Grub in a GUI?

[Aesculus]

Is there any application about GRUB commands, configurations... similar to GParted for partition commands?
I'm thinking in something that allows you create a backup info useful to recover from disasters. When I upgraded to Ubuntu 11, it took me hours to recover the crash, using several tools, checking versions.... Cause I didn't change the hardware or partitions if I had something like that I could have the system up in minutes, I think.
Regards

[oldfred]

Welcome to the forums.

Not sure what you want to backup. Grub2's boot loader can easily be reinstalled and that is often easier than restoring.

Sometimes having the entire system documented is a good idea. I use the boot info script that we use for debugging boot issues, just to have a document of my boot configuration before & after any major change.

You can also run boot script from Boot-Repair which is handy to have as it can often make repairs and also adds some documentation of its own.

Boot Repair:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
You can repair many boot issues with this or post the link to a run of boot info script so we can see your exact configuration.

The git/testing version has some fixes:

wget -O bootinfoscript 'http://bootinfoscript.git.sourceforge.net/git/gitweb.cgi?p=bootinfoscript/bootinfoscript;a=blob_plain;f=bootinfoscript;hb=HE AD'
chmod a+x bootinfoscript
sudo bash bootinfoscript


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.
Install these before running script:
sudo apt-get install gawk
sudo apt-get install xz-utils

[Herman]

You mean like integrate Super Grub Disk with GParted a lot more?

The last time I checked, Parted Magic Live CD included Super Grub Disk, but as a separate program. At least you could use GParted in the Parted Magic Live CD to take a look at your disks and partition info before you use Super Grub Disk.
I haven't tried out Super Grub Disk for a long time, so I'm not sure what it can do now.

Integrating Grub commands into GParted might be worth thinking about. It probably would help new users if they could click on the GParted graphical disk and partition representation to tell a program which hard disk's MBR they want to install Grub to, or which partition they want GRUB's boot files created or refreshed in, or a new grub.cfg made. That would be a neat idea. So the commands to be run in the background would be assembled by the mouse clicks in GUI.

There are only two commands we really need, grub-mkconfig and grub-install.

The grub-install command installs GRUB to MBR in a hard disk or whatever kind of disk it is, and it creates or re-creates all the files in the /boot/grub folder in case they are missing or corrupted.

The grub-mkconfig command is the same as update-grub, either of them run grub-mkconfig and other sub-commands and ultimately scan the computer for other operating systems or for scripts to add custom items to the boot menu and create a new grub.cfg. With the grub-mkconfig command it's possible to direct the new config file to a specific location and give it a unique name if you want to for some special reason.

To implement those two commands at present you can use a Live CD and chroot into your stricken operating system first. The chroot process is the part that is kind of hard for new users, I would rather avoid it myself.
It is possible to run grub-setup to install just the MBR part of GRUB from a Live CD without the need to chroot. (The grub-install command includes grub-setup as a sub-command so a person can get away without learning that one if they want).

The easiest way to fix just about any GRUB problem is to boot a USB drive or any other drive that has another installation of Ubuntu in it and run either update-grub or grub-mkconfig to scan the computer and add the computer's operating systems to the USB Ubuntu installations GRUB Menu.
The reboot the USB again, and stop at the GRUB Menu by pressing any key.
Choose your computer's internal Ubuntu operating system and after it boots, run the grub-install command.

Windows boot problems are normally quite easily fixed with a Windows installation disk, but this requires the user to have a disk and know how to use it.

If GRUB was integrated into GParted, or some other program similar I wonder how safe that would be in the hands of a practical joker though, or somebody malicious?
I hesitate here because I'm worried it could be putting too much power into stupid people's hands. It might be best to just leave things as they are.

What to other people think?

[YannBuntu]

Hello, there are 2 useful GUI for GRUB:

1) Grub-Customizer (https://launchpad.net/grub-customizer) : convenient to play with GRUB (change entries order, hide an entry..). But be careful: playing too much can break your boot.

