Multiboot Ubuntu, Win7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003,OpenSolaris and Solaris 10

[MAFoElffen]

Help!
(I know, you;re thinking I'm crazy, but I figured I wanted to run everything native for performance and development- but do testing within virtual machines)

Yes, I WAS running everything multiboot fine using (there is a later "until"):

Win7 Professional 64bit, Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit, Windows Small Business Server 2003, Ubuntu 9,10 64bit, OpenSolaris 64bit and Solaris 10 64bit

...on an:
ASUS8N32-SLI Deluxe Gaming Edition, AMD64 FX/60, 4 GB DDR1 PC3200 Premium RAM, onboard nVidia Nforce4, two GTX GeForce 6800GT Extreme SLI vidoeo cards (bridged), Creative Labs XFi Xtreme Ganer sound card, 500 GB IDE drive, 1 TB SATA drive and 350 GB SATA drive...

The Drives were set up as:
primary boot:
1 TB SATA (C:, sdc1)- (..,1)- WIN7, (...5) Ubuntu, (,,.6) Linux Swap, with the Grub2 boot menu from Ubuntu.
second drive:
350 GB SATA (D:, sdb1)- (..,1) Windows Vista, (..,2) OpenSolaris, with the Grub2 Menu from OpenSolaris.
third drive:
500 IDE (E:. sda1)- (..,1) Windows Server 2003, Solaris 10, with the Grub2 boot menu from Solaris 10.

UNTILl I was having problems installing ALSA Sound Drivers in Ubuntu 9.10. During that process, I opt'ed to Upgade to Ubuntu 10.05 beta through the Upgrade Manager(!) What happened was during the upgrade it changed the Grub2 Menu... and the whole Booting Process all all drives instead of the Primary 1TB Drive that is was installed on. What it did was it installed the Grub2 boot and menu from Ubuntu to ALL the drives instead of just to the primary drive. This over-wrote the MBR of all the drives! From that point on, the only OS that boots is Ubuntu. I can still access that data on all drives. As a Beta Tester, I reported the problem, but never received resolution nor help correcting it.

I tried various things to resolve it. I finally figured that the OS'es that were mostly setup and the installed with the most applications were Ubuntu and Win7. I repartitioned, formated and reinstalled Windows Vista and OpenSolaris (smp164) on my 350 MB drive with the boot menu from OpenSolaris.

Then I upgraded Ubuntu from 10.04 beta 64bit to the 10.04 64bit (released) through the Upgrade Manager by just checking for updates... During the update process, it blasted the MBR's and subsequent Boot Menu's on the other drives again. ...And I never have been able to get Win7 to boot back up yet on the drive Ubuntu is on. I also haven't been able to get Windows Server to boot up, but that OS is now not needed on this.

Help!

[MAFoElffen]

I've used the Win7 and Vista Install disks to try to use "repair" (which is what both WIN Rescue disks use) to no avail. It says there is nothing wrong... as it see's an MBR, but it is not the WIN MBR- it is Grub2. Seems it overwrote the MBR's of those partitions.

I tried using a "Super Grub" Disk (v0.9799)... but it also fails.

[oldfred]

I know this will be a lot of info with all those systems, but this shows where everything is installed. Be sure to use the code tags or it will not be easy to review.

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum member meierfra
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste results.txt, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.

[MAFoElffen]

I uninstalled Solaris 10 (from a mirror I had of this drive) before I got your post. I ran the script. Here is the results:

               Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in 
    partition #5 for /boot/grub.
 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on the same drive in 
    partition #5 for /boot/grub.
 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc and looks on the same drive in 
    partition #5 for /boot/grub.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Grub 2
    Boot sector info:  Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sda1 and 
                       looks at sector 1429149036 of the same hard drive for 
                       core.img, but core.img can not be found at this 
                       location. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows Vista
    Boot files/dirs:   /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  Grub
    Boot sector info:  Grub 0.97 is installed in the boot sector of sda2 and 
                       looks at sector 157292465 of the same hard drive for 
                       the stage2 file. A stage2 file is at this location on 
                       /dev/sda. Stage2 looks on partition #2 for 
                       /boot/grub/menu.lst.
    Mounting failed:
mount: unknown filesystem type ''

sdb1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Grub 2
    Boot sector info:  Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sdb1 and 
                       looks at sector 1429144108 of the same hard drive for 
                       core.img, but core.img can not be found at this 
                       location. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 7
    Boot files/dirs:   /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sdb2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sdb5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 10.04 LTS
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sdb6: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sdc1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows XP
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot.ini /bootmgr /Boot/BCD /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sdc2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Grub 2
    Boot sector info:  Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sdc2 and 
                       looks at sector 1429147500 of the same hard drive for 
                       core.img, but core.img can not be found at this 
                       location. No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1                  63   157,292,414   157,292,352   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2    *    157,292,415   367,007,614   209,715,200  bf Solaris


