multi-boot problem

user · October 26, 2008, 3:09am

I’m trying to multi-boot with CentOS 5.2, Mandriva 2008.1, Mandriva 2009.0, and openSUSE 11.0. I can boot to any of the first three, but when I try to boot to openSUSE, I get an almost immediate complaint about being the wrong file type or wrong directory.
Below are the /boot/grub/grub.conf from CentOS, which is the boot loader I use, and the /boot/grub/menu.lst from openSUSE /boot/grub/menu.lst;
$ sudo cat /hda6/boot/grub/menu.lst

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Oct 26 00:03:30 UTC 2008

default 4
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.5-1.1
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 resume=/dev/sda2 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.5-1.1
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off x11failsafe vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux (/dev/sda5)###
title linux (/dev/sda5)
root (hd0,4)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux (/dev/sda7)###
title linux (/dev/sda7)
root (hd0,6)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus) (/dev/sda9)###
title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus) (/dev/sda3)
root (hd0,0)
configfile /grub/menu.lst

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux (/dev/sdb5)###
title linux (/dev/sdb5)
root (hd1,4)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

$ sudo cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

grub.conf generated by anaconda

Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file

NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that

all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda8

initrd /initrd-version.img

#boot=/dev/hda
default=4
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu

title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus ro root=/dev/hda3 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus.img

title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.5-1.1
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 resume=/dev/sda2 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae

title 2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb root=/dev/sda9 splash=silent resume=/dev/sda2
initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb.img

title CentOS 5 hdb2 (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5 ro root=/dev/hdb2 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hda5 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hdb5 resume=/dev/hdb3 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

I edited my CentOS /boot/grub/grub.conf and copied the appropriate entry for openSUSE to it. It appears to me to be identical, yet I can’t boot to openSUSE.

Any help with this would be appreciated.
Thanks,
owa

swerdna · October 26, 2008, 6:31am

I don’t understand this stuff so this is a guess might work might not.
Try changing this line:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 resume=/dev/sda2 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
the sda to hda:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
and if that doesn’t work a further change to this:
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.5-1.1-pae root=/dev/hdaX resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
Where X is the partition for Suse root (maybe 6?)
You can easily change back if it fails

mingus725 · October 26, 2008, 5:10pm

@swerdna - I see why you suggest the change from sda to hda, but that is not going to work. OP’s CentOS is using 2.6.18 kernel apparently without the libata change, hence still “h” not changed to “s” which is what the openSUSE 2.6.25 kernel expects; in other words, whether “h” or “s” depends on the kernel being called, must be “s” for openSUSE.

@oldwierdal - Please post back here the results of doing from within CentOS (there may not be a menu.lst and device.map may be located elsewhere). Point out which partition(s) are being used to mount /boot separately:

cat /boot/grub/device.map
cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
cat /etc/fstab
fdisk -lu

By the way, the better approach would be to install grub to the boot sector of the other distros and then in your centralized CentOS menu.lst chainload to each. Right now you are using the “direct” method, which requires you to specify the path to the kernel in each stanza; any time the kernel is updated in openSUSE or Mandriva you have to change the stanza in CentOS. With chainloading you would not need to do that; the control file only need be set up once.

user · October 26, 2008, 6:51pm

This is CentOS /boot/grub/menu.lst;
$ sudo cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

grub.conf generated by anaconda

Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file

NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that

all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda8

initrd /initrd-version.img

#boot=/dev/hda
default=4
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu

title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus ro root=/dev/hda3 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus.img

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.16-0.1 (pae)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae

title 2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb root=/dev/sda9 splash=silent resume=/dev/sda2
initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb.img

title CentOS 5 hdb2 (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5 ro root=/dev/hdb2 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hda5 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hdb5 resume=/dev/hdb3 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

And this is CentOS /boot/grub/device.map;
$ cat /boot/grub/device.map
(fd0) /dev/fd0
(hd0) /dev/hda
(hd1) /dev/hdb
(hd2) /dev/sda
(hd3) /dev/sdc

This is CentOS /etc/fstab;
$ sudo cat /hda3/etc/fstab
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
#/dev/hda6 /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

And this is fdisk -lu
$ sudo /sbin/fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/hda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9b059b05

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 63 208844 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 208845 4305419 2048287+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3 4305420 168152354 81923467+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 168152355 976768064 404307855 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 168152418 324416609 78132096 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 324416673 480680864 78132096 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 480680928 636945119 78132096 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 636945183 793209374 78132096 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 793209438 976768064 91779313+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xaeffeeff

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 63 208844 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 208845 153806309 76798732+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 153806310 157902884 2048287+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb4 157902885 312576704 77336910 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 157902948 312576704 77336878+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 257 MB, 257949696 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 984 cylinders, total 503808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c6677

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 32 503807 251888 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 1031 MB, 1031798784 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3936 cylinders, total 2015232 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x09e2c9d3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 32 2015231 1007600 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)

Oddly, in 5 years of playing with Linux, the only time I’ve used chainloader in the boot menu is when I dual-booted with Win XP. I’ve never used chainloader for a linux installation. What would the syntax be?

