[opensuse] MBR corrupted by installer?
This is my first message on the list, so hello to all :) I have had some problems installing openSUSE. I have several partitions with several OS, and the MBR is used by the Windows Vista bootloader (BCD). In one of those partitions, I had Ubuntu installed, with GRUB in the Linux partition itself, not in the MBR, and everything was working fine. Yesterday I installed openSUSE 11.1 from DVD, and just after that, the computer wasn't booting. I mean, neither BCD nor GRUB are loading. I just get the classical "Veryfing DMI pool data..." and it just stops there, with no messages. I had marked especifically in the installer that I wanted GRUB to be installed in /dev/sda6 (the Linux partition), so I am not sure what happened and why it modified the MBR. Anyway, just to be sure, I restored the MBR with a LiveCD and 'dd' (I had a backup) and everything worked fine again. Then I reinstalled openSUSE, but the same problem appeared again. I compared the MBR (dd & diff) before and after installing openSUSE and it _is_ being modified, but I am not sure why. I am not using the "automatic configuration" option in the installer. Any suggestions? I want to keep the BCD bootloader. Thank you. PS: Sorry if my English is not very good. -- Martín -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:47, Martín Melado <melado@gmail.com> wrote:
This is my first message on the list, so hello to all :) hello,
[GRUB Problem]
Any suggestions? I want to keep the BCD bootloader. Search both this list and the opensuse-factory list to see if anyone has reported the problem you had or something close to it. If you find something close, see if there is a bugzilla entry for it and read up on what it says. If you do not find anything, please report it in the oS bugzilla.
PS: Sorry if my English is not very good. Your English is just fine. Probably better than mine and I am a native speaker. No need to apologize.
ne... -- Registered Linux User # 125653 (http://counter.li.org) Now accepting personal mail for GMail invites. Katharine Hepburn - "Life is hard. After all, it kills you." -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Martín Melado wrote:
This is my first message on the list, so hello to all :)
I have had some problems installing openSUSE. I have several partitions with several OS, and the MBR is used by the Windows Vista bootloader (BCD). In one of those partitions, I had Ubuntu installed, with GRUB in the Linux partition itself, not in the MBR, and everything was working fine.
Yesterday I installed openSUSE 11.1 from DVD, and just after that, the computer wasn't booting. I mean, neither BCD nor GRUB are loading. I just get the classical "Veryfing DMI pool data..." and it just stops there, with no messages.
I had marked especifically in the installer that I wanted GRUB to be installed in /dev/sda6 (the Linux partition), so I am not sure what happened and why it modified the MBR. Anyway, just to be sure, I restored the MBR with a LiveCD and 'dd' (I had a backup) and everything worked fine again. Then I reinstalled openSUSE, but the same problem appeared again.
I compared the MBR (dd & diff) before and after installing openSUSE and it _is_ being modified, but I am not sure why.
I am not using the "automatic configuration" option in the installer.
Any suggestions? I want to keep the BCD bootloader.
Thank you.
PS: Sorry if my English is not very good.
-- Martín
Hi, what you want is say bootloader that doesn't MBR by "generic boot code" and mark "boot from root". It is on second tab. Josef Reidinger -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Martín Melado wrote:
[GRUB problem]
Thank you both. It was not the MBR being corrupted or anything! It was fine. The reason that I was seeing the MBR changing was because the installer was setting the Linux partition with the 'boot' flag. GRUB doesn't need this, but Windows *does*. So the MBR was unchanged but BCD couldn't find any bootable partition. I set the 'boot' flag again in the Windows partition with a LiveCD, and now everything is working fine. Josef Reidinger wrote:
Hi, what you want is say bootloader that doesn't MBR by "generic boot code" and mark "boot from root". It is on second tab.
I am not sure if I understood you correctly. Does that option has something to do with changing the 'boot' flag of a partition? -- Martín -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Thursday, 2009-02-19 at 15:33 +0100, Martín Melado wrote:
Martín Melado wrote:
[GRUB problem]
Thank you both.
It was not the MBR being corrupted or anything! It was fine. The reason that I was seeing the MBR changing was because the installer was setting the Linux partition with the 'boot' flag. GRUB doesn't need this, but Windows *does*. So the MBR was unchanged but BCD couldn't find any bootable partition.
I set the 'boot' flag again in the Windows partition with a LiveCD, and now everything is working fine.
The standard MBR code looks which partition is marked as bootable, and boots that. In this case, the installer changes the bootable partition to be the one on which you installed grub, and this grub should then boot any of the previous operating systems, or the new Linux. Your case is different, so it wasn't handled by that schema. I wonder if there is an option in the installer to do it your way.
Josef Reidinger wrote:
Hi, what you want is say bootloader that doesn't MBR by "generic boot code" and mark "boot from root". It is on second tab.
I am not sure if I understood you correctly. Does that option has something to do with changing the 'boot' flag of a partition?
-- Martín -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
- -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.9 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkmd8BkACgkQtTMYHG2NR9VQNwCfbeuIGIX/JKIC938pM9zDvPOV 1/gAn13tT0UewpVNdS9xsk7HWfv2Ktv5 =kRyA -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On 2009/02/20 00:49 (GMT+0100) Carlos E. R. composed:
On Thursday, 2009-02-19 at 15:33 +0100, MartÃn Melado wrote:
It was not the MBR being corrupted or anything! It was fine. The reason that I was seeing the MBR changing was because the installer was setting the Linux partition with the 'boot' flag. GRUB doesn't need this, but Windows *does*. So the MBR was unchanged but BCD couldn't find any bootable partition.
I set the 'boot' flag again in the Windows partition with a LiveCD, and now everything is working fine.
The standard MBR code looks which partition is marked as bootable, and boots that. In this case, the installer changes the bootable partition to be the one on which you installed grub, and this grub should then boot any of the previous operating systems, or the new Linux.
Your case is different, so it wasn't handled by that schema. I wonder if there is an option in the installer to do it your way.
I'm not sure I saw enough in this thread to know what happened to the OP, but "bootable flag" with standard MBR code is only relevant on a primary partition. If the bootable flag is set or not on a logical makes no difference to anything. The installer when directed to put Grub on a /boot or / that is a logical shouldn't even ask any question about a bootable flag. It should leave entirely untouched whatever bootable flag is set in the MBR while the target /boot or / is a logical, unless there is no bootable flag in the MBR at all. I always use standard MBR code, and always have something in a primary that can function as a boot manager, be it IBM BM, NTLDR, Grub or Lilo or any of several others. I nearly always install openSUSE's Grub to a logical partition. It can work, if the right boxes are checked at installation. If a primary partition's bootable flag is disturbed during openSUSE installation to a logical, during which Grub gets installed to a logical and not the MBR, it's an installation bug.
Josef Reidinger wrote:
Hi, what you want is say bootloader that doesn't MBR by "generic boot code" and mark "boot from root". It is on second tab.
I am not sure if I understood you correctly. Does that option has something to do with changing the 'boot' flag of a partition? -- "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up." Ephesians 4:29 NIV
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Carlos E. R. -
Felix Miata -
Josef Reidinger -
Martín Melado -
ne...