SUSE 11.2 Boot Loader Installation Locations and Options

I hope these are simple queries to which there will be simple answers.

  1. If I want SUSE 11.2’s grub to be on its root partition and keep the Windows ntldr as the primary boot manager in a multi-boot situation (Windows XP + nine Linux distros), which from the following two lists should I select during installation?

Boot Loader Installation
Boot from Master Boot Record
Boot from Root Partition
Boot from Boot Partition
Boot from Extended Partition
Custom Boot Partition

Boot Loader Options
Set active Flag in Partition Table for Boot Partition
Write generic Boot Code to MBR
Debugging Flag
Hide Menu on Boot
Use Trusted Grub
Enable Acoustic Signals

  1. Why, in my case, if “Boot from Root Partition” is now the default, does SUSE insist on suggesting “Boot from Extended Partition”?

  2. In the Release Notes, under “Configuring Boot Loader Location and Options”, what does the following sentence mean: “In the options adjust updates of the other system areas of your disk, which may influence the ability of openSUSE and the other installed systems to boot.” In particular what does adjust updates mean?

Cheers

I’m not by any means the “boot” expert here, but:

  1. If you want something other than this distro’s boot manager to control your machine just “boot from root”. You will however need to point whatever boot manager you do use to this location.

  2. Because it has recognized that this distro is in a logical partion within an extended partition and a “sensible” location would be the extended partition - you don’t need to accept that suggestion.

  3. I would read that as a disclaimer that if you don’t use this distro’s boot manager, you may expect other changes you make (outside this distro) to break things !

IG

Assuming you already have GRUB set up for one of the other distros and you have not set up a boot partition, then root partition and trusted GRUB. Obviously, you will need to set up openSUSE as an option on that GRUB menu.

Thanks for the replies. I have installed SUSE 11.2 twice on to /dev/sda13 of my multi-boot computer and wanted to follow the same procedure I have done for a good number of years now, ie put grub on the root partition and use the ntldr as the primary boot loader. All my Linux distros have their grubs installed on their root partitions. On initial boot the ntldr menu appears, from where I select whichever distro I want to boot into and then that particular distro’s grub takes over.

However this hasn’t worked so far on SUSE 11.2

First installation 14 November
SUSE recommended the following for the boot loader location:
Status Location /dev/sda4 (extended)
Boot from MBR is disabled (enable)
Boot from “/” is disabled (enable)

So I went to Boot Loader settings, Boot Loader installation tab, checked Boot from Root Partition and unchecked Boot from Extended Partition.

Unfortunately, I have to confess I didn’t look at the Boot Loader options so I don’t know what SUSE had set there.

On completion of installation I restarted but it didn’t reboot into the ntldr. I just had a black screen with flashing cursor and I couldn’t boot into anything. Anyway I did eventually manage to get the ntldr back in control (won’t bore you with the details) and was able to use SUSE. But, on 20 November, following various attempts at enabling mp3s in Amarok, without warning SUSE suddenly shut the computer down!

I rebooted but nothing happened. It got as far as a splash screen, the one with the white progress bar. This completed its travel across to the right and then nothing. Just stuck. So I ran through the Repair Installed System from the installation DVD. The first error it reported was “The Ext4 file system of the partition /dev/sda13 is corrupted. To repair the file system, press Repair”. So I pressed Repair. A box saying “Repairing file system … “ flashed on the screen for a millisecond and then “The Ext4 file system of the partition /dev/sda13 is corrupted … “ appeared again. Again I pressed Repair, again the same thing happened. So I skipped that bit and carried on.

Various other errors followed about eg initrd and the boot loader and goodness knows what else were reported. By this stage I gave up and decided to reinstall.

