Some rookie questions about Linux GRUB, booting and configs.

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I have Arch Linix installed and booting just fine, and I have even managed to add myself as a user ... but the only other success I have had so far has been with "su" for getting to either "reboot" or "halt". Then, I have also spent an hour or so at the Arch-rookie Wiki ... and that got me absolutely nowhere at all. I cannot learn that way, and its instructions are not sufficiently ordered and detailed for someone who knows nothing at all anyway. Along with all of that, I have also gone to the Arch forum and attempted to register so I could ask questions there ... but then there is some kind of rookie-excluding question needing an answer in order to register there. So ...

My first dilemma: I have been doing some reading here --> http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB --> and now it looks like I have a GRUB boot and location problem. I have done this --> grub> find /grub/stage1 --> and that has returned two locations, but with neither of them being the one I am using for booting. So, it looks like I need to learn how to deal with that so things will be right after I have learned to do updates.

Is anyone here willing and able to help a rookie?!

Update:

I am beginning to get this sorted out, but I still do not know what to do. Here is the background of this:

I installed Arch and its GRUB loader and files onto (hd2,10). So, everything it needs in relation to keeping things updated is right there in Arch's own unique "/boot/grub/menu.lst" on that partition. However, and I had forgotten about this:

In order to actually boot Arch, I went into Win7 and used BCDEdit to manually add an entry for Arch, and that entry sends my machine to "\grldr.mbr" and my own "menu.lst" located at (hd0,0). So, Arch boots just fine, but it is not being booted from its as-installed ""/boot/grub/menu.lst" in its own (hd2,10) partition.

Is that making sense?

I just went into Win7 and BCDEdit on the thought of changing the path for Arch's entry, but I suspect that would get very complicated and likely not work at all since "grldr" and "grldr.mbr" can only be run from/in system root ("C").

So, and setting aside the matter of how Arch is actually booted -- that is working just fine -- the question here is about how to make it possible for Arch to keep the "menu.lst" actually being used updated. EasyBCD cannot make any entry for Arch, and I cannot have the Arch installer place its GRUB loader at (hd0,0) without trashing other stuff already there.

So "\grldr.mbr" is Grub4DOS, right?
If so, you can't have Arch's grub update Grub4DOS's menu.lst.

You can however chain load Arch's grub, by:

or you can import Arch's menu w/:

This will only work if Arch's grub is using the same syntax as Grub4DOS. (Grub4DOS is using the legacy format, I'm not sure if Arch has updated or not.)

Yes, that is GRUB4DOS (legacy), and I believe ARCH uses GRUB2.


I will make that change and see what happens.

I did this:

(Note: ARCH's "/boot" partition is actually /dev/sdc9, and /dev/sdc10 is its "/(root)" partition.)
######
# ?? (0) Arch Linux ??
title ?? Arch Linux ??
root (hd2,8)
chainloader +1
# kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/9858224f-7c09-4042-842c-bbe0e1e336a1 rootflags=rw vga=773
# rootfstype=ext2 ro
# initrd /kernel26.img
######

... and that ended here:

==========
Booting Arch Linux
Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Chainloader +1
Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format
Press any key to continue...
==========

So, and unless I have that 8, 9, 10 partition number confused, how often is ARCH actually going to need or want to update the "menu.lst" being used to boot it?

Ah. This just struck me:

I am pretty sure the "boot" and "GRUB" folders in ARCH's "/boot" partition were placed there by my use of Puppy's GRUB, and that might explain why the "chainloader +1" line leads to "Error 13". So ...

If I now use the ARCH installation disk to just run its own GRUB to make a new "boot" on ARCH's partition, that "chainloader +1" might work and all will be well?

Still pondering ...

Okay, hold the phone ...

I was wrong in my recollections.

I just ran the GRUB part of the ARCH installer, and it produces this:

##################
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd2,0) <--Note: Corrected from (hd0,0) to address SATA id issues
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/9858224f-7c09-4042-842c-bbe0e1e336a1 rootflags=rw rootfstype=ext2 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd2,0) <--Note: corrected from (hd0,0) to address SATA id issues
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/9858224f-7c09-4042-842c-bbe0e1e336a1 rootflags=rw rootfstype=ext2 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

# (2) Windows
#title Windows
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
#chainloader +1
##################

But then, Puppy's GRUB had only produced this (with no "/boot" for ARCH):

##################
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/sda10) <--ARCH Linux "/(root)" partition
root (hd0,9)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda10 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/sda11) <--Linux Mint 9 "/boot" partition
root (hd0,10)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda11 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Linux bootable partition config begins
title Linux (on /dev/sda12) <--Linux Mint 9 "/(root)" partition
root (hd0,11)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda12 ro vga=normal
# Linux bootable partition config ends
# Other bootable partition config begins
title Windows (on /dev/sda1)
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1
# Other bootable partition config ends
##################

So, what I had done was to simply copy the ARCH-produced "menu.lst" directly to my machine's root (hd0,0) and then add the additional entries for everything else so I could use GRUB4DOS to make it all happen. And of course, Win7 already has a "boot" folder of its own there on (hd,0,0) "C".

So, I am still at that spot of not knowing how to deal with ARCH's present inability to update the (hd0,0) "menu.lst" file from which it is actually being booted while nevertheless having its own "menu.list" right there in its own (hd2,8) "/boot" partition.