F8/F9 Multiboot question
Daniel B. Thurman
dant at cdkkt.com
Tue Aug 5 16:14:06 UTC 2008
Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
>
> Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
> >
> > Anne Wilson wrote:
> > >
> > > On Monday 04 August 2008 18:27:56 Daniel B. Thurman wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Never mind! I got myself out of the problem!
> > > >
> > > How? Someone will see this in the archives and will want to know the
> > > answer :-)
> > >
> > > Anne
> > >
> > ok, fair enough!
> >
> > I followed Tim's instructions, but did this with Fedora-Live CD:
> >
> > 1) Boot in Fedora-Live
> > + Open Shell Terminal Window
> >
> > 2) fdisk -l
> >
> > *** note!!! ***
> > + Disk drives are DIFFERENT, not necessarily the same as when
> booted
> > in Fedora!
> >
> > For example, when you boot in Fedora (the real thing), the 3
> > disks for
> > me it was:
> > /dev/sda - PATA
> > /dev/sdb - SATA-1
> > /dev/sdc - SATA-2
> >
> > In Fedora-Live, is displayed as:
> > /dev/sdb (PATA)
> > /dev/sdc (SATA-2)
> > /dev/sdd (SATA-1)
> >
> > 3) grub
> >
> > a) find /grub/stage1
> > In my case, it showed:
> > (hd1,0) - SATA-2 - boot-sys - the next 2 partitions are the NEW
> > drive I am trying to construct per Tim's instructions
> > (hd1,1) - SATA-2 - boot-f8
> > (hd1,2) - SATA-2 - boot-f9
> > (hd2,2) - SATA-1 - boot-f8 - this is my original "untouched"
> > drive where I started originally. This was the grub I "popped"
> >
> > b) setup (hd2)
> > (grub has installed the MBR and fixed my original drive problem
> > - output was similar to Tim's instructions)
> >
> > c) quit
> > d) Reboot - I was able to get my original drive back up and
> running!)
> >
> > The new drive I am still working on is:
> >
> > SATA-2 (750GB)
> > ======================
> > *** Note *** Actual sizes are not exact!
> > /dev/sdc1 - boot-sys (100MB)
> > /dev/sdc2 - f8-boot (100MB)
> > /dev/sdc3 - f9-boot (100MB)
> > /dev/sdc4 - Extended Partition
> > /dev/sdc5 - f8-root (175GB)
> > /dev/sdc6 - f9-root (175GB)
> > /dev/sdc7 - f-App1 (351GB)
> > /dev/sdc8 - swap (~5GB) (I have 2GB RAM)
> >
> I have found in 3b, above: "setup (hd2)", it is the same as if
> you used "setup (hd2.0)". I have found that once you have the
> partitions for 3 boot directories, boot-sys, boot-f8, and boot-f9,
> you can either copy over the existing f8 and/or f9 boot partitions
> into the new respective locations (as I did), and as for the boot-sys
> partition, I simply copied over my f8 boot partition, and stripped
> everything above grub directory.
>
> While you are at it, you can also copy over your root-f8 and root-f9
> files into the root-f8 and root-f9 partitions as well. How you get
> these copied over successfully has mixed results (cp -a, tar, GParted),
> but if you rather use a true clone program, try CloneZilla
>
> As a tool for tracking/verification, in each of the 3 partitions,
> I created bread-crumbs as empty files: BOOT-SYS, BOOT-F8, BOOT-F9 in
> each of the respective directories so that I can ensure that these
> directories are easily identifiable and not mistaken for something else
> along the way.
>
> At this point, I have also found that I needed to run grub setup on each
> of these 3 boot partitions; similar to above instructions:
>
> Boot up the system, if you cannot get into a grub-display at boot-time,
> you may need to boot in Fedora-Live or Rescue CD. If you can get a
> grub splash-screen at bootup (w/o CDs), the simply hit 'c' for command.
>
> # grub
> grub> find /grub/stage1 (note where your 3 partitions are)
> (hd0.0) <-- boot-sys (/dev/sdb1)
> (hd0,1) <-- boot-f8 (/dev/sdb2)
> (hd0,2) <-- boot-f9 (/dev/sdb3)
> (hd1,2)
>
> NOTE! Grub saw things differently again. I am assuming that the
> appearance
> of this new order, may have to do with the device.maps that I had before
> from the original f8 installation, and for whatever the reasons, it
> pays to
> make SURE you are "in sync" with what grub actually reports.
>
Ok, with a review, I know why Grub was different in it's order of seeing
things. The above find list was due to the fact that I was booting directly
onto the SATA-2 drive - a change in the BIOs as to which boot drive is
the primary boot drive! Had I booted on my original drive (SATA-1)
the outcome is different as follows:
grub> find /grub/stage1
(hd1,0)
(hd1,1)
(hd1,2)
(hd2,2)
> Remember about leaving breadcrumbs earlier? If you are not sure which
> drive is which, you can try searching in this way:
>
> grub> find BOOT-SYS
> (hd0.0)
> grub> find BOOT-F8
> (hd0.1)
> grub> find BOOT-F9
> (hd0.2)
>
> Note: Now we can go ahead to create grub-bootable partitions
> for each of the 3 partitions we created earlier:
>
> grub> root (hd0,0)
> grub> setup (hd0,0)
> <results are shown here>
>
> grub> root (hd0,1)
> grub> setup (hd0,1)
> <results are shown here>
>
> grub> root (hd0,2)
> grub> setup (hd0,2)
> <results are shown here>
>
> grub> quit
>
>
> Now it is time to edit the grub.conf files for each of the 3 partitions.
