Grub failure in new install of 10.10

[jeff3211]

Just finished trying to solve this by using other threads / tutorials...no success! Fresh install today of Ubuntu 10.10 configured as dual-boot with WIN XP. Grub loads latest kernel with no problem at all as long as the keyboard is NOT touched in any way. Touch any key and grub hangs infinitely. There is never any success in changing boot selection in any way. I tried reloading grub from the LiveCD version 10.10 with no success, then I tried reloading it from a 10.04LTS LiveCD which totally blanked grub from the boot process entirely, then I tried purging grub and downloading new code as instructed in another tutorial here on the forums. After the final effort I have restored access to 10.10 on the HDD so that I can boot without the LiveCD, but I am back to the choice-less grub! It's 10.10 or nothing!
I need complete instructions on how to obtain and document the diagnostic information needed to trouble-shoot the issue so that I can provide the data you need to assist me in repairing this boot loader...When I downloaded the new code and installed it, the system recognized and properly identified all partitions and OSes on the system. I should boot from /dev/sda and the linux partition is located on /dev/sda6 the WIN partition is on /dev/sda5. I did notice some strange information concerning the starting and ending locations of the partitions when I was attempting to correct this issue. If that information seems relevant I will post it upon request. (if instructed on how to do so) Should I repost this as a bug report? (Am I posting in the wrong location?)

[theasprint]

Hi,

Have you tried removing and reinstalling grub?

Because I don't get the meaning of "reloading grub from LiveCD".

To uninstall and reinstall grub: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275
Navigate your way to: "12. Uninstalling Grub2"

[wilee-nilee]

So from a booted live Ubuntu cd or thumbdrive lets see the bootscript read out; in my signature just click on it and follow the instructions. Come back to the thread and click on the # in the reply panel this makes code tags paste all the text in between.

So also see if the computer acts this way by as soon as you turn the computer on to boot the live cd hold down the shift to get the early choice menu, choose try Ubuntu and run this script and post it.

Did you try out Ubuntu from a live cd or thumb first to see that it worked?

Did you resize the XP partition with the install partitioner?

Did XP do a chkdsk on resizing?

Do you have a XP install cd?

[jeff3211]

I did a purge of grub and installed new code. I am able to boot to the latest kernel without using the LiveCD.
I performed the boot_info_script*.sh program and obtained the results, but NOT from CD booted system.
Do I need to shut down and reboot from CD to get new results for accuracy?
I let the installation of Ubuntu 10.10 proceed with the defaults and made no attempt to change the partition sizes myself. I have successfully destroyed installations by trying to make partition size changes myself, and still have a machine with 2 unused partitions because I didn't perform a proper resize of existing partitions. Now I let the installer size them without interference from me! XP never performed chkdsk because I have never been close to getting it to boot yet. If I have to repair the WIN boot records I will start pretty much from scratch by using the LiveCD to mount the partitions that are still readable so that I can copy the existing files to other media before making any changes in Windows that may result in data loss.

[jeff3211]

I did try the LiveCD versions of the Ubuntu 10.10 AND the 10.04LTS and both CDs worked on this system. I do have a WIN XP install disc so I can do a system repair & rewrite the MBR repair if necessary.

[jeff3211]

I did perform this procedure...
sudo apt-get purge grub-common grub-pc


I also performed a new install after certifying that I had an active internet connection and my machine was connected and capable of downloading the new code.

[garvinrick4]

Boot in sda looking in sda6 sounds ok but why is XP in sda5 a logical partition.
What is going on with sda1 thru sda4

[jeff3211]

These results are from system booted from hdd. If I MUST boot from CD I will have to shut down and reboot to post new results.



