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javaslave
January 19th, 2009, 01:32 PM
Strange problem: GRUB does not install to MBR after installation from either ubuntu or kubuntu (8.10), and does not install to MBR if grub is manually installed from a console after a live CD boot (using the root (hdX,Y); setup (hd0) sequence as per grub manual).

my HDD setup, all drives are SATA:

hd0 (sda):
200GB NTFS (/data)

hd1 (sdb):
100GB ext3 (/usr/local)
100GB ext3 (/home)

hd2 (sdc):
350GB ntfs (win XP; /xp)
145GB ext3 (/)
5GB swap

note1: GRUB *does not* report a failure - it claims to have successfully installed to the MBR each time.

note2: my BIOS does not have any auto virus checker that could be stopping the MBR write

lastly, the only other thing i've done that may be relevant is that i deleted an ext3 partition from hd0 and resized the remaining ntfs partition to span the disk using GParted, after which i had to reinstall the NT bootloader from an XP recovery console with fixmbr.

just trying to get linux to boot now...
ajgreeny
January 19th, 2009, 02:29 PM
Which partition is your boot partition, are you sure it's hd0? Run
sudo fdisk -l from the live CD if you can't get into your installed version and see which partition has the * against it, then run setup (hdx,x) to fit in with that, remembering that fdisk reports as sda, sdb etc etc, and you need hdx for grub.
javaslave
January 19th, 2009, 02:59 PM
thx for reply.

unfortunately am on my Mac OS X laptop at work, cannot post the output of fdisk.

linux /boot is on (hd2,2), and that's what i ran in the root (hd2,2) -> setup (hd0) sequence. As i understand it, (hd0) is grub-code for the MBR.
caljohnsmith
January 19th, 2009, 03:30 PM
thx for reply.

unfortunately am on my Mac OS X laptop at work, cannot post the output of fdisk.

linux /boot is on (hd2,2), and that's what i ran in the root (hd2,2) -> setup (hd0) sequence. As i understand it, (hd0) is grub-code for the MBR.
It doesn't look like "setup (hd0)" will work in your case, because (hd0) is your sda data drive. Are you booting the Windows sdc drive I would assume? Since Ubuntu is also on that drive, try instead:

sudo grub
grub> root (hd2,2)
grub> setup (hd2)
grub> quit
And then you should get the Grub menu on start up. How about giving that a shot and let me know how it goes.