Problem with multibooting

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Right, I have searched in the forums but I didn’t get a concrete answer.

Here’s the problem which is really annoying me quite a lot.

I bought a new SATA HD to test around, installed it along with opensuse 11.0 dvd. Besides that HD there is an IDE HD which has a windows installation, now after I install successfully and log in and set up my gnome etc etc and finally restart (either to due the upgrades or because i need to log in to windows) GRUB 1.5…

GRUB Loading, please wait…

_

It stays in the loop, right now I’m on windows because I chose in the menu while installing the boot into windows as default. I don’t know if its going to do the same when I restart this pc again probably.

Now as for the order, I ran arch linux cd I usually use it to use cfdisk and

/dev/sda is marked as the sata driver
and /dev/sdb is marked as the ide driver

BUT while I was installing opensuse, the order it gave was

/dev/sda as the ide driver
/dev/sdb as the sata driver

I’m pretty much confused on which order to follow or what to do.

Thanks,
David

#2

Can you try to reverse the order in yast to point to the original set up. The first disk is the ide drive that has the windows os and containing the mbr.

#3

allenskd wrote:

>
> Right, I have searched in the forums but I didn’t get a concrete answer.
>
>
> Here’s the problem which is really annoying me quite a lot.
>
> I bought a new SATA HD to test around, installed it along with opensuse
> 11.0 dvd. Besides that HD there is an IDE HD which has a windows
> installation, now after I install successfully and log in and set up my
> gnome etc etc and finally restart (either to due the upgrades or because
> i need to log in to windows) GRUB 1.5…
>
> GRUB Loading, please wait…
>
> _
>
> It stays in the loop, right now I’m on windows because I chose in the
> menu while installing the boot into windows as default. I don’t know if
> its going to do the same when I restart this pc again probably.
>
> Now as for the order, I ran arch linux cd I usually use it to use
> cfdisk and
>
> /dev/sda is marked as the sata driver
> and /dev/sdb is marked as the ide driver
>
> BUT while I was installing opensuse, the order it gave was
>
> /dev/sda as the ide driver
> /dev/sdb as the sata driver
>
> I’m pretty much confused on which order to follow or what to do.
>
> Thanks,
> David
>
>

You’ll have to pick an operating system first…

Archlinux obviously loads the sata driver THEN the pata/ide driver.
Opensuse seems to load the pata/ide driver… THEN the sata driver.

(cool how they lined up!!)

If you’re going to install Archlinux, you need to partition /dev/sda. And
conversely (perversely?!), if you want to install OpenSuSE, you’ll need to
partition /dev/sdb.

Now, if… perhaps… during the install as you adjust the partitioning
setup as all good geeks do… IF you put a LABEL on each partition, and
check the ‘mount by label’ option in the partition module of the
installer… you will never have to worry which drive letter is what, since
the system will LOOK for the label, and mount the proper drive, in the
proper place.

I have sda,sdb,sdc,sde,sdf,sdg,sdf,sdh… some through USB, most through
Firewire, sometimes they shuffle themselves since they all respond to a
probe randomly. The labels guarantee that when I want ‘dat5’, I
get ‘dat5’, and not something else that happened to be ‘sdf’ this month.

You can label everything. swap partitions too. Works great.

–
L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com

#4

Yea I noticed that I’m editing grub but now how do I know the right (hdx,x)?

As for volumes, eep me is such a bad geek :(!

Also, I’m not trying to install arch linux, I just use it because I don’t have a floppy or usb with a partition tool loads faster just want to resolve this issue as soon as possible =/.

Talking about floppies, when I was re-installing it said something about not being able to write /boot and that I should use a floppy disk, any comments on this?

cheers

#5

Oh yes I forgot!

Another issue is that by default this motherboard does not recognize the SATA, meaning I’m using a PCI to be able to use this hard disk. (Until I get a new computer, oh well)

#6

Alright, I’m back to my other partition but now my suse is dead :rolleyes:

I’ll figured it out later until I hit the jackpot on which hd(x,x) it is. Had enough panic today sorry, it’s just that this HD contains works, client stuff, and many other things, never expected it would go like this else I would have backed it up but I guess there’s no need now

Thanks, I followed conram’s suggestion, and as for labeling I’ll look it up :slight_smile: