Grub2 (and maybe dmraid) problem

[Yankee14]

Greetings, folks! It's sad to be meeting you all under my current circumstances; I've been fighting to get the latest Ubuntu 10.10 x86 installed and working correctly on my computer for about 36 hours now, but I refuse to give up! And so I must come to the forums for help.

I'm not sure exactly how to ask help for the problems I am having, because I am so new to linux. Please allow me to describe what I've done so far to get where I am, and hopefully a possible solution to my problem will stand out to someone.

Feel free to skip around my post. I have a tendency to ramble, but I prefer to be thorough in the hopes that it will prevent any misunderstandings.

I am primarily a Windows user; I have been using it since I was 12. But, for various reasons I would like to start using Ubuntu in addition to Windows. I have successfully set up a dualboot system before, and so I have some sort of clue as to how to partition drives and things of that nature. I had so much trouble with all this, I decided to screw the concept of dualbooting Windows and Ubuntu for the time being, and just run Ubuntu (but still leaving space for a Windows installation later).

I was having a problem getting Ubuntu to install, now I'm having trouble getting it to boot (and it may be that I haven't installed it correctly).

So here's what happened:

I have 3 SATA hard drives. Here's how it was configured.

1. 160GB - 1 Primary NTFS Partition - Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (obviously the boot sector is on this hard drive).
2. 500GB - 1 Primary NTFS Partition - Just for storage.
3. 1TB - 1 Primary NTFS Partition - Again, just for storage.

The latter 2 drives are important, stay tuned for more at 11.

I wanted to dualboot XP and Ubuntu. Here's what I did:

I defragged XP a few times to make sure I didn't crush any data that may have been dangling towards the end of the partition. After doing so, I popped in my lovely GParted livecd, resized the NTFS partition to approximately 120GB, leaving 40 or so unallocated GB for my Ubuntu installation. Please note that GParted successfully recognised and displayed all my hard drives and all partitions on those drives.

After resizing, I booted into XP just to make sure it worked. I let it have it's normal little temper tantrum about index verification, Kilroy was here; everything checked out alright, and Windows booted and worked just fine.

And now it was time to install Ubuntu--finally! Threw in the livecd, slammed the tray shut, booted into the wonderful livecd architecture, and I was given a choice. Try Ubuntu or Install. Of course, I had already tried it out, so I picked Install. Got through the first few menus and arrived at the "Allocate drive space" menu. After selecting "Specify partitions manually" (because I didn't want to install it alongside XP, I wanted it to have it's own partition(s)), Ubuntu gave me the list of the hard drives it could detect.

This is where the excrement impacted the air distribution oscillator, so to speak. Ubuntu listed my 2 storage drives, and nothing else.

And so began my extended late-night jaunt with Google, something with which I am sure we are all very familiar. After much trial and error for many hours, including research yielding possible solutions such as:

1. Updating my BIOS to several different revisions
2. Experimenting with changing SATA/AHCI configurations on each BIOS revision I flashed
3. Physically changing the SATA ports that the drives were plugged into
4. Making sure everything was receiving power
5. Even making sure the data cables weren't too close to the power cables to minimize any EMI
6. Got back on GParted several times to make sure everything was still OK (which it seemed to be).
7. I also tried formatting the unallocated space I left for Ubuntu to several different filesystems, including ext2, 3, and 4, reiserfs, and NTFS.

I did all this, and much more that I can't remember. I've slept since then. I just remember the particularly aggravating parts. I probably reduced the longevity of my hard drive by several years in doing some of those things repeatedly, but meh.

Anyhow. I booted the livecd and tried to see if any of the changes I made affected Ubuntu's ability to read my mysterious hard drive. I tried again and again, booting into the livecd after changing just one variable at a time.

Finally, I found a solution that enabled Ubuntu to see the hard drive. I had to uninstall and completely remove a program in the Synaptic Package Manager called "dmraid", which, from my understanding, is a tool which Ubuntu uses to map SATA configurations. What a paradox! Getting rid of the tool which Ubuntu uses to see SATA hard drives allowed Ubuntu to see my SATA hard drive!

