Ubuntu not booting after installation... Windows booting directly

[Sampath.T.J]

I'm new to linux n ubuntu... i installed ubuntu 9.10... The installation completed without any errors and asked for rebooting... but wen it rebooted it directly starts windows xp... i have 2 hard drives one 160gb n one 250 gb... windows is on d 160gb drive while i've allocated a part of d 250gb drive for ubuntu.. i did manual partitioning... wen i boot from ubuntu live cd i can see d ubuntu installation.. wen i tried F8 during boot also it shows xp as d only OS...
Any help is appreciated... and could u pls explain things in layman's language?? as i told u i'm new to ubuntu.... thnx in advance...

[Elfy]

Did you install ubuntu directly or is it a wubi install (that is inside windows) ?

Can you boot the livecd and then open a terminal from the apps > accessories menu and run this


sudo fdisk -l

post the output here please.

[Sampath.T.J]

i installed it from d live cd directly... i mean at boot up...

i ran d code... should i post wat it displayed or something????

[Sampath.T.J]

here's d output....

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x17361736

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 6527 52428096 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6528 6588 489982+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 * 6589 13054 51938145 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x04190418

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 2432 19535008+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 2433 19457 136753312+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 2433 6688 34186288+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb6 6689 10944 34186288+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb7 10945 15200 34186288+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/sdb8 15201 19457 34194321 b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdc: 8027 MB, 8027897856 bytes
5 heads, 32 sectors/track, 97996 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 160 * 512 = 81920 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 51 97997 7835712 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

[Sampath.T.J]

Help needed.. pls...

[eriktheblu]

Go into your BIOS, find the boot device priority, set the 250 GB (Ubuntu) disk above the 160 GB (Windows) disk.

Each disk has a master boot record that points to the boot partition. Your BIOS looks for boot devices in order (typically CD first then hard drive). It goes to the first device available, in this case your Windows disk.

[Sampath.T.J]

hmm.. i did try changing it yest but it was not changing... i'll try it out once again l8r 2day... thank u....

[_h_]

hmm.. i did try changing it yest but it was not changing... i'll try it out once again l8r 2day... thank u....

Make sure when you make those changes and goto exit the BIOS you select SAVE and EXIT option, and not just a regular exit.

[Sampath.T.J]

no i meant dat it wasnt changing itself.... not after exiting...

[Sampath.T.J]

anyways i'll try it out now.... n let u kno...

[msidhard]

Sampath just download super grub disk and burn the thing in new cd. Then boot the system from super grub disk. Then install grub in hd0. Or follow the instructions in that cd. Where are you from

[eriktheblu]

In my BIOS there a basic list of optical, USB, floppy, HDD, and network boot. To identify priority between multiple optical and HDDs I actually need to go to a more advanced mode where I can identify the disks individually.

Another alternative:
You might repartition your 160GB disk to add a small (~256MB should work) /boot partition for Grub. This would obviously not be the preferred method.

[Sampath.T.J]

m frm bangalore... thanx for ur info... however d prev solution worked perfectly fine....

eriktheblu (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=508854), _h_ (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=1033713), forestpiskie (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=610428)... thanx to all u guys...

[souleke]

at the ubuntu to the materboot of windows
i believe (correct me if i'm wrong) its in your boot.ini
you need to at the boot of ubuntu in there, not so easy to do
(i dont own or like windows so can help you on that sry)

the better way is to install grub into to masterboot record of the windows hd
and at the windows part to the list
grub can handle windows and linux boot without any prbleme

you can install the grub with the live cd
here is the how to: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351
install grub on (hd0,0)
try to boot
it can be windows will already show up in the list (in this case your ready and will have a dual boot on your system)
if not
you need to add the windows partition to the grub loader
it woud be something like this


title MS Windows XP <-- change with name of your windows
root (hd0,0) <--- the numbers are
/dev/sda1 == (hd0,0) (your showing fdisk -l i geuss its (hd0,0)
/dev/sdb1 == (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

boot into your ubuntu and edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst dont change anything just add the lines below and save
reboot and select the windows see if it boots, if not you need the set the right partion
(hd0,0) is wrong, try next one

please search for info on boot options before you try; there can be a easy way from windows i don't know ;-)

[sailor2001]

in terminal: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst ....default should be 0 for ubuntu and counting up from there would be recovery mode (1) then memtest (2), other operating systems (3) xp (4) etc...... Boot loader is installed (grub) automatically on ubuntu installation. if not using wubi