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Matchlighter
August 1st, 2011, 09:49 PM
I am having some issues getting Ubuntu 11.04 to boot. I have tried Googling, but to no avail. I installed Ubuntu Server 11.04 X64 and it worked fine, but I meant to install the desktop version. When I did that, it installed successfully, but when I try to boot it says something to affect of "No boot disc. Insert boot disc and press any key." I have tried reinstalling the desktop version and the server version. I get the same message every time. The only way I can get it to work again is to use Wubi (I can install and boot Windows successfully). However, I would prefer to use Wubi since I am using this as a Home Server (with a a Gui interface instead of command line). I have tried completely formatting the HDD but that did not help.

Any help would be appreciated :)
Matchlighter

oldfred
August 1st, 2011, 09:57 PM
Welcome to the forums.

If you installed server and it worked it sounds like a Video issue. What video card.

Do you have in Intel motherboard. They often require a boot flag on a primary partition. Grub does not use a boot flag, so they must be thinking only of windows which has to have a boot flag.

Do you have it installed? If so run this:

Boot Info Script courtesy of forum members meierfra & Gert Hulselmans
Page with instructions and download:
http://bootinfoscript.sourceforge.net/
Paste contents of results.txt in a New Reply, then highlight entire file and click on # in edit panel(code tags) to make it easier to read.
Or You can generate the tags first by pressing the # icon in the New Reply Edit toolbar and then paste the contents between the generated [ code] paste here [ /code] tags.
V60 has improved formating and requires code tags to make it legible. New Version is a zip file that you have to extract to get .sh to run.

Video issues:
Natty Video issues. MAFoElffen
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1743535

How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDBootOptions
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
noapic nolapic noapci noirqpoll nosmp irqpoll

Matchlighter
August 2nd, 2011, 05:27 AM
It is an Intel chipset graphics. The computer is essentially a Gateway GT5408 (http://support.gateway.com/s/pc/R/1014168/1014168nv.shtml)with a larger HDD. But, I believe that I tried reinstalling Server again, but it does that same thing. I will retry server again to make sure. I would prefer a Gui, but I may have to make do. I will try the BootInfoScript with a Live USB key and get back to you. I am guessing that it is the boot flag you mentioned that is the problem.

Matchlighter
August 2nd, 2011, 06:34 AM
Here is that Output file for the Boot Info Script.


Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011


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

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 34
of the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and
looks for (,gpt2)/boot/grub on this drive.
=> Syslinux MBR (4.04 and higher) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: BIOS Boot partition
Boot sector type: Grub2's core.img
Boot sector info:

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 11.04
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.04 2011-04-18
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 30510 of /dev/sdb1 for its
second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the directory.
The integrity check of the ADV area failed. No errors
found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /syslinux/syslinux.cfg /ldlinux.sys

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

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 2000.4 GB, 2000398934016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders, total 3907029168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sda1 1 3,907,029,167 3,907,029,167 ee GPT


GUID Partition Table detected.

Partition Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors System
/dev/sda1 34 1,987 1,954 BIOS Boot partition
/dev/sda2 1,988 3,904,951,206 3,904,949,219 Data partition (Windows/Linux)
/dev/sda3 3,904,951,207 3,907,029,118 2,077,912 Swap partition (Linux)

Drive: sdb __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sdb: 4009 MB, 4009754624 bytes
145 heads, 48 sectors/track, 1125 cylinders, total 7831552 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 48 7,831,551 7,831,504 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda2 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f ext4
/dev/sda3 e60e185d-f42f-4846-b7f8-ace5708d06e4 swap
/dev/sdb1 1B08-1039 vfat PENDRIVE

================================ Mount points: =================================

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437, iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)


=========================== sda2/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 video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
}

insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,gpt2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,gpt2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
if [ "${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
if background_color 44,0,30; then
clear
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
if [ ${recordfail} != 1 ]; then
if [ -e ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt ]; then
if hwmatch ${prefix}/gfxblacklist.txt 3; then
if [ ${match} = 0 ]; then
set linux_gfx_mode=keep
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=keep
fi
else
set linux_gfx_mode=text
fi
export linux_gfx_mode
if [ "$linux_gfx_mode" != "text" ]; then load_video; fi
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,gpt2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.38-8-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,gpt2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.38-8-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic root=UUID=660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f ro single
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-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_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,gpt2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
set root='(/dev/sda,gpt2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f
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 ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== sda2/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/sda2 during installation
UUID=660a8a49-ddcb-4045-9788-cceb28ff649f / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=e60e185d-f42f-4846-b7f8-ace5708d06e4 none swap sw 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda2: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

684.134981155 = 734.584342528 boot/grub/core.img 1
684.134988785 = 734.584350720 boot/grub/grub.cfg 1
0.415010452 = 0.445614080 boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic 2
684.133253098 = 734.582487040 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic 1
0.415010452 = 0.445614080 initrd.img 2
684.133253098 = 734.582487040 vmlinuz 1