(Some of you may be saying, "well, that nodmraid is also an optional flag which can be added by pressing F6 as the Ubuntu livecd begins to boot." If I remember correctly, I tried that and to no avail. I'm not sure. I'll reboot and try it after I finish typing this post, but I think I tried it and it didn't do anything.)

Ok, so I had found the temporary fix to the hard drive problem, and it had to do with disabling dmraid. As soon as I get rid of that package, the Ubuntu ubiquity installer can see my hard drive. So, naturally, I began partitioning my hard drive as such (the following is the output of fdisk):


ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfe9c19cd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 60801 488384001 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0fa61992

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 121601 976760001 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6e2c68ef

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 4462 35840953 5 Extended
/dev/sdc2 4463 19457 120447337+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc5 * 1 64 514017 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 65 1339 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 1340 1849 4096543+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc8 1850 4462 20988891 83 Linux
ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sdc1 is the extended partition. Inside this partition, I created several other logical partitions according to my experiences with installing another linux distro a very long time ago called Backtrack. I also learned that some people like to separate their /root ( / ) from /home by partitioning, and also that it is possible to put the /boot on its own partition as well. Separating / from /home, and also /boot, regardless of your opinions and/or the reasons why, should nevertheless be possible, right? This is what I want to do.

A more readable hierarchy looks like this:

sdc1 - extended partition

sdc5 - 500MB ext4 for /boot
sdc6 - 10GB ext4 for /
sdc7 - 4GB of swap
sdc8 - 20 or so ext4 for /home

sdc2 - NTFS filling the rest of the hard drive. Nothing on it at the moment, I wiped Windows out as a last ditch effort to make this work. It's just gonna sit there for now until I reinstall Windows (and yes, I know that installing Windows after Ubuntu will most likely complicate things again, as Windows will want to use its own bootloader. I'll deal with that later. I just want to get this working.)

So, I partitioned it as such, pointed Ubuntu to install /boot to sdc5, / to sdc6, and /home to sdc8. This is where I may have gone wrong. Knowing me, doing that probably wasn't quite right, but I've had a hard time finding anything on this sort of configuration. Am I on the right track? I know I did something very similar with installing Backtrack.

After getting all this done, I shut down the livecd, remove the cd, and try to boot up. BIOS tells me it wasn't able to find a boot record or whatever the hell you want to call it, "insert boot disk and press return", blah blah. Tried to do some research on how grub2 works, and it's all greek to me. I remember having to mess with grub when I installed Backtrack on my laptop a year or so back, and it was really simple and straightforward to configure and troubleshoot, for me. Grub2, as it's called, isn't proving to be that easy. I tried commands I found on the Ubuntu wiki thing, including
sudo grub-probe -t device /boot/grub. This particular command, which I think is supposed to locate grub installations on any device, keeps returning this error:

"grub-probe: error: cannot find a device for /boot/grub (is /dev mounted?)."

I think it's mounted. Is it mounted? What does that mean? I mounted every partition on that hard drive and it still didn't find anything. What can I do to fix this? Is dmraid still causing the problem somehow, or did I not configure the partitions correctly/install the right parts of Ubuntu to each partition? Or is it something else? I'm sorry if this exact question has already been asked, but I really really did try to find it.

Thanks,
Yankee14

P.S. - Info regarding my rig, and other outputs you may find useful in assisting me:


Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010

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

=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc

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:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdc1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdc5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: Grub 2
Boot sector info: Grub 2 is installed in the boot sector of sdc5 and
looks at sector 545374 of the same hard drive for
core.img, but core.img can not be found at this
location.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /grub/grub.cfg /grub/core.img

sdc6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10
Boot files/dirs: /etc/fstab

sdc7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdc8: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdc2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows Vista/7
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs:

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 63 976,768,064 976,768,002 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 63 1,953,520,064 1,953,520,002 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdc ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdc1 124 71,682,029 71,681,906 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 * 126 1,028,159 1,028,034 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 1,028,223 21,511,034 20,482,812 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7 21,511,098 29,704,184 8,193,087 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc8 29,704,248 71,682,029 41,977,782 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 71,682,030 312,576,704 240,894,675 7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 60049AC5049A9D9A ntfs 570r4g3
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 C29CB83F9CB83031 ntfs Pepperoncini
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdc1: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdc2 6498A065267463F2 ntfs Windows XP Pro x64
/dev/sdc5 4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce ext4
/dev/sdc6 9837b70d-4f90-4ab4-8d23-22ddf7d99c05 ext4
/dev/sdc7 dd896b71-7fb5-4317-ae01-467ae76c7212 swap
/dev/sdc8 cd12c18e-62c2-4206-814c-7f0229fd5746 ext4
/dev/sdc promise_fasttrack_raid_member

