new Ubuntu installation wouldn't boot, boot-repair couldn't fix it

[rclocher3]

Hi all,

So I got a new Fujitsu Esprimo E710 computer that had Windows 7 on it, and I decided to erase Windows and put Ubuntu on instead. I hedged my bets first by booting a live CD and using partimage to copy the big NTFS partition to my own private rescue partition. Then I ran gparted and deleted the big NTFS partition and created an ext4 partition and a linux-swap partition in its place, ignoring several small NTFS partitions that I assumed had something to do with the factory restore utility. Then I installed the amd64 version of Ubuntu.

When I booted the computer it came up in a rescue mode, and it wanted to reinstall the factory rescue image. I figured I had simply forgotten to set the boot flag on the ext4 partition, so I fired up gparted again and did that. Then when I booted I got the dreaded black screen saying:

"PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot Agent
No bootable device - insert boot disk and press any key"

So next I ran boot-repair, and I clicked on that highly-seductive button that says "Recommended repair (repairs most frequent problems)". It said something about the computer being set to boot in EFI mode, but there was no EFI partition, did I want to continue? So I canceled out of that, and created a fat32 partition of about 200 MB at the start of the disk and made it bootable, and then I ran boot-repair again. This time boot-repair did its work without complaining. As part of the procedure boot-repair had me copy & paste several commands into a terminal, commands that looked like they were installing some special EFI version of GRUB.

Now when I try to boot I get a black screen with the message "This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and press any key to try again ..." When I press any key, I'm back to the "PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable" error.

The last time I ran boot-repair it gave me this URL: http://paste.ubuntu.com/6467583/

I looked in my BIOS, and I didn't see any choice to boot in legacy mode, so I think I'm pretty stuck. I did see that "[ubuntu]" is the first choice in the boot device list. Can anyone help me figure out how to make Ubuntu boot? I suppose if nothing else I could copy my private rescue image off the computer and then try again with the Ubuntu installer, but have it wipe the entire hard disk first this time.

- Rob

[Bucky Ball]

=> Windows 7/8/2012 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
=> Windows 2000/XP/2003 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

You're not booting from grub and probably need to install it to sda1.


sda9: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 13.10
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab

sda3: __________________________________________________ ________________________

File system: vfat
Boot sector type: FAT32
Boot sector info: According to the info in the boot sector, sda3 starts
at sector 0. But according to the info from fdisk,
sda3 starts at sector 2048.
Operating System:
Boot files: /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi

Looks like you have the regular grub on sda9 and the EFI one on sda3.

I know little about EFI, but I might suggest you install grub to sda1. I think that's where the sda3 grub should be. You can do that using Boot Repair from the LiveCD. See here down the page a bit:

http://www.howopensource.com/2012/05/reinstall-recover-grub-from-ubuntu-12-04-live-cd-usb/

You may then need to run boot repair again to put it all back together. If this gets your Ubuntu booting but not Windows, open a terminal and run:


sudo update-grub

Incidentally, in BIOS, there should be a 'EFI boot order' and a 'Legacy boot order' somewhere.

[fantab]

You have 'msdos' partition table on both your hard disks. EFI does NOT work with 'msdos' table. In other words, you don' have EFI/UEFI. It is strange that Boot-Repair misread the situation. Probably some setting in your BIOS must have triggered it.

Are you sure you don't have Windows on those HDDs?
IS your DATA SAFE? Where is it on your second HDD?

parted -l:
Model: ATA ST3500413AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
3 1049kB 226MB 225MB primary fat32 boot
1 228MB 2150MB 1922MB primary ntfs diag #[this partition probably still has windows boot files]
2 2151MB 500GB 498GB extended lba
9 3630MB 413GB 409GB logical ext4
10 413GB 434GB 21.0GB logical linux-swap(v1)
8 434GB 486GB 51.7GB logical ext2
5 486GB 490GB 4718MB logical ntfs diag
6 490GB 495GB 5150MB logical ntfs diag
7 495GB 500GB 4679MB logical ntfs diag


Model: WD My Passport 0730 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 500GB 500GB primary ntfs

Edit: I don't think that the 'factory restore' will work without windows. Confirm this. If it won't then there is no point in having those additional partitions around.
Try factory restore to see if it works...

[rclocher3]

Thanks very much for your time, Bucky and fantab, I really appreciate it!

After a night's sleep I saw things a bit differently. I saw that I could heroically try to patch my installation so that it could boot, or I could just admit that I made a silly mistake and start over. Patching my installation would have meant learning quite a lot about partitions, boot tables, UEFI, and so on; with all due respect to those people who work on such things for a living, I'm just trying to get my own machine going and I'd rather not spend hours on those things.

So what I did was to copy my own private backup image off the computer (to the USB-connected hard disk /dev/sdb), and then use the factory restore disks to restore the hard disk to the way it was when it left the factory. Then I installed Ubuntu and told the installer to erase the hard disk.

Here's the important thing that I learned: booting an operating system has become a much more complicated process, because there is "legacy" booting the BIOS way, and now also the UEFI way. UEFI is more demanding and finicky, especially if Secure Boot is involved. The way that the Ubuntu installer figures out how to make Ubuntu bootable is to see how an existing OS boots, and then copy that method. So if you are installing Ubuntu onto a computer that has a different OS installed, let the Ubuntu installer see the other OS. Don't damage a Windows installation for the fun of it by deleting its NTFS partition with gparted, and then expect Ubuntu to be installed so that it boots correctly.

- Rob

[Bucky Ball]

Sounds like you're up and running. If your problem is solved, please mark the thread as solved by following the instructions in my signature. Thanks.

Now you're going to come in handy when someone else gets into the same pickle. ;)