2) Boot-Repair (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair) : concentrates on fixing boot (access to Ubuntu and other OS). Provides a 1-click "Recommended repair", options to fix GRUB, and useful information to get help on the forum.

[Herman]

Cool!

So I imagine we just open GParted and minimize it to one side of your monitor to see disk and partition info while running Grub-Customaizer or Boot-Repair in the other half of the screen? :)

[YannBuntu]

Hello

So I imagine we just open GParted and minimize it to one side of your monitor to see disk and partition info while running Grub-Customaizer or Boot-Repair in the other half of the screen? :)

I don't understand. What would you like to do?

[Herman]

It's okay, I'll try them both out and see for myself. I have read the linked web pages and they both look like very nice apps and should be very helpful to people. :)

[Herman]

I'm trying out Grub-Customizer and Boot-Repair and they both work great!
They're just what has been needed for a long time. Well done! :)

[Aesculus]

First of all, thanks for the information and suggestions provided. I've not marked the thread as solved cause I couldn't solve. Now, I have same problem when change from Ubuntu 11 to 12.

But let's go step by step. First I asked for a GUI interface cause I think see partitions and info in a graphic mode is much easier for me. It's not only see things in windows and buttons, but also in a graphic way. When I run GParted I can see in a snapshot how many disks, partitions with colors, info around the system has. Imagine the same with an icon or a magnified part of the hdd graphic draw, indicating that grub is in the MBR and with a click you could see the version or other useful info. If someone is interested I can only help wit the look&feel part.

About my problem, that as mention before, I have again. I've re-installed grub2 in hda, forcing to reinstall with boot-repair-disk. The process in all cases end without errors but afterwards I get the message "no such partition" after chose any option of grub menu.

I have my configuration saved (you can check with log of boot-repair-disk)
hdd1
primary 120GB /dev/sda1 ext4 bootable
(g: )extended 81 GB /dev/sda2 w95
4,3 swap /dev/sda7
2 swap /dev/sda6
74 NTFS /dev/sda5
hdd2
(c: )primary 105 GB /dev/sdb1 NTFS bootable
(d: )primary 895 GB /dev/sdb2 NTFS

And I get this results using Hiren's CD to boot.

HDD1 MBR error, no possible to boot from here
HDD1 Partition 1, starts Win
HDD2 MBR grub menu works and I can start the OS I prefer
HDD2 Partition 1, error. "chainloader +1 is not an executable format...."

For me this is weird cause Win system (c: ) is in HDD2 partition 1, meanwhile Partition 1 of HDD1 is for Ubuntu. I recognize that I have few knowledge about this.

Thanks for any help before insert log from boot-repair-disk:


Boot Info Script 0.60-git [23 Feb 2012]


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

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
for (,msdos1)/boot/grub on this drive.
=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
in partition 1 for /boot/grub.

sda1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /boot/grub/core.img

sda2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sda5: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP: NTFS
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda5 starts
at sector 63.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sda6: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sda7: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

sdb1: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sdb2: __________________________________________________ ________________________

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

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

Drive: sda __________________________________________________ ___________________

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200048565760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390719855 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 * 2,048 233,461,759 233,459,712 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 233,463,806 390,700,799 157,236,994 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 245,762,433 390,700,799 144,938,367 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda6 241,846,272 245,762,047 3,915,776 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 233,463,808 241,844,223 8,380,416 82 Linux swap / Solaris


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 Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 63 204,796,619 204,796,557 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdb2 204,796,620 1,953,520,064 1,748,723,445 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS


"blkid" output: __________________________________________________ ______________

Device UUID TYPE LABEL

/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/sda1 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ext4
/dev/sda5 1440E6FC40E6E408 ntfs Fortusr
/dev/sda6 153dcfab-20b3-4241-891e-e93349fb2b9e swap
/dev/sda7 9896a02a-c2a0-4f34-8a3b-5178a5cfdfb2 swap
/dev/sdb1 263C65E13C65AD0D ntfs PROGRAMAS
/dev/sdb2 06E4DBEFE4DBDF4D ntfs DATOS

