Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems (SOLVED)

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theevilone6620

Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems (SOLVED)

Post by theevilone6620 »

I just installed another version of Mint this time Mint 7 so I can have a OS to experiment and learn on. I installed it the following way:
Here is my setup before and after the install:

dev/sda1 / primary 12GB Linux Mint KDE6
dev/sda2 extended partition
dev/sda5 /home 30 GB Linux Mint KDE6
dev/sda6 /swap 2GB
Grub was installed to the MBR
this was my original config when just Mint 6 was installed. I added Mint 7 in the following way
dev/sda7 / 12GB Mint 7 (this is where I installed GRUB also)
dev/sda8 /home 30 GB Mint 7

after installing I found a guide that told me to edit the GRUB menu on MBR in the following way so it will recognize the new OS install:

gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
add the following to the file

title LinuxMint7
root (hdo,6) this is where I installed GRUB for the new OS as I said earlier
make active chainloader +1

So I added the above to the file and when i restart and attempt to boot into the new OS, the new entry is there but it errors and fails to boot.

What am I doing wrong, do I have to add the kernel to the entry? If so how do I go about finding it now that I cannot boot into the new OS

Ive tried navigating from my Mint 6 install onto that partition but after I enter my password it refuses to open it and stays in the directory Im currently in

I get a error 23 when trying to boot it up from GRUB, Error parsing number it says. I had realized i had originally had it set to hdo,7 which was wrong because it starts at 0 and should have been set to hdo,6 However when I implemented the change to 6 i still get the same error
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 3 times in total.
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altair4
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Re: Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems

Post by altair4 »

I absolutely hate working with grub - hate it. Hopefully someone with far more knowledge than I can help you but allow me to point out some obvious things:

(1) It's not (hdo,7) - it's (hd0,7) But maybe that's just a typo in your post

(2) And I doubt that (hd0,7) = /dev/sda7
Grub numbers partitions starting from 0 not 1.

Just to prove my ignorance of all things grub, if I was forced to guess based only on the info you provided, I think sda7 is (hd0,4). I think grub ignores extended partitions (EDIT: The extended partition "wrapper" - sda2) and counts real partitions.
Last edited by altair4 on Mon Jul 20, 2009 4:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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altair4
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Re: Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems

Post by altair4 »

I even got my guess wrong - should be (hd0,3)
Please add a [SOLVED] at the end of your original subject header if your question has been answered and solved.
theevilone6620

Re: Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems

Post by theevilone6620 »

Okay If I understand it correctly which I think I do, GRUB starts counting the partitions of a harddrive from 0 not 1. Therefore what is dev/sda1 is considered hd0,0 in GRUB's eyes. This means that per my harddrive partition tree. The correct entry should be hd0,6 as it corresponds to dev/sda7.

However this is not booting correctly so I do not know if my modification to the file is wrong or what is going on. However, I do want to thank you for getting me to notice that I had indeed mistyped the hd0 as hdo. I thought that was my issue but after changing it to its correct format, now I get absoulutley nothing when trying to boot.

As I said i used to get an error, since altering the file with the correct hda0,6 the screen just flashes and it goes to a blue box that has all entries of the boot menu. and when I try to boot from there it does nothing.

In case your interested heres a link Ive been reading about GRUB

http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/ ... ux_Systems
emorrp1

Re: Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems

Post by emorrp1 »

Hi, altair is indeed right, grub counts from 0, so the root line is now correct - (hd0,6) - grub doesn't ignore extended partitions. The "make active" bits are usually Windows only, so just remove them from the chainloader line and you should be good to go, just to clarify this is what you want:

Code: Select all

title Linux Mint 7 Gloria
root (hd0,6)
chainloader +1
rhodry
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Re: Dual Booting 2 Distros of Linux Problems (SOLVED)

Post by rhodry »

I am just hoping my own situation can add a little to this discussion?

In my experience the 'chainloader' works well for booting other os's (as described above), but I find I quite often want to experiment with different kernel versions or other boot parameters within these other partitions I run - that's why I keep them seperate for testing. If it all goes 'belly-up' I can just reformat and start again. Anyway, what I do therefore is load the grub file from the other os's, not just boot straight in. That means I can experiment in their own grub environment without mucking around with my primary system (Mint 7). All I do is pass control from my Mint 7 grub that is in the mbr to each other grub that is in the root partition of each system.

Here is an extract from my Mint 7 menu.lst to show what I mean:

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

title Mepis 8.06 KDE - sda5
root (hd0,4)
configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

The 'configfile' command simply passes control to the next grub environment. I have as many of these entries as I have extra os's at any time. If I change Mepis out for (say) PCLinuxOS all I have to edit in here is the title.

For what it's worth, just thought I would add it to the thinking on multibooting.

Cheers,
Rhodry.
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