Dual/tri boot [Grub]

[btfrog]

Hi,

My config :
Existing Dual boot XP & Ubuntu managed by GRUB

Installing Backtrack 4 on Grub is quite similar to the Lilo one:

1) Make a ext3 partition via Hiren's boot cd or any boot partition utility
2) Format it via this same utility
3) Boot BT4 beta
4) Once loggued open a terminal and :

root@bt:~#mount
take your partition freshly formated let's say in this case /dev/sda7
( you can also do a root@bt:~#df -h to see if it's the right one ... )
root@bt:~#umount /dev/sda7
root@bt:~#cd / && mkdir /mnt/bt && mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/bt/
root@bt:~#cp --preserve -R /{bin,dev,home,pentest,root,usr,boot,etc,lib,opt,sb in,var} /mnt/bt/ && mkdir /mnt/bt/{mnt,tmp,proc,sys}
root@bt:~#chmod 1777 /mnt/bt/tmp/ && mount -t proc proc /mnt/bt/proc && mount -o bind /dev /mnt/bt/dev/
root@bt:~#chroot /mnt/bt/ /bin/bash

Now Bt4 beta is copied on /dev/sda7 we need to add it on GRUB so reboot your machine under ubuntu, open a terminal and:
root@ubuntu:~#grub-install /dev/sda7
root@ubuntu:~#vim /boot/grub/menu.lst
At the end of the file add :

title Backtrack 4 Beta
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/sda7
initrd /boot/splash.initrd
boot

root@ubuntu:~#update-grub && reboot

You should be able to boot your Backtrack beta 4 now

[digitalfriction]

Hi, my version of GRUB is configured from grub.conf file.

I have followed your instructions, and entered the following into grub.conf:

title BackTrack 4 Beta
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/sda5
initrd /boot/splash.initrd

but when I boot I get the grub menu, select backtrack 4 and get the following error:

Booting 'BackTrack 4 Beta'
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda5

Error 2: Bad file or directory type

Press any key to continue...


Is this suggesting an error when I was copying files over? or can you suggest any other causes?

Many Thanks

[larryhaja]

Hi, my version of GRUB is configured from grub.conf file.

I have followed your instructions, and entered the following into grub.conf:

title BackTrack 4 Beta
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/sda5
initrd /boot/splash.initrd
but when I boot I get the grub menu, select backtrack 4 and get the following error:

Booting BackTrack 4 Beta
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz ro root=/dev/sda5

Error 2: Bad file or directory type

Press any key to continue...

Is this suggesting an error when I was copying files over? or can you suggest any other causes?

It sounds like you're using grub from a different OS. If that is the case, then vmlinuz is on a different partition then the "/boot" directory of that OS. You could explicitly tell grub where the partition is located like this:

title BackTrack 4 Beta
rootnoverify (hd0,4)
kernel (hd0,4)/boot/vmlinuz rw root=/dev/sda5
initrd (hd0,4)/boot/splash.initrd

This has worked for me in the past with grub and previous installations of BT. This should work if the "/boot" directory from BT4 is located on the same partition as the "/" directory for BT4. Otherwise, change accordingly.

[digitalfriction]

Hi, thanks for the reply. I still get the same error message. My GRUB is from Linpus running xcfe. I am trying to get my little acer aspire one to triple boot, currently dual booting linpus and Vista using the linpus GRUB install. I am definetly missing something, knowing me its probably quite simple so I apologise early !

Just in case its to do with my partitioning, I have the following setup:

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 10.5GB 10.5GB primary ext2 boot <----------------- This is where Linpus is installed
2 10.5GB 11.6GB 1078MB primary linux-swap
3 11.6GB 53.5GB 41.9GB primary ntfs <----------------- This is where Vista is installed
4 53.5GB 120GB 66.5GB extended
5 53.5GB 85.0GB 31.5GB logical ext3 <----------------- This is where BT4 Beta is installed
6 85.0GB 120GB 35.1GB logical <----------------- This is where I will be installing a 4th OS (MacOS X)


As I said, its probably something simple, so I apologise, its not to do wiht the filesystem I have formatted the partition as is it, Ive just thought about it, I formatted as ext3, should it be reiserfs?

[larryhaja]

I'm not really sure. You might want to comment out the "inintrd (hd0,4)/boot/splash.initrd" line just to reduce the number of variables. Make sure that your hard drive partition is actually "sda5" rather then "hda5".

My system is a little different in that I have /boot and / are on separate partitions. On my notebook I have BT4 /boot on sda8 and BT4 / on sda9. Here is my grub entry for BT4.

#### start of Backtrack ####
  title        BackTrack 4 Beta (2.6.28.1)
  root        (hd0,7)
  kernel      (hd0,7)/vmlinuz max_loop=255 root=/dev/sda9 vga=791 ro
#### end of Backtrack ####

EDIT: I just looked over your original grub entry and you have rootnoverify. I believe it should just be root.

[digitalfriction]

It seems that the issue is the version of GRUB that I am using, it does not like the ext3 filesystem. I resolved the issue by starting again, and after making the partition and formatting, I then ran

mkreiserfs /dev/sda5

this converted the filesystem to reiserfs, which my version of GRUB understands, and then I continued with the file copy and all was well.

My issue now is that when I boot into BT4, I login as root, start networking, and then startx. The screen I get is the BT4 desktop, but with 6 boxes at the top of the screen, one of them is blue, and 2 rectangles at the bottom of the screen?

Sorry, scratch my last problem, I tried the crystal window manager, hence why my screen was screwed. I used the almighty SEARCH button and have found my fix !

[DjTaz]

Now Bt4 beta is copied on /dev/sda7 we need to add it on GRUB so reboot your machine under ubuntu, open a terminal and:

Ok forgive me for being such a noob here but im more used to breaking windows (and i dont even mean the PC type) so i may need baby steps on this.
I have BT booting on a USB stick and i was able to get down as far as the section above ... that seemed easy, then i go to whwre you want me to reboot the machine under ubuntu ... when i try to boot i get windows :s what am i doing wrong or have i missed a step somewhere ?


*edit*
Would u believe i missed that u had ubuntu on your machine already- forgive me its 2 in the morning here and i had a long day - ill try more after i get sleep.
I have everrything set up and partitioned and files copied over now , but no way that im aware of to boot the linux partition from windows and not sure how to set it up from BT - ill research tomorrow when i wake unless someone can help me here ?

[DjTaz]

if i dont have grub installed and just windows XP as a boot device but have got the BT copied over as above , is there a way to get Grub installed and working as a boot device afterwards and disable xp's boot.ini , or even add a linux boot to it ?

[kYd420]

Nice work. Worked first time for me dual booting with Arch Linux.

One thing OP; there's a space in one of the commands between sbin, it spits out an error (obviously). Just in case anyone is ctrl c+v'ing like I was.

Thanks again

if i dont have grub installed and just windows XP as a boot device but have got the BT copied over as above , is there a way to get Grub installed and working as a boot device afterwards and disable xp's boot.ini , or even add a linux boot to it ?

I'm not quite sure what your asking; but I believe you can use Window's boot.ini to boot Linux (but I think this mean copying the boot sector using dd) I haven't used Windows for a long time so I'm no positive.

Just use Grub instead. When you install grub, an option for Windows is already in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file it's commented out by default IIRC.
Just uncomment the lines and you may need to change