Grub configuration

Booting, installing, newbie
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Marcel
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Joined: Sun 15 May 2005, 06:25
Location: Sydney, Australia

Grub configuration

#1 Post by Marcel »

I have installed Puppy on H/disk, and boot using Grub.
Is there a way of automating Grub or the boot process so that one doesn't have to type in all the parameters? I.E: just press enter to the Grub request and all else follows without further ado?
Thanks.
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

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Bancobusto
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Location: Vancouver Island

#2 Post by Bancobusto »

misunderstood the question, and have erased so as to not look like tooo much more of an arse :shock:
Freedom isn't just a Puppy-Linux forum member!

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dvw86
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Location: Washington State

#3 Post by dvw86 »

Hmm, I have a dual boot system with Windows 98 and Puppy. Once I choose Puppy it boots up without any more input from me. I am thinking of erasing Windows and not even having the Grub screen. Just turn it on and up comes Puppy. I'm not sure why you would have to enter any parameters. What is it that you are having to enter at every boot?

Bruce B

#4 Post by Bruce B »

It looks like grub is installed on the mbr (master boot record), but not pointing to the partition where /boot/grub/menu.lst is installed. Or there is no /boot/grub/menu.lst ??

I think you should try reinstalling grub

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babbs
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#5 Post by babbs »

I dual boot Puppy and Fedora Core 3 (FC3) with grub and I don't have any problems. As FC3 was installed first, my grub was installed by anaconda, Fedora's installer.

Here is what my grub configuration file looks like:

Code: Select all

# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes to this file
# NOTICE:  You have a /boot partition.  This means that
#          all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#          root (hd1,0)
#          kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdc2
#          initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=1
fallback=0
timeout=5
splashimage=(hd1,0)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
hiddenmenu
password --md5 {It's a secret}
title Fedora Core (2.6.11-1.35_FC3)
	root (hd1,0)
	kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.11-1.35_FC3 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet
	initrd /initrd-2.6.11-1.35_FC3.img
title Puppy Linux (1.0.4 Chubby Puppy)
	rootnoverify (hd0,0)
	kernel (hd0,0)/boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1
I have it set up to default to Puppy, but I have 5 seconds to choose FC3 instead. Also, if Puppy fails for some reason, FC3 will be brought up instead of dying all together.

Since you are having problems, I'd reinstall grub and make sure you know that you are pointing to the MBR when you tell it where to go.

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rarsa
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#6 Post by rarsa »

Create a menu.lst file in the same folder where your grub stage1 file is.

It should look something like this:

Code: Select all

default 0
timeout 30

title=Puppy
<here you put the commands that you currently type to select the puppy installation>

title=Windows XP
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

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Marcel
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Location: Sydney, Australia

#7 Post by Marcel »

Thanks to all who responded.
Here is the sequence I have to use to boot Puppy:

grub> root (hd0,1)
grub> kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
grub> boot

I tried to change the 2nd line to use hda1 instead of hda2, and found that it tried to load Mepis (unsuccessfully). I thought Mepis had been wiped when
I installed Puppy.
Is it safe for me to delete - or maybe re-format - hda1? Or must I re-install Puppy?

I will, meanwhile, try some of the suggestions people have made.
Thanks
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

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rarsa
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#8 Post by rarsa »

What OSs do you have installed and in which partitions?

Assuming that you only have Windows and puppy, here is the menu.lst

Code: Select all

default 0 
timeout 30 

title=Puppy 
  root (hd0,1) 
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro

title=Windows XP 
  root (hd0,0) 
  makeactive 
  chainloader +1
Adjust for each of the OSs that you actually have.

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Ian
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#9 Post by Ian »

If you have Puppy installed on the second partition of your hard drive and nothing in the first partition you should be able to format partition 1 without it affecting Puppy.

Guest

#10 Post by Guest »

I have what seems to be a residue of stuff from Mepis, on hda1.
I don't have Windows. I'll try to fix Menu.1st as suggested by Rarsa
(thanks, Rarsa - and everyone else).
Any advice about reformating hda1 - or is that too dangerous?

