archlinux guest on virtualbox?


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I've decided to switch to Archlinux from fedora 8 because I'm sick of bloated systems with buttloads of crap that I don't use. I'm not going to actually install it on my laptop until I get a break from uni because I kinda rely on my laptop a lot. In the meantime I've got virtualbox installed, and I'm trying to set it up on that. I can get through the formatting process, and installing the packages, and installing the bootloader. I generally just let the auto config do its thing in the config step, and don't touch those files. After that's all done, I type reboot, and obediently the system shuts down, but on startup it shows a blank screen, and then nothing. Is there something I haven't done? I have a feeling I actually need to edit the config files, but I have no idea where to start...

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Well, im thinking that since he cannot even get to a Grub Screen, that its beyond anything to do with the kernel. Are you 100% sure that you did install the bootloader into the MBR? There is a section of the arch linux install, that allows you to choose grub and the location for it to be installed in.

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Well, im thinking that since he cannot even get to a Grub Screen, that its beyond anything to do with the kernel.

It was my assumption that he could get to grub, and the blank screen is upon booting the kernel. CABHATSMARSP6776a, can you clarify the problem?

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It was my assumption that he could get to grub, and the blank screen is upon booting the kernel. CABHATSMARSP6776a, can you clarify the problem?

Yeah perhaps you are right. Im not quite sure where he is seeing this blank screen. Grub or booting the kernel, one or the other, heh.

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No I don't get to see the grub screen. I just plonked grub into the boot partition, I just assumed thats where it went..

umm after VB "boots" it shows its logo with the "press f12 to change boot device priority" screen, then its just black... I didn't edit any config files because quite frankly I don't know what they mean and I read that the arch autoconfig feature did enough of it for it to be able to boot.

But just, am I correct to install grub in the boot partition?

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But just, am I correct to install grub in the boot partition?

No, You need to install GRUB to the Master Boot Record (MBR). If you load the arch insallation disc again, and then just skip to the bootloader stage, you should be able to reinstall the bootloader to the MBR.

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In my experience with Arch and Virtualbox (I was going to test it out as well) I was having some video issues as well. I got past that some times, other times not or it would go blank if I was trying to run pacman or something. It was frustrating and I'm just going to wait until I have real hardware to try it out again.

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ok it's booting fine now. I have no Idea what is different this time, I did notice however that when i booted the cd up again and skipped straight to the bootloader install it complained about grub's menu.list file not being there, and I had to go and reinstall the packages again and then it worked fine...

Woo! now I just need to figure out how to set up my wireless network to install the rest of it.

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