Thanks for the reply,

owa

mingus725 · October 26, 2008, 7:34pm

Where is the openSUSE kernel? Under under the root, hda6? Or on a separate partition like you have with CentOS?

The syntax for chainloader is the same, regardless of OS. Chainloader simply transfers control to the jump instruction in the partition boot sector. If that instruction was installed by XP, it will call code within the sector that will in turn search for ntldr on that partition and execute it. If grub stage1 is installed to the PBR, it will contain a pointer to wherever its stage2 is located, find it, and execute that. So if you install grub to the boot sector of hda6, then it’s just

rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader (hd0,5)+1

You can install grub there with YaST Boot Loader. Or from the grub shell, thus:

root (hd0,5)
setup (hd0,5) (hd0,5)
quit

user · October 26, 2008, 9:32pm

Thanks for the reply. I tried that, but got a similar message to that which I’ve been getting before, whenever I try to boot openSUSE;
error 13;
Invalid or unsupported executable format.
Press any key to continue…

This is the grub.conf file for CentOS, with the recent change you suggested;
$ sudo cat /boot/grub/grub.conf

grub.conf generated by anaconda

Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file

NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that

all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.

root (hd0,0)

kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hda8

initrd /initrd-version.img

#boot=/dev/hda
default=4
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
#hiddenmenu

title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus ro root=/dev/hda3 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus.img

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
#title Vanilla – openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.16-0.1

root (hd0,5)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 splash=silent showopts

initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla

title openSUSE 11.0
rootnoverify (hd0,5)
chainloader (hd0,5)+1

title 2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb
kernel (hd0,8)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb root=/dev/sda9 splash=silent resume=/dev/sda2
initrd (hd0,8)/boot/initrd-2.6.27-desktop586-0.rc8.2mnb.img

title CentOS 5 hdb2 (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5 ro root=/dev/hdb2 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hda5 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

Centos 5.2 resides on /dev/hda3, with a separate boot partition, /dev/hda1. swap is /dev/hda2. Mandriva 2008.1 resides on /dev/hda5, openSUSE 11.0 on /dev/hda6. Both Mandriva and openSUSE have the boot directories in the /.
Mandriva;
$ ls /hda5
bin/ halt/ hda7/ hdb2/ lib/ mnt/ root/ sys/
boot/ hda3/ hda8/ hdb5/ live/ ooobuildtime.log save/ tmp/
dev/ hda5/ hda9/ home/ lost+found/ opt/ sbin/ usr/
etc/ hda6/ hdb1/ initrd/ media/ proc/ srv/ var/
openSUSE;
$ ls /hda6
bin/ etc/ lost+found/ opt/ sbin/ sda5/ sdb5/ tmp/
boot/ home/ media/ proc/ sda1/ sdb1/ srv/ usr/
dev/ lib/ mnt/ root/ sda3/ sdb2/ sys/ var/

$ ls /hda6/boot
backup_mbr symtypes-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae.gz
boot@ symtypes-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla.gz
config-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae symvers-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae.gz
config-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla symvers-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla.gz
grub/ System.map-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae
initrd@ System.map-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla
initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae vmlinux-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae.gz
initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla vmlinux-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla.gz
message vmlinuz@
symsets-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae.tar.gz vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae
symsets-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla.tar.gz vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla

$ ls /hda6/lib/modules
2.6.25.16-0.1-debug/ 2.6.25.16-0.1-lockdep/ 2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla/
2.6.25.16-0.1-default/ 2.6.25.16-0.1-pae/ 2.6.25.16-0.1-xen/

What seems so odd to me is that both of the Mandriva installations, 2008.1 and 2009.0 will boot from this menu, and 2009.0 has the scsi scheme, vs the IDE. If Mandriva 2009.0 will boot this way, it seems that openSUSE 11.0 should as well.
Obviously, there is more to this than I am understanding at this point. Even more odd, to me, is that while I still had the openSUSE boot menu as the MBR, the chainloader +1 entry provided by openSUSE in the /boot/grub/menu.lst for CentOS and Mandriva did not work, faulting with the same or similar errors. But, after I edited the openSUSE menu.lst, everything would boot. It wasn’t till I changed to the CentOS boot loader that I had this problem.
This is the openSUSE /boot/grub/menu.lst;
$ sudo cat /hda6/boot/grub/menu.lst