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

aufs / aufs (rw)
/dev/sr0 /cdrom iso9660 (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdc5 /media/4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks)


============================= sdc5/grub/grub.cfg: =============================

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

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9837b70d-4f90-4ab4-8d23-22ddf7d99c05
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce
set locale_dir=($root)/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ "${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/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=9837b70d-4f90-4ab4-8d23-22ddf7d99c05 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae ...'
linux /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=9837b70d-4f90-4ab4-8d23-22ddf7d99c05 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce
linux16 /memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce
linux16 /memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ "x${timeout}" != "x-1" ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### 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 ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

=================== sdc5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


.2GB: grub/core.img
.2GB: grub/grub.cfg
.0GB: initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
.0GB: vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae

=============================== sdc6/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 nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sdc6 during installation
UUID=9837b70d-4f90-4ab4-8d23-22ddf7d99c05 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot was on /dev/sdc5 during installation
UUID=4c568e0b-e6c6-4638-ba2e-d226cce933ce /boot ext4 defaults 0 2
# /home was on /dev/sdc8 during installation
UUID=cd12c18e-62c2-4206-814c-7f0229fd5746 /home ext4 defaults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sdc7 during installation
UUID=dd896b71-7fb5-4317-ae01-467ae76c7212 none swap sw 0 0
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader on sdc1

00000000 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 00 10 18 00 ff 01 1f 00 |................|
00000010 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 20 00 00 00 20 02 00 00 |........ ... ...|
00000020 00 10 18 00 a9 00 12 00 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 |................|
00000030 20 00 00 00 21 02 00 00 00 10 18 00 ff 01 13 00 | ...!...........|
00000040 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 20 00 00 00 23 02 00 00 |........ ...#...|
00000050 00 10 14 00 a9 00 12 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 01 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 |................|
00000070 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000080 be 48 79 74 75 01 00 00 80 5a 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.Hytu....Z......|
00000090 8c 00 00 00 01 00 04 90 5c 00 00 00 6c 00 00 00 |........\...l...|
000000a0 00 00 00 00 14 00 00 00 02 00 48 00 03 00 00 00 |..........H.....|
000000b0 00 02 14 00 02 00 10 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 01 |................|
000000c0 00 00 00 00 00 03 18 00 ff 01 1f 00 01 02 00 00 |................|
000000d0 00 00 00 05 20 00 00 00 20 02 00 00 00 03 14 00 |.... ... .......|
000000e0 ff 01 1f 00 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 |................|
000000f0 01 02 00 00 00 00 00 05 20 00 00 00 20 02 00 00 |........ ... ...|
00000100 01 01 00 00 00 00 00 05 12 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000120 8c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001a0 be 40 79 74 77 01 00 00 a0 5b 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.@ytw....[......|
000001b0 8c 00 00 00 01 00 04 90 5c 00 00 00 6c 00 80 02 |........\...l...|
000001c0 01 00 83 fe 3f 3f 02 00 00 00 c2 af 0f 00 00 00 |....??..........|
000001d0 01 40 05 fe ff ff c4 af 0f 00 3b 8b 38 01 00 00 |.@........;.8...|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200Hmm, just noticed that last bit of gibberish at the end labelled "Unknown Bootloader on sdc1."

Aha! A clue, Sherlock!

Still, ak2djg4mny306u2jh! doesn't help me too much. I'm stuck.


ubuntu@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset DRAM Controller (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1a.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4
00:1a.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5
00:1a.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6
00:1a.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 1
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 4
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 5
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) PCI Express Root Port 6
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev 90)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller #1
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller #2
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G80 [GeForce 8800 GTS] (rev a2)
03:00.0 SATA controller: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
03:00.1 IDE interface: JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller (rev 02)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 02)
06:07.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)

[psusi]

You used the drive in a fake raid at one point in the past and the raid signatures are still on the disk. Assuming you are no longer using it in a raid configuration, you need to remove that signature. Run sudo dmraid -E /dev/sdc.

[dino99]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation

[oldfred]

psusi is on right track but you may need to run on sda & sdb also.

Presence1960 on remove old raid setting from HD
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1325650
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sda
sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdb
Also check BIOS for raid settings
More discusion:
http://wwww.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=9274738#post9274738


I do not like installing a /boot for standard desktops. The standard instructions posted for reinstalling grub often leave out the extra command to also mount the /boot partition or may have a footnote to also mount it. You really only need /boot if running a server or have an older system with the 137GB boot limit.

Since you have more than one drive, why not have each operating system on separate drives. Then each boot loader can be in the same drive as the system install. Less issues with MBR conflicts.

Some even go so far as to install an operating system on every drive.
Creating a Dedicated Knoppix Partition for large drives
http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/knoppix/knoppix_partition.htm

[Yankee14]

Thank you for the replies!

sudo dmraid -E -r /dev/sdc certainly fixed the problem with Ubuntu being unable to see the hard drive. As it turned out, the other two hard drives didn't need it. Thank you to psusi for explaining the situation, and oldfred for elaborating upon his explanation.

However, I am now facing a problem with the bootloader. The help page which dino99 has provided was very useful in getting me to where I am right now, but it doesn't seem to document Grub2, though learning the principles of how bootloading works was a great help. Thanks.

As for oldfred's suggestion of installing each operating system on a separate drive, I cannot do that. Each of these drives must remain as storage drives exclusively. For all intents and purposes, please let us continue with the understanding that the only drive I have is /dev/sdc.


I do not like installing a /boot for standard desktops. The standard instructions posted for reinstalling grub often leave out the extra command to also mount the /boot partition or may have a footnote to also mount it. You really only need /boot if running a server or have an older system with the 137GB boot limit.

Since you have more than one drive, why not have each operating system on separate drives. Then each boot loader can be in the same drive as the system install. Less issues with MBR conflicts.I think I understand most of what you were saying, but now I'm having trouble understanding the difference between the MBR and the bootloader. Gathering from your post, the MBR is a container for the bootloader, and can contain any sort of bootloader I choose to install, whether it be Grub, Grub2, or the one Windows usually installs. Also, to my understanding, the boot partition must be the first partition?

As for your recommendation to not have a separate /boot partition, I did not take this lightly. I do plan on messing with certain server applications, particularly steam's source dedicated server, but that's beside the point.

After reading your post several times, I decided to do away with the idea of installing /boot to its own partition in the interests of actually getting my computer to boot something. I deleted all the logical partitions in the extended partition and started from scratch. I created one ext4 to hold /, one swap partition for..well..swap, and one ext4 for /home. When partitioning the hard drives from Ubuntu's install GUI, it asks me where I want the bootloader to go. I pointed it at the first ext4 partition which holds /, effectively doing away with the idea of having a separate boot partition for /boot. That's correct, right?

After using the above dmraid command, and thereby fixing ubuntu's drive recognition problem, and also not using a /boot partition, I rebooted and my BIOS returned this:


BOOT DISK FAILURE. PLEASE INSERT BOOT CD/DVDI'm still learning how all of this works, and so I take this to mean that my BIOS was unable to locate any BOOT sector instructions on any of my hard drives. Either that, or it found one and it just wasn't configured correctly. "DISK BOOT FAILURE" doesn't exactly provide me with much information on where I went wrong. In the meantime of hoping and waiting for responses to this post, I'll be reading this,

http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html

an article I found just before beginning this response to your posts. It looks like this may give me some insight to what I'm doing wrong.

I've learned a lot through all the troubles I'm having with this as a linux newbie, and I feel as though I'm on the home stretch of getting this to work.