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 (,msdos6)/boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda2: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ _______________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files/dirs: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda6: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

sda7: __________________________________________________ _______________________

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

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

Drive: sda ___________________ __________________________________________________ ___

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 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 76,549,724 76,549,662 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 76,549,786 156,301,311 79,751,526 f W95 Ext d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 76,549,788 133,479,369 56,929,582 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 133,480,448 155,236,351 21,755,904 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 155,238,400 156,301,311 1,062,912 82 Linux swap / Solaris


blkid -c /dev/null: __________________________________________________ __________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/sda1 F600F0E700F0B02B ntfs
/dev/sda2: PTTYPE="dos"
/dev/sda5 66605851605829D7 ntfs DISK4_VOL2
/dev/sda6 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e ext4
/dev/sda7 aff2edfa-aba2-4b87-884a-a4daf92af826 swap
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos"

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sda6 / ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,commit=0)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader]
timeout=3

================================ sda5/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 Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

=========================== sda6/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='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
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='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
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 2.6.35-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic root=UUID=85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-24-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic root=UUID=85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=UUID=85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
}
### 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='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Windows NT/2000/XP (loader) (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set f600f0e700f0b02b
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on /dev/sda5)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 66605851605829d7
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 ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_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 nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda6 during installation
UUID=85e24286-53f7-4e23-9a1b-2572017e707e / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=aff2edfa-aba2-4b87-884a-a4daf92af826 none swap sw 0 0

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


77.1GB: boot/grub/core.img
71.1GB: boot/grub/grub.cfg
69.5GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
69.6GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic
78.1GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
78.0GB: boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic
69.6GB: initrd.img
69.5GB: initrd.img.old
78.0GB: vmlinuz
78.1GB: vmlinuz.old
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader on sda2

00000000 65 6a 65 63 74 65 64 53 69 74 65 73 20 00 70 72 |ejectedSites .pr|
00000010 6f 70 65 72 74 79 20 41 63 74 69 76 61 74 65 64 |operty Activated|
00000020 42 75 74 4e 6f 74 52 65 62 6f 6f 74 65 64 57 57 |ButNotRebootedWW|
00000030 13 00 70 72 6f 70 65 72 74 79 20 49 73 44 69 73 |..property IsDis|
00000040 61 62 6c 65 64 57 57 57 1e 00 70 72 6f 70 65 72 |abledWWW..proper|
00000050 74 79 20 54 69 6d 65 72 52 65 6d 61 69 6e 69 6e |ty TimerRemainin|
00000060 67 53 65 63 6f 6e 64 73 12 00 6d 65 74 68 6f 64 |gSeconds..method|
00000070 20 46 6f 72 63 65 52 65 62 6f 6f 74 22 00 70 72 | ForceReboot".pr|
00000080 6f 70 65 72 74 79 20 44 65 61 63 74 69 76 61 74 |operty Deactivat|
00000090 65 64 42 75 74 4e 6f 74 52 65 62 6f 6f 74 65 64 |edButNotRebooted|
000000a0 17 00 70 72 6f 70 65 72 74 79 20 52 65 62 6f 6f |..property Reboo|
000000b0 74 52 65 71 75 69 72 65 64 57 57 57 17 00 70 72 |tRequiredWWW..pr|
000000c0 6f 70 65 72 74 79 20 4c 53 50 4c 61 79 65 72 65 |operty LSPLayere|
000000d0 64 49 6e 66 6f 57 57 57 14 00 70 72 6f 70 65 72 |dInfoWWW..proper|
000000e0 74 79 20 4d 63 41 66 65 65 43 68 65 63 6b 57 57 |ty McAfeeCheckWW|
000000f0 1a 00 08 40 08 00 08 80 1a 00 03 40 03 00 03 80 |...@.......@....|
00000100 1a 00 03 40 16 00 03 80 08 00 3e 00 00 00 43 72 |...@......>...Cr|
00000110 65 61 74 65 64 20 62 79 20 4d 49 44 4c 20 76 65 |eated by MIDL ve|
00000120 72 73 69 6f 6e 20 36 2e 30 30 2e 30 33 34 37 20 |rsion 6.00.0347 |
00000130 61 74 20 54 75 65 20 4a 75 6e 20 30 38 20 30 31 |at Tue Jun 08 01|
00000140 3a 32 36 3a 35 35 20 32 30 30 34 0a 13 00 20 4e |:26:55 2004... N|
00000150 c5 40 57 57 13 00 5b 01 00 06 57 57 18 00 00 00 |.@WW..[...WW....|
00000160 00 00 00 00 ff ff ff ff 30 00 00 00 44 00 00 00 |........0...D...|
00000170 00 00 00 00 48 00 00 00 4c 00 00 00 0c 00 00 00 |....H...L.......|
00000180 88 06 00 00 2c 00 00 00 19 00 19 80 00 00 00 00 |....,...........|
00000190 1c 00 4c 00 11 44 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |..L..D..........|
000001a0 50 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 6c 00 00 00 0a 00 00 00 |P.......l.......|
000001b0 2c 00 01 00 19 00 19 80 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 01 |,........... ...|
000001c0 c1 ff 07 fe ff ff 02 00 00 00 2e ad 64 03 00 fe |............d...|
000001d0 ff ff 05 fe ff ff 30 ad 64 03 36 fc 4b 01 00 00 |......0.d.6.K...|
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.|
00000200