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sun Oct 26 09:29:56 MST 2008

default 2
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,5)/boot/message

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.16-0.1 (pae)
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.16-0.1
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off x11failsafe
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-pae

title CentOS (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus ro root=/dev/hda3 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.centos.plus.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hda5 resume=/dev/hda2 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

title CentOS 5 hdb2 (2.6.18-92.1.13.el5)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot-centos/vmlinuz-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5 ro root=/dev/hdb2 rhgb quiet resume=/dev/hda2
initrd /boot-centos/initrd-2.6.18-92.1.13.el5.img

title 2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb
kernel (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/vmlinuz-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb BOOT_IMAGE=2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb root=/dev/hdb5 resume=/dev/hdb3 splash=silent vga=788
initrd (hd0,0)/boot-mandriva/initrd-2.6.24.7-desktop586-1mnb.img

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla###
title Vanilla – openSUSE 11.0 - 2.6.25.16-0.1
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla###
title openSUSE 11.0
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 splash=silent showopts
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.0
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla root=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_WDC_WD5000AVJB-_WD-WCAS87395101-part6 showopts ide=nodma apm=off acpi=off noresume nosmp noapic maxcpus=0 edd=off x11failsafe
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.25.16-0.1-vanilla

I’m open and eager for any suggestions with this. I’m mystified.
Thanks,
owa

swerdna · October 26, 2008, 9:32pm

Good to know, thanks

mingus725 · October 26, 2008, 10:43pm

Would you please post back the output of this from openSUSE:


cat /etc/grub.conf

cat /boot/grub/device.map

And you installed grub to hda6, right? With YaST or with the grub shell within openSUSE?

user · October 27, 2008, 9:11pm

Mingus725, I really appreciate all the work you’ve put in to help me with this. However, I’ve decided to continue my testing of openSUSE 11.0 as a guest os with VirtualBox on my CentOS 5.2 host.
The primary reason I like to test OS’s in a dual-boot environment is to see the behavior of that os with actual hardware vs the virtual hardware of VirtualBox or VMware, etc. I’ve had occasions, mostly with the Debian derivatives, where the os performed ok in the virtual environment, but wouldn’t even install in the real hardware environment.
Since I know that openSUSE 11.0 will actually install and function well with my hardware, the rest of my testing can just as easily be done in a virtual environment.

In answer to your questions, however;

cat /etc/grub.conf cannot be retrieved as I have already removed openSUSE from that partition.
cat /boot/grub/device.map has also been removed.
CentOS 5.2 was already installed. I installed Mandriva 2008.1, and it installed its version of grub on /dev/hda. I then re-installed the CentOS grub, via /sbin/grub-install, and made the appropriate entries to the CentOS /boot/grub/grub.conf. I did the same thing with the openSUSE, and its version of grub was also installed onto /dev/hda. It was after re-installing CentOS grub that I could no longer boot to openSUSE. I’m convinced that the problem is somehow related to the mixing of the two conventions, scsi and IDE. Exactly how, I’m not sure. If I were heavily involved in testing mixed environments in particular, I would pursue this. However,…

Again, I really appreciate all the effort you’ve made in this. Thank you, sincerely.

I might be back to this forum should questions arise during my virtual testing of openSUSE 11.0.

owa

mingus725 · October 27, 2008, 10:07pm

I understand. fwiw . . . I asked to see those files to verify that grub was correctly installed to the hda6 boot sector. I suspected that it was, and that the issue might be the kernel differences, as I alluded to earlier. Separately, fyi re differences between native vs virtual machine installations, in a vm most of the hardware is abstracted usually with a very common component that is easily supported, while the underlying hardware may not be. Good luck.

user · October 28, 2008, 12:49am

To be perfectly honest, I’m very impressed with Mandriva 2008 Spring (2008.1). It even found, installed, and configured my HP C4240 multifunction printer/fax/scanner automagically. I was working on getting that printer installed on openSUSE 11.0 when time demanded that I reboot back to either CentOS or Mandriva, so that I could get some other real work done.
Although openSUSE installed easily, and looks and feels like a great distribution, it didn’t seem to offer much that was different from Mandriva. In fact, except for the control-centers, neither offers much that I don’t already have and use on the much more mature CentOS 5.2. I can’t remember the last time CentOS had any problems at all, let alone any problem which caused the computer to freeze or a program to crash. Both Mandriva and openSUSE experienced crashes of different programs just in the short time I’ve been testing them. That’s where maturity plays a big role, even with the somewhat old and stodgy appearance.
Thanks again.

owa

mingus725 · October 28, 2008, 3:40am

Each distro has its particular focus and niche. openSUSE, like Fedora Core, is upstream for commercial projects and “cutting edge.” Mandriva is a close cousin. (And of course CentOS is based on RedHat, FC’s downstream.) All are quite mature with considerable added-value at the OS infrastructure level.