Testing Grub2 OpenSuse 11.4

English Install/Boot/Login
1

After making some new grub legacy splash screens I decided to try grub2.

I installed grub 2 via yast software management and it added a new entry
to my grub legacy file:

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
–snip–

title GNU GRUB 2 – openSUSE 11.4 - GNU GRUB 2
kernel (hd0,9)/boot/grub2/core.img root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5001AALS-00J7B0_WD-WMATV7661868-part10 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD5001AALS-00J7B0_WD-WMATV7661868-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31a

If I select this section grub2 throws a tantrum and drops me back to a grub2 shell.

/boot/grub2 and core.img file have been created.

I have read on the Arch wiki , that grub2 is not recommended to be installed to a partition
boot sector but a separate /boot partition. The reason is that grub2-bios relies on embedded blocklists in the partition bootsector to locate the /boot/grub/core.img file and the prefix dir /boot/grub . The sector locations of core.img may change whenever the filesystem in the partition is being altered (files copied, deleted etc.). For more info see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=728742 and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=730915 .

The full article is below:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB2#Install_to_Partition_or_Partitionless_Disk

I apologize for quoting non suse articles in the OpenSuse Forum but wonder if indeed this is the problem why
grub2 fails to load.

With 1 day before general release of Suse 12.1 has anyone else tried grub 2 on Opensuse 11.4

My partition scheme is below:
fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa8a8a8a8

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 268317629 134158783+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 * 268317630 677910869 204796620 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 677910870 718860615 20474873 a5 FreeBSD
/dev/sda4 718860616 976768064 128953724+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 718860618 718892684 16033+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 718892748 739873574 10490413+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 739873638 781835354 20980858+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 781835356 801366015 9765330 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 801366079 840440474 19537198 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 840440538 860907284 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda11 860907348 901856969 20474811 83 Linux
/dev/sda12 901856971 976768064 37455547 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000eef1d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 39070079 19535008+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 39070080 87891614 24410767+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 * 87891615 126961694 19535040 af HFS / HFS+
/dev/sdb4 126961756 283225949 78132097 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 126961758 156264254 14651248+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 156264318 195334334 19535008+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb7 195334398 234404414 19535008+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb8 234404478 283225949 24410736 83 Linux

Two disks running a mixture of Linux, FreeBSD , OSX and plain old windows.

Thanks in advance.

2

/boot/grub/menu.lst is not used by Grub2 so on the face of it this is wrong. I suspect you must do more then just install the software it probably need configured also.

3

A separate /boot partition is still a partition and has a bootsector. Grub2 is supposed to be installed in MBR.
See this post: Clarification on Boot paritioning in install - Page 2

And this one about Grub2 1.99 (used in Ubuntu Oneiric): updategrub for openSUSE Legacy Grub (not update-grub!)

Version 1.99 is quite different from the previous ones, since the core is compressed, which makes it even more tricky to find the core.img location on disk. I don’t know which version of Grub2 is available in openSUSE. Maybe you can tell us.

The method used to find the core partition in 1.99 in findgrub 3.5x (Looking for Grub and Windows bootloader in all partitions. - Page 13)) is the same whether the bootloader is installed in the MBR or in a partition bootsector - unlike for Grub 1.98. I don’t know if that means that installing Grub in a bootsector partition is now safer in Grub 1.99 with compressed core.

4

Good thinking… http://www.kread.info/g.php

5

I have some experience with grub2 on my debian-squeeze and windows-7 double boot laptop. The debian installation came later replacing the previous debian-lenny (grub-legacy). There was then no worthwhile problem. But grub-2 being grub-2 I could not add the description “squeeze” or "GNOME’ in the menu-title (because there is no menu.lst and everything is written in C (?) language) till somebody in the debian forum instructed me. On this netbook I had a horrible experience when I upgraded the kernel of the opensuse-11.4 (grub-legacy) and the debian-squeeze boot splash forgot about the existence of the opensuse OS.
Kindly see the thread in Install/Boot/Login section
11-Nov-2011, 23:29 #1
juergenSY
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Default Broken boot after upgrading 11.4 to kernel 2.6.37.6-0.9


 

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13-Nov-2011, 07:17 #10
prudra
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Default Re: Broken boot after upgrading 11.4 to kernel 2.6.37.6-0.9

    Today the same disaster fell on me. I had a netbook with debian-squeeze (grub2) OS. with swap on /dev/sda5, boot on /dev/sda6, root on /dev/sda7 and home on /dev/sdb8. Yesterday I resized /dev/sda8 and created a 20GB /dev/sdb9 on which I installed openSUSE-11.4 from a usb-flashdrive sharing swap and home with debian.
    The following is part of the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file:

    # This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
    # linux installation on /dev/sda9.
    menuentry "Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.4 (on /dev/sda9)" {
    set root=(hd0,msdos9)
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8ce5331e-b591-42b9-87b2-35a326a12572
    linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.1-1.2-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600BEVT-00ZCT0_WD-WX90A69J6295-part9 showopts apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.1-1.2-default
    }

    ### END /etc/grub.d/30_otheros ###

    This morning I logged in the openSUSE OS, installed some packages and then "upgraded all" from Add/Remove Software getting a message to Reboot Now. Did it and now cannot boot in openSUSE.

    This is the result of running #fdisk -l
    Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
    /dev/sda1 * 1 19458 156289025 5 Extended
    /dev/sda5 1 244 1951744 82 Linux swap / Solaris
    /dev/sda6 244 262 145408 83 Linux
    /dev/sda7 262 2450 17576960 83 Linux
    /dev/sda8 2450 16193 110390647 83 Linux
    /dev/sda9 16194 19458 26219520 83 Linux

    The present content of /openSUSE-11.4-GNOME/bood/grub/menu.lst after the upgrading is

    ###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
    title openSUSE 11.4 - 2.6.37.6-0.9
    root (hd0,8)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.37.6-0.9-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600BEVT-00ZCT0_WD-WX90A69J6295-part9 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-WDC_WD1600BEVT-00ZCT0_WD-WX90A69J6295-part5 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x314
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.37.6-0.9-default

    So, what shall I do? Shall I reinstall openSUSE again, go through the rigour and NOT upgrade?
    Thanks.
    P.Rudra. 

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