Drive: sdb ___________________ _____________________________________________________

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
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sdb1    *          2,048 1,428,837,164 1,428,835,117   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2       1,428,837,165 1,953,520,064   524,682,900   5 Extended
/dev/sdb5       1,428,837,228 1,941,471,314   512,634,087  83 Linux
/dev/sdb6       1,941,471,378 1,953,520,064    12,048,687  82 Linux swap / Solaris


Drive: sdc ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sdc1    *             63    20,980,889    20,980,827   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2          20,980,890   976,768,383   955,787,494   7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/sda1        E85C16665C163034                       ntfs                                     
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sdb1        40E0BF86E0BF80A8                       ntfs       Mikes_1TB                     
/dev/sdb2: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sdb5        8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce   ext4                                     
/dev/sdb6        e65812a7-8fcc-45f0-9abb-6cfef5c1d0f4   swap                                     
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sdc1        F808ABFB08ABB6D2                       ntfs       SYS                           
/dev/sdc2        FA78A3B378A36CD7                       ntfs       DATA                          
/dev/sdc: PTTYPE="dos" 
error: /dev/sdd: No medium found
error: /dev/sde: No medium found
error: /dev/sdf: No medium found
error: /dev/sdg: No medium found

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

/dev/sdb5        /                        ext4       (rw,errors=remount-ro)


=========================== sdb5/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
  set saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then
    saved_entry=${chosen}
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then if [ -z ${boot_once} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  insmod gfxterm
  insmod vbe
  if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
    # For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
    # understand terminal_output
    terminal gfxterm
  fi
fi
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-23-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-23-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro   quiet splash
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-23-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-23-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.32-23-generic ...'
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-23-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro single 
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-23-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-19-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-19-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro   quiet splash
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-19-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-19-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.32-19-generic ...'
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-19-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro single 
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-19-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-18-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-18-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro   quiet splash
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-18-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.32-18-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.32-18-generic ...'
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-18-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro single 
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-18-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.31-20-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro   quiet splash
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.31-20-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.31-20-generic ...'
    linux    /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic root=UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce ro single 
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
    initrd    /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    linux16    /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,5)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce
    linux16    /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows 7 (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
    insmod ntfs
    set root='(hd0,1)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 40e0bf86e0bf80a8
    chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sdb5/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=8024e731-87f9-4956-aee1-5382947413ce /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=e65812a7-8fcc-45f0-9abb-6cfef5c1d0f4 none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

=================== sdb5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


 731.7GB: boot/grub/core.img
 742.5GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
 732.8GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-20-generic
 734.9GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-18-generic
 732.7GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-19-generic
 732.8GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-23-generic
 732.6GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-20-generic
 734.8GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-18-generic
 735.3GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-19-generic
 737.3GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-23-generic
 732.8GB: initrd.img
 732.7GB: initrd.img.old
 737.3GB: vmlinuz
 735.3GB: vmlinuz.old

================================ sdc1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader] 
timeout=30 
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS 
[operating systems] 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server" /noexecute=optout /fastdetect 
=======Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive==============

sdd sde sdf sdg

[oldfred]

This usually works for windows, I do not know about the other systems. Do they have part of their boot loader in the boot slice/PBR/boot sector?

Since you already tried doing repairs you may have overwriten the backup.

Fix for most, a few have other issues, better than windows fix in many cases as it also fixes other parameters:
This has instructions on using testdisk to repair the install of grub to the boot sector for windows from Ubuntu or Linux LiveCD.
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawik...ms:Boot_Sector

When the instructions said all drives they meant sda, sdb etc not partitions sda1, sda2 sdb1 etc. You overwrote the windows boot sector in the windows partition. With multiple boot loaders in every drive you also should not have installed to those drives. It did give a choice.

This is what the instructions say:
If you're unsure which drive is designated as boot drive by your BIOS, it is often a good idea to install GRUB to all of them.

