How to boot the second distro?

I think this kind of a strange problem and I don't know if anyone of you have encountered. I got a Western Digital 40GB PATA HD, which I'm using at as a slave along with Seagate 160GB SATA HD. I've got Ubuntu Feisty installed on my SATA. Today, I installed a distro(can't name it here for obvious reasons) on the PATA drive, because this distro can't detect my SATA HD due to a bug in the BIOS(this has been confirmed by MSI. I got a MSI-RS480M2 motherboard). This distro has the base of Slackware. Since LILO of this new distro can't write into the SATA HD, I had to write it to the /root partition. Now, while booting, I can see only the options of Ubuntu and Windows, but not the other distro, for obvious reasons. Is there any method for Ubuntu to detect this distro as well and let me boot into that? I really, really need that distro as well. Please help out guys!

Can't you add manually to grub's menu.lst in ubuntu?

I couldn't get to edit the menu.lst properly by adding the name. I think there is still

some information missing for the other distro to boot. There is a section for other

OS created by Debian and it looks something like this for my Windows XP

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows NT/2000/XP(loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

I appended the following entry

#This entry manually added by me for the xxxxxxxxxx distro on /dev/hdd1
title xxxxxxxxx distro
root (hd1,0)
makeactive

Is there anything missing or have I gone wrong? My fdisk output is something like

this. I am not able to post the exact output as I'm on dial-up and need to save the

text entries in Windows and then connect to the net from there.

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0GB, 160041885696 bytes
/dev/sda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3825 19457 125572072+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 3825 8923 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 8924 12318 27270306 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 12748 15816 24651711 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 15817 16789 7815591 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 16790 16911 979933+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
dev/sda10 16912 19457 20450713+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdd: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
/dev/hdd1 1 653 5245191 83 Linux
/dev/hdd2 654 784 1052257+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

The rest of the space in this is left unallocated as I wish to install OpenSuSE 10.2

there

Any help guys?

Bump!

Upload your menu.lst and lilo.conf (from unnamed distro) somewhere and link us to that. Also, post the output of ls command on /boot directory of your unnamed distro.

the first thing to do is find and mount ur "anonymous" distro in Ubuntu.have a look at tat distro's lilo.conf wherever it is located.copy down the kernel names (vmlinuz-2.6.xx.-686,initrd-2.6.xx-686(if there) ).then find what's the partn for ur "anonymous" distro.now open ubuntu's /boot/grub/menu.list and add the entry as:

Code:

title      name of the distro
root        (hd0,x)
kernel        /vmlinuz-2.6.xxx root=/dev/hdx ro 
initrd        /initrd.img-2.6.xxxx
savedefault

there are few things to look up.first is root (hd0,x) is ur first hdd and (hd0,x) is for eg: /dev/sda10 is ur root "/" then (hd0,9) u shud enter.
for second hdd, (hd1,x) is the way.GIYF.

Why the suspense about the name of the distro?

Is it ***spire?

Ya whats so hush hush about your distro???

If I posted the name of the distro, I think I'll be violating the forum rules. Kalpik might have a fair idea what I'm talking about

@eddie-You are trying to catch me?

Hehehe

@Praka-I'll soon do that and post the output. I think your solution just might work.

I still cudnt get it , even if its linspire , why cant we name it here ????

M

people use that crap. pity. Rather stick to windows than use something that makes a really bad attempt to clone windows.
And linspire has base of slackware? I thought it was debian based. Can someone clarify?

I don't understand why would ppl use one more than one distro? After all one is sufficient to survey your purpose.

yeah , one distro is sufficient.

Hey guys, chill! I need this distro for personal use and ITS not Linspire. Never used that and I think I'll never use that as well after the reviews I've read

This distro IS slackware based.

Anyway, here is the lilo.conf of that distro.

boot=/dev/hdd
prompt
timeout=20
bitmap=/boot/splash.bmp
change-rules
reset
vga=0x317
image=/boot/vmlinuz
root=current
initrd=/boot/splash.initrd
label=secretdistro
read-only

I edited the entry in menu.lst as following:

#This entry manually added by me for the xxxxxxxxxx distro on /dev/#hdd1
title secretdistro
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.20-blah-blahblah-NOSMP root=/dev/hd1 ro
initrd /boot/splash.initrd
savedefault

I get an error called Error 15: File not found

Is there a mistake in the entry I have made or the path of the disk?

so edit ur ubuntu's /boot/grub/menu.lst and add at last

Code:

title             Slax
root            (hd1,0)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hdd1 ro vga=0x317
initrd            /boot/splash.initrd
savedefault
boot

I hope that ur hdd is sata hence sdb1 else replace with hdb1.save and exit.
if in doubt with hdd names try/post the o/p of "fdisk <> -l" here

No Praka, the second one is PATA. I think it will be hdd1. Please check out my fdisk -l in the 4th post

I'll try out now

OK.then try "hdd1" there replacing sdb1.

No need for multiple distros. All apps work on every gr8 distro like Redhat, Fedora, Mandriva and Ubuntu, of-course slackware which Mehul uses.

I'm again getting the same error

Error 15: File not found

check carefully the lines.btwn did u have a separate partition for /boot?also do check and make sure the kernel image(vmlinuz) and initrd are there.note the names correctly and replace it on the new entry above.

I have just 2 partitions. One for root and the other for swap. I've entered exactly what you have posted Praka.

can u show us the output of

Code:

~#ls -l /boot

atleast,yeah i hope it wont let ur secret OS be out.

the ouput is:

splash.bmp splash.initrd

so no kernel(vmlinuz) there?

what about other files.

