[Boot-Repair] Graphical tool to repair the PC boot in one click

[oldfred]

RAID drivers are different than the lvm2 driver which is for LVM. Your sda9 is LVM, so you need the driver to be able to mount and see inside the sda9 partition. Many with Fedora on multi-boot systems just install to a partition and not use the LVM.
Both some RAID and LVM use a /mapper/...., so I think Boot-Repair can not be sure which you have.

[maxnigri]

Hi,

lately after software updates, my machine fails boot, I get the grub rescue "out of disk" message. I'm running 11.10. single OS machine.
I used usb live disk, and with it I boot. I expected not to see all my data, because I'm using a bare OS from my live usb disk, surprisingly,
I see all my data, and off-course all my disks, including the original disk where the OS is installed (sda1). how-come ? is it normal ?
I installed boot repair, and pass the recommended fix, http://paste.ubuntu.com/5679837/ still can not boot after the "fix",
so now, I have a usb stick attached to my machine and can boot normally only with it.
please help.
Max

[YannBuntu]

Not sure that Boot-Repair can tell what a /dev/mapper is, which may be RAID or LVM.

Exact.
That's why currently B-R always proposes to activate RAID when it detects /dev/mapper.
This is useful when there is a RAID disk, but useless (and probably confusing for the user) when there is LVM but no RAID.
To improve it, I would need to know a reliable way to detect cases when there is LVM but no RAID.

A 2nd item that needs to be improved is : how to know which of dmraid or mdadm must be installed? (currently, B-R lets the user decide).

[oldfred]

@maxnigri
If you look at line 600 in BootInfo you will see boot files scattered all over your drive. We have found some systems do not boot when boot file are in very large / (root) partition as grub & kernel files get too far apart. Supposed a bug was fixes to resolve that issue, and it does work for some, but many have issues.
I normally suggest a small / (root) partition of 25GB within the first 100GB of a large drive. I think Yann normally just suggests the separate /boot which for an existing system may be easier to squeeze in near front of a drive.

It also may be time to houseclean some kernels.
Determine your current kernel:
uname -a
uname -r
In synaptic search for linux-image to choose to delete old ones
Also command line in post #8
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1283521

[YannBuntu]

@Fred: the important point is to get the partition containing the /boot folder (which means either a separate /boot, or the root if no separate /), included inside the first 100GB (or 125GB depending on the BIOS) of the disk. If the root is starting near from the start of the disk, but ends after 100GB, I agree with you: it is easier to reduce it, rather than creating a separate /boot. But it's hard for Boot-Repair to detect this situation reliably, so by default B-R advices the solution that works for all cases, the separate /boot.

[ehijon]

Here is my situation:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/5687249/

When I turn on the pc I see for one second: "Window boot manager load failed". And after that it shows the boot loader (GNU GRUB version 2.00-7ubuntu 11) with these options:
- Ubuntu
- Advanced options for Ubuntu
- Windows UEFI recovery bkpbootmgfw.efi
- Windows Boot UEFI Recovery
- Windows Recovery Environment (loader) (on /dev/sdb3)
- Windows 8 (loader) (on /dev/sdb5)

Only the first option works fine and load ubuntu, but I can't load windows.
Also the boot loader screen size isn't fit with the monitor, it's small, like 800x600, I think...

what can I do? thank you!

[oldfred]

UltraBooks have issues with Intel SRT. It uses RAID, so installer cannot work with partitions correctly.

Intel Smart Response Technology
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support...ts/chpsts/imsm
Some general info in post #3
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2071242
ubuntu 12.10 & Windows 8 oem Sony T & Intel SRT
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2090605

Ubuntu on hard drive, re-enable SRT post #19 details
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2129157

Disable the RAID, it was using the Intel rapid management thingy and telling it to disable the acceleration or the use of the SSD. If you have a different system, just disable the RAID system then install Ubuntu. Once installed you can then re-enable it.
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdb

You will need to use the dmraid command prior to running the Ubuntu Installer so that it will be able to see the partitions on the drive because otherwise with the raid metadata in place it will see the drive as part of a raid set and ignore its partitions.

