What to do?

Any help given me would be appreciated. As far as technical skill goes, please assume that I know nothing.

Thanks

#2

Any help given me would be appreciated. As far as technical skill goes, please assume that I know nothing.
If this is the case, then possibly consider re-installing. If you have a /home partition you can keep all that as it is.

It sounds like the kernel didn’t install correctly in the ‘dup’ you did.

#3

Okay. I reinstalled. Used the same partitions, formatting only /. No files preserved.

AND, openSUSE installer did what I’ve always known it to do: leave previously installed systems unbootable. I don’t know, but I presume it overwrites the existing MBR, leaving out any system other than itself.

During installation, but before the installation actually began, there was a summation of the partitioning, etc… At some place in the summation was something to the effect of:
MBR Location: sda
Change location:
Boot from MBR enabled (disable)[highlighted blue]
Boot from / disabled (enable)[highlighted blue]

Like I’ve said in the past, “Please assume I know nothing.” Well it seemed to me (still does) that if I leave “Boot from MBR enabled” alone; i.e., don’t change it by clicking on the blue “disable,” that the MBR would remain at sda. And that “Boot from / disabled” meant that the installer would not have grub at openSUSE’s / – as it would if I had clicked on the blue “enable.” So, just so I’ll know in the future, do I have that right? If not, will someone explain it to me?

And to add insult to injury, I bet Instlux doesn’t do that to windoz.

In the past (except for this time, time before this and the first time I installed openSUSE), I’ve always had PCLinuxOS installed first. An OpenSUSE install would leave PCLinuxOS out of the MBR, but I’d simply use a PCLinuxOS live CD to redo the MBR. In fact, PCLinuxOS has two such options one to redo the MBR and one to add other systems with the boatloader (I think I’m putting that right).

Well, I don’t have PCLinuxOS installed on my computer right now and Linux Mint, that is the Linux Mint live CD, doesn’t have the boot options that PCLinuxOS has. And once again, SystemrescueCD won’t boot Linux Mint! What does openSUSE’s installer do to accomplish that that other distros don’t and why?

What to do? Some help here would be very much appreciated.

In case anyone is wondering why I installed 11.2 lately after jumping ship when it first came out, a systems engineer I know was crowing about how great openSUSE is. Well, I know 11.0 and 11.1 were real fine OSes, but he thinks 11.2 is,too (but maybe that’s because he’s an expert and can fix everything). But I thought, “Well, okay, if the Linux Mint devs can resurrect a clunker like Karmic Koala and turn it into a real fine Helena, then maybe the Novell/openSUSE teams can do the same with 11.2.” Please help me out here.

#4

Now that you have openSUSE bootable, go Yast - System - bootloader, and let it propose a new bootloader config. That will scan your system for installed OS’s and create a new bootloader config. Should do the job.
Get back here with results please.

#5

file:///home/randalljordan/grubresponse1.pdf

I haven’t been to sleep. It took me a while to discover what the openSUSE KDE screenshot app is and then another long while to figure out how to use ksnapshot. and then put the screenshots on an OOo document with comments. I’m rather pleased with myself

But wait. It won’t paste; I’m only presuming that it copies. So I turned it into a PDF document. So is file:///home/randalljordan/grubresponse1.pdf going to turn into something that can be seen?

Maybe I can take screenshots of the PDF document.

file:///home/randalljordan/Desktop/write2.png.

I’m going to have to get into the user guide. I have important meeting tonight, so I’ll need to sleep first.

By the way, Yast bootloader configuration hasn’t helped. “Propose new configuration” only lists openSUSE.

“Reread configuration from disk” includes Linux Mint, but it won’t boot;the message I get is: “Booting Linux Mint 8 Helena
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader 0
Error 1: filename must either
be an absolue pathname or
blocklist
press any key to continue . . .”

I wonder if anything so simple as not using the OS’s full name hinders. I have more, but I better post this before something happens and I lose it.

#6

Maybe you should consider using Mint’s grub2 loader.

Try fixing with the Mint CD

  • Open a terminal and type

$ sudo fdisk -l

  • Now, you need to remember which device listed is your linux distribution, for reference, /dev/sda1 will be used. Now we need to mount the filesystem to /mnt

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

  • Now mount the rest of your devices

$ sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev

  • Now chroot into your system

$ sudo chroot /mnt

  • When that is done you need to run update-grub
    to create the configuration file.

$ update-grub

  • To install GRUB 2 to the MBR, next you need to run grub-install /dev/sda

$ grub-install /dev/sda

And your done

#7

Once in Mint do this

In a terminal

sudo update-grub

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

This will pick up other OS’s and put them in the menu.

Reboot and try them

#8

randalljordan@linux-sawu:~> su
Password:
linux-sawu:/home/randalljordan # sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 20.0 GB, 20020396032 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00076bcb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2327 18691596 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 2328 2434 859477+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2328 2434 859446 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40027029504 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4866 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004ce78

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 2277 18289971 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 2278 3103 6634845 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 4572 4866 2369587+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 3104 4571 11791710 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
linux-sawu:/home/randalljordan # sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
linux-sawu:/home/randalljordan # sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
linux-sawu:/home/randalljordan # sudo chroot /mnt

< Stay the curse. >



.–.
|o_o |
|:_/ |
// \
(| | )
/’_ /`
_)=(/

linux-sawu / # update-grub
Generating grub.cfg …
Found Debian background: linuxmint.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
grep: /proc/mounts: No such file or directory
Cannot find list of partitions!
done
linux-sawu / # grub-install /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install’.

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
linux-sawu / #

#9

/ You will be the last person to buy a
\ Chrysler. /

   \   ,__,
    \  (oo)____
       (__)    )\
          ||--|| *

randall@randall-desktop ~ $ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for randall:
Generating grub.cfg …
Found Debian background: linuxmint.png
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found openSUSE 11.2 (i586) on /dev/sdb4
done
randall@randall-desktop ~ $ sudo grub-install /dev/sda
Installation finished. No error reported.
This is the contents of the device map /boot/grub/device.map.
Check if this is correct or not. If any of the lines is incorrect,
fix it and re-run the script `grub-install’.

(hd0) /dev/sda
(hd1) /dev/sdb
randall@randall-desktop ~ $

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

It amazes me how some folks can just rattle off a solution – sort of like a t.v. doctor in the emergency room.

Well, caf4926, I’ve been seeing other of your advice and solutions in openSUSE forums and you seem to have a rather qualitative breadth of understanding in this sea. I appreciate it. It’s easy to see why you’re an administrator now. Congratulations.

#10

And, by the way, I don’t know why the poor showing of my previous install; but this one is much better. I’m no longer thinking of reinstalling 11.1. I’m impressed with OOo’s speed, too.

#11

Happy to hear I was of some help to you friend.
Enjoy your Linux experience!:wink: