12.04.3 Is there a non-interactive boot loader I can install by hand?

[scratch65535]

There seem to be significant problems with the installer, grub, or both. So far, the installer has failed to install grub, and crashed, both in 12.04.3 and 13.10. It's unpleasantly repeatable, and the problem seems to have existed for awhile judging from the bug reports I can find and the fact that both releases have the same problem. (I'm surprised that it still exists, since it's such a showstopper problem).

Is there a non-interactive loader I can install by hand?

I don't need grub - I have freebsd on the same box and it has a very nice, albeit primitive, boot manager that will work very well if I can just get xubuntu to boot from the hard drive rather than just the dvd.

[ajgreeny]

FreeBSD uses grub2, just like Xubuntu, as far as I can see.

What exactly is the grub problem you get when installing Xubuntu to hard disk, and how are you trying to install Xubuntu?

[scratch65535]

If fbsd uses grub2, then unlike Ubiquity it's installing the correct version, because it works.

I've been trying to install 64bit 12.04.3 desktop off of the dvd. I have a 60GB space dedicated for the purpose at the front end of a 1TB WD RE4 data disk set up by XP, the rest of the disk being formatted with the NTFS fs. The system is an ASUS 990FX mamaboard with a Phenom II x6 and 32GB. The disc I'm trying to install to is not the fbsd boot disk or the XP one.

Since it's XP, it's an MBR disc, but the ubiquity installer persists in trying to install the EFI version of grub2, which doesn't work. I'm trying to find some way around that, my alternative being to throw up my hands in defeat and stick to fbsd.

[oldfred]

Ubuntu's installer is now both UEFI or BIOS, you have to choose. But the choice is how you boot from your UEFI menu. And how you boot installer is how it installs. You should get two USB flash drive choices and usually they are not clear on which is which.

Chose the Ubuntu boot choice that is BIOS not UEFI, both screens shown here:
Shows install with screen shots for both BIOS & UEFI, so you know which you are using.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

With mulitple drives, be sure to use Something else or manual install, so you can choose partition to install into and drive to install boot loader to.

[scratch65535]

I can't choose: I'm not offered a choice by the bios. There's no "EFI" vs "Legacy" choice no matter how phrased.

If there isn't a non-interactve boot loader available, and Ubiquity is the only installer available, then it looks like I won't be using Ubuntu any time soon.

[oldfred]

This user says he installed ok on a 990FX, but does not say if UEFI or BIOS.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2000562
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2110674

Worked after flashing new BIOS.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2158793

[scratch65535]

I have a newer bios rev than the first guy, but I bet he installed 7, so he automagically didn't get an mbr disk. The second one definitely installed 7. I'm using 32bit xp & 64bit fbsd.

I've just been thumbing through the install dvd, and I can't find anything that looks like the legacy/non-efi version of grub. Do you know what its filename is?

[oldfred]

The dvd boots with syslinux for BIOS boot, and only grub for UEFI boot. Syslinux is more of a Windows type boot loader. Works on the FAT32 and then the MBR looks at the PBR in the partition. Most of syslinux is in its folders.

Grub2 is installed last during the install phase.

UEFI and BIOS are not really compatible. Once you boot in one mode you cannot change or grub menu will not work for any system not installed in the same boot mode. And that is why how you boot installer is how it installs.

If you can get system installed you can then use Boot-Repair to chroot into your system. It can convert a BIOS install to UEFI or a UEFI install to BIOS, but I still do not think a UEFI install to a MBR(msdos) partitioned drive will work. Boot-Repair has you chroot into your system and uninstall all grub and install grub-pc for BIOS boot or grub-efi for UEFI boot. But UEFI only works on gpt partitioned drives.

My preference is to always have Windows on one hard drive and everything else on other drives. I only have BIOS but my old XP is still on my old MBR drive. And I started booting from gpt drives in BIOS boot mode with 10.10. Only with my now 2 year old SSD did I have to add AHCI which my XP did not have drivers for, so since SSD I have only booted XP once or twice to see if it worked. Had to turn AHCI off in BIOS to get XP to boot, but it did.

[scratch65535]

I'll try disk-repair, but if that doesn't work then I think I'm going to give up.