How to straighten out Grub/partitions

[Bobrm2]

This began while upgrading from 8.04 to 9.0x. I've Ubuntu on three partitions.
1st. A failed upgrade with all old files backed up. The attempted upgrade was 8.04 to current version. sda08, Not usuable with out a lot of patience, reconfiguring the wireless settings etc.

After creating an ISO I've a good 9.04 and currently using it on it's seperate partition. sda01 Wireless up and running etc.

Finally another 9.04 version on it's partition, but I do not know which one partition.

I know that the /boot is on sda01. An post the following in hopes that someone can explain it to me(?). Also what other commands can I run inorder to begin to straighter this out. I would think that reconfiguring the Partitions may be the place to begin? Old saying "When your in the hole, stop digging' applies here. Thank you.

Bob

[carml]

Yes,the first thing to do is to know what is the complete list of partition and their use.If I'm not wrong a useful command to use in the terminal is
df, otherwise you can make use of Gparted if installed by Sistem->Administration->Partitions Editor.
An other thing to know is what you mean to do with 8.04and 9.04,you wish both of them installed?
I hope this could help you. :)

[carml]

An other useful sommand via terminal is
sudo fdisk -lu.
Here is mine for example: first is df
carmelo@ubuntu:~$ df
File system blocchi di 1K Usati Dispon. Uso% Montato su
/dev/sda5 11897832 10111544 1426516 88% /
varrun 1037132 116 1037016 1% /var/run
varlock 1037132 0 1037132 0% /var/lock
udev 1037132 60 1037072 1% /dev
devshm 1037132 44 1037088 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1037132 40000 997132 4% /lib/modules/2.6.24-24-generic/volatile
gvfs-fuse-daemon 11897832 10111544 1426516 88% /home/carmelo/.gvfs
/dev/sda2 72380852 65196568 7184284 91% /media/disk
/dev/sda3 64131476 63192372 939104 99% /media/disk-1

and second fdisk -lu

carmelo@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
[sudo] password for carmelo:

Disco /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 byte
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, totale 312581808 settori
Units = settori of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6d79525e

Dispositivo Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 14667344 7333641 27 Sconosciuto
/dev/sda2 * 14667345 159429059 72380857+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 159429060 287692019 64131480 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 287692020 312576704 12442342+ 5 Esteso
/dev/sda5 287692083 311677064 11992491 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 311677128 312576704 449788+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[raymondh]

Hello Bob,

Valuable to me is having a visual aid. I usually print out a gparted screenshot of what my disc looks like.... plus, it also has the descriptions and hierarchy on the box below.

That and 'fdisk -l' are what I go by.

Another tool of value is meierfra's bootinfoscript for boot related problems that may arise after re-working my disk/s.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

In case you decide to use this .... you need to download the file and save. After downloading, open a terminal to type


sudo bash ~/Desktop/boot_info_script*.sh

which creates (and saves to desktop) a RESULTS.TXT file.

Good luck .... post back should you require assistance or a second opinion on your partitioning re-work. Back up your files first.

Happy Ubuntu-ing.

[Bobrm2]

Carml,
I intended to go back to 8.04 and use it as learning tool, because of the shape it's in, I felt that I would be more knowledgeable.

Thank you for the commands that generated the following;
bob@bob-desktop:~$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 8752336 3678240 4629500 45% /
tmpfs 222192 0 222192 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 222192 108 222084 1% /var/run
varlock 222192 0 222192 0% /var/lock
udev 222192 160 222032 1% /dev
tmpfs 222192 88 222104 1% /dev/shm
lrm 222192 2392 219800 2% /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/volatile
bob@bob-desktop:~$ sudo fdisk -lu
[sudo] password for bob:

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xedb1edb1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 17783954 8891946 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 27181980 234436544 103627282+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 111314385 111716009 200812+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 111716073 208909259 48596593+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 208909323 218275154 4682916 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8 27182106 111314384 42066139+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 218275218 223223174 2473978+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 233633358 234436544 401593+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
bob@bob-desktop:~$

This shows the problems, 8.04 is located on /dev/sda 8/linux.

The 9.0x I wish to keep is /dev/sad1/.

I don't know where the other 9.0x is located? Size of the file should give me a clue.

Your comments most appreciated

[carml]

I thought of a way to know it: we can just see the kernel numbers,if you didn't install manually modified kernels.
Can you please post here the content of the file menu.lst? It's under /boot/grub, you need to access it via terminal by
sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
.
Doing so we'll know which partition is associated with 9.04 and so on.

[Bobrm2]

Carmel, here is the menu.lst file. Also have done as Raymond suggested. Tools are gathered; but I have to take the wife to the Doc, be late this evening before I can return to the forum.

Thanks, everyone. I will get back ASAP

Bob

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-13-generic
uuid 56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-13-generic root=UUID=56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-13-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-13-generic root=UUID=56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-13-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid 56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 56d8b3f2-4f3a-49d1-b2e3-1ce717396eda
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-14-generic (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-14-generic root=UUID=a9ecb9b4-96ff-4ff7-ba77-3775a72ae99b ro vga=normal
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-14-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-14-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-14-generic root=UUID=a9ecb9b4-96ff-4ff7-ba77-3775a72ae99b ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-14-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-13-generic (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-13-generic root=UUID=a9ecb9b4-96ff-4ff7-ba77-3775a72ae99b ro vga=normal
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-13-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-13-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-13-generic root=UUID=a9ecb9b4-96ff-4ff7-ba77-3775a72ae99b ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-13-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-12-generic (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-12-generic root=UUID=a9ecb9b4-96ff-4ff7-ba77-3775a72ae99b ro vga=normal
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-12-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-12-generic (recovery mode) (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-12-generic root=UUID=a9ecb9b4-96ff-4ff7-ba77-3775a72ae99b ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-12-generic
savedefault
boot


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for an existing
# linux installation on /dev/sda8.
title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+ (on /dev/sda8)
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
savedefault
boot

[Bobrm2]

I've finally got back to me desk. Hope there is still and interest. I'm curious about the comment "Partition table entries are not in disk order"? What does it mean, and how can I change it. Suspect it has to do with "Grub"??

Thank you

Bob

[Bobrm2]

Should have "Googled". This answered the question about how to realign the partition table.
http://www.mail-archive.com/grub-devel@gnu.org/msg02449.html