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

Device Mount_Point Type Options

/dev/sr0 /live/image iso9660 (ro,noatime)


=========================== sda1/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_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ "${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 ###
function gfxmode {
set gfxpayload="$1"
if [ "$1" = "keep" ]; then
set vt_handoff=vt.handoff=7
else
set vt_handoff=
fi
}
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 3.2.0-24-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae root=UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
echo 'Loading Linux 3.2.0-24-generic-pae ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae root=UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ro recovery nomodeset
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic-pae
}
submenu "Previous Linux versions" {
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-24-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic root=UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.2.0-24-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
echo 'Loading Linux 3.2.0-24-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic root=UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ro recovery nomodeset
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-19-generic-pae' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-19-generic-pae root=UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-19-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-19-generic-pae (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
echo 'Loading Linux 3.0.0-19-generic-pae ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-19-generic-pae root=UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a ro recovery nomodeset
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-19-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='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sdb1)" --class windows --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd1,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 263C65E13C65AD0D
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 ###
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=============================== sda1/etc/fstab: ================================

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' 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/sda1 during installation
UUID=555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=9896a02a-c2a0-4f34-8a3b-5178a5cfdfb2 none swap sw 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

=================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)

?? = ?? boot/grub/core.img 1
?? = ?? boot/grub/grub.cfg 1
?? = ?? boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-19-generic-pae 2
?? = ?? boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic 2
?? = ?? boot/initrd.img-3.2.0-24-generic-pae 1
?? = ?? boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-19-generic-pae 1
?? = ?? boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic 1
?? = ?? boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-24-generic-pae 1
?? = ?? vmlinuz 1
?? = ?? vmlinuz.old 1

================================ sdb1/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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

sdc

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

xz: (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt
xz: (stdin): Compressed data is corrupt
cat: write error: Broken pipe
File descriptor 7 (pipe:[5872]) leaked on lvscan invocation. Parent PID 6233: bash
File descriptor 8 (pipe:[5872]) leaked on lvscan invocation. Parent PID 6233: bash
No volume groups found
mdadm: No arrays found in config file or automatically

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION :
**************** log of boot-repair 2012-05-04__12h18 ****************
boot-repair version : 3.16-0ppa10~lucid
boot-sav version : 3.17-0ppa18~lucid
/usr/share/boot-sav/gui-update.sh: line 31: hash: glade2script: not found
glade2script-gtk2 version : 0.0.1-0ppa4~lucid
internet: connected
File descriptor 7 (pipe:[5872]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 3319: /bin/sh
File descriptor 8 (pipe:[5872]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 3319: /bin/sh
No volume groups found
LIVESESSION is : yes (Debian GNU/Linux 6.0.3 (squeeze) , squeeze , Debian , i686 )
BYTES_BEFORE_PART[1] (sda) = 2048 sectors * 512 bytes = 1048576 bytes.
BYTES_BEFORE_PART[2] (sdb) = 63 sectors * 512 bytes = 32256 bytes.

OSPROBER:
/dev/sdb1:Microsoft Windows XP Professional:Windows:chain

BLKID:
/dev/sda1: UUID="555252df-082a-4386-ae8c-0c10974ecc5a" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="Fortusr" UUID="1440E6FC40E6E408" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="153dcfab-20b3-4241-891e-e93349fb2b9e" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda7: UUID="9896a02a-c2a0-4f34-8a3b-5178a5cfdfb2" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="PROGRAMAS" UUID="263C65E13C65AD0D" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="DATOS" UUID="06E4DBEFE4DBDF4D" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/loop0: TYPE="squashfs"

