after installing ubuntu on a different partition grub is not loaded at boot

[waleemamun]

hi
i am new at ubuntu .i have installed xp(sp2) on my C: drive (NTFS) and then installed ubuntu form the live cd on another partition after successfully installing ubuntu when i restarted my pc it showed boot loader not found and asked to insert a bootable disk . pls can anyone help me with that
thnx in advance

[Pumalite]

Post:
sudo fdisk -lu
(boot your Live CD)

[waleemamun]

hi
here what i got after sudo fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x58435abb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 81915434 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 81922048 143362047 30720000 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 143362048 204802047 30720000 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 204812685 312560639 53873977+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 204812748 263626649 29406951 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/sda6 263626713 312560639 24466963+ b W95 FAT32

ps: i have reinstalled windows so now can u tell me how i keep this windows on C: drive and also intall ubuntu on anther drive without having the problem of boot loader

[theozzlives]

Install Windows first using about half of your HD. Then install Ubuntu with the "use free space" option. GRUB should look for other Operating systems and setup a boot menu for you.

[kadafi69]

I have the same problem, ( im not at my pc rite now so cant provide sudo fdisk -lu)

but i dont have the option of installing windows first. any other way around it?

[caljohnsmith]

kadafi69, fortunately you don't need to reinstall Windows and Ubuntu to fix booting problems related to Grub; but first, what exactly happens on start up? Do you get any errors?

How about booting your Live CD, open a terminal (applications > accessories > terminal), and post the output of:

sudo fdisk -lu
Also, for each of the drives fdisk lists, like sda, sdb, etc, please post the output of:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
So replace "sda" above with each of your drives. And finally, for each command above that returns "GRUB", please post:

sudo xxd -s 1049 -l 2 -p /dev/sda
And replace sda with the drives that previously returned "GRUB". That will greatly clarify what your setup is like.

[waleemamun]

hi caljohnsmith i provided the output of sudo fdisk -lu for my pc can u tell me now how i can keep the current xp an still install ubuntu on another partition, i created free space of size 23 gb where i want o install ubuntu. i dont know about ubuntu at all but is this problem is due to not finding the grub in MBR ? pls i need help

[caljohnsmith]

hi caljohnsmith i provided the output of sudo fdisk -lu for my pc can u tell me now how i can keep the current xp an still install ubuntu on another partition, i created free space of size 23 gb where i want o install ubuntu. i dont know about ubuntu at all but is this problem is due to not finding the grub in MBR ? pls i need help
In your second post you mentioned you wanted to install Ubuntu to another drive other than your Windows drive. So which drive do you want to install Ubuntu to? How about looking at this tutorial and seeing if it helps you install Ubuntu:

http://www.herman.linuxmaniac.net/p23.html

[waleemamun]

hi caljohnsmith i read the link u gave i did those thing i created an free space for ubuntu and installed it their and it said the installation was successful but when i restart the pc after installation the grub is not loaded it says no boot loader found and asks to use a bootable disk

[caljohnsmith]

hi caljohnsmith i read the link u gave i did those thing i created an free space for ubuntu and installed it their and it said the installation was successful but when i restart the pc after installation the grub is not loaded it says no boot loader found and asks to use a bootable disk
So which drive did you install Ubuntu to? How about posting the output of all the commands I gave in post #6, including the fdisk command, so I can see what your setup is like now.

[karthikCV]

i am facing the same problem. i installed xpsp3 and then ubuntu7.10 and at the time of booting , i get the same message "PLEASE INSERT YOUR SYSTEM DISK....." of that sort when i try to use xp.

i tried the code given above on the terminal. and this is the result

karthik@ParentsGift-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1ffe660c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 51199154 25599546 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 51199155 488375999 218588422+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 51199218 215046089 81923436 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 215046153 378893024 81923436 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 378893088 430092179 25599546 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 430092243 488375999 29141878+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfb88fb88

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 63 39118274 19559106 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 39118275 150432659 55657192+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda3 150432660 156296384 2931862+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
karthik@ParentsGift-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
Missing operating system
karthik@ParentsGift-desktop:~$ sudo xxd -s 1049 -l 2 -p /dev/sda
0000
karthik@ParentsGift-desktop:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
karthik@ParentsGift-desktop:~$ sudo xxd -s 1049 -l 2 -p /dev/sdb
xxd: /dev/sdb: No such file or directory
karthik@ParentsGift-desktop:~$

