9.10 GRUB issues, need advices

[dadslayer]

Hi guys,

Hopefully someone out there will be able to help me out with this one. Before starting, I gotta warn you I'm not a Linux guy - so please be patient!

I've got two HD on y computer: one running Windows XP, the other has two partitions: one of them had Ubuntu Jaunty installed, the other was a Windows partition I use to store music and the like.

One good day, after updating Ubuntu's software it simply wouldn't boot up (sorry, can't remember what the error was). Since Karmic was out there, I said "hey, let's wipe this partition and try this new Ubuntu version". So I did. Downloaded the ISO file, and since I had no CDs with me I decided to install Ubuntu from Windows. Nice, everything's good! Then, I learned that there was this tool called Lubi that would allow me to move this Ubuntu setup from Windows into its own partition so I gave it a go and restarted my computer. The odd things begins here.

When my computer booted up, I got Windows bootloader again with Ubuntu as an additional entry. Odd. Maybe it was because I have not unistalled Wubi from XP yet. Uninstalled Wubi, and restarted my computer again. Bang, got an ugly error saying that there was a missing dll: the infamous HAL.dll error. Reinstalled Wubi again, rebooted and got the Windows Bootloader screen again with Ubuntu on it.

I was getting impatience, so I went to a computer store, got a couple of CDs and burned Karmic's ISO file after checking the MD5 checksum thing to be sure that it was OK. Booted Windows XP, deleted the Ubuntu partition, rebooted my PC with Karmic's CD in it and let it boot. Ubuntu's installation process started as usual, and when it was done I was asked to reboot. I did it after removing Ubuntu's CD. I was shocked to see that this time Windows XP booted directly! Something must have gone wrong during the installation, I thought. So, as you're probably guessing I inserted Ubuntu's CD once again and rebooted to try and install it. Sadly, got the same results. Ubuntu is installed on my partitioned disk as expected (I was able to explore the partition using the terminal on LiveCD and everything was there), but for some reason GRUB won't launch and Windows XP is loaded instead.

Any ideas? If so, please explain as if I was a 6 yo kid missing his mommy!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[oldfred]

We will need to see what is where after all that expalnation, this script documents your boot and what is essential for booting:

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum member meierfra
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Be sure to highlight and use code tags (#) to make it easier to read when you post the results.txt.

[dadslayer]

This is what I got from the script:



Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in
partition #6 for /boot/grub.
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 82.3 GB, 82348277760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 10011 cylinders, total 160836480 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x354c354b

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 129,242,924 129,242,862 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 129,242,925 160,826,714 31,583,790 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 129,242,988 135,106,649 5,863,662 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 135,106,713 146,818,034 11,711,322 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 146,818,098 160,826,714 14,008,617 83 Linux


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 20.5 GB, 20490559488 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 2491 cylinders, total 40020624 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc9b3c9b3

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 63 40,001,849 40,001,787 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 5E6C386A6C383F59 ntfs Games & Multimedia
/dev/sda5 632bd40b-14e1-49df-b82b-038588396f93 swap
/dev/sda6 f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f ext4
/dev/sda7 c10295a3-39e9-4172-ba79-f99c20aa8de6 ext4
/dev/sdb1 BADC386DDC3825D3 ntfs

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev output: ===========================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (rw)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (rw)


=========================== sda6/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s /boot/grub/grubenv ]; then
have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ ${prev_saved_entry} ]; then
saved_entry=${prev_saved_entry}
save_env saved_entry
prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,6)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
insmod gfxterm
insmod vbe
if terminal_output gfxterm ; then true ; else
# For backward compatibility with versions of terminal.mod that don't
# understand terminal_output
terminal gfxterm
fi
fi
if [ ${recordfail} = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/white
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-19-generic-pae" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
set quiet=1
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,6)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-19-generic-pae root=UUID=f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-19-generic-pae
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-19-generic-pae (recovery mode)" {
recordfail=1
if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fi
insmod ext2
set root=(hd0,6)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-19-generic-pae root=UUID=f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-19-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sdb1)" {
insmod ntfs
set root=(hd1,1)
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set badc386ddc3825d3
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

=============================== sda6/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=f54dc08a-3510-4571-b99b-d0945e78c41f / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=c10295a3-39e9-4172-ba79-f99c20aa8de6 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=632bd40b-14e1-49df-b82b-038588396f93 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

=================== sda6: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


69.4GB: boot/grub/core.img
69.4GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
69.4GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-19-generic-pae
71.9GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-19-generic-pae
69.4GB: initrd.img
71.9GB: vmlinuz

================================ sdb1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

[oldfred]

I do not see anything wrong. You have ubuntu & grub on sda and windows on sdb. Have you changed your BIOS to boot from sda?

[mr clark25]

try holding the shift key while booting. this should bring up the grub menu.

there is a way to make it come up all the time by editing a file, but i cant remember exactly which one.

[dadslayer]

I do not see anything wrong. You have ubuntu & grub on sda and windows on sdb. Have you changed your BIOS to boot from sda?

Gee, I feel so dumb now. Forgot to mention that after I wiped Ubuntu's partition the first time I also updated a few Windows drivers, including MB's BIOS drivers. Then, I went ahead and installed Karmic using Wubi.

Just now I booted and entered BIOS menu and found that the First device to boot was sdb. Changed it to tge partitioned disk and now it boots correctly!

I guess sometimes we miss the obvious :P Fortunately, a happy ending for me!

Thanks, olfred!


try holding the shift key while booting. this should bring up the grub menu.

I read this somewhere in the forums, but never thought of using it until you brought it up! Thanks for the reminder!