problems after installation: Grub, Windows, Ubuntu

[Puffin-ww]

Dear folks

I've just installed Ubuntu 8.04. Installation seems to have run OK.
I've put Ubuntu on a new, third harddisk. Before installing, I prepared three partitions there, in Windows (XP), with PartitionMagic, for /, swap and home.
During the installation procedure / Advanced, I chose to install the boot loader into /dev/sdc1, i.e. the root-partition to be.

(According to PartitionMagic, the root-partition is now filled with about 2.5 GB. Is that OK?)

Now the situation is like this:
With the standard BIOS harddisk boot sequence 1,2,3 Windows starts, but GRUB is nowhere to be seen.
With the sequence 3,1,2 GRUB starts, but when I choose Ubuntu, I get error 17 ("Cannot mount selected partition"); and when I choose Windows, nothing happens, i.e. Grub shows its options again after a while.

So, the whole thing is not running perfectly yet ...

What can I do to have Grub always appear (also when I boot from HD1), and what can I do in order to get both Ubuntu and Windows to run from Grub?

(If necessary, it wouldn't be a problem to install Ubuntu again.)

Thanks

Puffin-ww

[VMC]

Leave your BIOS default. In other words you don't have to manipulate your BIOS to boot ubuntu. Windows is installed first. So now you installed ubuntu on a third hard drive. Now we need to see everything.

Open up a Terminal from here "Applications-Accessories-Terminal", and type this:


sudo fdisk -l
[lower-case "L"]
copy and paste the output.

[Puffin-ww]

Here you are:

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x8d578d57

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1146 9205213+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1147 7521 51207187+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 1147 1401 2048256 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 1402 2166 6144831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 2167 3568 11261533+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 3569 6756 25607578+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda9 6757 7521 6144831 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x84506fab

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 1146 9205213+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 1147 9306 65545200 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5 1147 1401 2048256 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6 1402 2993 12787708+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb7 2994 3312 2562336 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb8 3313 3950 5124703+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb9 3951 7138 25607578+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb10 7139 7903 6144831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb11 7904 8668 6144831 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb12 8669 9306 5124703+ b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdc: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbd2baf81

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 1913 15366141 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 1914 3450 12345952+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5 1914 2175 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc6 2176 3450 10241406 83 Linux

[dstew]

During the installation procedure / Advanced, I chose to install the boot loader into /dev/sdc1, i.e. the root-partition to be.This is part of the problem. If you wanted grub to be the main boot loader, and use it to boot Windows, you should have installed it in the MBR of the first disk, and not in the Ubuntu partition.

You can re-install grub using the Live CD. Open a terminal, and start the grub shell with the command
sudo grub That should get you the grub command line, with a grub> prompt. At the grub prompt, enter
find /boot/grub/stage2Based on your fdisk output, it will probably give you (hd2,0) as the answer. Whatever it gives you, use as the argument of a root statement:
root (hd2,0)Then, install the boot loader into the MBR of the first hard drive, and quit the grub shell:
setup (hd0)
quitThen, shut down the Live CD system, remove the CD and reboot. Hopefully it will at least get to the grub menu. If the menu items don't work, we can fix those too.