I can't dual boot Xubuntu 12.04 from different disk

[Thagor]

My main OS is Windows 7 Pro 64bit. It is installed on a SSD. I have 3 more HDD drives in my system and I want to use a variant of Xubuntu, OSGEO-live 7.9 which is based on Xubuntu 12.04 LTS. I booted into OSGEO from a live USB-Stick. From there I used Ubiquity to start the installation. During the process when there is the option to choose if I want to install parallel to Win7 or to erase Win7, I toke the third option "something else". On one of my 3 other HDDs is create a ext4 partition that is mounted as root and a swap partition. I did choose the ext4 parition as the target for the boot loader installation. I hit "Install Now" and everything works fine.

How I imagined it would work was that I choose the HDD with the Xubuntu partion as first boot device and it would boot the OS. But it dosen't. I tried all my HDDs and no matter which one I choose, the system is stuck at "Loading operation system..."

So where did I go wrong?

thanks in advance for your advice :)

[sudodus]

Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums :-)


I did choose the ext4 parition as the target for the boot loader installation. I hit "Install Now" and everything works fine.


This is wrong. You should install the bootloader into the head of the drive, not to a partition, so for the first drive /dev/sda, for the second drive /dev/sdb. There should be no partition number, only the device letter a, b, ...

You can either reinstall the bootloader or redo the whole installation.

If you want to reinstall the bootloader try according to this link (when booted from the Xubuntu install CD/DVD/USB drive).

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing#Fixing_a_Broken_System (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/Installing#Fixing_a_Broken_System)



sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt # Example: sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sdX # Example: sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sda

[Thagor]

thanks a lot! I will do that when I get home :)