No other files, only these. So, lilo.conf taking us for a ride?

You secret distro forgot to install kernel in your file system. I don't think how well can people help you if you keep all this process so hush hush. Probably you should try distro's own forum / irc channel. There you'll get much better and to-the-point help.

@mehul: What you think is correct. Linspire as well as Freespire are Debian based.

its weird!it seems if u reveal atleast the package management used(.deb,.rpm,.tgz,source) then only we can say how to reinstall Linux-kernel.u can do it via chroot from Ubuntu as u say u got ubuntu installed and bootable.or leave this secret game?what's with us?we dont care what ever the distro u use? so open it

M

Since it's based on slackware, package format has to be tgz. But, it's difficult to find a binary optimised for that distro unless the distro name is mentioned.

@phreak:Its OK u can post the name of distro here.
ur /boot missing kernel.that means u shud get the kernel .tgz for the version to be installed somehow.I dont know much about slackware package manager.but the basic thing is u shud chroot to ur slax based distro from ur stock Ubuntu,install slax kernel etc.but since ur distro is live cd?u may need to copy the kernel and other parts(/lib/modules/uname -r) from live-cd session uff!.this is bcoz ur distro's kernel is custom compiled rather than slax kernel or slackware one afaik.so boot it as live-cd copy the kernel related stuffs to ur hdd /boot of ur slax based distro and try booting.
else u may need to compile a kernel from scratch and install it to ur slax based distro as chroot from Ubuntu.choice is upon u.

WOW!!!!!!!!! Way too much work to do. Exams also closing in and no time for so many things. You are bang-on target Praka, about the details of the distro

Its a live-cd which can be instaled. Also, I'm on dial-up

Oh yeah, the distro's name is Back|Track. I think everyone is relieved now and my thread will be closed

Well, I reinstalled and to my surprise, I found that /boot has got the following files now. Its got both the vmlinuz and initrd files. Need to do some modifications to menu.lst and I think I'll be able to boot

Will post once(again) its done.

I think u deleted linux kernel in ur earlier setup

Noooooo!!!!!! I'm again wrong. I was typing /boot once I was in /slack directory. It used to take me to the /boot of Ubuntu. I was so happy, I missed it out all. On closer inspection of the kernel version, I found out that it was all wrong. Ubuntu's is 2.6.15 on my system and B|T is 2.6.20. Damn!! I'll find a solution on the official forum. Thanks a ton for being patient with me guys

phreak0utt said:
I think everyone is relieved now and my thread will be closed

Why would it get closed? I don't think it is against the forum rules to talk about how to add a distro to GRUB. No matter what the distro is. We are not talking about how to use the security testing/cracking programs...we are talking about GRUB. This is not against forum rules and no one should close your thread.

Anyways, coming back to the issue. Slackware has a great package categorization on its CD. If this derived distro uses the same format then you should find all the required kernel packages in 'slackware/a' directory on your CD. There you will find kernel-generic and kernel-modules packages. Copy these files in your root directory and untar them. The vmlinuz and module files will automatically be moved to the required destinations.

@Eddie and @Praka-Thanks a lot for showing much interest in this thread and keeping it alive. Well, I checked a similar thread running on the official forum and the solution was the same. Add /boot/vmlinuz............ and /boot/initrd. I think there is a problem with my HD as well as none of the other linux distros are ready to get installed. Its stops after formatting the drive and no data is getting copied. Checking the status of the disk with HDTune has resulted in a clean drive. No bad blocks. But one strange thing which happened was, I heard a screeching noise when my PC booted. Now its not working. I'll be checking the status of the drive with WD's tools and see what's wrong. I hope the drive is ok

IT'S WORKING!! IT'S WORKING!!IT'S WORKING!!IT'S WORKING!! Finally!!!!!!! I am able to boot the distro from Ubuntu's GRUB. My friend had given me a link to check out a video as to dual boot between XP and B|T. That method didn't work. I again thought of Praka's method and went through the transcript(text file) of the video. He copies the necessary directories to the place where he has mounted. So, I thought of just copying vmlinuz to the /boot directory and IT'S WORKING!!!!!!!!!! Yipeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah, before doing this, I had to zero-fill the drive as it was acting strange. I did this though the extended test conducted by the HD tool showed it was fine. Just in case

phreak0utt said:
I'll be checking the status of the drive with WD's tools and see what's wrong. I hope the drive is ok

From my personal experience, you should always check your drive using something like HDD Regenerator or SpinRite. That method is more reliable then any disk checking utility out there.

I have found that official drive checking tools some times report in favour of the manufacturer and ignore some drive malfunctions while a tool that is bought only when a problem is found...tends to do a more thorough job. Just my personal experience.

@Eddie-I didn't know about tools from the manufacturer would do like this. Thanks for letting me know. I'll be checking with either of the tools.

Boot manually into the second distro.. by pressing c at grub to go to a command line.Then install grub on the first sector of the second distro`s partition and add this

title Second distro
root (hd0,x)
chainloader +x

^^ but where his kernel(vmlinuz) and initrd(initrd) itself was missing from /boot.

vignesh, thanks for letting me know. I've fixed the solution by just copying vmlinuz to /boot and making the necessary changes in menu.lst of GRUB

@freak:
U might be knowing that there is more than /boot/vmlinuz installed by kernel set up. there is /lib/modules/`uname -r` dir and initrd cpio image

praka123 said:
@freak:
U might be knowing that there is more than /boot/vmlinuz installed by kernel set up. there is /lib/modules/`uname -r` dir and initrd cpio image

Since everything is working fine for now, I think I'll not tweak(read mess

) around with the distro