It also says:
Note: It is possible to install GRUB to partition boot records as well. However, this forces GRUB to use the blocklist mechanism, which makes it less reliable, and therefore is not recommended.

It then presents a check box with all drives and partitions. So everyone (And I think it its everyone) checks all the boxes. Only drives sda, sdb, etc should be checked. Not partitions sda1, sda2, sdb1, etc. It would have been better to present just drives after the first statement or not even presented partitions as the few that would want that can run that later.

Since it is confusing for the average user a bug report was filed:
Kansasnoob bug report:
http://art.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1475385
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...b2/+bug/576724
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+milestone/ubuntu-10.04.1

[MAFoElffen]

For tranlation perposes to this script-
sda1 is Vista
sda2 is OpenSolaris
sdb1 is WIN7
sdb5 is Ubuntu
sdc1 is WinServer 2003
sdc2 is just Data with a NTFS file system.

And if I understand this results correctly-

Drive sdb is the only drive that has a partion 5, but all the drive's MBR's where overwritten (as a mirrored result) in error with Grub2 looking for /boot/grub in Partition 5.

Even though all the drives have Grub2 in the MBR:
sda1 has a Grub2 boot sector with incorrect pointers?
sda2 has a Grub boot sector and cannot recognize the file system
sdb1 has a Grub2 boot sector with incorrect pointers?
sdb5 is correct
sdc1 is confused
sdc2 is a Data NTFS (not set as primary) but for some reason has a boot sector of Grub2 were it souldn't have a boot sector at all(???)

Okay... How do I go about correcting all this? More important, what caused this so that Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't do this to others? (This didn't happen with Koala...)

[MAFoElffen]

I can't remember what I did during the beta upgrade of 10.04. But yesterday with the "update" to the release version I only had the drive (and not partitions) that contained Ubuntu selected (only box selected), but it again overwrote all drives.

What do I do to resolve all this (beyond a fresh install of all these OS'es again)?

It may be easier to do a fresh install but it would take weeks to get it all done with all the OS'es, additional device drivers, applications, tweaks, and reloading all my source and data. Loading over my little ADHOC network and from CD'es and DVD'es ...around 2TB takes awhile any way you look at it.

[MAFoElffen]

Okay... I'll wait until tomorrow. I'll hold off on trying other changes and repairs on my own until then.

If I don't get some other advice... I guess my plan in absence of someone's advice will be to repartition, reformat and reinstall Windows Vista and OpenSolaris on the 350GB drive (sda). I'll get my data off sdc2 before doing anything with sdc- with plans to repartition, reformat and install Solaris 10 on sdc1, with sdc2 as NTFS DATA. With drive sdb, I'll try to repair the sdb1 partion to get Win7 to boot.

The OpenSolaris partition could probably be repaired if I could figure out how to rebuild the MBR to point back to the boot sector which points to partition 2... I think that might work, but I'm not sure.

[oldfred]

I do not know if the testdisk process will work on the Solaris partitions. It does work on windows and linux.

Grub installed to a data partition makes no difference, it is using space otherwise not used.

There should be a way to reinstall all your boot loaders, I only know windows and Ubuntu. You need to see if OpenSolaris has a procedure to reinstall the boot loader. I would bet it does.
How to restore the Ubuntu/XP/Vista/7 bootloader (Updated for Ubuntu 9.10)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

The boot script or grub2 miss report drive so all the MBR that say same drive partition 5 will probalby boot sdb5. The script was set up to parse windows & linux partitions for boot files. It did not include Unix systems like OpenSolaris, so it does not tell anything about it.

[MAFoElffen]

I ran testdisk. It did find the that boot sector of Win7 was different than it's backup, so I copied over the backup.

During the process, I noted that the shutdown icon disappeared from the top title bar of Ubuntu. Minor inconvenience which I got around. When I rebooted, the video did not initialize during the boot nor during the grub "Menu" boot. It got past the grub "Menu" timeout. I heard the initial Ubuntu boot anthem and the video initialized at the login screen... This has been another intermittent ongoing problem with 10.04 and the nVidia drivers(?). It only does this sometimes after exiting Ubuntu 10.04.

I shutdown. I turned off the power supply and display (Hannspree Xm, 1440x900), unplugged the video cable and replugged (sometimes resolved)- no difference. I then disconnected the other drives (sometimes resolved)- no difference.

Will keep trying so I can test if TestDisk worked. Will get back...