Arch Linux

I noticed the same, with xfs and jfs. Luckily, I found out, if you configure and install lilo first, you can configure and install grub.
Maybe the grub procedure can't write the mbr?

One more reason might be, that the grub menu entries are wrong.

This is what arch creates, f.e. if you have a /boot partition on drive one, partition one, and / as root in drive four, partition one:

# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux [kernel26]
root (hd3,0)
kernel (hd0,0)/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/discs/disc3/part1 ro

Notice that the root (hd3,0) is completely wrong. This configuration is only working, because the kernel option was enriched with the correct option (hd0,0). But this is no grub syntax. It works, anyhow.

This is how it has to be, as the grub option 'root' means the 'root' of the kernel, in the meaning of it's base drive/partition:

# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux [kernel26]
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/discs/disc3/part1 ro

I double checked the menu entries and they are right. Besides that, the same menu entries work with ext3fs, so, I think (and hope) the first workaround will do the job. I´ll try it and try to find out if it´s a grub problem or Archlinux specific.

I've had this problem before too, and I can't figure it out. If you switch to another VC and do the grub install manually (using the identical steps that the setup script uses), then it works fine.

when i first install arch (over old mandrake, with reiserfs partitions) i choose grub and it was ok..
but becouse of my mistake, i reinstall it (in within 20 minutes) and then the grub install fail, but lilo was ok


p.s. the arch verison is 0.6

This is fixed in 0.7-beta1