Re: Dual Boot on Two Hard Drives
This thread should be stickied. I had the Grub on windows MBR problem and gave up on ubuntu for a while cause I just didn't have time to figure it out.
Of course now I feel foolish for not figuring it out myself
:)
A. Collective
--ADJ. collective - forming a whole or aggregate--
Re: Dual Boot on Two Hard Drives
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Acollective
This thread should be stickied. I had the Grub on windows MBR problem and gave up on ubuntu for a while cause I just didn't have time to figure it out.
Of course now I feel foolish for not figuring it out myself
:)
A. Collective
--ADJ. collective - forming a whole or aggregate--
Same topic, different thread on Support Forum, more posts, you're not alone.
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=275728
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Re: Dual Boot on Two Hard Drives
Alright - I'll chuck my 2p in.
I dual boot on two HDD and have grub in the MBR. Had my share of problems getting it running but I learned a lot about grub and booting in getting the system working right.
That is in part why I started using Linux. I wanted to learn from it.
Have no problems now fixing MBR, manually booting Kernels and re-writing menu.lst.
Can't do that if it works too well first time.:-k
Still - next time if I have to re-do things I may use Bulldog's method.
Re: Dual Boot on Two Hard Drives
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Bigbluecat
Have no problems now fixing MBR
And if you are lucky that will continue, if not.....?
Fixmbr will not always work. Fact.
So don't let that MBR end up a grubby mess.
Re: Dual Boot on Two Drives
I have Windows installed on a SATA drive and Ubuntu installed on the primary master IDE. I installed a new SATA drive and booting windows from grub has caused problems ever since. I want to make sure that grub is still linking to the drive/partition with windows on it but, being the noob that I am, I'm not familiar with the designations used in menu.lst.
This is the output of fdisk:
Code:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2709 21760011 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2710 38913 290808630 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 2710 21958 154617561 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 21959 38913 136191006 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/sdb: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2685 21567231 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 2686 4865 17510850 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 2686 4664 15896286 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 4665 4865 1614501 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Disk /dev/hdb: 200.0 GB, 200049647616 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 12749 102406311 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdb2 12750 24321 92952090 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 12750 24321 92952058+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/hdd: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdd1 1 1335 10723356 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdd2 1336 14593 106494885 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdd5 1336 5159 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hdd6 5160 14593 75778573+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
As you can see, I have a whole lot of drives.8)
The partition with windows is /dev/sda1 and the Ubuntu drive is /dev/hda1.
Here's the output of menu.lst concerning the windows drive:
Code:
# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root
# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Windows XP
root (hd3,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd3)
map (hd3) (hd0)
chainloader +1
I know it says "on /dev/sda1" but what does "(hd3,0)" mean?
What does this refer to? I thought it would mean the first partition of the third harddrive but I'm not sure how SATA drives fit into the numbering scheme.
Is menu.lst referring to the correct place or does it require some editing?
Re: Dual Boot on Two Drives
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Torquemada28
I have Windows installed on a SATA drive and Ubuntu installed on the primary master IDE. I installed a new SATA drive and booting windows from grub has caused problems ever since.
So don't boot it from Grub?
Sorry I can't help, my area of interest is in avoiding having to muck about with editing Grub, which is a major P.I.T.A.
Maybe Bulldog would oblige, he enjoys that kind of thing?
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Re: Dual Boot on Two Drives
I'm not sure how it will figure out in your configuration,but it isn't that hard to find out.
You have three disks,2 IDE and 1 Sata.
Sata has no more master or slave like an IDE drive.
You van try to make (hd3.0) into (hd1.0) to see if windows will boot.
You have only a few options to try out and it shouldn't be that hard to figure out how the mapping should be.
But as I can see your Ubuntu is bootdevice 1 which in GRUB language = 0
Your windows is sda1 no master slave configuration and should be bootdevice 2 in GRUB language = 1
But if this doesn't workout make it 0 and 2.
but you should use (hd0.0) instead of (hd0) the second 0 stands for the partition which is used.
Should not be to difficult to do,just a little experimenting.
Make a copy of your menu.lst before you go messing with it.
Code:
sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst_backup
so if things go bad you can copy it back.
Re: Dual Boot on Two Drives
This is one of the few things about Ubuntu that really ticks me off. Zenwalk Slackware SUSE & Vector let you decide where the boot loader is installed. You can also choose to not install a boot loader or to install it to a floppy (of course I yanked out my floppy ages ago...might be time to go buy another :) )
Automatically installing a bootloader is nice for absolute beginners but Ubuntu really should give you the option to control how where and if a boot loader is installed.
Re: Dual Boot on Two Drives
Quote:
This is one of the few things about Ubuntu that really ticks me off. Zenwalk Slackware SUSE & Vector let you decide where the boot loader is installed. You can also choose to not install a boot loader or to install it to a floppy (of course I yanked out my floppy ages ago...might be time to go buy another :smile: )
Automatically installing a bootloader is nice for absolute beginners but Ubuntu really should give you the option to control how where and if a boot loader is installed.
Hello bullinchinashop, bulldog, gn2 and others,
The 'Alternate' Installations CD has always catered for that, and is the original Ubuntu installer, the only type of installation available for the earlier releases of Ubuntu.
Many people didn't like having so many options, they found it 'confusing', they wanted the install to be simpler, therefore the 'Desktop' Live/Install CD was developed for those people.
The Ubuntu 'Alternate CD .iso is available for each release, downloadable from the same site where you downloaded your 'Desktop CD .iso from. It is quite easy to use, refer to my signature links for some illustrated examples of it's use. It's actually quite straighforward, most people can follow it.
This page (Click Here) shows how you can choose between Grub or Lilo, or continue without a bootloader at all if you like. Grub can be installed almost anywhere, including to the MBR of any hard disk the user cares to specify. (See figure 10). Lilo can be installed anywhere too. (See figure 13).
If you install with the 'Alternate' CD, (with all your disks plugged in), the installer will have a chance detect your other installed operating systems, and add those to the Grub menu automatically for you. It might automatically mount your other partitions for you in /etc/fstab as well.
It will be less confusing for you in the long run too, as instead of having every disk set up and configured as 'hda', like an all Windows system, (all thinking they are 'drive C', ignorant of the other disks and partitions in the computer), operating systems on each disk will be set up with thier correct hard drive designation.
If you want to see in advance how to later remove Grub from the MBR, I listed quite a few ways on this page, if one doesn't work, you can choose another. Un-install Page
There is nothing sacred about the MBR, it is made of the same materail as the rest of the hard disk, and can be written to and overwritten as many times as you like. It won't wear out. Grub is easily removed if you no longer need it or decide it isn't working well in your particular installation.
You can use GAG Boot Manager from a floppy disk, GAG Page
to boot your computer with, or install GAG to MBR, if you wish.
However, it is useful to be aware of the idea of running the installer with the disks unplugged and using the F8 key to boot up with if your particular PC configuration is confusing for the installer and Grub, such as when IDE and SCSI disk are mixed, or when people have a modified computer, with drives plugged in in unique ways. The F8 key idea is a great idea for those installations, and I would like to thank gn2 for thinking of it, realizing it's usefulness, and promoting it, it's a great workaround for some of those tricky situations, so gn2 has done us all a great service by making us all aware of that possibility's usefulness. gn2 really does deserve a pat on the back. =D>
Regards, Herman :-D
Re: Dual Boot on Two Drives
quick question from a bonda-fine noob:
i have 2 sata drives, one already has a winblows xp installation. do i need to disconnect it from the MB to install ubuntu to the other drive? or can i just select it from the GUI installer?