>
> =========[boot.sys]============
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #
> # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this
> file
> # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
> # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
> # root (hd0,0)
> # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda5
> # initrd /initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/sda
> #hiddenmenu
> splashimage=(hd0,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> default=saved
> timeout=5
>
> title Fedora 8 SDB1
> rootnoverify (hd0,1)
> chainloader +1
> savedefault
> title Fedora 9
> rootnoverify (hd0,2)
> chainloader +1
> savedefault
> title Windows 2000
> rootnoverify (hd1,0)
> chainloader +1
> savedefault
> title Windows XP
> rootnoverify (hd1,1)
> chainloader +1
> savedefault
> title Windows Vista
> rootnoverify (hd1,2)
> chainloader +1
> savedefault
>
> Note: You see the "SDB1" tag? I wanted to make sure
> that I am actually using the correct boot partition and not
> from some other boot partition from somewhere else. I
> ran into this trap before - and the reasons has to do with
> the way grub finds files (in a different order), mis-configured
> boot-grub files, and/or /etc/fstab files and it becomes much
> easier to track and identify things by leaving bread-crumbs
> to aide in debugging, IMO.
>
I also found that I cannot boot the Windows drives- this is due to
the fact that the SATA-2 drive does NOT has windows partitions
in them. So, it looks like that each drives's boot partitions chain-
loaders cannot traverse drives UNLESS of course you hardwire these
instead of trying to keep things generic in the boot-sys partition?
So I plan to place the windows (chain-loaders) text into the boot-wins
partition's grub.conf file. I planned to make the original drive into a
Windows only drive - and will remove the original f8 copy out of the
SATA-1 partitions. I think this will work and will report back if this
is not so - otherwise if I don't report back - it works as planned.
>
>
>
> =========[boot.f8]============
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #
> # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes
> # to this file
> # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
> # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
> # root (hd0,0)
> # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda5
> # initrd /initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/sda
> #hiddenmenu
> splashimage=(hd0,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> default=saved
> timeout=5
>
> title Fedora 8 (2.6.25.11-60.fc8) SDB2
> root (hd0,1)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25.11-60.fc8 ro root=LABEL=root-f8 rhgb quiet
> initrd /initrd-2.6.25.11-60.fc8.img
> savedefault
>
> =========[boot.f9]============
> # grub.conf generated by anaconda
> #
> # Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes
> # to this file
> # NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
> # all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
> # root (hd0,0)
> # kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/sda6
> # initrd /initrd-version.img
> #boot=/dev/sda
> default=saved
> timeout=10
> splashimage=(hd0,2)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
> #hiddenmenu
> title Fedora 9 (2.6.25.11-97.fc9.i686) SDB3
> root (hd0,2)
> kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.25.11-97.fc9.i686 ro root=LABEL=root-f9 rhgb
> quiet
> initrd /initrd-2.6.25.11-97.fc9.i686.img
> savedefault
>
> =========[root.f8]============
> # Drive: /dev/sdb5
> # --------------
> LABEL=root-f8 / ext3 defaults 1 1
> LABEL=boot-f8 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
> LABEL=f-swap swap swap defaults 0 0
> tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
> devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
> sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
>
> =========[root.f9]============
> # Drive: /dev/sdb6
> # --------------
> LABEL=root-f9 / ext3 defaults 1 1
> LABEL=boot-f9 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
> LABEL=f-swap swap swap defaults 0 0
> tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
> devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
> sysfs /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
> proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
>
> Now you can test this all out:
>
> 1) Make sure when you get the first boot-splash screen,
> it looks like what you expected but also pay attemtion
> to the bread-crumbs - make sure they are what they are
> supposed to be.
>
> 2) If you proceed to a fedora-8 or fedora-9 OS, again check
> the bread-crumbs!
>
> 3) Finally, make sure that you pay attention to the very beginning
> of the boot process; particularly where drives are mounted, verified,
> and checked - make sure they are the correct ones! It took me a long
> time to figure out why I was consistently getting my old f8 up and
> running instead of the NEW partitions as I was expecting and it turned
> turned out to be the fact that the new partitions were CLONES of the
> original drives much so that the /boot and /etc/fstabs were using
> UUIDs
> and "hard links" to the old F8 system and required a complete
> re-labeling
> and rewrite of these files in order to make each of them unique and in
> the proper partition/drive locations! Doh!
>
> Well, I hope I have not missed or left anything else out, but if I did
> please add it to this thread! I hope this somewhat fragmented thread
> helps someone else out!
>
> Cheers!
> Dan
>
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