[jeff3211]

This machine had an automatic back-up program from CMS peripherals called bounce back. It would periodically copy the entire contents of C: to another drive or partition for recovery purposes in case of viral attack. The 80Gb drive was partitioned into two equal sized partitions before the Ubuntu install. I did not change or erase any existing data before the installation of Ubuntu 10.10 The partitions were supposed to be identical, so theoretically I should be able to boot to D: the second partition, and I have been able to in other machines with this software, but I hadn't tried on this machine.

[garvinrick4]

Got two installs of Windows sda1 and sda5 linux on sda6
I would just install grub again and then boot into ubuntu and update-grub
In live cd.

sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
sudo grub-install --recheck --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda
sudo umount /mntboot into ubuntu on HDD and

sudo update-grubos-prober now suppose to find other operating systems and put in grub config and grub menu.

I have heard Windows does not like logical partitions (sda5) but if it works it works.
Always had Windows in primary myself.
#As you just stated sda1 and sda5 are something I have never dealt with.
But do not see why grub would not work in mbr and looking in sda6 for files.
and updated.

[jeff3211]

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Windows NT/2000/XP (loader) on /dev/sda1
Found Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition on /dev/sda5
done

[garvinrick4]

You got it, looking good. Have a nice Christmas.

[jeff3211]

results:
grub rescue>
grub rescue>

I will install a new grub loader again tomorrow and try again...

Must note that I was already booted up on the machine with the issue from hdd when I performed your steps. I was not booted from CD. Any blame is mine for not adhering exactly to the steps described as to booting from CD before performing the steps you provided. Thanks everyone for your contributions, I will continue when time permits. All additional assistance will be appreciated, as is the effort to this point! Don't give up!!! (I sure am not ready to!) :)

[theasprint]

Hi,

LoL, ended up reinstalling Grub. Just like I mentioned in 1st post.

But its ok, the experts just now have accessed your problems.

Good Luck :D

[jeff3211]

This is the fifth time I've reinstalled grub. I actually reinstalled it twice before I posted this thread... I couldn't resist, I just did it again!

[jeff3211]

I still have a useless grub loader. I may as well have just a pure linux installation here. Characteristics are the same as they were in the first post in this thread! I'm off to sleep now. 4 AM in Texas right now...

[jeff3211]

I stand corrected! My grub loader is not totally useless...It just appears to be that way because it takes about 360 seconds for it to react to a key press!!!! I walked away from it, and then when I returned it had progressed to the 4th menu choice, one more and it would be on the XP option so I pressed the down arrow key and started counting... a full 20 seconds later and it moved to the fifth selection! XP booted and is now running chkdsk! I will update in the morning! (later in the morning!) :)

[jeff3211]

Anyone have any ideas why my grub loader response is so slow? Everything else on the machine is really fast and instantly responsive, but the grub menu appears as if it is frozen for almost 3 minutes before any reaction at all takes place. Once I see the selection change the first time, any additional key strokes for item selection take 20 seconds before a response occurs. Once the selection is highlighted, it will launch immediately on press of the enter key. The first linux kernel will launch and I've launched both XP installations. XP has completed a chkdsk and now boots normally once selected.