1 disks with OS, 1 OS : 0 Linux, 0 MacOS, 1 Windows, 0 unknown type OS.
Total of 1 OS detected on sdb disk.
TABLE_TYPE of sda is MSDos
TABLE_TYPE of sdb is MSDos
sda1 : sda, not-sepboot, grub-install, grub2 , update-grub, apt-get, 32, with boot, /mnt/boot-sav/sda1, with-os, no-gpt, notEFItable, fstab-without-efi.
sda5 : sda, is-maybe-sepboot, no-grub-install, grub , no-update-grub, no-apt-nor-yum, 32, no boot, /mnt/boot-sav/sda5, no-os, no-gpt, notEFItable, no-fstab.
sdb1 : sdb, not-sepboot, no-grub-install, grub , no-update-grub, no-apt-nor-yum, 32, no boot, /mnt/boot-sav/sdb1, with-os, no-gpt, notEFItable, no-fstab.
sdb2 : sdb, is-maybe-sepboot, no-grub-install, grub , no-update-grub, no-apt-nor-yum, 32, no boot, /mnt/boot-sav/sdb2, no-os, no-gpt, notEFItable, no-fstab.

PARTED:

Model: ATA ST3200822AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 200GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 120GB 120GB primary ext4 boot
2 120GB 200GB 80.5GB extended lba
7 120GB 124GB 4291MB logical linux-swap(v1)
6 124GB 126GB 2005MB logical linux-swap(v1)
5 126GB 200GB 74.2GB logical ntfs


Model: ATA SAMSUNG HD103SJ (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 105GB 105GB primary ntfs boot
2 105GB 1000GB 895GB primary ntfs




Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.


Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label


MOUNT:
aufs on / type aufs (rw)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
/dev/sr0 on /live/image type iso9660 (ro,noatime)
tmpfs on /live/cow type tmpfs (rw,noatime,mode=755)
tmpfs on /live type tmpfs (rw,relatime)
tmpfs on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /mnt/boot-sav/sda1 type ext4 (rw)
/dev/sda5 on /mnt/boot-sav/sda5 type fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sdb1 on /mnt/boot-sav/sdb1 type fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sdb2 on /mnt/boot-sav/sdb2 type fuseblk (rw,allow_other,blksize=4096)


/sys/block/sda: alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro sda1 sda2 sda5 sda6 sda7 size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent
/sys/block/sdb: alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro sdb1 sdb2 size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent
/sys/block/sdc: alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent
/sys/block/sr0: alignment_offset bdi capability dev device ext_range holders inflight power queue range removable ro size slaves stat subsystem trace uevent
/dev: block bsg btrfs-control bus cdrom cdrw char console core cpu_dma_latency disk dri dvd dvdrw fb0 fd full fuse hpet initctl input kmsg log MAKEDEV md mem net network_latency network_throughput null port ppp psaux ptmx pts random rtc rtc0 scd0 sda sda1 sda2 sda5 sda6 sda7 sdb sdb1 sdb2 sdc sg0 sg1 sg2 sg3 shm snapshot snd sndstat sr0 stderr stdin stdout urandom vga_arbiter xconsole zero

DF:

Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
aufs aufs 1.8G 8.3M 1.8G 1% /
tmpfs tmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /lib/init/rw
udev tmpfs 1.8G 192K 1.8G 1% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /dev/shm
/dev/sr0 iso9660 339M 339M 0 100% /live/image
tmpfs tmpfs 1.8G 8.3M 1.8G 1% /live/cow
tmpfs tmpfs 1.8G 0 1.8G 0% /live
tmpfs tmpfs 1.8G 8.0K 1.8G 1% /tmp
/dev/sda1 ext4 110G 19G 86G 18% /mnt/boot-sav/sda1
/dev/sda5 fuseblk 70G 15G 55G 21% /mnt/boot-sav/sda5
/dev/sdb1 fuseblk 98G 28G 71G 29% /mnt/boot-sav/sdb1
/dev/sdb2 fuseblk 834G 170G 665G 21% /mnt/boot-sav/sdb2

FDISK:

Disk /dev/sda: 200.0 GB, 200048565760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24321 cylinders, total 390719855 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb8deb8de

