Installed dual-boot Xubuntu but now want to remove Windows XP

[Xubuntist]

Hello

I am becoming more and more linux-savvy and I have installed Xubuntu 13.10 dual-boot on an old Lenovo PC and it's working like a dream. But now I want to remove the Windows XP partition and the last and previous times I did this I simply ran Gparted from the LiveCD (a bit laborious) and deleted the Windows partition but having done this a few times now on different computers this has caused me various problems, primarily:

Can't boot any more because grub got deleted or corrupted
The grub menu keeps returning even though there is now just one OS on the pc

So, would it be possible for somebody to tell me the correct procedure to

Remove the now unneeded Windows XP
Re-allocate all the freed-up space to Xubuntu

Many thanks in advance for your patience and persistence with my noob questions.

[fantab]

Lets see your partitions. Post the output of:

sudo parted -l
sudo fdisk -l

[Xubuntist]

I'm sorry that it's in French, I hope this doesn't cause you a problem.

PARTED


Modèle: ATA WDC WD1600AAJS-0 (scsi)
Disque /dev/sda : 160GB
Taille des secteurs (logiques/physiques): 512B/512B
Table de partitions : msdos

Numéro Début Fin Taille Type Système de fichiers Fanions
1 32,3kB 107GB 107GB primary ntfs démarrage
3 107GB 155GB 48,3GB extended
5 107GB 154GB 47,4GB logical ext4
6 154GB 155GB 937MB logical linux-swap(v1)
2 155GB 160GB 4861MB primary fat32 diag


FDSIK


Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 19457 cylindres, total 312581808 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Taille de secteur (logique / physique) : 512 octets / 512 octets
taille d'E/S (minimale / optimale) : 512 octets / 512 octets
Identifiant de disque : 0x75adc3f6

Périphérique Amorçage Début Fin Blocs Id. Système
/dev/sda1 * 63 208693825 104346881+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 303082290 312576704 4747207+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda3 208695294 303081471 47193089 5 Étendue
/dev/sda5 208695296 301248511 46276608 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 301250560 303081471 915456 82 partition d'échange Linux / Solaris

Les entrées de la table de partitions ne sont pas dans l'ordre du disque

[Bucky Ball]

I would personally delete sda1, expand sda2 into the free space and run Boot Repair from a live install disk or USB to reinstall grub.

Get Boot Repair:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair/?source=directory

Use BR:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Yannbuntu's thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1769482

[Xubuntist]

Thank you very much for the reply.

The problem is that I've run Yannbuntu's Boot Repair on two PCs where I had this problem, and on both (one was a Windows Vista partition and the other was a Windows XP partition) it was unable to repair grub and on both machines I was forced to reinstall Xubuntu - which is clealy not the ideal solution. I am now scared of willy-nilly deleting partitions like that.

This is why I am asking if there is a recognised "correct" way to deal with this.

[Bucky Ball]

Did you use the 'Advanced Options' and tell it where you wanted to reinstall grub, or did you hit 'Recommended Repair' to try and repair the existing one?

There's some pics of what I mean here: http://www.howopensource.com/2012/05/reinstall-recover-grub-from-ubuntu-12-04-live-cd-usb/

[Xubuntist]

I always used "Recommended Repair".

[Bucky Ball]

There's some pics of what I mean here: http://www.howopensource.com/2012/05...4-live-cd-usb/

Reinstalling grub is the go. You can also do that from the Live CD (or install Boot Repair if you can get online).

http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair-restore-reinstall-grub-2-with-a-ubuntu-live-cd

[Xubuntist]

I will try that and get back to you!

Thank you!

[fantab]

Don't delete the XP partition, just format it as ext4 and use it as a data parittion. Do this from xubuntu and use Gparted. If its not available then install it.
After formatting the said partition:


sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
and install Grub to the HDD ie, /dev/sda.

Reboot.

If xubuntu does not boot then:
Boot with xubuntu dvd/usb- try xubuntu without installing
and follow the instructions HERE (http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair-restore-reinstall-grub-2-with-a-ubuntu-live-cd).

[Xubuntist]

OK, I will try that and get back to you! It seems safer than just deleting it.

Thank you!

[Xubuntist]

Don't delete the XP partition, just format it as ext4 and use it as a data parittion. Do this from xubuntu and use Gparted. If its not available then install it.
After formatting the said partition:


sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
and install Grub to the HDD ie, /dev/sda.

Reboot.

If xubuntu does not boot...

Oh, but deep joy, it did reboot, but it first came up with the grub menu with the option to load Win XP which, of course, we don't want. Is there a way I can edit the grub menu to get it load Xubuntu automatically and just remove all other entries?

[fantab]

Run:

sudo update-grub

It shouldn't find Windows anymore... let us know.