[garvinrick4]

Anyone have any ideas why my grub loader response is so slow? Everything else on the machine is really fast and instantly responsive, but the grub menu appears as if it is frozen for almost 3 minutes before any reaction at all takes place. Once I see the selection change the first time, any additional key strokes for item selection take 20 seconds before a response occurs. Once the selection is highlighted, it will launch immediately on press of the enter key. The first linux kernel will launch and I've launched both XP installations. XP has completed a chkdsk and now boots normally once selected.
Will bump this up to front for you, glad you have a working system again but never have seen nor heard
of a slow grub-menu maybe something to do with that piece of dos software to clone sda1 to sda5. But I would
be quessing and that does know one no good. Here is your bump to front of line.

[oldfred]

I also have not seen grub2 being really slow in booting. Ubuntu sometimes is when it has issues with loading a driver or runs its fsck.

I have had issues with both Ubuntu & gparted not seening my NTFS drive even though it booted XP ok. After running chkdsk then gparted saw my NTFS without issue.

Windows chkdsk does not always fix everything on one pass. I might rerun chkdsk on all your NTFS partitions until there are no errors.

Are you sure you are booting sda5? Its boot.ini says to boot partition 1 - rdisk(0)partition(1), so it would not boot sda5 anyway.

chkdsk drive /p /r
The chkdsk command checks the specified drive and repairs or recovers the drive if the drive requires it. The command also marks any bad sectors and it recovers readable information. Run chkdsk several times, until no more errors are detected.
chkdsk c: /r
You can use the following options:
/p Does an exhaustive check of the drive and corrects any errors.
/r Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information.
Note If you specify the /r option, the /p option is implied. When you specify the chkdsk command without arguments, the command checks the current drive with no options in effect.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

[jeff3211]

I have only booted to sda5 once, it is the final choice in the grub menu, and I had never booted to it at all for any reason until now! It booted without any problem, and since sda5 was never changed, chkdsk did not run automatically, and I haven't run it yet. But I will run it as you suggested and will post the results. Should I label this thread solved at THIS time since the grub loads the OS even though I still consider it to have a serious problem? Should I post the unsatisfactory performance of the grub in a different (new) thread which is NOT a failure complaint but a performance complaint? Just want to comply with the appropriate forum policies...

Also gentlemen please remember that grub isn't slow when loading the chosen OS. It is only slow in responding to keyboard input if choosing a choice other than the default choice already highlighted when grub appears. Grub appears frozen after ANY key-press and the count-down suspends until grub responds to the input from the keyboard. Once grub moves off of the default position the count-down no longer appears. Then subsequent key strokes to the chosen position also appear to make grub freeze, but after twenty seconds the menu responds to the key strokes and changes the selection to the desired choice. Once the desired choice is highlighted, an "Enter" key stroke launches the chosen OS immediately as if the delay had never taken place. If no input takes place (because the default OS is the one desired) no delay is apparent, the OS launches when the count-down expires with no apparent delay. I have not tried to launch the default OS immediately, I will try that during my procedures to run chkdsk on two partitions until no errors report. I will post results when obtained.

Please let me know if the distinctions I just described change your thinking on the nature of this problem. I do not know if the distinctions are relevant or if I misunderstood your appraisal of the situation.

Thank you (EVERYONE who has contributed information to this issue) I sincerely appreciate ALL of your expertise and information. I learn much from you all! :)

[jeff3211]

If I strike "Enter" immediately after grub appears, there is NO delay in launching the linux kernel.
I have verified that If I choose to boot into sda1 I am actually booting to C: drive since chkdsk will not run on a mounted partition from a dos terminal running in the OS native to that partition. I was able to run it on drive D: though from the dos terminal running on C:. Next when I boot to what I think is a bootable install of D: I will verify by running chkdsk C: /r from a dos terminal in that installation. If I am able to do that I will verify a boot load to sda5...

[jeff3211]

Notice to ALL
This has been an exercise in futility chasing problems with the grub loader.

I have discovered that this issue is a problem with the bios on the motherboard! It has NOTHING at all to do with Linux of any flavor!

Changing this thread to [solved]

Sincerest appreciation to ALL who assisted me in this effort!