Grub2 isn't finding Solaris 11 but finds Fedora17/WinXP

[jch16]

I am trying to have my computer run four operating systems, FreeBSD, Solaris 11, Fedora, and XP(soon to be 7).

My FreeBSD, Solaris 11, and Fedora are all to be partitioned on a different hard drive than my Windows OS. Currently, I have Solaris 11 and Fedora installed on this hard drive, but not FreeBSD. As stated in the title, Fedora17 and WinXP are being found easily, while Solaris 11 is not being found at all after being installed.

I look on my Fedora 17 filesystem and the partition with Solaris 11 is visible and also is described as "Bootable". I've browsed a few forums and have attempted to use sudo grub2 -mkconfig, etc, but to no avail. What do I need to do to make it so Solaris, and in the future FreeBSD, are listed on the GRUB2 splash?

Clearly I'm new at this. I just want to experiment with Linux, Solaris, and FreeBSD to expand my knowledge on UNIX. I will provide any information necessary to help figure this out, and I'm sure I'll be seeing you all in the future.

The Solaris 11 install is located @ /dev/sdb4

Thx.

---------- Post added at 08:30 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:25 AM ----------

OS Prober just lists this:

sudo os-prober /dev/sda/
/dev/sda1:Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition:Windows:chain

[sea]

You os probe sda, but mainwhile say solaris is on another physical disk....

Lets get an overview on your partitions and disks,
whats the output of:

lsblk

Then mount your solaris partition and rerun grub2-mkconfig...
Hope this helps

EDIT:
You know solaris is on sdb4, why the heck do you specificly scan sda ??
Thats like looking for fire in the water. Or looking for water in the fire.

su
mkdir /mnt/solaris
mount /dev/sdb4 /mnt/solaris
grub2-mkconfig. etc..

[Jean Pierre]

Fedora17 and WinXP are being found easily, while Solaris 11 is not being found at all after being installed.

Solaris uses a ZFS file system, which the grubs for Linux cannot interpret to get the next boot stages.

In a similar configuration (OpenIndiana, not Solaris), I use the grub for Solaris, which can read ext2/3 and start Fedora (and WinXP). This is an old grub though.

[DBelton]

You will probably have to manually add your Solaris to your Fedora grub2 configuration, and set it up to chainload.

Try adding this to your /etc/grub.d/40_custom file:

menuentry "Chainload Solaris 11 on sdb4" {
insmod zfs
set root=(hd1,3)
chainloader +1
}

After you make the changes, you will need to make your grub.cfg file.

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Edit:
Forgot one thing. Since adding the insmod statement, you will need to reinstall grbu2 as well so it can rebuild it''s core.img file it keeps.

grub2-install /dev/sda

[sea]

Right i had forgotten about ZFS...
I still guess, couldnt test, that my previous posted solution might work, if he has zfs-fuse installed...

sudo yum install zfs-fuse

Then continue with the 2nd post.

[mikee]

How did there get to be a module for it!?!?!

rpm -qf  /boot/grub2/zfs.mod
file /boot/grub2/zfs.mod is not owned by any package
[root@math16-16 /]# file  /boot/grub2/zfs.mod
/boot/grub2/zfs.mod: ELF 32-bit LSB relocatable, Intel 80386, version 1 (SYSV), not stripped

I had read that zfs is a CDDL license which is incompatible with GNU and the kernel.

Originally Posted by DBelton

You will probably have to manually add your Solaris to your Fedora grub2 configuration, and set it up to chainload.

Try adding this to your /etc/grub.d/40_custom file:

menuentry "Chainload Solaris 11 on sdb4" {
insmod zfs
set root=(hd1,3)
chainloader +1
}

[DBelton]

It doesn't have to be compatible with the kernel. It only has to be compatible with grub2, and only enough for it to read it and load the OS (Which isn't linux, so it doesn't have to be compatible with the linux kernel)