installing ubuntu on separate hard drive?

[discostu668]

hi there,

i'm trying to get ubuntu (8.04.1) to work but for whatever reason, i can't get it to boot. i am attempting to set up a dual boot system using separate hard drives.

i want to install the OS onto a separate 200gb internal sata hard drive (non-raid) on my dell dimension 9150 (pentium D 830 3.0ghz dual core, 4gb of ram, nvidia geforce 7600gt, dlink wda-1320 wireless adapter, creative labs x-fi xtreme audio). i have windows (vista home premium sp1) already installed onto a striped raid0 array, but i do not want to partition my windows drive(s) because i want to avoid corruption.

my installation attempts have consisted of:

the first partitioning option is selected (guided, use entire disk) and i select my third hd (sdc) to install. on step #7 i click the 'advanced' button and deselect the grub boot installer. once it finishes installing, i reboot and in the bios, i have choose to boot to the sata drive i've just installed ubuntu onto - however, it just boots right into windows. i have tried installing with the boot loader option checked, but i get grub error 21 upon booting and i have to fix the mbr in order to boot into windows again. unless i'm simply installing the boot loader to the wrong location?

anyways, is there something i'm doing wrong? i don't think this should be a difficult thing to accomplish. i've read a couple of things on this, but the solutions are far too advanced/convoluted for me to wrap my head around. all i want is to simply install ubuntu onto my extra sata drive and boot into it without any complicated patching.

thanks in advance!

[logos34]

Install grub to the MBR of the ubuntu drive:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

so, for instance, if

find /boot/grub/stage1

outputs '(hd2,0)'

then you want to do:

root (hd2,0)
setup (hd2) -->puts grub on the MBR of the linux drive, /dev/sdc. '(hd0)' will put it on first raid drive

Now toggle the boot disk in the Bios to your ubuntu drive.


i have tried installing with the boot loader option checked, but i get grub error 21 upon bootingFor future reference: here you would want to replace the default '(hd0)' with '/dev/sdc' or whatever the linux drive is. But you would have to also edit the menu.lst 'root' lines to (hd0,x) because as soom as you switch the Bios to boot from the linux disk, the latter is seen as '(hd0)'

[discostu668]

logos34,

i will try that as soon as i get home.

thanks for your help!

[discostu668]

logos34,

tried it. selected to boot from my linux drive in the bios. grub loads and i get "error 21: selected drive does not exist".

[logos34]

Boot the live cd, mount your root partition, and post your menu.lst:

sudo mkdir /media/sdc1

sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdc1 /media/sdc1 (or whatever root # is)

sudo gedit /media/sdc1/boot/grub/menu.lst

Also, include the output of

sudo fdisk -l

[Sef]

Read the Illustrated Dual Boot (http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/).

[discostu668]

logos34,

this is the menu.lst output:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd0f4738c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 38904 312493056 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7ffdfbf8

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdc: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 24792 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x423e114a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 1 23782 191028883+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc2 23783 24792 8112825 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 23783 24792 8112793+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdd: 2063 MB, 2063597568 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7872 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 7872 2015216 e W95 FAT16 (LBA)

----------------------

this is the fdisk -l output:

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 3

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=8e85b4ef-318e-4e96-a462-2216110561b0 ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd2,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options
## can be true or false
# savedefault=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=8e85b4ef-318e-4e96-a462-2216110561b0 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, kernel 2.6.24-19-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-19-generic root=UUID=8e85b4ef-318e-4e96-a462-2216110561b0 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-19-generic

title Ubuntu 8.04.1, memtest86+
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

[logos34]

ok, looks like I was on the right track in post #2 above. You want to set sdc as the Bios boot drive and use 'root (hd0,0)'. The error 21, though, indicates that grub is having trouble finding stage2 on the drive.

try this:

unplug the flash drive.

Boot the live cd and check sudo fdisk -l to make sure root is still seen as sdc1. If so, mount as above.

Then,

sudo gedit /media/sdc1/boot/grub/menu.lst

Change the all 'root' lines, as well as 'groot' line near the top, to (hd0,0)

Put a comment in front of 'hiddenmenu' option:


## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenuThen reinstall grub to mbr of /dev/sdc:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/sdc1 /dev/sdc

Give that a shot. Further suggestions here:
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p15.htm#21

[discostu668]

that did it. thanks so much for all of your help!