Ubuntu installation beside Vista

[leopavel]

Hello guys,

Recently, I got interested to install Ubuntu beside my Vista Home Premium OS. I downloaded the 8.10, burn the iso in a cd. It shows some demo version, complete installation to the HD and so on. So I just installed completely by doing the HD partition following the instruction in order to keep both vista and ubuntu. Now After installation it tells me to take out the cd from the drive to reboot to Ubuntu. Alas !while rebooting it doesn't show any OS named UBUNTU, only vista! I booted to Vista to check the partition which doesn't show the space which I dedicated for Ubuntu. It means partition has been done but why there is no option to boot to Ubuntu? Can you guys help me? As I cannot see the Ubuntu space from the Vista, am I going to loose that space forever?

I tried to install Ubuntu again, but while partition things shows up, it doesn't show the earlier space I dedicated for Ubuntu, instead it tries to acquire space from the vista partition!!

Please help.

Thanks

Leo

[Pumalite]

Boot your Ubuntu Live CD; get to the Desktop. Go to Applications>Accessories>Terminal and type:
sudo fdisk -lu ('Enter')
Copy and paste the output here.

[leopavel]

Hi,

As you say,

This is the output:-

To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_rooHere
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -press the backpress the backuyo as lu

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x05eff46b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 235625354 117812646 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 298840064 312578047 6868992 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 235625355 298825064 31599855 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 235625418 296142209 30258396 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 296142273 298825064 1341396 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x05eff46b

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 235625354 117812646 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 298840064 312578047 6868992 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 235625355 298825064 31599855 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 235625418 296142209 30258396 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 296142273 298825064 1341396 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


Also interesting, I can see from the file browser that 31 GB Media drive which was the partition I dedicated for Ubuntu.

Thanks and please advice the next step

Leopavel

[Pumalite]

Do this in the Terminal:
sudo mkdir /media/sda5
sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sda5 /media/sda5
cat /media/sda5/boot/grub/menu.lst
Copy and paste the output here.

[leopavel]

Hello,

I tried from the terminal, says no file exist. I guess I was in wrong directory. To better understand please look at the screen shots, where the folder structures are there. I have one File System drive, Local Disk (I guess C: NTFS drive), HP_RECOVERY (my NTFS d: drive) and the last 31.0 GB Media drive.

Thanks

Leo

[Pumalite]

Try reinstalling Grub:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=224351

[Pumalite]

Or do this:
sudo grub
find /boot/grub/stage1
And let me know

[caljohnsmith]

Leo, from that screen shot you posted, it appears your Ubuntu partition does not have Grub (Ubuntu's boot loader) installed. Probably your best bet is to reinstall Ubuntu, use the "manual" partitioning option, select your sda5 partition and give it a mount point of "/", and then set your sda6 swap partition to have a mount point of swap. Then do not change the Grub settings in the "advanced" button at the end of the installation, and Grub should be installed correctly. How about trying that and letting us know how it goes. :)

[leopavel]

Hi,

The second line command outputs this:

[ Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For
the first word, TAB lists possible command
completions. Anywhere else TAB lists the possible
completions of a device/filename. ]

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

grub>

I guess, grub is corrupted. Do you think I have to reinstall Ubuntu?
In that case, how can I install in the existing 31 GB partition?

thanks

[leopavel]

Hello Guys,

As Caljohnsmith says, I did the same and now my Ubuntu boot came back. I can now see my fresh desktop. I must thank to Pumalite and Caljohnsmith.

Thanks for your time and help.

Leo