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I am trying to be a better Unix user. I want to dual boot my arch-linux virtual machine with Debian. I am using VirtualBox.

I am installing Debian through the arch-linux environment (https://www.debian.org/releases/buster/i386/apds03.en.html)

I have gotten it to work without a /boot partition for my Debian OS. But when I try to make a /boot partition for Debian, GRUB cannot find the kernel.

When I try to load Debian I get this

error: file '/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-6-rt-686-pae' not found
error: you need to load the kernel first.

I think the problem is something with my fstab file. In my functional dual boot, my Debian fstab file is as such:

/dev/sda7    /        ext4   defaults    0    1
/dev/sda8    none     swap   sw          0    0
proc         /proc    proc   proc        0    0

when I use

mount -a

it works perfectly, my /proc gets filled nicely and both OS run smoothly

however when I try to introduce a /boot partition, and I mount -a, /proc is empty and I have to manually mount it with

mount -t proc proc /proc

but ultimately GRUB cannot find the kernel

The fstab looks like this

/dev/sda2    /boot    ext2   rw,nosuid,nodev 0    2
/dev/sda7    /        ext4   defaults        0    1
/dev/sda8    none     swap   sw              0    0
proc         /proc    proc   proc            0    0

I am using grub legacy from archlinux, and not installing grub on debian. I have tried changing the /boot partition's permissions to defaults, to no avail. I also tried installing GRUB2 from Debian and that worked with the /boot partition, but I lost arch linux.

Am I on the right track, could it be something with my fstab and /proc?

Or is there some problem with GRUB legacy and Debian buster I am not aware of?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading.

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1 Answer 1

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Have you tried to install grub on debian ? You can use os-prober to find your Arch linux automaticaly

sudo apt install os-prober

Run it

sudo os-prober

And finally update grub:

sudo update-grub
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  • I tried this, but Debian cannot find Arch. So Grub only has an entry for Debian. When I run os-prober from within Debian while chrooted their from Arch, it cannot find the partitions. I installed grub on /dev/sda, while the Debian boot partition /dev/sda2. Once I reboot I can run os-prober, it works? But it grub still can't find the Arch installation, even after I mount it again within the Debian environment
    – docFarto
    Commented Feb 6, 2020 at 17:22
  • Try to install grub by an "usb live Iso" because chroot cannot find themselves
    – Gabouchet
    Commented Feb 7, 2020 at 21:17
  • Ok I will try this, but what do you mean chroot cant find themselves? If I don't use a boot partition, then when chroot'd into Debian it can find itself, and when I exit to Arch it can find debian and itself
    – docFarto
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 15:22
  • Ok, I just got the /boot partition to work, sort of. I installed debian using its root to boot. Then I rebooted into Arch, mounted its root and boot to their proper partitions, copied Debian's /boot folder over to the new partition, then edited Debian's fstab to include the boot partition. and it worked!
    – docFarto
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 17:22
  • Or maybe it didnt work, in Debian if I unmount the boot partition, and go into the boot folder and delete the original files and then mount again, so now /boot has only the boot files that are on the boot partition. It doesn't boot. It can;t find the kernel. If it was booting from the boot partition, it should work, but I believe it is booting from the original partition and then mounting the new one. Making it appear like its working, but its not
    – docFarto
    Commented Feb 13, 2020 at 17:47

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