LinuxBBQ

So I decided to play with my alt OS- Haiku OS- and they've definitely improved.
I decided it was time to install it again. The install is fairly easy with the only hitch being you have to edit the /etc/grub.d/custom_40 to get it on the grub menu.
This has never been a problem before, but it has played Hell Games with me this time.
I edited grub:
# Haiku on /dev/sdb1
menuentry "Haiku Alpha" {
set root=(hd1,1)
chainloader +1
}
Afterwards I ran "sudo update-grub" and....nothing.
So I went about my business (internetprons and such :-P)
Much to my surprise and delight Haiku showed up in my grub menu at the next boot, but upon choosing it I got a message about an "invalid signature" and the sage advice to press any key to return to the boot menu.
Any ideas? sdb1 is the correct drive/partition, so I believe hd1,1 would be correct as well....most of the posts I've read online seem to point at correct drive naming problems (damn that sounds convoluted! Sorry, guys!) so I am really at a loss, here.
I put a boot flag on this partition as a last resort, but I am going to wait to restart the system to give you guys a reason why I should not try this.
Thanks for your help! :)

*EDIT: Flagging the partiton with the boot flag did absolutely nothing, lols.
I am not so clever, lols me!

nice trouble shooting at least. I have nothing to add - never had any damn luck with grub.
Does grub-install /dev/sdb1 not pick it up? automatically?

What else is running on this machine? What distro is controlling grub? If it's a Debian flavor try running "sudo update-grub" in that distro; the Haiku docs say that os-prober should create a usable grub entry without having to use 40_custom.

Most of the topics I can find relating to that error talk about Windows and EFI mode. I know nothing about EFI, but if you installed anything with EFI that might be part of the problem.

Are you sure the geometry is correct? I refer to
set root=(hd1,1)
chainloader +1

How about removing the chainloader part, as it sounds it jumps to the second partition there

I need to apologise about this first. This is absolutely against the policy (being a non-bbq topic) and I simply did not think and went straight to this board when my feeble faculties hit a wall.That being said, all good ideas that I will try as soon as my next break hits. Thank you!

Non-bbq topics are fine here. Just don't expect good answers. (-:

I love you guys! Back to driving!

Ok! Here is the result for a normal grub-install:

chuck@hello:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/sdb1
[sudo] password for chuck:
Installing for i386-pc platform.
grub-install: warning: File system `bfs' doesn't support embedding.
grub-install: warning: Embedding is not possible. GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However, blocklists are UNRELIABLE and their use is discouraged..
grub-install: error: will not proceed with blocklists

Gonna have to reboot to check the next fix, but I will try machinebacon's idea of removing the "chainloader + 1"
Something like this?

# Haiku on /dev/sda7
menuentry "Haiku Alpha" {
set root=(hd0,7)
}

I still have no idea about how things get indented and such in code, so I will be back with the results of my playing with syntax later, lols!

the problem:
should be /dev/sdb.

And if you are using GPT partition, make sure you setup a bios boot partition first (512K will suffice)

Ah! Thanks, franksinistra! Another "Doh!" moment for the noo_b! Lols!
I think the problem may just be something weird. I deleted the "chainloader + 1" as mentioned then I did a update-grub and a reboot.
I have a separate grub menu set up for all four disks because I've found that doing grub for a specific spin on the drive it's installed to just works better.
At poweron I select the drive that I wish to boot from, then choose my spin. I do this because If I use the grub menu from, say, sda but choose a spin from sdb the chances are good that I am going to get a boot error.
So I poweron and forget to hit the drive selector so I end up on sda (The U****u grub).
Lo and behold, there's my Haiku OS entry!
I click on it and here I am- talking to you from Haiku's WebPositive browser :)
I still need to reboot and try it from the sdb grub, but at least now I know I can access it. Yay! Without even having to put in the cd!
Just thought I'd update you guys!

yeah the thing is if you have more than 1 drive and more than 1 partition to boot in, and not using UUID, then the /dev/sdX will change according to the drive/partition you selected to boot from. That's what pidsley was referring to in his post. Usually, you should have one system (I would always pick a Debian system, because of its grub tools) to "manage the GRUB entries". So, after adding a new OS and checking that it actually has grub (and not lilo or something else), you would boot back to Debian and let grub update the grub menu.

Anyway, glad it works for now ;)

I thank you , machinebacon! I can see myself a couple of years ago reinstalling ad nauseum the same systems and cursing the gods for my misfortune!
The Grill taught me to at least take a breath and think before scrapping everything just because one little thing was messed up.
The Grill is the definitive cure for a lazy brain!

oops that was my fault, i posted /dev/sdb1, mea culpa :(
for posting if you want then i just type replace curly brackets for square '[' and it should show

or hit 'full editor' and use the stylings near the top

Haiku OS, now post a review of that sucker. :)