Dual Boot question....

OK, I have been running Knoppix on a HD for about a year I guess, the program is 7.0.5, and I have been having some issues with it and Wanted to upgrade to 7.2 after I got all of the files from the old system.

The problem is that when I installed the new program I expected the installer to ask if I wanted a dual boot grub or at least create a second boot option in the existing grub, but that didn't happen, and after getting the installation done I was unable to boot the new installation.

I thought that I could maybe use the linux boot repair to change the program to a dual boot, and boot both of them from it, but, it just created the grub anew and now I can only boot the new program and not the old one.

What do I have to do to get both of these programs to boot from the grub, so I can transfer files and get information on what programming I need install from the old program until I have it all rebuilt in the new program. I have tried finding the files from Iceweasel for the favorites folder, and they just don't seem to be anywhere I can retrieve them, and no access to the menus to see what programming I need to install so I have to be able to access both to transfer everything over. How do I link the grub to both?

Please tell us in which partition of your HD you had installed the old version of Knoppix (7.0.5) and in which partition you have now installed the new version (7.2). What is the ouput within a terminal of

Code:

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fdisk -l

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Code:

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mcedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

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and

Code:

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uname -a

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The old program is sdb1, and the new is sdb2. The sdb drive is an SSD, sdb3 and 4 are of course the swap files accordingly.

fdisk -l is: WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted. Disk

/dev/sda: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sda1 1 4294967295 2147483647+ ee GPT Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.

Disk /dev/sdb: 256.1 GB, 256060514304 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 31130 cylinders, total 500118192 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: 0x000f343b Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 81920000 250060799 84070400 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 331849728 500117503 84133888 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 2048 81919999 40958976 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb4 250060800 331849727 40894464 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 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: 0x9d2eb1f0 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdc1 2048 244195327 122096640 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc2 244195328 488388607 122096640 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc3 488388608 732581887 122096640 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdc4 * 732581888 976773119 122095616 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

mcedit is: mcedit is: mcedit /boot/grub/menu.lst Failed to run: Your old settings were migrated from /home/knoppix/.mc to Freedesktop recommended dirs. To get more info, please visit http://standards.freedesktop.org/bas...ec-latest.html uname -a is: Linux Microknoppix 3.9.6 #25 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jun 15 15:27:01 CEST 2013 i686 GNU/Linux

sorry about the lack of separation on these posts, but, your program keeps deleting the spaces and and lines between the information and because you limit the time to edit to so little time I have left them the way the program posts them. appearantly even if I try to edit it will still remove those spaces and lines.

Use double "new line" for new section.

You can use the "Go Advanced" button to have more abilities to format the posting; before sending your posting use "Preview" to see how it looks like.

If "noscript" (within Iceweasel/Firefox) is active for http://knoppix.net/forum/ disable it for this website; otherwise you cannot use the format abilities.

Below the editor area is the "Additional Options" area. With "Attachments => Manage Attachments" you can upload images and after this insert them in your posting.

"mc" and "mcedit" had changed the location for the personal configuration files; therefore the unclear message. Start mcedit once more and it will work.

Attachment 205

OK, here is mcedit, and I have disabled no scripts for this website so we will see how it does now.

To insert the boot option for the old installation start with

Code:

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su
mcedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

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and insert this three lines

title KNOPPIX old installation
root (hd1,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 (.. and rest of this line)

Save with F2 and quit mcedit with F10. By the way "lang=" has no language declaration.

Quote:

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(.. and rest of this line)

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by this you mean the line from fdisk above in frame three above? The disk coordinates for the programming?

(.. and rest of this line)
instead of this insert all the same as in the 3rd line of the block

title KNOPPIX
root (hd1.1)
kernel ...

What about the lines:
title Windows
rootnoverify (hd2,3)
chainloader +1


Are these necessary or can they be deieted, since no Windows programming is on this computer?

Also I put the entry on the grub with mcedit/boot/grub/menu.lst like you said, and hit save at the bottom, verified save, and then quit the grub editor. The entry didn't show on the menu when I restarted the computer. Did I do something wrong?

You can delete the three lines of Windows entry. After this tell us the output of

Code:

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cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

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This is what it shows:

knoppix@Microknoppix:~$ cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
default 0
timeout 30
color cyan/blue white/blue

title KNOPPIX
root (hd1,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb2 rootwait lang= apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq tz=localtime loglevel=1 rw


Title KNOPPIX old installation
root (hd1,0)
kernal /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sdb1 rootwait lang= apm=power-off nomce libata.force=noncq tz=localtime loglevel=1 rw
knoppix@Microknoppix:~$

I am wondering if maybe there are two grub installations and the one that is in booting is different than the one that is being edited. Is this a possibility?