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 233461759 116729856 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 233463806 390700799 78618497 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 245762433 390700799 72469183+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 241846272 245762047 1957888 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 233463808 241844223 4190208 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

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
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4b964b95

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 204796619 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 204796620 1953520064 874361722+ 7 HPFS/NTFS



************************Before mainwindow
FSCK_ACTION no PASTEBIN_ACTION yes
recommendedrepair, reinstall, REINSTALL_POSSIBLE yes PURGE_POSSIBLE yes
UNHIDEBOOT_ACTION yes (10s), noflag (sda1)
PART_TO_REINSTALL_GRUB sda1, PART_TO_REINSTALL_GRUB_PURGE sda1, FORCE_GRUB all (sda) REMOVABLEDISK no
USE_SEPARATEBOOTPART no (sda5) grub2 (sda1)
UNCOMMENT_GFXMODE no ATA ADD_KERNEL_OPTION no (acpi=off)
MBR_TO_RESTORE sda (mbr) ( )
internet: connected

************************Actions
FSCK_ACTION no PASTEBIN_ACTION yes
bootinfo, nombraction, REINSTALL_POSSIBLE yes PURGE_POSSIBLE yes
UNHIDEBOOT_ACTION no (10s), noflag (sda1)
PART_TO_REINSTALL_GRUB sda1, PART_TO_REINSTALL_GRUB_PURGE sda1, FORCE_GRUB all (sda) REMOVABLEDISK no
USE_SEPARATEBOOTPART no (sda5) grub2 (sda1)
UNCOMMENT_GFXMODE no ATA ADD_KERNEL_OPTION no (acpi=off)
MBR_TO_RESTORE sda (mbr) (sda 1)
internet: connected

[YannBuntu]

Please first make sure your BIOS is setup to boot on your Ubuntu disk first.
If still not good, please try the "Purge GRUB" option of Boot-Repair (and indicate the new URL that will appear).

[grahammechanical]

I am not an expert on this either but I see two Linux swap partitions and you only need one. Even with more than one Ubuntu version installed you only need one as each Ubuntu will use the same swap partition.

Windows XP is on sdb1.

Here is something else that I have noticed. You first start a discussion about having a GUI application to restore a broken Grub but now it seems that you are having problems booting.

So, which do you want help with?

Regards.

[Aesculus]

Thanks for your answer.


I am not an expert on this either but I see two Linux swap partitions and you only need one. Even with more than one Ubuntu version installed you only need one as each Ubuntu will use the same swap partition.

- Yes, grahammechanical. I only need one. the other is the rest of a previous installation or reinstallation. I think this not affect the system, just waste some megas of disk.



Windows XP is on sdb1.
- It's what I think also, but I don't understand why booting from HDD1 partition1 starts Windows. In this case no grub is being used or at least no signs that grub is running. I will try YannBuntu advice and maybe the key is there.



Here is something else that I have noticed. You first start a discussion about having a GUI application to restore a broken Grub but now it seems that you are having problems booting.

So, which do you want help with?

Regards.

It's my fault mix both things. One problem I have is how to fix the booting with grub to the mode I had. The other is a suggestion cause I thought that a grub software with a real graphic interface would be helpful to better understand how to use grub. It's my opinion of course, and as you can see I'm far to be an expert in grub.

BR.

[Aesculus]

YannBuntu, thanks for your help. You are a genius.

The problem is solved and it was caused by BIOS. I had the following sequence:

1. removable device. (for USB's)
2. CD ROM
3. 4S Samsung (my /dev/sdb)

Apparently I could change order of devices or eliminate but not change the hard drive.
However in other menu of BIOS, there were the possibility to change which one was 1st and 2nd had drive. I modified to the correct one and automatically the boot sequence changed to:

1. removable device. (for USB's)
2. CD ROM
3. 3S ST (my /dev/sda)

And all works properly now.
Thanks to all of you for your goals and specially YannBuntu for the solution.

BR.
PS:Now I have to find the way to mark this as solved :)

[YannBuntu]

Good job :)