[caljohnsmith]

Can you set your BIOS to boot the Ubuntu hda drive on start up? If so, how about doing:

sudo grub
grub> device (hd0) /dev/hda
grub> root (hd0,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
And you should be able to boot your hda drive and at least get the Grub menu on start up if all goes well. If you have no way of booting your hda drive on start up, you could instead do:

sudo grub
grub> device (hd0) /dev/sda
grub> device (hd1) /dev/hda
grub> root (hd1,0)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit
And then you should be able to get the Grub menu on start up when you boot the Windows sda drive. Please post the output of all the above commands, and let me know how it goes.

[Pumalite]

I have the same problem, ( im not at my pc rite now so cant provide sudo fdisk -lu)

but i dont have the option of installing windows first. any other way around it?
You might want to try this:
http://apcmag.com/5459/dualboot_ubuntu_and_windows_xp

[Pumalite]

hi
here what i got after sudo fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x58435abb

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 81915434 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 81922048 143362047 30720000 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 143362048 204802047 30720000 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 204812685 312560639 53873977+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 204812748 263626649 29406951 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
/dev/sda6 263626713 312560639 24466963+ b W95 FAT32

ps: i have reinstalled windows so now can u tell me how i keep this windows on C: drive and also intall ubuntu on anther drive without having the problem of boot loader

Check your drive with TestDisk:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p21.html

[karthikCV]

To caljohnsmith

This is the output:
grub> device (hd0) /dev/hda

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 17 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+17 p (hd0,0)/boot/grub/stage2 /boot/grub/menu.l
st"... succeeded
Done.

grub> quit

[kadafi69]

kadafi69, fortunately you don't need to reinstall Windows and Ubuntu to fix booting problems related to Grub; but first, what exactly happens on start up? Do you get any errors?

How about booting your Live CD, open a terminal (applications > accessories > terminal), and post the output of:

sudo fdisk -lu
Also, for each of the drives fdisk lists, like sda, sdb, etc, please post the output of:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
So replace "sda" above with each of your drives. And finally, for each command above that returns "GRUB", please post:

sudo xxd -s 1049 -l 2 -p /dev/sda
And replace sda with the drives that previously returned "GRUB". That will greatly clarify what your setup is like.

When I run sudo fdisk -lu i get this


root@XPC:~# sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 37.0 GB, 37019566080 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4500 cylinders, total 72303840 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xffffffff

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 192779 96358+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 192780 72292499 36049860 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 192843 8000369 3903763+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 8000433 27535409 9767488+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 27535473 54701324 13582926 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 54701388 60565049 2931831 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 60565113 66428774 2931831 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 66428838 72292499 2931831 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0001c502

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 1953520064 976760001 83 Linux

then for each drive i run the other command I get


sudo dd if=/dev/sda1 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sda2 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sd5 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sda6 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sda7 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sda8 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sda9 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sda10 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


sudo dd if=/dev/sdb1 count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub "missing operating system"
grep: missing operating system: No such file or directory


In regards to Pumalite's link, I want nothing to do with windows on this system, so that rules that out!

EDIT:

I also have a problem with the /dev/sdb1 drive, this is a new drive i bought recently and since formatting it, ive not been able to put any files onto it, i just get a permissions denied error message. any ideas how to resolve this?

[kadafi69]

bumpio I could do with this being sorted.

[caljohnsmith]

OK, according to the commands you ran in post #15, you should be able to boot your Ubuntu drive on start up and get the Grub menu. Have you been able to get the Grub menu yet? When you get that error booting Windows that you mentioned in your first post, is that when you boot the Windows drive, or if you boot Windows from the Grub menu? Also, have you ever been able to boot Windows before, or is it a fresh install?

[kadafi69]

i dont have windows, not in a long time. but i did do a fresh install of ubuntu thats when the problems arose. when I run those grub commands I get this



grub> device (hd0) /dev/sda

grub> root (hd0,0)

grub> setup (hd0)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... no
Checking if "/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd0)"... 16 sectors are embedded.
succeeded
Running "install /grub/stage1 (hd0) (hd0)1+16 p (hd0,0)/grub/stage2 /grub/menu
.lst"... succeeded
Done.

grub>