rpaskudniak
October 7th, 2009, 06:25 PM
Ubuntu 9.04
Sighhh...
Apologies in advance; concise this ain't. :oops:
A few weeks ago, I inadvertently made my Ubuntu installation useless (don't ask) and have since made 4 attempts to reinstall it. Some preface, however:
Before initially installing Ubuntu (in April), I inserted the CD into the drive and allowed it to install some boot wrapper; since then, whenever I boot Windows (even before I installed Ubuntu) I get a menu asking if I wish to boot Windows XP (my installed Windows) or Ubuntu. After I successfully installed Ubuntu, when I got this menu and chose Ubuntu, it gave me the GRUB menu: Windows or one of 3 flavors of Ubuntu boot. I believe that initial menu has saved me from a booting disaster, but I get ahead of myself...
I saved the screen shots as went along so I can show them here. I have 2 hard drives; my main boot drive, seen as /dev/sda, with 200 GB and 3 partitions, as well as a 320GB USB drive, /dev/sdb, with 4 partitions. At installation time, it is not my intention to do anything with the USB drive. Hence, when prompted with the box in attachment "step4a-of 7.png" you see I have chosen [Yes].
(As an aside, sorry about the attachments; I would prefer to insert the images into the message body but I the "Insert Picture" tool seems to allow only for a URL, not a local file.)
Since I need my XP partition, I choose manual partitioning. (See Step4b-of7.png) I have already used the Live GRUB CD to partition this drive into the 3 partitions you see in Step4c-of7.png:
The original XP partition
The designated SWAP space, to be mounted as /swap
The main Ubuntu partition, to be mounted as /
(Due the old BIOS on my dinosaur box, I have a max of 4 partitions and none may begin past 128GB on the drive.)
In any case, I muddled my way through to step 7 and clicked [Advanced]. Referring to attachment Step7e-of7.png, you see that I have chosen to install the boot loader in the root partition. In the little panel that now reads /dev/sda3, the default was (hd0). Here is the kicker, in two parts:
When I chose the default (hd0), it appeared to succeed but when I reboot the box, I do not even get a boot menu. Instead, I get this message on the black screen:
GRUB loading Stage 1.5
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 18
I had to use the gparted Live CD to recover my MBR.
When I choose /dev/sda3, it succeeded as well, it would have you believe. However, when I booted this time, I meet that familiar XP or Ubuntu menu I described in the preface. If I choose XP, all is well (Thank G-D!) But when I choose Ubuntu, expecting the 4-part GRUP menu, I get another black screen with some information (more than I cared to copy after midnight) but essentially:
GRUB4DOS 0.4.4 2008-10-27 ...
grub>
So I believe I have a complete Ubuntu installation that is inaccessible because the GRUB boot menu script cannot be found.
My only choices for the location of the GRUB appear to be:
On the XP partition, /dev/sda1, which makes me fear for the MBR.
On the hard drive before partitioning, /dev/sda, a similarly scary prospect.
Anyone (who has slogged through this tome) able to supply me with an idea of how to proceed from here? Try again, choosing /dev/sda in step 7? Or is there a way I can locate the menu script (probably in /boot/grub, accessible if I boot the Ubuntu CD) and make it accessible at boot time?
Thanks much.
(Whew!) ](*,)
Sighhh...
Apologies in advance; concise this ain't. :oops:
A few weeks ago, I inadvertently made my Ubuntu installation useless (don't ask) and have since made 4 attempts to reinstall it. Some preface, however:
Before initially installing Ubuntu (in April), I inserted the CD into the drive and allowed it to install some boot wrapper; since then, whenever I boot Windows (even before I installed Ubuntu) I get a menu asking if I wish to boot Windows XP (my installed Windows) or Ubuntu. After I successfully installed Ubuntu, when I got this menu and chose Ubuntu, it gave me the GRUB menu: Windows or one of 3 flavors of Ubuntu boot. I believe that initial menu has saved me from a booting disaster, but I get ahead of myself...
I saved the screen shots as went along so I can show them here. I have 2 hard drives; my main boot drive, seen as /dev/sda, with 200 GB and 3 partitions, as well as a 320GB USB drive, /dev/sdb, with 4 partitions. At installation time, it is not my intention to do anything with the USB drive. Hence, when prompted with the box in attachment "step4a-of 7.png" you see I have chosen [Yes].
(As an aside, sorry about the attachments; I would prefer to insert the images into the message body but I the "Insert Picture" tool seems to allow only for a URL, not a local file.)
Since I need my XP partition, I choose manual partitioning. (See Step4b-of7.png) I have already used the Live GRUB CD to partition this drive into the 3 partitions you see in Step4c-of7.png:
The original XP partition
The designated SWAP space, to be mounted as /swap
The main Ubuntu partition, to be mounted as /
(Due the old BIOS on my dinosaur box, I have a max of 4 partitions and none may begin past 128GB on the drive.)
In any case, I muddled my way through to step 7 and clicked [Advanced]. Referring to attachment Step7e-of7.png, you see that I have chosen to install the boot loader in the root partition. In the little panel that now reads /dev/sda3, the default was (hd0). Here is the kicker, in two parts:
When I chose the default (hd0), it appeared to succeed but when I reboot the box, I do not even get a boot menu. Instead, I get this message on the black screen:
GRUB loading Stage 1.5
GRUB loading, please wait...
Error 18
I had to use the gparted Live CD to recover my MBR.
When I choose /dev/sda3, it succeeded as well, it would have you believe. However, when I booted this time, I meet that familiar XP or Ubuntu menu I described in the preface. If I choose XP, all is well (Thank G-D!) But when I choose Ubuntu, expecting the 4-part GRUP menu, I get another black screen with some information (more than I cared to copy after midnight) but essentially:
GRUB4DOS 0.4.4 2008-10-27 ...
grub>
So I believe I have a complete Ubuntu installation that is inaccessible because the GRUB boot menu script cannot be found.
My only choices for the location of the GRUB appear to be:
On the XP partition, /dev/sda1, which makes me fear for the MBR.
On the hard drive before partitioning, /dev/sda, a similarly scary prospect.
Anyone (who has slogged through this tome) able to supply me with an idea of how to proceed from here? Try again, choosing /dev/sda in step 7? Or is there a way I can locate the menu script (probably in /boot/grub, accessible if I boot the Ubuntu CD) and make it accessible at boot time?
Thanks much.
(Whew!) ](*,)