How to install GRUB after Windows XP

[Richardcavell]

Hi,

Ubuntu was installed to the second and third partitions of an internal IDE hard disk. The intention is that the second partition will be /boot and the third partition will be /.

Then Windows XP was installed to the first partition. It appears that the BIOS is loading from the first partition by default, which is the Windows XP bootloader. There is no BIOS option to load from the second partition. It appears that GRUB is installed on the second partition correctly, but the machine is not loading from that.

What is the correct solution? Should GRUB be installed to the first partition or to the MBR? How does the fact that the second partition is /boot change things? Does it take the grub-install command with the --root-directory switch?

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x39a339a2

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2040 16382488+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 2041 2185 1164712+ 83 Linux
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 2186 4373 17575110 83 Linux
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4 4374 19457 121162230 5 Extended
Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 4374 4710 2706921 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 4711 5269 4490136 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 5270 19457 113965078+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

[merlinus]

If what you say is true, then what is this:

/dev/sda6 4711 5269 4490136 83 Linux

Look like another linux partition to me....

Also, why a /boot partition when all you are doing is dual-booting?

And I also wonder about the fdisk error messages that partitions do not end on cylinder boundaries.

[presence1960]

Restore GRUB by doing this :

1. Boot your computer up with Ubuntu CD
2. Open a terminal window or switch to a tty.
3. Type sudo grub. Should get text of which last line is grub>
4. Type "find /boot/grub/stage1". You'll get a response like "(hd0,1)".
Use whatever your computer spits out for the following lines.
5. Type "root (hd0,1)", or whatever your hard disk + boot partition
numbers are for Ubuntu.
6. Type "setup (hd0)", to install GRUB to MBR, or "setup (hd0,1)" or
whatever your hard disk + partition # is, to install GRUB to a
partition.
7. Quit grub by typing "quit".
8. Reboot and remove the bootable CD.

In #5 use what is output from the command in #4 [should be (hd0.1) based on your sudo fdisk -l]
in #6 use setup (hd0) to put GRUB on MBR. you should be good to go when you boot. Whenever you install Windows after Linux on the same HDD the Windows bootloader overwrites GRUB if GRUB is in the MBR.