Adding another distro to GRUB2?

[zak89]

I've been using Ubuntu Lucid as my main OS lately, and it's working well. However, I'm an long-time openSUSE user, and I'd like to try out the latest openSUSE 11.3 RC. I've been busy with work recently but it seems to have slowed a bit and I'd like to install 11.3RC2 on my spare partition (over an unused Linux Mint install). However, I need to be able to access my Ubuntu install at least until I have openSUSE set up to my liking, which probably won't be till after 11.3 release (yes, I'll have to go through this again, but hey, I don't actually mind). The problem of course is that Ubuntu uses GRUB2, so it won't be recognized by openSUSE's legacy Grub.

So, I'm guessing my best course of action would be to install openSUSE and customise the bootloader installation so that Ubuntu's GRUB2 stays in the MBR, then try to add openSUSE to Ubuntu's GRUB2 menu. Does anyone know if this is would work? Specifically, has anyone dealt with this issue before? I've never worked with GRUB2 so I'm a bit in the dark here.

[lechien73]

Yes that should work. If memory serves, openSUSE still uses Grub Legacy rather than Grub 2, so at the installation stage, do not install SUSE's boot loader.

When you have installed SUSE, boot into Lucid, open a terminal window and type:

sudo apt-get install libdebian-installer4
sudo os-prober
sudo  update-grub

openSUSE should now appear in your Grub2 list of installed operating systems.

[zak89]

Thanks, that worked perfectly.

[rsrini]

Hi,

I had tried suse 11.3 on top of ubuntu 10.4 with grub2. While installing suse 11.3 i selected the option of don't install any boot loader. Booted ubuntu and added entries in /etc/grub.d/40_custom file. Did update-grub. But suse 11.3 not booting properly. It gives lot of failed messages while booting and gives login prompt. But not allowing to login. I tried so many times reinstalling suse 11.3 again. I don't want suse to mess up my grub2. Any help is appreciated.
R.Srinivasan.

[23dornot23d]

When I installed SUSE 11,3
I put its boot loader on the same partition that I installed it to

Then just boot your Ubuntu up if thats what controls Grub2

and do a

update-grub

[rsrini]

Hi,

Thanks for the help. It works. I had kept the /boot for suse 11.3 as inside /root-suse. Added entries in 40_custom file.

But i have other gdm problem with suse 11.3 - failed to start gdm.

[23dornot23d]

When I have problems with gdm ......

I install kdm and it usually gets me up and running ......

do you have error messages ..... or screenshots ...

I will try to help sort it if you want .... actually you should see the boot messages
while it is trying to go into gdm ,,,, I photograph them and post them when things
are not right.

Can you get to the console ..... ok ... and log in in safe mode

What graphics card do you use .... is it Nvidia ? if so which one

some of the problems I had are here with OS's I try out and a explanation of how I fixed them

[rsrini]

I tried suse 11.3 with KDE too. The same problem. Ubuntu 10.04 working fine. Fedora 13 working fine. XP also working fine. Only i am struggling with Suse 11.3. The only thing i may be doing wrong is selecting "don't install any boot loader option" while installation. I will try that too now. I hope i will get back my ubuntu.

I could not able to find the error messages. The video in mother board chipset ATI radeon HD 4200. I tried to installing the latest 10.7 catalyst SW from ATI site. KDM log file

(i.e., not from libraries and external programs/scripts it uses) go to the
daemon.* syslog facility; check your syslog configuration to find out to which
file(s) it is logged. PAM logs messages related to authentication to authpriv.*.
************************************************** ******************************


X.Org X Server 1.8.0
Release Date: 2010-04-02
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: openSUSE SUSE LINUX
Current Operating System: Linux hnkhs 2.6.34-12-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-06-29 02:39:08 +0200 x86_64
Kernel command line: root=/dev/sda5 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3500418AS_9VMFJGVE-part3 splash=silent quiet showopts vga=0x31a
Build Date: 05 July 2010 09:27:36PM

Current version of pixman: 0.18.0
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sun Aug 8 15:10:36 2010
(==) Using config directory: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
(EE) Failed to load module "fglrx" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) FATAL: RadeonHD presently does not work with kernel modesetting (KMS).
Please disable KMS in your kernel.
(II) [KMS] Kernel modesetting enabled.
(EE) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
(EE) No input driver/identifier specified (ignoring)
QFont::fromString: Invalid description 'Serif,20,5,0,50,0'
QFont::fromString: Invalid description 'Sans Serif,10,5,0,50,0'
QFont::fromString: Invalid description 'Sans Serif,10,5,0,75,0'

[23dornot23d]

It looks like the problem lies with setting the graphics up ..... but I have no experience with ATI radeon HD 4200

and there are not that many articles to do with SUSE and success with this yet

Its not the installation of the boot .... changing the boot will not resolve this .

The errors seem to be with the graphics card and modesetting ......

[rsrini]

Finally i could be able to boot all 4 os (XP, ubuntu 10.04, suse 11.3, Fedora13). We have to install the boot loader (grub 0.97) from suse and also inside the /root-suse boot location. I had a separate boot partition. If we give the separate boot partition to suse as /boot then after reinstalling the grub2 from ubuntu the same problem occurs. So what i did was, while installing suse 11.3 i did not gave any boot partition and asked to install grub 0.97 as boot loader inside its own root partition. With ubuntu live CD i reinstalled the grub2 with proper entries in /etc/fstab and /etc/grub.d/40_custom. Now i am able to see grub2 menu and it boots both suse and ubuntu along with other oss. But i don't know how to update grub2 after editing the 40_custom file from live cd. I can do it once i login to ubuntu. I am using full custom boot menu entries in grub2. I love ubuntu and grub2. It is very good to debug. Every body (suse/fedora) has to move to grub2 soon. Thanks for all your good support. Moral support is more important than the actual technical info. We have a feeling that somebody is there to listen us.

R.Srinivasan.
Bangalore - India