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

[bcbc]

After running the above using a command prompt obtained by using the Windows 8 (32 bit) installation dvd, I no longer receive any errors.
However, now I have a flashing cursor with no prompt and no evidence of a boot loader at all.

Two things you can do... either refresh the bootinfoscript and give an updated view of what's going on... or

Use that Windows 8 installation DVD to repair again. It should have an automated repair option.

I don't have personal experience with the syslinux bootloader but assume it works fine. So I doubt that's causing the probleem, but to replace it manually:

bootrec /fixmbr

But since you have the Windows installation DVD, I'd recommend you try the Windows automated repair and see what diagnostics you get.

[RubeOne]

bcbc,

Thank you so much for your support so far.
I've already backed up everything I need from the laptop I am experiencing the problem on. If there is no solution available, I would appreciate advice on how to successfully dual boot win8 and ubuntu. I would love to have both OS's running. However, I need to get back to Windows 8 asap because of the need for business productivity and only have Quickbooks available in Windows.
If I re-install. Do I try to re-install ubuntu or re-install windows 8 first?

[ghostdriver]

Thanks bcbc for your reply,

That is interesting cause I have not done anything special. I just installed Ubuntu 12.10 some time ago, and now I have updated from window7 to 8. That is all.

[bcbc]

RubeOne,
Most people recommend to install Windows first (because if you install Ubuntu first, then the grub2 bootloader will be removed).

All my dual boots were on computers with Windows already preinstalled. I shrank the C: drive and created an extended partition inside Windows (using diskpart).
After this I manually created partitions and installed Ubuntu into the space.

But when I installed Windows 8, I deleted the Windows 7 partitions and recreated them (from linux) before installing Windows 8 fresh. The only thing I had to do was reinstall grub to get Ubuntu back.

So I guess it should work either way, provide you're okay reinstalling grub.

So... I can't say exactly what will work perfectly, but that's the method I've used.

[bcbc]

Thanks bcbc for your reply,

That is interesting cause I have not done anything special. I just installed Ubuntu 12.10 some time ago, and now I have updated from window7 to 8. That is all.

Something has to have removed grub-pc and installed grub. Sometimes an old application might have a hard dependency on grub (legacy) and prompt during the install and remove grub-pc (if you're not careful). But I know that boot-repair is supposed to offer the ability to install grub-legacy so I suppose it's possible that it did it. I haven't ever seen the source code for boot-repair (or even run it myself) so really can't comment on how grub legacy got installed.

From this boot-repair screen it looks like you can tell it to upgrade to grub-pc:
You would select "Purge GRUB before reinstalling it" and "Upgrade GRUB to its most recent version". I guess that should do it.

Or you can manually chroot (see http://askubuntu.com/a/88432/14916) and then purge and reinstall grub yourself before installing it. Before step 6, you would run:

apt-get remove grub
apt-get install grub-pc

[RubeOne]

RubeOne,
Most people recommend to install Windows first (because if you install Ubuntu first, then the grub2 bootloader will be removed).

All my dual boots were on computers with Windows already preinstalled. I shrank the C: drive and created an extended partition inside Windows (using diskpart).
After this I manually created partitions and installed Ubuntu into the space.

But when I installed Windows 8, I deleted the Windows 7 partitions and recreated them (from linux) before installing Windows 8 fresh. The only thing I had to do was reinstall grub to get Ubuntu back.

So I guess it should work either way, provide you're okay reinstalling grub.

So... I can't say exactly what will work perfectly, but that's the method I've used.

bcbc,

Thank you for all of your help. I re-installed both Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit (via linux-secure-remix) with no problems and everything is working great!
I believe my problem initially began because I choose to install the Ubuntu boot to be over the the "windows boot loader" dev/sda1 instead of just leaving the default ubuntu entry of dev/sda. Although I went through some extra work and had to re-install to get this working. I learned something and really appreciate all of the help.

Sincerely,

Rube

[bcbc]

bcbc,

Thank you for all of your help. I re-installed both Windows 8 and Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit (via linux-secure-remix) with no problems and everything is working great!
I believe my problem initially began because I choose to install the Ubuntu boot to be over the the "windows boot loader" dev/sda1 instead of just leaving the default ubuntu entry of dev/sda. Although I went through some extra work and had to re-install to get this working. I learned something and really appreciate all of the help.

Sincerely,

Rube

Hey, no problem. Glad you got it sorted.

You know that Grub installing over the Windows boot sector was a HUGE problem around the release of 10.04. But the grub developers fixed it so that it wouldn't allow anyone to install it over Windows partitions (took the choice out of the (ubiquity) installer's drop-down box). So the only way to do it today should be to use the "--force" option with grub-install. If you managed to install Grub over /dev/sda1 WITHOUT manually running: sudo grub-install --force /dev/sda1 then that is a bug.

So I'd be interested to know how you did it (maybe the bug has resurfaced and needs to be squashed again). As you can see - it's deadly to Windows.

But cool that everything is working now!

[Nesaskewatch]

I am having a problem with Boot-Repair hanging at "Reinstall Grub. This may take several minutes". I have used Boot-repair many, many times with no issues until today. I have an Asus N56 with UEFI and due to driver issues (Intel/Nvidia Optimus chipset) I have had to reinstall Ubuntu several times lately. I use the commands listed here to launch Boot-repair and select advanced options. I followed the steps exactly, I think... Sorry, no Boot-repair link as it does not finish. Any ideas on what is going sideways?

Edit: I went back into boot-repair and created a url. Here it is: http://paste.ubuntu.com/5625508

sda8 is my / partition and sda9 /home

I have to leave for a few hours. Apologies in advance for not replying quickly.

[oldfred]

You seem to have a small sdb SSD? Ubuntu now seems to install where I think before it did not due to the Intel SRT RAID, but grub still has issues with installing with the RAID.
Some just turn the Intel SRT off and remove the RAID to get it to install. Some just install Ubuntu to the SSD with just / (root) on the SSD. Others that use Windows a lot are able to turn Intel SRT back on after grub's install.

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


Some info on re-instating details in post #9 Dell 14z
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2038121
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2070491

Intel is a standard so should be the same for all computers.

HOWTO Ubuntu 12.10 x64 Dell XPS 14 (UEFI + Intel Rapid Start Technology + Flashcache), bumblebee - Details
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2117166

Sony T & Intel SRT ubuntu 12.10 & Windows 8 oem
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2090605
Samsung Ultrabook Windows 8 & Ubuntu & recovery boot Disk view of partitions
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2097690

[Nesaskewatch]

Hi Fred. What I don't understand is why it picked now to act up? I have reinstalled Ubu 12.10 about 6 times and then used Boot-Repair to fix grub to recover windows, but this time it just hangs and never completes. The sdb you see is the thumb drive I use as a live usb.