# using grub as a bootloader



## bleedingsamurai (Dec 3, 2011)

*Problem:*
I am using grub to dual boot and when I go to boot my FreeBSD entry, I get "grub error 17 can not mount partition".

My entry looks like this:

```
title FreeBSD 8.2
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/loader
```

What I've done so far:
I've tried swapping out the kernel line for chainloader +1 but I just end up with a black screen and a blinking white prompt. And I've tried explicity specifying slice "a" with:

```
root (hd0,3,a)
```
but grub can't seem to find that "partition"
I know the partition and slices are intact because before I reinstalled grub to the MBR I could boot FreeBSD just fine.

I've made sure grub is using a real menu.lst not just a symlink to grub.conf and that FreeBSD is installed on a physical partition not a logical one, and I made sure to install the FreeBSD boot manager to slice "a" of my FreeBSD partition.
I used the automatic partition option and used the default file system UFS2

I don't think it matters but my real boot partition (where grub is installed, and stages and configurations are located) is ext4.


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## bleedingsamurai (Dec 3, 2011)

Well this is embarrassing.
I booted off a live disk to double check everything.
I had installed Gentoo Linux in an extended partition which is now identified as the 4'th partition even though it was created before and is physically located before my FreeBSD partition, which is what threw me off.


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## aeyeaws (Dec 31, 2011)

grub has confused the barbarian hordes  on Pluto for years ,  Otis


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