If xp is still present in the menu then edit /etc/default/grub and edit the file to disable OS_Prober:


gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

Again run 'update-grub'

[Xubuntist]

Bad news then...
$ sudo update-grub
[sudo] password for darees:
Création de grub.cfg…
Image Linux trouvée : /boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-18-generic
Image mémoire initiale trouvée : /boot/initrd.img-3.11.0-18-generic
Image Linux trouvée : /boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-12-generic
Image mémoire initiale trouvée : /boot/initrd.img-3.11.0-12-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Windows NT/2000/XP trouvé sur /dev/sda2
fait

[Xubuntist]

PARTED


$ sudo parted -l
Modèle: ATA WDC WD1600AAJS-0 (scsi)
Disque /dev/sda : 160GB
Taille des secteurs (logiques/physiques): 512B/512B
Table de partitions : msdos

Numéro Début Fin Taille Type Système de fichiers Fanions
1 32,3kB 107GB 107GB primary ext4 démarrage
3 107GB 155GB 48,3GB extended
5 107GB 154GB 47,4GB logical ext4
6 154GB 155GB 937MB logical linux-swap(v1)
2 155GB 160GB 4861MB primary fat32 diag



FDISK


$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 têtes, 63 secteurs/piste, 19457 cylindres, total 312581808 secteurs
Unités = secteurs de 1 * 512 = 512 octets
Taille de secteur (logique / physique) : 512 octets / 512 octets
taille d'E/S (minimale / optimale) : 512 octets / 512 octets
Identifiant de disque : 0x75adc3f6

Périphérique Amorçage Début Fin Blocs Id. Système
/dev/sda1 * 63 208693825 104346881+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 303082290 312576704 4747207+ 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda3 208695294 303081471 47193089 5 Étendue
/dev/sda5 208695296 301248511 46276608 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 301250560 303081471 915456 82 partition d'échange Linux / Solaris

Les entrées de la table de partitions ne sont pas dans l'ordre du disque

[fantab]

Did you edit /etc/default/grub?
Post the output of:

cat /etc/default/grub

[frank18]

Wouldn't be easier to reinstall from scratch? and you should install xubuntu14.04 that is running like a champ on my PC that is low on resources P4

[fantab]

Its your choice.

But do you really want to re-install a bootable and working Xubuntu just because you have an 'unwanted' entry in the GRUB menu?
A new version, Xubuntu 14.04 will release in a few weeks, you might want to wait until then. When installing 14.04 you can set it up the way you want.

[Xubuntist]

But do you really want to re-install a bootable and working Xubuntu just because you have an 'unwanted' entry in the GRUB menu?

Yes, that's exactly my point. It's running like a dream on a crappy Lenovo A88 6449. All peripherals have been installed with working drivers. I have Skype with webcam working, Teamviewer autoloads to the system tray, printer, scanner, and all required software, plus icons, themes and wallpapers, it's all working. I don't want to have to go through that again for no real reason.


cat /etc/default/grub
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
# info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

[Xubuntist]

Did you edit /etc/default/grub?

No, I haven't touched grub.

[fantab]

What detects other OS is 'os-prober'. Since you have only Xubuntu booting on that machine we can safely disable the os-prober. To disable it

gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub

***add the following Line to at the end of the file:
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true

See my earlier post (http://GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true).

Save the file.

Run:

sudo update-grub

Reboot.

EDIT: while you are editing /etc/default/grub you can uncomment (ie remove '#' in front of the line):
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0 change this to
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0

(Whenever we edit /etc/default/grub we run 'sudo update-grub' to write the changes.)

Now the OS will boot directly without displaying grub.

More info on GRUB: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

[Xubuntist]

You, sir, are the man!

(I know you already knew this but recognition is an absolute requirement and I doff my cap to you sir)

I have created a text file with everything I have learnt and, if the occasion presents itself, I will pass this on to those in need.

By the way, I've been studying this file to understand more about GRUB and how it works (http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub.html). Fascinating and very instructive.

[Xubuntist]

OK, just to update, I am now doing the most perilous part of the operation (judging by previous experience). I have deleted the old Windows and the Lenovo factory restore partitions. I have run the Live CD and I am expanding the Xubuntu partition to the full hard drive capacity plus increasing the linux-swap to 5Gb. This is taking about 25 minutes and I'll report back shortly.

[fantab]

I am glad you got everything under control.
If you think the thread issue is resolved then please mark the Thread as 'Solved'.

What you are reading about is GRUB LEGACY, we don't use that anymore, we use GRUB2: http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html
Ubuntu customizes GRUB2 somewhat. So reading Ubuntu WIKI, the link to which I posted earlier is a good bet.

[Xubuntist]

please mark the Thread as 'Solved'.
We're not there yet ;)

Reading your link now, thank you!

[Xubuntist]

OK, I'm fairly stunned that nothing went wrong! Having followed all of the advice in other posts I've found I did the following (and noted it down for future reference, having a lousy memory):

Run the Xubuntu LiveCD and open GParted
Turn swap OFF on the linux-swap partition and unmount ALL partitions
Remove or reformat the Windows partition as EXT4 as required (deleted Windows and the Lenovo factory restore partitions in this case)
Resize the Xubuntu and linux-swap partitions as required (this will take time : 25 minutes in this case, so not exactly long)
Switch swap back ON on the linux-swap
Reboot

The PC booted up straight into my Xubuntu install. I'm absolutely delighted and this is due directly to the help received in this and other threads and the confidence that I have gained by being so aided. Every disaster that I have created by my own lack of knowledge has been repaired/averted because of these forums and I am, without a shadow of a doubt, a (X)Ubuntu convert.

Marked as solved and extremely grateful to everybody that it is!