VL6 GRUB Error2

[petemw]

Hello all,
I have installed Vectorlinux6 on a multi boot system (removed Mepis to make room) and did not install LILO.
I Changed the line in GRUB menu.lst to reflect the changes, however I cannot get rid of GRUB putting out Error 2 : bad file or directory type. - other os's boot OK.
HDD's are set to AUTO in BIOS, used ext2 file system on reformatting partition.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks Pete.

[toothandnail]

Where did the Grub install come from (what distro installed it?). If I remember correctly, some distros (Ubuntu?) were patching Grub (can't recall why at the moment), and that may be what is causing you problems.

paul.

[petemw]

Grub was installed via Puppy.
I installed VL with lilo and stuffed up lilo  so only Win XP was listed. Recovered Master Boot Record with XP. Reinstalled Puppy to get grub back and working. Reinstalled VL with lilo:  XP and VL both boot..
As I also have Puppy and Arch on computer and have been using grub I was hoping to continue with it. So, reinstalled VL without lilo and edited grub's menu.lst for VL..

[sparkyhall]

I remember having this issue with the beta releases but the final release boots fine from grub for me. It finally occured to be that I had installed the final release using the text installer rather than the gui installer. To test this I have just done a fresh install using the gui installer and a fresh install using the text installer and guess what.... Vector installed via the text installer boots fine from grub but Vector installed via the gui installer gives me error 2. I've checked all the files and permissions on both installs but I fail to see the difference. I have also checked for file system errors by running e2fsck -f -y -v on the gui installed partition but still it refuses to boot.

Unless someone else knows the answer this leaves you with two options:

1) Boot from the install CD, finish the the install then run vasm and install lilo in the boot sector of the partition and then chainload lilo from grub. You can edit lilo.conf to set the timeout to 0 so it appears as though your booting from grub only.

2) Re-install using the text installer.

Good luck with this,

Chris

[caitlyn]

If Chris' suggestion doesn't work please post the contents of your /boot/grub/menu.lst file from Puppy Linux.  If I look at your grub menu we may be able to see where the error is and help you correct it.

[toothandnail]

Strange. I can't see any reason that the GUI installer or the text-mode installer would make a difference to Grub.

In fact, through all the beta and RC copies, right up to the release, I've installed (using either the GUI or the text-mode install), skipped Lilo and manually added Vector to the Grub menu.lst. I've only got one install of Grub, which was installed to the root of a small partition that I use as /boot for Zenwalk. I use the Vista bootloader as the primary boot loader, with EasyBCD to allow me to select Linux or Windows (though Windows usually only gets used to update virus signatures and download security patches....).

I would be interested to see the partition layout and the entry for Vector in menu.lst. I suspect that the problem must be there somewhere....

paul.

[sparkyhall]

Strange. I can't see any reason that the GUI installer or the text-mode installer would make a difference to Grub.

I have to agree, I'm only reporting what happened. I also have a seperate grub boot partition from which I boot win xp and various versions of linux. Time permitting I will try the gui install in the partition that worked with the text install and vice versa without modifying menu.lst, that should confirm if this is a grub or installer issue I think.

I know petemw hasn't responded yet but I'm finda curious as to what is happening here.

Chris

[nicefinger]

I have the same problem.
Installed with the graphical interface. Skipped lilo. Grub install comes from Ubuntu.
Vector shows up in the boot menu, but when chosen "Error 2" appears.

[nicefinger]

I tested the text-based installer. Now vector boots, but only into text mode. Can't start X -"xinit not found".
This is sad. I looked forward to test vector ...

[sparkyhall]

Finally figured out what is going on here:

This is a known grub issue and is caused by the fact that the later e2fs tools format EXT3 with an inode size of 256 rather than 128, earlier versions of grub expect the inode size to be 128. It turns out that when you do a VL6.0 text install on EXT3 the inode size is 128 but when you use the GUI installer the inode size is 256. I believe the reason for the increased inode size is to ease migration to EXT4 when it becomes mainstream. If you want to check the inode size of your EXT3 file system then issue the command "tune2fs -l /dev/hdaX | grep Inode" as root. Where X is your partistion number.

To summarise:
You will only see this issue if you are using an older grub install to boot VL6.0 and you have installed VL6.0 to EXT3 file system using the GUI installer. Note: grub in the VL6.0 repository has this issue fixed so you can use this to upgrade your old grub install to resolve this issue.

Chris

[caitlyn]

I tested the text-based installer. Now vector boots, but only into text mode. Can't start X -"xinit not found".
This is sad. I looked forward to test vector ...

X configuration failing is something that can be fixed and something we can walk you through.  The grub error is explained below.  If you install lilo instead of grub that will work fine.

[nicefinger]

I tested the text-based installer. Now vector boots, but only into text mode. Can't start X -"xinit not found".
This is sad. I looked forward to test vector ...

X configuration failing is something that can be fixed and something we can walk you through.  The grub error is explained below.  If you install lilo instead of grub that will work fine.

I have vector up and running now
Probably due to a change in graphics from pci-e/ATI HD 2400 PRO to my old AGP FX5700LE.
(Yes A have booth busses on my ASUS P5VD1-X Motherboard, but pci-e is only x4. Maybe that is the cause of some problems I have had with Linux in general).
Some more problem though ... can't get swedish keybord layout, can't get Nvidia proprietary driver .. but that is probably topic for another thread ..

[caitlyn]

Yep, those are different threads.  Both belong in the X-rated section of the forum.  That title is, of course, someone's idea of a joke.  That section is strictly about X issues.

Glad you were able to get up and running.  I'm sure we can get the rest sorted out for you.

Thanks,
Cait

[kedarm]

Hi!

I'm trying to get VL working with my GRUB that exists on Ubuntu. I am using the latest version of GRUB (version 0.97).

I installed VL, and was a little scared to go ahead with the LILO installation in fear of it screwing up grub. My VL has been installed on /dev/sda12, so I added the following to my grub menu -
title           Vector Linux
root           (hd0,1)
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda12 ro
boot

However, I cannot boot into VL. It keeps giving me an error saying it cannot detect the device. How should I get grub to boot from VL from sda12?
Do I need to reinstall VL?

Thanks a lot.
Kedar

[sparkyhall]

Assuming you really do mean hda12 then the root line should read:

root  (hd0,11)

rather than (hda0,1)

You also need an initrd line and if you want a nice bootsplash to show rather than just text you need to add "vga=791 splash=silent" to the end of the kernel line. So the entry in your menu.lst should look like this:

title           Vector Linux
root           (hd0,11)
kernel        /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda12 ro vga=791 splash=silent
initrd         /boot/initrd

If you prefer text during boot then change the "splash=silent" to "splash=verbose"

You say that you have the latest version of grub from Ubuntu but when grub was patched the version number remained unchanged so both versions are 0.97. I beleive Ubuntu started using the patched grub from 8.10 so providing your grub is from this release you should be OK.

Chris