As every time when a new OpenSuse Version arrives, I tried to install 11.4 (I have 11.2 ans 11.3 on separate partitions, + a Windows 7 that already was there when I bought my computer).
Previous versions always recognized existing installations and added them to the Grub list, 11.4 doesen’t… it merely recognizes the Windows. This is blocking me from testing it before adopting, as I always do, as I don’t know how to add these entries manually; I’m too afraid not to be able to add the entries once installed, and not being able to use my older versions in case I have troubles.
What went wrong in this release that developers forgot this important part ?
Anyway, can someone give me some good hints on how I could manually add my entries for 11.2 and 11.3 ? Help would be greatly appreciated (hints, links, examples) as I have no Grub experience
Copy the entries booting the kernels from the file /boot/grub/menu.lst of your 11.2 and 11.3 into /boot/grub/menu.lst in your 11.4. Boot entries look like this:
Different notations are possible. For example, I’m using /dev/disk/by-uuid. You won’t if you’re using openSUSE default. You can have as many entries as you like in /boot/grub/menu.lst to boot other openSUSE versions or other Linux distros. Just write a comment line starting with “###” before each entry - only needed on openSUSE - normaly in order to prevent YaST from removing it after a kernel update - although I’m afraid it might remove it anyway. Make a copy of your /boot/grub/menu.lst before and after you modify it.
It turns out there is a simpler method: go into the disk config part of the install
and when it shows the proposed mutilation, request a rescan. Lo and behold,
it was able to figure it out all along.
You can also add ‘chainloading’ entries to call other versions or distros GRUB. Chainloading entries look like this:
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: 11.3###
title openSUSE 11.3 Grub
root (hd0)
chainloader +1
###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: 11.2###
title openSUSE 11.2 Grub
root (hd1,5)
chainloader +1
In this example, 11.3’s GRUB in installed in MBR on the first HD (hd0), while 11.2’s GRUB is installed in the bootsector of sdb6 (hd1,5). Notice that - in Legacy Grub notation - disks and partition numbering starts at 0, while in Grub2 - used in Ubuntu and newer Debian - partition numbering starts at 1. This is often confusing.
Well it turns out that the complicated way looks almost… simpler
The Rescan didn’t change anything… if I did it right I don’t know.
In the Disk section - Edited the proposed partition and rescanned; then continuing to next section, the Boot entries were still the same, Desktop…, failsafe and Windows. But tried to copy entry from 11.2 to 11.3 to give it a try, that worked fine so I suppose it will work in 11.4
Just surprised, this is the first version since several years that doesn’t manage to retrieve/generate entries of installed OSes :-o
>
> Well it turns out that the complicated way looks almost…
simpler
> The Rescan didn’t change anything… if I did it right I don’t
know.
> In the Disk section - Edited the proposed partition and
rescanned; then
> continuing to next section, the Boot entries were still the same,
> Desktop…, failsafe and Windows. But tried to copy entry from
11.2 to
> 11.3 to give it a try, that worked fine so I suppose it will work
in
> 11.4
>
> Just surprised, this is the first version since several years
that
> doesn’t manage to retrieve/generate entries of installed OSes :-o
>
>
I agree with you on this one. I had the same problem: 11.4, 11.3,
11.2 and two backup drive. It saw everything but the boot loader
did not get updated correctly, only 11.4 and 11.2 were set up in
menu.lst. (I’ve been installing from 9.0 to 11.4 MS6 without
problems)
I finally managed to loss everything, cleaned all three disks with
the OS’s and installed 11.4. Even then, menu.ist had the wrong
(HD2,2) for 11.4 when it was now (HD0.2) according to the map.
Changed it and 11.4 booted fine.
Lucky I had complete /home back ups of all OS’s. Only 2 days old so
I did not loose much.