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Marcel
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Location: Sydney, Australia

#11 Post by Marcel »

Oops - forgot to log in - that "Guest" was me. :?
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

Bruce B

#12 Post by Bruce B »

Anonymous wrote: Any advice about reformating hda1 - or is that too dangerous?
What type of format to you want?

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rarsa
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#13 Post by rarsa »

The only danger of formating a partition that you don't want anymore is formating the wrong partition.

Formating hda1 won't modify your MBR or your hda2 at all.

I've formatted, reformatted, partitioned and repartitioned my HDD around my four core partitions without a problem (to try different distros and to reorganize partitions moving them around).

So bottom line, reformat your partition using whatever file system you want.

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rarsa
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#14 Post by rarsa »

Actually if you want your whole HDD for puppy you could 'move' your puppy to hda1 (I can show you how) and then resize it.

Although it may be better to have puppy in a very small partition and have your data in a different partition.

raffy
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Location: Manila

Grub

#15 Post by raffy »

Grub is automatically handled by Barry's script in Puppy, see

http://www.ph-islands.net/pupinstall/

You can reinstall to hard disk, but using Puppy 1.04, press 3 at boot time, then ENTER, so Puppy will not use partition 1 (that you want to use for installation).
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

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Ian
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#16 Post by Ian »

To format your 1st partition on the hard drive boot up a live Puppy CD and make sure that it does not write pup001 file to hda1then open rxvt and type in the following:

mke2fs /dev/hda1

and this will create an ext2 filesystem on your 1st partition.

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Marcel
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Location: Sydney, Australia

#17 Post by Marcel »

Ok Guys and Gals: here is what I have now done:
I booted Puppy from the CD, and used cfdisk to delete hda2, and made hda1 bootable, and created an extended partiton (I think) - dunno why, just felt like it! Well, thought I'd give it a try..:wink:

Then I re-installed to hda1, and chose to use Grub, which I configured with all the defaults, except I put it in the MBR
It all works fine, thank goodness!:D

Only problem now is that Puppy recognises my touchpad but not my ps/2 mouse.:(

I'm nervous about reconfiguring the mouse: when I tried it in Mepis the whole thing froze: no touchpad, no mouse.
Has anyone got both pad and mouse to work? How?.
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

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Marcel
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#18 Post by Marcel »

Sorry - I meant 'my serial mouse'
"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." - Voltaire

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flamesage
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#19 Post by flamesage »

Code: Select all

# GRUB configuration file '/boot/grub/menu.lst'.
# generated by 'grubconfig'.  Thu Jul 28 22:22:45 2005
#
# Start GRUB global section
#timeout 30
color light-gray/blue black/light-gray
# End GRUB global section
# Linux bootable partition config begins
  title Puppy Linux (on /dev/hda1)
  root (hd0,0)
  kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda1 ro vga=normal 
# Linux bootable partition config ends
title Install GRUB to floppy disk (on /dev/fd0)
pause Insert a formatted floppy disk and press enter.
root (hd0,0)
setup (fd0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title Install GRUB to Linux partition (on /dev/hda1)
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0,0)
pause Press enter to continue.
title -     For help press 'c', then type: 'help'
root (hd0)
title -     For usage examples, type: 'cat /boot/grub/usage.txt'
root (hd0)
So in my example, how would I have it automaticly boot up Puppy Linux (on hda1) after 5 seconds?

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Bancobusto
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Location: Vancouver Island

#20 Post by Bancobusto »

uncomment the timeout option, and set it to 5 seconds (erase the # symbol).

it worked for me!

hey, for fun change vga=normal to vga=773

you get a cool penguin and smaller text during yer boot-up....

beware that apparently this takes a small amount of time longer that vga=normal... but it looks a lot nicer :D

and it's easier to read all the funky messages that Puppy displays during boot up...

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