Thanks again for the help you all have provided thus far,
Yankee14

Ok, so I did away with all ideas I had for installing linux the way I wanted it, and just chose the "Erase entire hard disk" option and let ubiquity do its own thing. The drive now looks like this:


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 18663 149903360 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 18663 19458 6384641 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 18663 19458 6384640 82 Linux swap / SolarisFor some reason, it put the bootloader on my 500GB drive, /dev/sda. I...guess...I don't have a problem with this, but does it have to be this way? Windows doesn't do this when it uses its own bootloader, does it? O CHURL, DRUNK ALL AND LEFT NO FRIENDLY DROP TO HELP ME AFTER! I'm so lost. Is it even possible to get linux installed the way I wanted it? With separate partitions for /, /boot, and home? I know I did something similar in the past, and it was not this complicated... I think I had everything configured properly except for the bootloader stuff. I have no idea where I went wrong. Here's the new results of running boot info 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 #1 for (,msdos1)/boot/grub.
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc

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:

sdb1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdc1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 10.10
Boot files/dirs: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sdc2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sdc5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sda1 * 63 976,768,064 976,768,002 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdb ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders, total 1953525168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdb1 63 1,953,520,064 1,953,520,002 7 HPFS/NTFS


Drive: sdc ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sdc: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start End Size Id System

/dev/sdc1 2,048 299,808,767 299,806,720 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 299,810,814 312,580,095 12,769,282 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 299,810,816 312,580,095 12,769,280 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 60049AC5049A9D9A ntfs 570r4g3
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdb1 C29CB83F9CB83031 ntfs Pepperoncini
/dev/sdb: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdc1 f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827 ext4
/dev/sdc2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sdc5 f4e57b97-b246-4795-afff-15394407a5e3 swap
/dev/sdc: PTTYPE="dos"

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sdc1 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)


=========================== sdc1/boot/grub/grub.cfg: ===========================

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

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ "${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/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827 ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd2,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
if [ "x${timeout}" != "x-1" ]; then
if keystatus; then
if keystatus --shift; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=0
fi
else
if sleep --interruptible 3 ; then
set timeout=0
fi
fi
fi
### 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 ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

=============================== sdc1/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 nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sdc1 during installation
UUID=f673e90f-5de4-46bf-8947-c328e0fa6827 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sdc5 none swap sw 0 0

=================== sdc1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


94.6GB: boot/grub/core.img
77.4GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
1.0GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
94.6GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
1.0GB: initrd.img
94.6GB: vmlinuz
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader on sdc2

00000000 f0 21 80 f1 00 a8 18 e0 79 01 ec 34 a0 e8 03 90 |.!......y..4....|
00000010 6d 05 b1 53 11 e1 8c 32 81 30 30 00 03 c0 60 80 |m..S...2.00...`.|
00000020 28 20 0d 0a 25 1a 03 40 99 69 65 da 94 64 11 10 |( ..%..@.ie..d..|
00000030 92 9f ef 21 ab 47 ff fc e6 3c 94 a4 c8 64 27 78 |...!.G...<...d'x|
00000040 78 71 a4 a4 1a 39 54 09 04 5c 60 41 7b b1 0a 35 |xq...9T..\`A{..5|
00000050 40 17 cd df 91 b0 d7 e6 8c 06 03 d6 b1 ef 37 46 |@.............7F|
00000060 3d 2f 01 ed 63 0b 17 8c 3b 49 12 84 20 60 c1 1c |=/..c...;I.. `..|
00000070 61 3c f9 4f 54 ab 22 4e b0 11 54 7e c4 f0 3f b3 |a<.OT."N..T~..?.|
00000080 96 f1 51 58 46 47 fb fc 2e ba 81 02 7c 34 85 3d |..QXFG......|4.=|
00000090 87 f6 8f e6 84 3f b8 c7 d0 10 9b 20 0e 40 08 2b |.....?..... .@.+|
000000a0 68 d3 2c c7 2f 00 f8 87 95 50 8f 60 96 61 6c 22 |h.,./....P.`.al"|
000000b0 80 00 00 18 00 00 00 0a 01 00 30 01 c0 00 06 80 |..........0.....|
000000c0 0a 00 b0 0a 00 07 04 00 08 08 20 0c 00 18 05 10 |.......... .....|
000000d0 14 03 81 49 e1 38 40 4c c7 37 e0 25 4c c8 c4 cd |...I.8@L.7.%L...|
000000e0 e6 f0 61 03 14 32 17 8f c0 84 93 5b f4 07 9b aa |..a..2.....[....|
000000f0 c6 3b b0 0b dc 1a 31 05 17 8b f0 af 10 22 88 0b |.;....1......"..|
00000100 4c e8 41 9f 64 7c bf 80 51 2c c6 15 e2 86 12 a2 |L.A.d|..Q,......|
00000110 98 82 22 10 6b 0e 29 8e 21 0c 87 b6 83 71 86 23 |..".k.).!....q.#|
00000120 88 54 51 4e 1d 61 e3 ab 11 52 c5 9f 31 44 53 65 |.TQN.a...R..1DSe|
00000130 c5 84 14 72 fe 6c 38 5a 1f 16 6c 45 14 51 44 96 |...r.l8Z..lE.QD.|
00000140 c8 64 c6 28 d1 30 e3 a8 a1 8e 2c 23 f3 7a 02 23 |.d.(.0....,#.z.#|
00000150 36 6c 16 21 8f 2e cc 62 0e 20 8a 88 81 08 3b 34 |6l.!...b. ....;4|
00000160 78 a6 f2 98 c4 66 c0 91 4b 30 31 88 b3 43 31 0c |x....f..K01..C1.|
00000170 18 51 19 80 50 41 6b 12 85 00 4c 05 e4 e5 c6 eb |.Q..PAk...L.....|
00000180 9f 38 58 5c b8 fa c1 f3 c1 b2 c7 8f 00 21 dd d9 |.8X\.........!..|
00000190 8f 42 b3 e0 21 8a 30 29 c5 9d 9e 00 c9 02 fd 57 |.B..!.0).......W|
000001a0 70 1e 02 64 01 6c 0a 50 92 04 d8 03 60 37 16 70 |p..d.l.P....`7.p|
000001b0 75 0e 10 45 22 e2 44 5a 02 40 74 00 0f 81 00 fe |u..E".DZ.@t.....|
000001c0 ff ff 82 fe ff ff 02 00 00 00 00 d8 c2 00 00 00 |................|
000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200

