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viranth
November 26th, 2008, 12:44 PM
Hello.

I have a couple of hardrives one has vista on it(c:), and when I installed ubuntu 8.10 last night, I went with the guided install and it chose another hardrive(e:) than the one vista is on.

The install went fine, and when I rebooted I did not get a boot menu at all, it just loaded into vista. Where e: is now 400GB smaller (I selected that for ubuntu).

How do I boot into ubuntu? When I select e: as first boot drive in bios, I get the BOOTMGR is missing error. If I choose c: I load right into vista.

Thank you in advance.

TFX360
November 26th, 2008, 02:15 PM
Look here (http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_f irst.htm).

viranth
November 26th, 2008, 02:40 PM
Yes, this shows you to use the same hardrive as your windows system, just shrink the partition and make one availiable for linux.

But mine is on another hardrive alltogether, and not the main drive.

I'm interested in finding a way to choose which one to boot from, like back in the dos days when you needed more memory for example.

TFX360
November 26th, 2008, 02:54 PM
Check


vim /boot/grub/menu.lst

There you can define the bootable sdx's/hdd's.

viranth
November 26th, 2008, 03:59 PM
But how do I get into ubuntu to write that?

I assume that if I use the livecd it won't boot into the partition I already made?

Like I said, I can get into vista like I always did, but unable to boot into ubuntu.

caljohnsmith
November 26th, 2008, 04:31 PM
How about booting your Live CD, open a terminal (applications > accessories > terminal), and post the output of:

sudo fdisk -lu
Also, for each of the drives fdisk lists, like sda, sdb, etc, please post the output of:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
So replace "sda" above with each of your drives. And finally, for each command above that returns "GRUB", please post:

sudo dd if=/dev/sda bs=1 skip=1049 count=2 2>/dev/null | hexdump | awk '{print $2}'
And replace sda with the drives that previously returned "GRUB". That will greatly clarify what your setup is like.

viranth
November 26th, 2008, 07:35 PM
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: 0xb5b7b5b7

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 16065 312576704 156280320 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 16128 312576704 156280288+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 150.0 GB, 150039945216 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 18241 cylinders, total 293046768 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4fe759c3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 2048 293044223 146521088 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdc: 750.1 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3de05faa

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 * 2048 625844204 312921078+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2 625844205 1465144064 419649930 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 625844268 1446910289 410533011 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 1446910353 1465144064 9116856 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdd: 300.0 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders, total 586072368 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1b161b15

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 63 586067264 293033601 7 HPFS/NTFS

viranth
November 26th, 2008, 07:40 PM
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
GRUB
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdb count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
Missing operating system
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdc count=1 2>/dev/null | strings | grep -ie grub -ie "missing operating system"
Missing operating system

Edit. the others came back with nothing.

viranth
November 26th, 2008, 07:41 PM
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/sda bs=1 skip=1049 count=2 2>/dev/null | hexdump | awk '{print $2}'
8204

caljohnsmith
November 26th, 2008, 08:03 PM
Which drive is your Vista drive? Also, to make the Ubuntu drive bootable, you'll need to install Grub to its MBR (Master Boot Record), which you can do with:

sudo grub
grub> root (hd2,4)
grub> setup (hd2)
grub> quit

Then reboot, set your BIOS to boot the Ubuntu drive, and let me know what happens. We can work from there. :)

viranth
November 26th, 2008, 10:16 PM
caljohnsmith: That worked, thanks.

caljohnsmith
November 26th, 2008, 10:24 PM
Glad that worked OK; in case you need a hand booting Vista from your Grub menu, I can help with that too. Otherwise, cheers and have fun with Ubuntu. :)