Second installation 21 November
SUSE again recommended the following for the boot loader location:
Status Location /dev/sda4 (extended)
Boot from MBR is disabled (enable)
Boot from “/” is disabled (enable)

I clicked on “enable” next to “Boot from “/” is disabled”. This changed the Status Location line to
/dev/sda4 (extended), /dev/sda13 (“/”)
ie both extended and root partition

This time I did look at the Boot Loader Options. The only item checked was “Set active Flag in Partition Table for Boot Partition”.

On restart, it booted straight into SUSE’s grub, not the ntldr. Again I managed to get the ntldr back in control and am still happily using SUSE 11.2. And I have this time successfully enabled mp3s playing in Amarok.

However, as you will see, I have not yet managed to hit on the right boot loader combination during installation to get SUSE’s grub on its root partition and the ntldr retaining its primary boot manager role! :expressionless:

Sorry, I think I may have misunderstood what you were doing. I take it you have a separate GRUB entry in each distro’s /boot partition, none of which refer to any other distro.

If this is the case, you may have confused the openSUSE installer. It is now wise enough to know that, if there is another Linux distro, it should include itself in the GRUB menu that accesses the other distro(s). I think that is what it thinks it is doing by mounting the extended partition.

This may need a developer’s knowledge as they have changed the installer on the assumption that people use GRUB for all their Linux distros and Windows and not taken account of your arrangement.

Essentially, you want openSUSE to be completely passive but it may not be set up to do that. In which case, you may have to install it - allowing it to do its thing and then reinstall your boot loader and edit menu.lst to reflect what you want to do, assuming simply editing menu.lst to remove everything except openSUSE from the menu allows you to do what you want to do.

You are likely to have problems if there is a kernel update as openSUSE normally re-writes menu.lst on the assumption that you are using GRUB.

Trying to solve one group of users’ groups has affected another. It may be worth adding a wish to the openSUSE Bugzilla.

I have a multiboot desktop which is currently set up as follows:

/dev/sda1 Windows XP
/dev/sda2 Mint 7
/dev/sda3 Fedora 11
/dev/sda4 extended
/dev/sda5 Ubuntu 9.04
/dev/sda6 swap
/dev/sda7 Mandriva 2009
/dev/sda8 Ubuntu 9.10
/dev/sda9 SUSE 11.0
/dev/sda10 PCLinuxOS2009
/dev/sda11 shared fat32
/dev/sda12 Zenwalk 6.0
/dev/sda13 SUSE 11.2

I use Windows ntldr as my primary bootloader simply because XP has been a permanent fixture on the computer since I bought it, whereas the Linux distros get changed fairly frequently and I just find it easier to let the one constant operating system have control.

What I do when I install a fresh distro is to pick an already installed one I no longer want, direct the new distro to that partition and tell it to format it and mount it as /. Then I tell it to put its bootloader on the root partition. And I let it add entries to menu.lst for all the other distros – so all nine grubs on the computer have entries for all the others!

Well, I will admit I do have a rather unconventional set up!!

It’s no great problem really. I posted here simply in an attempt to try and get my head round the way the boot loader installer works in 11.2, as it seems a bit different from previous versions of SUSE.

Great distro and I’m finding KDE4 is beginning to grow on me. (Didn’t like it at all when it first came out and have stuck to KDE3 up until now.)

I have just done another test installation of SUSE 11.2 on my multi-boot desktop and as a result now know how to leave the ntldr undisturbed.

From the Boot Loader Locations list:


Boot from Master Boot Record 
Boot from Root Partition 
Boot from Boot Partition 
Boot from Extended Partition 
Custom Boot Partition

Select only “Boot from Root Partition”

and from the Boot Loader Options list:

Set active Flag in Partition Table for Boot Partition 
Write generic Boot Code to MBR 
Debugging Flag 
Hide Menu on Boot 
Use Trusted Grub 
Enable Acoustic Signals

make sure none of these is selected.

Hopefully this may help anyone else who uses the ntldr as their primary boot manager.

That makes sense; as I mentioned earlier, I was assuming openSUSE was trying to link into another distro’s GRUB menu.

Glad it’s all sorted now.