[Yankee14]

OK, ignore everything I've said above. This is going to be straight and to the point. I'm tired of reformatting and reformatting, and I've about had it with trying to understand how bootloading works in the context of the (in my opinion) vastly overcomplicated Grub2 bootloader.

The issue I am having is dualbooting Microsoft Windows XP and Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop in the completely reasonable way that I want it to work.

My current setup is:
One 160GB SATA hard drive with


One Primary 120GB NTFS partition with Windows XP installed.



Note: In the context of the problem I am having, I must make the obvious note that Windows has it's own bootloader, and has overwritten the MBR of the hard drive to point to its own bootloader. Hopefully I'm understanding that correctly.

The remaining hard drive space is currently unallocated, and will remain so until I can understand exactly how this is going to work.
The setup I have been going for over the last 3 days is:
One 160GB SATA hard drive with


One Primary 120GB NTFS partition with Windows XP installed.


One Extended partition circumscribing the remaining hard drive space.



Note: This Extended partition will, of course, consist of several logical partitions housing my Ubuntu installation, and will also include a separate partition for the Grub/Grub2 bootloader. It will look something like this:



Logical Partition Number 1 (and yes, I know it will actually be /dev/sda5 or whatever)




This partition will be my bootloader partition.




I don't understand enough to know what exactly needs to go here. Obviously, the bootloader does, but, does the /boot mount point go here in addition to installing the bootloader here? I don't understand that question any more than you do. Please see the image below for clarification.



Logical Partition Number 2




This partition will be the ( / ) root mount point, which to my understanding means that it will hold the linux kernel, any additional programs and packages I install, etc.



Logical Partition Number 3




This partition will be the linux swap space area. I understand swap space to be the linux equivalent of the Windows paging file. Also, I have chosen to place it here, between the root mount point and the home mount point so that the heads don't have to travel very far over the platters to read and write data. This may not be the most optimal configuration, but it seems the most logical to my tired eyes. I hope that's right. Whether or not it is optimal (I suppose) doesn't really matter at the moment, as it should, at the very least, function. I can always go back and fix it later. God knows how many times I've formatted; I can format a few more times later if needed after I actually get this to work.



Logical Partition Number 4




This partition will be the home mount point, which will, to my understanding, be home to any extra baggage I acquire during internet jaunts, i.e. mp3's, pdf's, etc.
Here is the image I spoke of earlier. Before viewing, please know that this is not the representation of my hard drive. It is merely a screencap of some random persons desired partition table which can clearly illustrate my question about bootloader-ing.

