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Derek Djons
April 13th, 2006, 10:34 PM
Well, today was a normal day for me. From work I went straight home and booted Ubuntu Linux. I used the terminal to quickly update my installation* while reading the news and doing some artwork in Gimp.

* sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
After a couple of hours and the completion of the updates I was done and needed to reboot to Windows for DreamWeaver.

As I rebooted and my notebook passed POST something else appeared instead of GRUB:

Grub can't be read, followed by a blinking cursor. I thought it might be something weird. So I unplugged the powercord and removed the batt. for three minutes. After I booted my notebook the same error came to me.

I had this joke once before. So I knew... I could easily overwrite my MBR with the Windows CD and be able to boot Windows (better than nothing). So I did that. I booted the Windows CD and got myself to the Rescue mode. There I used:

fixboot c:
- The MBR got overwritten and I rebooted my machine.

But instead of Windows booting, GRUB appeared with my Ubuntu installation, all previous Kernels and Windows XP in it.

I'm still confused about WTF happened and how fixboot can see or manage 3rd party MBR's. Well, I'm glad it works... it saves me hell of work finding out / reinstalling Ubuntu.

Monster_user
April 13th, 2006, 10:55 PM
:o :confused:

That is the first time I've heard that. That is something.

syg00
April 13th, 2006, 11:03 PM
Fixboot updates the boot sector record, not the MBR.
Coincidence - M$oft has never shown any inclination in assisting the open source world.

prizrak
April 13th, 2006, 11:08 PM
Fixboot updates the boot sector record, not the MBR.
Coincidence - M$oft has never shown any inclination in assisting the open source world.
So Windows is good for something sometimes by accident ;)

red_Marvin
April 13th, 2006, 11:15 PM
Now keep quiet about this, or else windows fixxboot will start to rewrite mbr soon ;) ...

NeghVar
April 13th, 2006, 11:18 PM
Extend, Embrace, Extinguish... I think they are extending their olive branch... qwuick, before they sharpen the other end lets beat em to it and sharpen our end into the tip of a spear...

rfruth
April 13th, 2006, 11:19 PM
miracles never cease :confused:

Derek Djons
April 13th, 2006, 11:37 PM
Fixboot updates the boot sector record, not the MBR.
Coincidence - M$oft has never shown any inclination in assisting the open source world.

Thank you for fishing out my error! syg00. There's indeed a big difference between the two.

John.Michael.Kane
April 13th, 2006, 11:39 PM
I guess Good Stuff happens sometimes when you use MS...

Derek Djons
April 14th, 2006, 10:53 AM
This morning I got the same error again. So something is definitelly wrong with my installation. Using fixboot c: didn't worked this time. I used fixmbr to boot Windows. Later on today I will be reinstall Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper Drake.

syg00
April 14th, 2006, 10:58 AM
Like I said, coincidence.

Backup anything you consider important.
NOW

BoyOfDestiny
April 14th, 2006, 01:36 PM
Like I said, coincidence.

Backup anything you consider important.
NOW

Agreed, also have you been running dapper? I think doing a dist-upgrade instead of upgrade is the way to go. Not sure if that'll prevent breakage, but my dappers have been running smoothly for months (32 and 64).

On a somewhat related note, and I think you'll get it a kick out of it:

Some Mac users are reporting problems with Apple's Boot Camp, the software that lets Intel-based Macs run Windows. Ironically, some users have said been stuck with Windows, with their hardware left unable to reboot the Mac OS.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,125393,00.asp

ice60
April 14th, 2006, 03:19 PM
you can use gag if grub/mbr breaks. i've never used it but i heard about it on a podcast yesterday :D just put the iso on a disk
http://gag.sourceforge.net/

http://gag.sourceforge.net/gagn3.gif

bonzodog
April 14th, 2006, 04:55 PM
GAG doesn't support Ext3 or ReiserFS partitions though, and to use it, you have to create an ext2 /boot partition.

NeghVar
April 14th, 2006, 05:15 PM
Ahh... so we are reaching the extinguish faze already?

Derek Djons
April 14th, 2006, 08:10 PM
Ahh... so we are reaching the extinguish faze already?
LOL... it sure as hell sound like it.


Like I said, coincidence.

Backup anything you consider important.
NOW
I'm glad I learned from previous mistakes... data is not a problem. Got it stashed and ready for redeployment :)