After I installed the new program, I couldn't boot it until I did a repair on the grub that directed it to the new one and deleted the grub entry for the old one. What if the one we are editing is a different grub instance?

Yes it looks like you are booting with grub from the old installation and therefore you see the grub menü from the old one.
To install grub from the new installation at 'dev/sdb2' within the MBR of '/dev/sda' try

Code:

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su
grub
root (hd1,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

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This is what I got when I did that:

GNU GRUB version 0.97 (640K lower / 3072K upper memory)

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For
the first word, TAB lists possible command
completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> root (hd1,1)
Filesystem type is reiserfs, partition type 0x83

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... failed (this is not fata
l)
Running "embed /boot/grub/reiserfs_stage1_5 (hd1,1)"... failed (this is not fa
tal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 d (hd0) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu
.lst "... succeeded
Done.

grub> root (hd1,1)

Will check reboot and see what it accomplished.

Still only getting one boot option for the new system boot. There has to be a way to edit the old grub istallation to access the old operating system.

Come on people there has to be a way for me to edit the grub menu it is booting to, and to clear this one so there is only one grub. One of you guys must have the answer to this.

OK, here is what I have managed to do on my own. It occured to me that I might be able to edit the grub as the system was booting up, so I hit the e key as the grub was displaying and went into the grub, and created a new listing for the old programming. Using the information from the new operating system, I typed up the new entry editing it so it directed the computer at the first partition. I hit F10 and the computer booted into the old operation system, but, without an active internet connection for some reason. Anyway, after I was booted into it, I started mcedit, and to my great surprise there were no existing entries in the grub that mcedit brought up. Appearantly the drive actually has three different grubs, and none of the os's are directed at the one that is currently booting the system up with. I tried editing the blank one in the old operating system and when I rebooted the computer the grub that boots the system remains unchanged and the system is still not able to edit it from either side of the partitions. Appearantly when I used the grub repair tool to change the grub, it just created a whole new grub and deleted the directions of the old grub leaving it inplace but not accessible to the boot process, and the new installation also created its own grub when it was installed that didn't edit the original. That is why the new system wouldn't boot from the old grub. So, now we have three grubs one that is booting and isn't editable from either of the operating systems and two that the computer can't find to use to boot with.

Surely, there is a program that I can use that will detect all of the grub instances and give me the option of deleting those I don't want, and editing those I want to use on the systems?

Someone have anything that will help me resolve these complications?

Oh, and by the way, the entry I created in the bootable grub was temporary, and must be retyped each time to boot the old system.

Here is some more information that I have discovered. While studying the boot files on the two OS's I found that there are some discrepencies on how the hard drives are mapped according to each program. It occurs to me that problem is that these two systems are actually seeing two different drives by definition, and this is why it isn't able to go see both. See the attached screen shot of the boot files on both programs.Attachment 209

It's hard to see what's going wrong within your different grub without direct access to your computer.

• Start your new installation
• Open (as root) the file '/boot/grub/menu.lst
• Append in the "title" line: (started from new install)
• Open the file '/etc/fstab' and look for the other Knoppix installation; in my example:

Code:

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# Added by Knoppix
/dev/sdb2 /media/sdb2

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• Open (as root) the file '/media/sdbX/boot/grub/menu.lst'
• Append in the "title" line: (presumable old install)
• Notice all the root points (hd...) to paper
• Start your presumable old installation
• Can you see within the "title" line the entry: (presumable old install)?

OK, I tried to open '/boot/grub/menu.lst' and I am getting "Permission Denied" with no explanation. Same with the file'/etc/fstab'. If I try to open the 'media/boot/sdb1/grub/menu.lst' which is the file on the old program I get "no such file or directory"Which doesn't make sense unless I am not getting the command right, and that is both as Root.I also tried the 'sdbX' entry just to see if it would be different, but it came back with the same output. I have actually never had that happen before. If I use 'su' in the command line then I get 'no password entry for user. Since I have never had to use the password entry, I was of the thought that it would default to 'microknoppix' as the password but haven't tried it because I am not really familiar with the syntax for the use of the password in the command as yet and my installation is straight forward default installation. I didn't install it with any special information when I installed it. It should be a straight up default installation. I made sure that all of my drives were linked too, when I was trying the file on the old installation, so that wasn't a factor.

Any idea why when I do boot up the old program I get it with no internet connection? It doesn't boot with any of the usual system settings. I am copying the entry for the new system boot grub exactly except the drive, and don't really know if that information is right for the old drive, but, it does send the computer at the old installation, just without the system settings that are normally available.