Grub 2 in Jaunty/Karmic can break double boot configuration

Karl F. Larsen klarsen1 at gmail.com
Sat Oct 3 10:22:44 UTC 2009


NoOp wrote:
> On 10/02/2009 06:30 PM, Lucio M Nicolosi wrote:
>> On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 8:23 PM, NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>>> On 10/02/2009 03:21 PM, NoOp wrote:
>>> ...
>>>> Did you read these before attempting?
>>>> http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/karmic/beta
>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2
>>>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/Grub2Testing
>>>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/376879
>>> Sorry if that implied "RTFM", it wasn't intended that way. Instead, I am
>>> curious to know if you did review those links before installing. If so &
>>> you had problems not mentioned in those, then perhaps it might be useful
>>> to file a bug and/or modify/add-to the wiki's so that they cover this issue.
>>>
>> NoOp
>>
>> But you're right, I didn't RTFM (and now at least I know what this
>> acronym means).
>>
>> Regarding Karmic, I had to delete some unwanted (8.10) partitions to
>> make space for Karmic, but as my Jaunty of choice was the 12th, this
>> required gparted, editing menu.list, resetting grub, etc. things that
>> usually make me nervous (backup? what's backup?). After this my jaunty
>> was intact and I was left with a nice empty space at the beginning of
>> the disk, ready for a lonely primary partition.
>>
>> I tried to install Karmic with a separate /boot partition, but it
>> didn't work. Install couldn't manage to reboot and I guessed that it
>> didn't like this config. At this point, due to the failed install,
>> Jaunty had vanished as a boot option, but I had clear in mind the
>> procedures to recover it.
>>
>> Then I tried a single primary /root partition (/home always shared),
>> but Karmic (cd daily current - 09/29) still didn't reboot.
>>
>> Later I decided to try grub2 in Jaunty. Although grub2 install found
>> my kernels at (hd0,8) it defaulted them all to (hd0,0) (failed Karmic)
>> and even the new (chainloaded) menu.lst defaulted to (hd0,0), UUID and
>> all, and I found this last part weird. No working chainload means no
>> easy recovery besides LiveCD, root edit menu.lst etc., not exactly a
>> newbie dream.
>>
>> As you noticed, although there are several bugs at Grub2, I found
>> little references to this at Karmic Bugs, were I usually check for my
>> future woes, so I decided to alert the community hoping I was not
>> crying wolf.
>>
>> I found a relatively recent bug at
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/392836
>> **(high)**, posted a comment and asked nomination for Karmic. Of
>> course most users will distr. upgrade to Karmic and never face these
>> woes and those with multi boots are keen enough to deal with this, but
>> it may be annoying.
>>
>> No, in fact I didn't Google before installing grub2 on Jaunty, maybe
>> headquarters should put a "beware" sign near it at Synaptic. And as
>> Karmic was a clean test install I also didn't  bother to check release
>> notes. Jaunty works so fine that I'm becoming careless.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Lucio
>>
> 
> Note: nothing snipped as this is good info IMO.
> 
> Thanks for that. My install was an Alpha 6 on a clean drive with a
> second drive w/WinXPPro on it. On that install I also had issue with
> Grub/Grub 2 (see my "[Karmic] Heads up" thread from 9/23/2009 - see:
> 
> <http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ubuntu.user/196089>
> <http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ubuntu.user/196089>
> 
> Tomorrow I'll pull out my other test system that has jaunty drives on it
> & test the 'upgrade' to see what I discover. I'll also reinstall the
> Alpha 6 drive with a clean Beta to see what I find.
> 
> Hopefully we (karmic users/testers) can help sort out some of the issues
> before the final release so that other/new users won't bork their
> systems :-)
> 
> Thanks again for taking the time to providing the details/info.
> 
> Gary
> 
> 
> 

	The Beta version of Karmic 9.11 has grub 2 and it works just 
fine. The early bug about not picking up the additional 
partitions has been fixed in Beta.

73 Karl


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
         Key ID = 3951B48D





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