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/4301/ubuntu1010installationl.jpg

Now that I have hopefully made clear what it is I want to do, this image is an example of the problem I'm having with the bootloading. As you can see, I've done a botched job in mspaint to highlight what the problem is, and what I'm not understanding.

Are /boot mount point AND the bootloader the same thing?

Since Windows has overwritten the MBR to point at its own bootloader, obviously Ubuntu will need to overwrite what windows has written, placing a pointer in the MBR to the Grub/Grub2 bootloader on the logical partition. I believe in Grub(1), the MBR code was called Grub Stage 1, and Stage 2 or (1.5 in some cases) would be the actual Grub menu I know and love, easily configurable by simply editing the menu.lst file. Now, with Grub2, I don't know what the hell to make of any of it. The documentation is too complicated for me to understand, and honestly has been very discouraging in trying out linux. I swear on the life of my dummy, the most helpful documentation I found concerning how to install and configure Grub2 I found by typing "I hate grub2" into Google.

So now, I don't really even know how to phrase the real question properly. How do I get the bootloader installed and configured correctly in the context of installing it the way I want it to work, using the menu you see above, and possibly GParted to flag the boot partition as bootable? Do I have to put /boot into the same partition that will house the Grub/Grub2 bootloader? Do I not mess with setting a specific mount point for /boot and just install the bootloader into the partition? Do I do the opposite, and use the partition for the /boot mount point and shove the bootloader up my ****?

Any help would be desperately appreciated. I will love you long time, and give you 7,000,000,000 Scott Pilgrim brand internets as a reward for helping me defeat Gideon. I just hope you picked bootloader proficiency back in the 5th grade.

Thanks,
Yankee14

[psusi]

The only thing you did wrong the first time was choosing to install grub to the partition, rather than the whole disk. The MBR holds the partition table, and the very first part of the boot loader that the PC runs. There are other parts to the boot loader, but that is the first. When you chose to install grub to the partition, you left the MBR devoid of any boot code.

/boot is where your kernel(s) go(es), as well as grubs add on modules and config file. There is no reason to give it its own partition, especially not one as large as 11 gb. Your typical install only has 2 partitions: one for / and one for swap.

[Yankee14]

Thanks for the quick response. That helps to clarify my misunderstanding.

As for the image showing someone installing /boot to its own 11GB partition:


Before viewing, please know that this is not the representation of my hard drive. It is merely a screencap of some random persons desired partition table which can clearly illustrate my question about bootloader-ing.

I know not to put that on its own 11GB partition :D

Thanks for the response. I think I may now know enough to give this a shot.

Regards,
Yankee

[oldfred]

PC's since IBM's original boot from a BIOS or the first screen you see on power up. The BIOS is just smart enough to know to jump to another device (then a floppy drive) to boot. When hard drives were added they allowed 4 and the only boot drive was the primary master's MBR. The MBR is before the first partition. Windows, lilo and only optionally with grub parts of the boot process can be installed to the partition boot sector which is the beginning of each partition.
Newer systems are only a little smarter, BIOS will with SATA let you choose which drive to boot but still from MBR of that drive. Apple and some very new systems are conveting from BIOS to EFI or UEFi which has even more capability.

While showing only windows this explains the windows process in detail but the pictures are easy of review.
Multibooters, Pictures here worth 1000+ words
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html

If you install grub2 to a partition you do not get the parts in /etc.

GRUB 2 has three main parts plus a boot loader installed to the MBR:

1. /etc/default/grub - the file containing GRUB 2 menu settings.
2. /etc/grub.d/ - the directory containing GRUB 2 menu creating scripts.And a place for totally custom entries 40_custom.
3. /boot/grub/grub.cfg - the GRUB 2 configuration file, not editable.

[Yankee14]

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

Regards,
Yankee14

[oldfred]

Your Disk BOOT error looks something more like a BIOS error. There are a few (mostly intel motherboards) BIOS that require a boot flag on a primary partition to let you boot. Grub does not use a boot flag but windows does, so the BIOS was designed to only let windows boot. You can add a boot flag to any primary partition with gparted it that is the problem.