single drive in MacPro - grub cannot mount (hd0,0)

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I have a single drive in a Intel MacPro with two partitions: sda1 is formatted ext3 as the root partition; sda2 is formatted as linux-swap. I used the default settings in the installer DVD, and selected to use grub for the bootloader.

At the end of the installation process the bootloader fails.

When I go into Rescue in the installer DVD and run “grub --batch < /etc/grub.conf”, I see

grub> setup --stage2=/boot/grub/stage2 (hd0,0) (hd0,0)
Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition.
grub> quit

Or if I go into Automatic Repair in the installer DVD, the only thing that fails is the bootloader, and regardless of which partition I check for the bootloader location (MBR, boot, root, sda1) it continues to fail.

I won’t type in the contents of /boot/grub/menu.lst quite yet, but from all appearances it looks perfectly fine.

Any ideas why the bootloaded does not work?

#2

Maybe the word “MacPro” keeps folks from investigating this thread. Let me change the question:

I installed SuSE 11.0 on a disk that contained NO partitions. (I made sure to use parted to remove all partitions, and I did this in the Rescue shell of the installer DVD). Why oh why would GRUB fail when I accepted the default partition scheme and the bootloader configuration was determined automatically by the SuSE 11.0 installer?

#3

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:46:03 GMT
fogelfish <fogelfish@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
> Maybe the word “MacPro” keeps folks from investigating this thread. Let
> me change the question:
>
> I installed SuSE 11.0 on a disk that contained NO partitions. (I made
> sure to use parted to remove all partitions, and I did this in the
> Rescue shell of the installer DVD). Why oh why would GRUB fail when I
> accepted the default partition scheme and the bootloader configuration
> was determined automatically by the SuSE 11.0 installer?
>
>

Nah, MacPro doesn’t scare us… we have to sleep sometime!! {Grin}

What exactly are you seeing on the screen when you try to boot the MacPro?

I’m not sure if the Intel based MacPro’s are different from my little iBook,
but to get it to boot properly, I had to create a tiny partition for the
openfirmware bootloader to access, which loaded another little bootloader,
which loaded grub, which loaded linux. (OMG!)

Didn’t say which Intel MacPro you have, so you get the full list of help
pages to choose from:

From the opensuse.org website:
http://en.opensuse.org/Installation#Different_Architectures

Although they may not be written explicitly for opensuse 11.0, they explain
how to partition the drive so everything works.

Hope this helps.

Loni

–
L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com

#4

The installer never gets to finish without complaining about Grub. But if I try to boot from the hard drive, I see only the blinking cursor after the line “Booting from the hard drive…” (or something like that).

I couldn’t find documentation in Installation - openSUSE for single-boot configuration on Apple hardware, but I’ve looked at various flavors of instructions for dual-booting MacOS and Linux, which I’ve done successfully on an iMac. I was hoping to do it differently this time, but I think I’ll stick with dual-booting the OS’s and hope it works on the MacPro as well.

However, if you know of instructions for single-booting Linux on Apple hardware, I’d still be very interested in looking at it.

Thanks for helping out again.

#5

Before you start from scratch…

You need reFit…a specialized bootloader that works on Intel based Macs…(Just because it’s Intel, you didn’t think Jobs would make it JUST like a PC, did you? :slight_smile: )

rEFIt is a boot menu and maintenance toolkit for EFI-based machines like the Intel Macs. You can use it to boot multiple operating systems easily, including triple-boot setups with Boot Camp. It also provides an easy way to enter and explore the EFI pre-boot environment.

rEFIt - An EFI Boot Menu and Toolkit

Good Luck!

#6

I absolutely do not suggest installing Linux as the only OS on your Mac, unless you install OS X onto a thumbdrive or an external…it’s the only way you’ll get your hardware firmware updates…

Pretty important, I’ve had my Mac for just over a year, and there have been battery, keyboard, sleep/hibernate, and I believe trackpad firmware updates…

Hope rEFIT works!

#7

I was successful with reFIT. But I was hoping to single-boot the machine into Linux.

I think you make a very good point, ajmctaggart. I do not understand the intricacies of boot-loading, boot-strapping, boot-chaining (as I digress into mangled terminology), but I did have the glint of an insight – because of the Apple architecture reFIT would probably be necessary even in a single-boot scenario.

That’s actually a question.

#8

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:46:03 GMT
fogelfish <fogelfish@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:

>
> I was successful with reFIT. But I was hoping to single-boot the
> machine into Linux.
>
> I think you make a very good point, ajmctaggart. I do not understand
> the intricacies of boot-loading, boot-strapping, boot-chaining (as I
> digress into mangled terminology), but I did have the glint of an
> insight – because of the Apple architecture reFIT would probably be
> necessary even in a single-boot scenario.
>
> That’s actually a question.
>
>

Yes, you are correct. My ibook is a ‘single-boot’ system, with only OpenSuSE
11.0 installed.

BUT, due to Apple’s architecture, I had to create a small HFS partition
containing a small bootloader, which then booted opensuse itself.

Apple’s firmware cannot read anything except HFS (maybe HFS+ too). So the
little HFS partition is needed to let it find something to boot from.

This starts up a little bootloader which knows how to read linux-type
partitions (ext2, ext3, reiserfs, xfs, etc), and it proceeds to find the
“proper” boot systems… bringing grub into play, and ultimately the
operating system itself.

Kinda weird, but it works. I just made a little one cylinder partition, made
it type 7 (HPFS/NTFS, oddily enough), and installed the secondary bootloader.

This is all from memory, since I’m not keen on booting the iBook… it was a
test… only a test, and it’s not that fast… so booting the iBook is a
trial of patience. (bogomips=26.51!). Works (barely) decent after it boots
though. I used it briefly to log into and use another machine when
Kitty-Kitty decided to chew through and short out the entire USB bus on
that system. (no keyboard, mouse, usb devices… eek!) So using X11
forwarding and ‘x2x’, I was able to control that ‘dead’ system’s keyboard and
mouse and use it while I researched a solution. (It works again now!)

Loni

–
L R Nix
lornix@lornix.com

#9

I guess it will remain a deferred exercise to single-boot a Mac into Linux, but it’s good to know how it can be done. It’s not that I buy expensive Macs and then replace what I consider to be a fine OS.

I developed a large-scale web application for a client and expected to add Zend Platform into the mix, but now as I ready to do that, Zend no longer supports the Mac. I had to make good on my client’s investment (made on my advice). I understand they want to virtualize the Linux OS within the year, so the Linux-on-Macs I’m implementing now is just a transitional solution.