[Bug 432254] Re: *BSD not detected by os-prober

Sun Apr 29 04:56:52 UTC 2012

This problem, at least for FreeBSD, seems to have been solved in 12.04
"Precise Pangolin":

I just upgraded a system from 11.04 to 11.10, then to 12.04 yesterday.
It has Ubuntu, Windows XP, and FreeBSD 8.1 installed in it, similar to
the configuration of the system I originally reported this bug on. (That
system, with a C3 CPU, won't run recent versions of Ubuntu, and now has
a recent 486 version of Debian on it).

Ubuntu version and kernel version
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04 LTS"
Linux billy 3.2.0-24-generic #37-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 25 08:43:52 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
model name	: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1.70GHz
cpu MHz		: 1691.571
MemTotal:        2029480 kB
SwapTotal:        522076 kB

Partitioning looks like:
# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 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: 0x8f800000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1              63    81915434    40957686    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2        81915435    82493774      289170   83  Linux
/dev/sda3   *    82493775   192715739    55110982+  a5  FreeBSD
/dev/sda4       192715740   312576704    59930482+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5       192715803   217295189    12289693+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6       217295253   218339414      522081   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7       218339478   312576704    47118613+  83  Linux

/dev/sda2 is a /boot partition
/dev/sda5 is "/"
/dev/sda7 is "/home"

After running update-grub, the stanzas for Windows XP and FreeBSD in
/boot/grub/grub.cfg now look like

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" --class windows --class os {
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ntfs
        set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 127855CF7855B1E9
        drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
        chainloader +1
}
menuentry "FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE (GENERIC) (on /dev/sda3)" --class windows --class os {
        insmod part_msdos
        insmod ufs2
        set root='(hd0,msdos3)'
        search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 4b2e8da4ae6a55e3
        drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
        chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

I believe there is a FreeBSD bootloader in /dev/sda3. At any rate, when
I select the FreeBSD entry in the Grub2 menu, it loads the FreeBSD
bootloader, which displays the usual boot options.

Previously, I had this content in /etc/grub.d/40_custom:

#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
#
menuentry "FreeBSD 8.1" {
      set root=(hd0,3)
      chainloader +1
}

After upgrading to "precise", there were 2 entries for BSD in the Grub2
boot menu: the one produced automatically and the one produced by my
40_custom file. So I commented out the FreeBSD stuff in this file, re-
ran update-grub, and am left with only the "FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE
(GENERIC) (on /dev/sda3)" entry created by the partition scan.

Actually, this may have been fixed already in 11.10, but I didn't notice
whether there were one or two FreeBSD entries in the boot menu after
that upgrade; I upgraded right away to 12.04.

I believe that it's necessary to have the FreeBSD boot loader in the
FreeBSD partition ("slice"). It might be possible to install FreeBSD
without a boot loader at all, and have the code run by update-grub find
the FreeBSD kernel, but someone needs to verify whether this is
possible.

-- 
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/432254

Title:
  *BSD not detected by os-prober

Status in Bootloader Manager for Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in “os-prober” package in Ubuntu:
  Triaged

Bug description:
  Binary package hint: os-prober

  I have a multiboot system with Windows XP, Ubuntu 9.10 alpha, and
  FreeBSD 7.2 installed. After Karmic Alpha-4 (upgrading with apt-get up
  to the time of the bug report) installing with Grub 2 in the MBR, the
  FreeBSD partition is not recognized.

  Some system information:
  DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
  DISTRIB_RELEASE=9.10
  DISTRIB_CODENAME=karmic
  DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu karmic (development branch)"
  Linux lightning 2.6.31-10-generic #34-Ubuntu SMP Wed Sep 16 00:23:19 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
  model name	: VIA Samuel 2
  cpu MHz		: 798.000

  General disk layout:

  /dev/sda1 - Windows XP
  /dev/sda2 - Ubuntu /boot partition
  /dev/sda3 -  FreeBSD 'slice' containing all BSD partitions
  /dev/sda4 - subdivided into remaining partitions for Ubuntu

  Previously (with Ubuntu 9.04 and Grub 1) the booting worked well for
  all 3 OSes.

  There is an old Windows 95 drive on /dev/sdb - the OS on that is
  detected by os-prober. Currently, running os-prober gives me the
  results:

  root at lightning:~# os-prober
  /dev/sda1:Microsoft Windows XP Professional:Windows:chain
  /dev/sdb1:Windows NT/2000/XP:Windows1:chain
  root at lightning:~# 

  On a similar system runing XP, Ubuntu 9.04, and FreeBSD, the (Grub 1)
  menu.lst stanza for FreeBSD 7.1 is

  # Choice 0: use 1st BSD subpartition in disk 1 partition 3
  title FreeBSD 7.1
    root (hd0,2,a)
    kernel /boot/loader

  ProblemType: Bug
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Thu Sep 17 21:13:00 2009
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
  Package: os-prober 1.33
  ProcEnviron:
   PATH=(custom, user)
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.34-generic
  SourcePackage: os-prober
  Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686

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