8.04 won't boot

[cyberdork33]

Thanks cyberdork33. I'm off to try just that.

I have tried the option key technique after each ubuntu installation attempt, and 'windows' never appeared as a boot choice. We'll see if that happens again.

Yes I saw that, but that is really the only way unfortunately. If you still have trouble, boot into the live cd and post the output of:

sudo parted /dev/sda print

and

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

BTW that is a lowercase L not an uppercase i

[darcyb]

Make sure, on the last screen of the install, you click advanced, and you have it install grub on the ubuntu partiton only, i.e., /dev/sda3, or /dev/sda2, or whatever.

Ok, I'm in the advanced section to see where GRUB is going. The installation summary screen says that I'm installing to partition #3 and #4 of SCSI3 (0,1,0)(sda) as ext3 and swap.

But in the advanced menu, I have:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda-1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3

Where's the 1:1 ratio in text description? How do I know that the text partition #3 = /dev/sda2, and not /dev/sda3, or is it always respective? So if the mount point partition is partition #3, then I should put the boot loader on /dev/sda2 and expect /sda3 to be the swap?

When I tried to not have a swap partition as was also suggested in this very helpful thread, the advanced menu showed that I had /dev/sda-1 twice, and sda3 was still the highest counter, which still left me confused. Without a swap partition, the advanced menu boot loader combo showed:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda-1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
/dev/sda-1

In exactly that order. Why is is showing /dev/sda-1 twice?

Before I started the installation, I launched gparted to see what things looked like. I wanted to make sure that I did have 15GB of unallocated space after my OS X partition, and I did. What is this 200MB EFI partition that is the first partition? And why does it have a bootable flag set?

[darcyb]

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1       14594   117220823+  ee  EFI GPT

sudo parted /dev/sda print

Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name                  Flags  
 1      20.5kB  210MB  210MB  fat32        EFI System Partition  msftres
 2      210MB   103GB  102GB  hfs+         Untitled

[Klondike]

This is, leaving out false starts, the process that worked for me:

1.) Install OS X on entire disk.
2.) Use Boot Camp Assistant to partition drive, making most of the drive empty space for Linux.
3.) Installed rEFIt.
4.) Booted from Hardy Live CD.
5.) Used installer's partitioner to create two partitions, one ext3 mounted at / using all but 512MB (/dev/sda3), and one swap using 512 MB (/dev/sda4).
6.) At the end of the install, installed the GRUB loader onto /dev/sda3.
7.) Rebooted into rEFIt, ran Partition Tool, synced tables.
8.) Rebooted, held Alt/Option, selected "Windows" and booted into Hardy.


I do not believe step #6 was necessary, from what I've read, but it doesn't hurt.
At step #7, selecting to boot Linux from rEFIt hung on Tux indefinitely.

darcyb, have you tried doing steps #5 through #8 like I did? If not, ignore your concerns about odd partition labels in the GRUB loader dialogue, and give it a try.

[darcyb]

Klondike, the only thing I've done differently is not use Bootcamp.

When I let refit sync the mbr, it displays an error about gtpar(something).efi, and says "won't touch this disk".

Does bootcamp change the partition mapping for the hard disk from GUID to MBR only?

[mrsteveman1]

Bootcamp changes the first block on the disk, the MBR, from showing one EE partition covering the whole thing which protects the disk from being screwed with by old operating systems, to whatever is actually on the disk.

It should just put entries in the MBR to reflect where the partitions are on the disk. The GPT partition tables remain of course, as does the EFI partition at the start of the disk.

[Klondike]

Do you have any objection to attempting the process again, but beginning with Boot Camp?

[cyberdork33]

Why is is showing /dev/sda-1 twice?

I wouldn't worry about that as the partition you install to doesn't matter for your goal. just leave it alone.

What is this 200MB EFI partition that is the first partition? And why does it have a bootable flag set?

That is a EFI system parttion. We all have it, don't mess with it. It is where firmware updates are stored, and you can also put some other things there, but that is another thread.

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

You have problems here. You really have nothing in your MBR table. That is what syncing should fix, however....

sudo parted /dev/sda print

You have some other issues... you gpt partition table looks to be messed up. You should be able to use parted to fix this, but I am not familiar with it enough to tell you how. Billbear is probably your best bet here. I wouldn't try to install or anything until you get your partition table fixed. If nothing else, you are looking at a full OSX reinstall.

[darcyb]

Do you have any objection to attempting the process again, but beginning with Boot Camp?

I have. No luck. I even got a new error screen I had never seen before.

After Boot Camp split my drive into two partitions, I booted the live ubuntu cd and ran gparted. It showed that Bootcamp added 2 partitions. It created a blank 128mb partition after the OS X one, and then its own fat32 one. I wasn't sure to delete the two and create one unallocated space, or just install into the fat32 one after the 128mb blank space. So I deleted the extra one, left in the 128mb blank, and installed ubuntu into one ext3 / partition.

Installation finished, the computer rebooted, and it tried to boot into the new OS install ignoring refit, and gave me the classic "no bootable device found -- insert system disk and press enter" error I've had for days now.

I rebooted holding down the option key, to choose the foreign OS diagonal squares icon from refit, and got the new error. A black screen with white text saying, "no operating system found."

I rebooted holding down the option key, to get to refit and sync the mbr. I synced the mbr and rebooted.

refit menu came up, and I chose the foreign OS icon. I pressed enter. It just sat there with that icon in the middle of the screen and didn't do anything else.

So I rebooted into the live cd, and tried setting the boot flag on the ext3 / partition. Another reboot, sync of the mbr or whatever, and the foreign OS icon sat in the middle of the screen doing nothing like before.

I can't seem to crack this nut. I've tried it with or without GRUB, with or without Boot Camp, with or without a SWAP partition, with or without boot flags, with or without refit and with or without the first 200MB EFI partition. After 3 days of permutations, I'm quite dizzy. I'm unable to reproduce the successes had. Thanks for trying to get me there though! I deeply appreciate it.

I've gone back to one partition and will just stick to OS X land until I get the courage to try again.

[urschrei]

I've just installed 8.04 on my Powerbook (PPC) from the alternate install CD. Installation appears to have gone smoothly, but my system hangs at boot every time just after returning from prom_init with the following error:

PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 0 of device 0001:10:18:0
PCI: Cannot allocate resource region 0 of device 0001:10:19:0

There's a faint line across the bottom of the otherwise black screen, but nothing else.
This was a clean install on a formatted disk, there's nothing else on it.

What do I do now?