========================= sdb1/syslinux/syslinux.cfg: ==========================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# D-I config version 2.0
include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 50

# If you would like to use the new menu and be presented with the option to install or run from USB at startup, remove # from the following line. This line was commented out (by request of many) to allow the old menu to be presented and to enable booting straight into the Live Environment!
# ui gfxboot bootlogo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

================= sdb1: Location of files loaded by Syslinux: ==================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

?? = ?? ldlinux.sys 1
?? = ?? syslinux/gfxboot.c32 1
?? = ?? syslinux/syslinux.cfg 1
?? = ?? syslinux/vesamenu.c32 1

============== sdb1: Version of COM32(R) files used by Syslinux: ===============

syslinux/gfxboot.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
syslinux/vesamenu.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)

========= Devices which don't seem to have a corresponding hard drive: =========

sdc sdd sde sdf

=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================

unlzma: Decoder error
/home/ubuntu/Desktop/boot_info_script.sh: line 1579: [: 2.73495e+09: integer expression expected

oldfred
August 2nd, 2011, 01:59 PM
Even though you are using gpt and gpt supposedly does not use a boot flag & grub does not use a boot flag, we have seen before several users with Intel motherboards that would not boot without the boot flag on a partition.

srs5694
August 2nd, 2011, 02:04 PM
I'm far from positive of this, but my suspicion is that you've got a BIOS that requires a boot flag to be present on a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition. Your disk currently uses the competing GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning system, so you should not attempt to set a boot flag using parted or GParted; these tools interpret "boot flag" as being something completely different on such disks. Instead, set the boot flag with fdisk. You should see just one partition in fdisk, of type "ee". Type "a" to set the boot flag, then "w" to save your changes.

srs5694
August 2nd, 2011, 02:07 PM
Oh, one other thing: You've mentioned WUBI, which implies Windows; but if your computer uses a conventional BIOS, you won't get Windows to boot on that first hard disk, since Microsoft has chosen to limit Windows to boot from MBR disks on BIOS-based computers. Thus, if you intend to dual boot with Windows, you'll have to convert the disk from GPT to MBR form. This in turn obviates the need to do anything with the type-ee protective partition in the MBR.

Matchlighter
August 2nd, 2011, 07:39 PM
Yes when I tried WUBI I converted the disk to MBR and then installed Windows. But that was just a test to see if it would work and fix the problem for booting Ubuntu when I installed. Crazy, I know.

Matchlighter
August 2nd, 2011, 07:44 PM
Fdisk as in Microsft Fdisk? Is there a command line I can use to access it from a Windows Recovery Command Prompt?

srs5694
August 2nd, 2011, 09:20 PM
No, fdisk as in Linux's fdisk. There's no evidence of a current Windows installation in your Boot Info Script output, so if you've changed things since then my advice concerning what to do might also change.

Note that Microsoft's partitioning tools do an incomplete job of converting from GPT to MBR. The result is technically an MBR disk, but there's enough left over GPT data to confuse some tools, including several Linux partitioning tools. Thus, if you installed Windows after you took the Boot Info Script results you posted, there's no telling what your disk is like now and you might need to do something completely different with it than what I suggested.

Matchlighter
August 2nd, 2011, 09:29 PM
I don't have Windows on it right now. But that would explain why I get a message like "There is some GPT data on the hard drive but it is corrupt" when I to install Ubuntu. Do I just type 'fdisk' in the Ubuntu CD's Terminal to access it?

Matchlighter
August 2nd, 2011, 10:34 PM
Excellent. The fdisk utility fixed it right up. Thank you.

srs5694
August 2nd, 2011, 11:57 PM
If you're getting a message about corrupt GPT data, then something else may be wrong. I recommend you run the Boot Info Script (http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/) and post the RESULTS.txt file that it produces here. Also, the output of "sudo parted /dev/sda print" may be useful. Please post both between
and strings to improve legibility.

YannBuntu
August 3rd, 2011, 09:43 AM
Hi.


Your disk currently uses the competing GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning system, so you should not attempt to set a boot flag using parted or GParted; these tools interpret "boot flag" as being something completely different on such disks.

Is there a bug report for this ? (I just found this (http://osdir.com/ml/bug-parted-gnu/2011-06/msg00045.html))

srs5694
August 3rd, 2011, 03:48 PM
re: "boot flag" having different meanings for MBR vs. GPT


Is there a bug report for this ? (I just found this (http://osdir.com/ml/bug-parted-gnu/2011-06/msg00045.html))

I don't think the libparted developers consider this a bug. Personally, I think that the way libparted conflates flags and partition type codes generally, and the "boot flag" having different meanings in GPT and MBR specifically, is a very poor design choice and should be changed, but that would be a pretty huge change to the software.

YannBuntu
August 4th, 2011, 03:27 AM
Thanks. I created a report in case it could be improved: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/parted/+bug/820719

For follow-up.