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View Full Version : [ubuntu] Win XP/Vista/Ubuntu Tri Boot!



madbunny
August 19th, 2009, 10:37 AM
Hi all,

I just recently became interested in Linux after having a play on some machines at work. I decided to install Ubuntu on my PC but been having an issue with the boot side of things. This will be a lengthy post so as to give a background on what I've done so hopefully somebody wiser than me can pinpoint my problem!

I have 2 HDD's in my PC. In Bios, HDD1 is my 500GB HDD with Windows XP installed. It has 2 partitions, the XP OS and approx 400GB for Downloads etcc.

HDD2 in Bios is an 80GB which has Vista and Ubuntu Installed.

Originally I only had XP installed on HDD1 then I had added HDD2 and installed Vista. I was able to dual boot using the Vista Bootloader.

Then I shrunk the Vista Partition and installed Ubuntu.

When I booted I got the Grub Bootloader and was able to boot into all three OS's. Sweet!

What I was after though, was to have the Vista Bootloader handle everything so I installed EasyBCD on my Vista machine and followed an APC magazine article on how to add the Grub bootloader Menu to the Vista Bootloader.

Everything went wrong from here. Now when I boot i get the Vista Bootloader with three options:

1. Win XP
2. Vista
3. ubuntu

However, If I choose Ubuntu i get the Grub bootloader menu but when I choose to boot Ubuntu I get Grub Error 17.

I'll paste my Fdisk results and menu.lst file in case this can shed some light. Interested to see your comments as I've had countless Linux guru's at work stumped.

Thanks Guys!


Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x090e090d

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6375 57473 410452717+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 57474 60801 26732160 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 57474 60801 26732128+ bc Unknown

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0cb60cb5
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 7562 60740156 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 7563 9729 17406427+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 7563 9632 16627243+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 9633 9729 779121 82 Linux swap / Solaris
************************************************** *****************
END FDISK
************************************************** *****************
Only things not commented out on the menu.lst file below
************************************************** *****************
Menu.lst
************************************************** *****************
title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid 9bc703ca-c945-4f7c-949d-c28a6d72af3d
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=9bc703ca-c945-4f7c-949d-c28a6d72af3d 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 9bc703ca-c945-4f7c-949d-c28a6d72af3d
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=9bc703ca-c945-4f7c-949d-c28a6d72af3d ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-11-generic

title Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+
uuid 9bc703ca-c945-4f7c-949d-c28a6d72af3d
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

tommcd
August 19th, 2009, 12:10 PM
If grub was booting all 3 operating systems without problems, then I would stick with that. You can always restore the Vista MBR if you decide to go back to Windows.
To restore grub to the MBR, see this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351&highlight=fsck
To restore the Vista MBR, see these:
http://www.lancelhoff.com/how-to-fix-vista-mbr-repair-broken-vista/
http://www.howtogeek.com/forum/topic/how-to-restore-vista-mbr-without-vista-disc
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=596507

And welcome to the Ubuntu forums!

madbunny
August 19th, 2009, 12:44 PM
Thanks, Is it possible to make Grub load XP as default OS after a 5 second timeout?

tommcd
August 19th, 2009, 01:22 PM
Thanks, Is it possible to make Grub load XP as default OS after a 5 second timeout?
Yes it is. First, backup your grub menu.lst for safety:

sudo cp /boot/grub.menu.lst /boot/grub.menu.lst.bak
then edit the grub menu.lst and put the Windows XP entry above (not inside) the ###Debian Automagic kernels list####.
as described in the section:
Changing the default (operating system booted by the timer)
on this page:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p15.html#menu.lst
To edit the grub menu, just run: gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst and cut and paste the entry for XP so that it is above the Debian Automagic Kernels list.