Opensuse flew the coop...

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Currently running XP Pro. Installed new 500G HD in laptop, partitioned to Y:/ (240G) and Z:/ (220G). Installed Opensuse 11.2 on Z. Works fine, GRUB OK. Installed Win7 on Y. Win 7 works fine, GRUB loader is gone. No more Opensuse boot option, can only select from Win7 or “earlier version of windows”. I was hoping for a triple boot system. Do I need to reinstall Opensuse on Z, or is there a shortcut to just bring the loader back and see all 3 boot options? Does it matter that I deleted the Opensuse installer? (didnt think I needed it anymore).

ProtoSound
Spokane, WA

#2

This happens all the time when people install Windows after Linux. Windows arrogantly believes that it’s the only OS in the world and overwrites GRUB.

Just boot with the install CD and select the repair option to restore GRUB. You may have to go into YaST afterwards and add Win7 to the list of OS options. See, Linux is accommodating, Windows is not.

PS: Welcome to the openSUSE forums.

#3

Appreciate the reply. Unfortunately I am a noob, and dont know how to translate “YaST”. I will attempt a repair, reapply the 4.3 gigawatts of power, and see what happens…

#4

You will find Yast in your menu it is the central command and control for Suse. rotfl!

#5

If you have the DVD there is a repair option you should use, If you have a live CD only, I am not aware of an option on these disks to easily repair this.

On rereading, I notice you mentioned 4.3 GB ( well OK, you actually mentioned 4.3gigawats of power, we don’t want the power suppliers to go broke, you are doing your bit then ! ). That would be the DVD. hope it goes well.

#6

OK. Now openSUSE has kicked Billy Gates in the hiney. I have no Windows options, only the Linux. My repair had a couple of errors in the loader section, which I selected (as best I could tell) the best options. Now when I boot, my PC goes right to an openSUSE splash page where I can select between openSUSE, floppy disk, or openSUSE Failsafe. I can F12 to boot options on power-up and select the C drive (Linux is on Y), but it still goes right to this page. … _ _ _ …

#7

First off C: D: N: etc are all Microsoft speak and have little to do with reality. In general these refer to partitions and since you can redefine them we can not actually know what partitions. So in order to get the Winders boot option back we need to know exactly the real partition layout. So please do the following and post the results.

Open a console (command line CL) window type the following bold exactly (case counts in Linux)

su -
then enter the root password
if all the defualts were taken on the install this will be the same as the first user password.
note this does not echo to the screen, don’t flip out if you do not see the entry

then
fdisk -l note that is a lower case L not a one)

post results here.

Then someone can lead you to adding Windows back to the boot menu.

#8

From openSUSE can you open a terminal, If using KDE then ‘konsole’ is a terminal you will have available, In this case can you type the following.

su -

then enter your root password (the password won’t be shown while typed), then

fdisk -l

and copy and paste the output here.

#9

Heres the result:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa42d04a3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 16 128488+ de Dell Utility
/dev/sda2 * 17 19457 156159832+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x140d7afe

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 29321 235520901 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sdb2 29322 60801 252863100 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb5 1 262 2104452 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 263 2873 20972826 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 2874 29321 212443528+ 83 Linux

#10

Hmmm. Playing with the Yast2 Bootloader Settings now. Just looking, not tweaking. I feel like a third grader attempting brain surgery…think I’ll look for a help file???

#11

Thanks, can you also give us

su -

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
#12

sdb6 or sdb7 is your Linux partition and sda2 is one windows partition. The other windows partition is sdb2 so you will want to add sdb2 and sda2 as alternate boot drives controlled by GRUB. YAST2->boot can do this.

#13

If you are interested in learning more,SDB:Basics of partitions, filesystems, mount points - openSUSE

And more specific to your situationGRUB Boot Multiboot openSUSE Windows (2000, XP, Vista) using the Grub bootloader.

#14

OK - ran the command:

Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Sat Jun 26 01:24:23 PDT 2010

THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader

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

default 2
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd1,5)/boot/message

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2 (pae)
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-pae

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2 (pae)
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-pae root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-pae

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2 (default)
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2 (default)
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-default

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: xen###
title Xen – openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/xen.gz
module /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-xen root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31A
module /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-xen

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title Debug – openSUSE 11.2 - 2.6.31.12-0.2
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.12-0.2-debug root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.31.12-0.2-debug

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 devfs=mount,dall resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe – openSUSE
root (hd1,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST9500420ASG_5VJ4DD3P-part6 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31A
initrd /boot/initrd

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

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title bbb
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title ccc
rootnoverify (hd1,1)
makeactive
chainloader +1

###Don’t change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: other###
title ddd
rootnoverify (hd1,6)
makeactive
chainloader +1

I have tried to set up each of the existing partitions as a chainloader, but none work. I probably have the options wrong:

  • Activate this Partition…
  • Do not verify fiulesystem
  • Map section
    – Block offset
#15

BTW - I gave them dummy names until I figured out what they did. The Dell Diagnostice worked, so I renamed it. The others I will leave with dummy names until they work.

#16

You have a good reason for all those kernels??

Any way you missed th right one hd0,1 :wink:

That is the second partition on the first drive. Remember that BIOS numbers start at 0

#17

OK - I deleted all the kernels except for the one I’m currently using and the Dell Diagnostics. I am unable to find the 0,1 partition though. Will it show up under the chainloader option, the image option, xen or otherwise? Instead of pestering you all day, is there a specific forum you can direct me to? Appreciate your help.

#18

What do you mean you can’t find it??

It is the second partition on the first drive

rootnoverify (hd0,1)

the first partition on the first drive is hd0,0 the second partition is hd0,1 the first partition on the second drive is hd1,0 and so on.

the BIOS number different then Linux. The BIOS starts at 0 Linux start counting at 1 so the BIOS hd0,1 is the same as sda2 , hd1,0 is the same as sdb1

#19

From the desktop, I am activating the YaST Bootloader tool. Under the Section Management tool, I click on Add, select Other System (Chainloader), and click Next. I put a dummy name in to the Section Name box, set the Block Offset to +1, and select from the Other System dropdown menu. On that menu, my choices are: /dev/fd0, /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2, /dev/sdb6, and /dev/sdb7. I have tried all of these choices, but none work when I reboot and select them. I feel that I am risking getting a serious laughing at here, but I cant find any sort of help for this utility on the forums. I did find instructions for the following:

Add the following to /boot/grub/menu.lst under the “Windows” section:
map (hd0,0) (hd1,0)
map (hd1,0) (hd0,0)
rootnoverify (hd1,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

…but I don’t know how to access that file. Linux structuring is still new to me and I think in Windows (sorry…). Is my problem the fact that Im trying to go all of this in KDE instead of Konsole?

#20

BTW - it would help if I knew how to access these .lst files so as to edit/modify them. Can this be done in YaST?