But you may have dual video and it may depend on which video mode you are booting in.
Boot-Repair --> Advanced options --> GRUB options tab --> tick the "Uncomment GFXMODE" option --> Apply
Boot-Repair --> Advanced options --> GRUB options tab --> tick "Add kernel option: nomodeset" --> Apply

Optimus
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1657660
Bumblebee:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee
12.10 with bumblebee
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2077451
NVIDIA Confirms It's Working On Optimus Linux Support - Aug 31, 2012
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTE3MzY

[HernanD]

Hi all, i am new to the forum but i am using Ubuntu since 8.04, right now, i am having problems with Ubuntu 13.04 Beta 2 in my Desktop using Windows 8, installed as UEFI.

To give a context, i want to say that before this problem, I tried to use it as a WUBI installation, cause if something went wrong, i would start Windows 8 and uninstall it without a problem. That´s what happened when i tried to install Ubuntu 12.04.2, it didnt recognize the partition and i was always sent to Windows 8´s repair boot. After a few tries, i uninstalled Ubuntu 12.04.2.

Now, i tried with Ubuntu 13.04 Beta 2 as Wubi again, expecting an improvement over the last try. The same problem happened, but i chose to set "Ubuntu" as my default OS when i saw an option asking me to chose. That was went the whole boot was corrupted.

I later tried to use Boot-Repair, but no solution was given. The URL it gave me was this: http://paste.ubuntu.com/5688231/ , it said "No change has been performed on your computer". The first time i tried it, it said it was solved.

Now when i try to repair Windows 8, it says the Windows installation is locked and i can not use "chkdsk" to repair it nor Ubuntu starts.

I would really appreciate any help.

[oldfred]

With the new computers you cannot install wubi.
Wubi does not work on gpt partitioned drives or Window 8 that is pre-installed.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...88&postcount=2
Grub4dos (which wubi uses) doesn't work with GPT disks (required by UEFI)

wubi only installs as direct download in Windows, not from CD with 12.04
http://askubuntu.com/questions/12501...inside-windows


@HernanD
It looks like you booted live installer in BIOS/Legacy/CSM mode. It installed a Windows boot loader (syslinux) into the protective gpt MBR. That does not matter as it is not used.
But it also put another boot flag on the Main Windows install which would be correct if booting in BIOS mode. But on gpt partitioned drives you can only boot Windows in UEFI mode.
Use gparted from live installer and click on sda4 and right click remove boot flag. In gpt partitioning the boot flag really means it is the efi partition where all systems install initial boot files. You can only have one efi partition per hard drive.
Then from UEFI you should be able to boot Windows again.
It looks like wubi did partially install, you can just delete it.

If you want to install Ubuntu with Windows 8 and secure boot, use Windows disk tools to shrink the Windows partition and reboot several times so it can run chkdsk to make its repairs for the resize. Do not create partitions with Windows.

You will need to use the 64 bit version of 12.10 or 12.04.2 and from the UEFI menu boot the flash drive in UEFI mode. That way it will install in UEFI mode.
Systems need quick boot or fast boot turned off in UEFI settings. Vital for some systems. Best to backup efi partition and Windows partition first.
Use Windows Disk Tools to shrink Windows main partition, but not to create any new partitions, if installing on same drive.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
As of 12.04.2, it is possible to install on UEFI systems with Secure Boot enabled (using signed versions of Shim, GRUB, and the Linux kernel). This is only currently set up for Ubuntu (desktop, alternate, and server) and Edubuntu images due to pressures of time; we expect to enable it across the entire Ubuntu family for 12.04.3. Details:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PrecisePango.../UbuntuDesktop
Installing Grub for UEFI secure boot is only possible if you have booted your system using EFI.

[HernanD]

Thank you so much, now Windows 8 boots and i was able to remove Wubi. Right now, i am going to back up my Windows 8 in a DVD cause the back ups i did using a USB Stick and a SD Card were not recognized when trying to recover the image.

After that, i will try Ubuntu again, cause Beta 2 seems very stable, in my laptop i havent had any problem.