10.04.3: grub doesnt install correctly.

[brent]

After a short period of having XP on my server, I'm now back to Ubuntu, at least I'm trying to. The problem is that the bootloader appears not to install.

The machine has two 1.5TB drivers, which are both laid out with a small (~10GB) partition at the start and the rest a large partition which holds my data. On of these partitions is already filled with data. The plan was to use one small partition for Ubuntu (10.04.3 desktop) and the other small one as swap.

The problems is that booting (any) liveCD goes perfectly fine, installation too, but after the reboot that should launch the freshly installed OS nothing happens. Topleft corner shows a blinking underscore and thats it.

What I tried is, from the Ubuntu LiveCD fixing grub, because that appears to me to be the culprit. I tried the grub setup/install thing, including copying manually the /boot/grub/stage1 files from the CD to the drive (they were not prsent on the disk). I tried running Rescatux and the SystemRescueCD, both didnt fix anything. I tried running Boot-Repair from the Ubuntu liveCD (http://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/) which didnt fix anything either. I tried reinstall grub (with purging) and restore mbr.

Simply reinstalling Ubuntu doesnt fix the problem either. It just wont boot from disk. Can anyone shed some light on this mystery?

[oldfred]

Boot Repair also has a download and run of the boot info script which documents your system. It will give a link to a pastebin. Run the script and post the link, so we can see what is where.

[brent]

Voila:
http://paste.ubuntu.com/699238/

[ajgreeny]

This may be a stupid question but are you sure the correct disk (sda) is first in your boot priority settings in the BIOS?

Have you tried booting to the other disk first, just in case the BIOS sees the two differently to grub?

[brent]

I am sure (booting from the other drive results in the same underscore). I have tried installing Ubuntu on the other partition (effectively swapping the swap and / partitions).

[oldfred]

Boot script looks normal to me.

It may be a video issue. I have had to add nomodeset on first boot since about 10.04 to get my nVidia to work. Then I install nVidia drivers and have not issues.

If you hold down shift key from BIOS until menu appears, do you get menu.

How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
I had to do this with my Nvidia 9600GT:
To install Ubuntu, boot from the cd press any key at accessibility circle and keyboard, press F6 and then select the nomodeset option.
USB boot - At the menu press tab on the first option to edit the boot options and replaced the 'splash' option with 'nomodeset'.
then
On first boot after install, press e on getting the GRUB bootloader.
Hold shift from BIOS boot to get menu if only one system installed.
Using arrow keys navigate to and delete quiet and splash and type the word nomodeset in their place
Press Ctrl and X to boot (low graphics mode)

Some other settings:
http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2010/05/06/ubuntu-10-04-lucid-blank-screen-at-startup-workaround/
* Older Intel video card: i915.modeset=1 or i915.modeset=0
* nVidia: nomodeset
* Generic: xforcevesa or nouveau.modeset=0
* Radeon: radeon.modeset=0

[brent]

I tried holding shift, but nothing happened. Then again, I suspect grub is not even installed/loaded at boot, so then that cant be the problem ;) I've had ubuntu on here before without any problem though, so I doubt the videocard (its a GMA950) is the issue.

[oldfred]

If install is ok, supergrub often will bypass MBR and boot.

http://www.supergrubdisk.org/
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/Main_Page
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/wiki/AutoSuperGrubDisk

[brent]

But will I be able to boot the machine without further use of the supergrub disk? I btw already tried the rescatux grub procedure mentioned in your link.

[oldfred]

If Supergrub boots you system we can then reinstall grub completely from a working system. Easier that a chroot or reinstall.

[brent]

Supergrub doesnt seem to work well with unetbootin, because whatever I select at bootup, im being thrown back to the bootoption screen.

Also, shouldnt reinstallation solve the problem as well? And for fixing grub I had to chroot already too.

[brent]

Weird. My bios has the option to press a key for a bootmenu, which allows you to boot off any attached storage device. By accident I discovered that booting from my ubuntu-drive then did work! Changing teh boot order in the Bios however did not. But as a test I changed the order in the bios anyway, and then reinstalled ubuntu. Voila, it now works again, like it used to.

Weird, but solved.

[oldfred]

Hey, whatever works great.:)