Dual boot failed - user needs reboot

[yuler]

My plan is to dual-boot Ubuntu 10.10 and XP, but I must have done something wrong when manually installing Ubuntu into pre-defined partitions made with Gparted. The Ubuntu text boot screen displays a few lines, then the system halts. No software reboot can occur.

I'd read that Windows is easiest installed first, and a dedicated boot partition was best to avoid OS lockout, so I created these partitions:

sda1 XP (2gb)
sda2 bootloader (11mb)
sda5 ubuntu
sda6 winapps
sda7 audio
sda8 general data
sda9 secure
sda10 unallocated

My plan was to put the Linux swap on sda9 for the moment, then point it to sdb1 (yet to be installed) after it's running.

During the Ubuntu install procedure, I chose sda2 as /boot - which I assumed is the bootloader and would auto detect XP on sda1. I'm not sure if I assumed right, as the bootloader shows Ubuntu and XP, but as already stated, Ubuntu fails after a few lines of boot text.

Using the LiveCD, my hope was to find a log file of the boot process to help debug, but I was unable to find one in /var/log. Rather than pester the forums for specific help, I trotted around to find clues. In the process, I discovered boot_info_script and managed to run it. I was baffled to see Linux swap on sda6 AND sda11 (which I didn't think was assigned).

I also read that Ubuntu parts could be stored in several places. I'd like my (one user) data to be stored on sda8 (general data). I assume I missed that on the manual partition installation.

Is this easiest repaired or should I wipe the partitions and start over?

I'd love to repair it so I can learn how and why the Linux OS works. I've read the online Wiki, scoured the forums, read the PDF manual, but I'm either brain dense or there is information missing. Any one care to suggest a remedy, aside from a user reboot?

                Boot Info Script 0.55    dated February 15th, 2010                    

============================= Boot Info Summary: ==============================

 => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in 
    partition #2 for (,msdos2)/grub.

sda1: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows XP
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows XP
    Boot files/dirs:   /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM

sda2: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   /grub/grub.cfg /grub/core.img

sda3: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       Extended Partition
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info:  

sda5: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  
    Operating System:  Ubuntu 10.10
    Boot files/dirs:   /etc/fstab

sda6: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sda7: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sda8: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sda9: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

sda10: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       swap
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info:  

sda11: _________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows Vista/7
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files/dirs:   

=========================== Drive/Partition Info: =============================

Drive: sda ___________________ _____________________________________________________

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Partition  Boot         Start           End          Size  Id System

/dev/sda1    *         24,576     4,218,879     4,194,304   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2               2,048        24,575        22,528  83 Linux
/dev/sda3           4,220,926   976,773,119   972,552,194   5 Extended
/dev/sda5           4,220,928    67,135,487    62,914,560  83 Linux
/dev/sda6          67,137,536   119,566,335    52,428,800  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7         119,568,384   329,283,583   209,715,200   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8         329,285,632   434,143,231   104,857,600   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda9         434,145,280   643,860,479   209,715,200   7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda10        643,862,528   767,057,919   123,195,392  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda11        767,059,968   976,773,119   209,713,152   7 HPFS/NTFS


blkid -c /dev/null: ____________________________________________________________

Device           UUID                                   TYPE       LABEL                         

/dev/loop0                                              squashfs                                 
/dev/sda10       ef1abebf-8af9-4642-acc8-502286785770   swap                                     
/dev/sda11       372BEC693358883C                       ntfs       backup                        
/dev/sda1        A8D4B8BCD4B88E56                       ntfs       xp                            
/dev/sda2        9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1   ext4       boot                          
/dev/sda3: PTTYPE="dos" 
/dev/sda5        22672a0a-841e-4f93-bb46-eecda829da30   ext4       ubuntu                        
/dev/sda6        6169D9721131CAB2                       ntfs       winapps                       
/dev/sda7        474FFAF25A21D641                       ntfs       audio                         
/dev/sda8        5AE3AB3457AE7051                       ntfs       general                       
/dev/sda9        77A0E81F12D7963B                       ntfs                                     
/dev/sda: PTTYPE="dos" 

============================ "mount | grep ^/dev  output: ===========================

Device           Mount_Point              Type       Options

aufs             /                        aufs       (rw)
/dev/sr0         /cdrom                   iso9660    (ro,noatime)
/dev/loop0       /rofs                    squashfs   (ro,noatime)
/dev/sda9        /media/77A0E81F12D7963B  fuseblk    (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions)
/dev/sr0         /media/apt               iso9660    (ro)


================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================

[boot loader] 
timeout=30 
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS 
[operating systems] 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect 

============================= sda2/grub/grub.cfg: =============================

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  set have_grubenv=true
  load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
  set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
    saved_entry="${chosen}"
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function recordfail {
  set recordfail=1
  if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
  insmod vbe
  insmod vga
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos5)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 22672a0a-841e-4f93-bb46-eecda829da30
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
  set gfxmode=640x480
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1
set locale_dir=($root)/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
  set timeout=-1
else
  set timeout=10
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1
    linux    /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro   quiet splash
}
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
    recordfail
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1
    echo    'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic ...'
    linux    /vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro single 
    echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1
    linux16    /memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ext2
    set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1
    linux16    /memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
    insmod part_msdos
    insmod ntfs
    set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set a8d4b8bcd4b88e56
    drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
    chainloader +1
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f  $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
  source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

=================== sda2: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


    .0GB: grub/core.img
    .0GB: grub/grub.cfg
    .0GB: vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic

=============================== sda5/etc/fstab: ===============================

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    nodev,noexec,nosuid 0       0
# / was on /dev/sda5 during installation
UUID=22672a0a-841e-4f93-bb46-eecda829da30 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=9dd2845c-04c4-43df-a99f-088edf6bc2c1 /boot           ext4    defaults        0       2
# swap was on /dev/sda10 during installation
UUID=ef1abebf-8af9-4642-acc8-502286785770 none            swap    sw              0       0

=================== sda5: Location of files loaded by Grub: ===================


   4.4GB: boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic.new
=========================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =======================

Unknown BootLoader  on sda3

00000000  f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6  f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6  |................|
*
000001b0  f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6  f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 f6 00 bc  |................|
000001c0  77 06 83 fe ff ff 02 00  00 00 00 00 c0 03 00 fe  |w...............|
000001d0  ff ff 05 fe ff ff 95 00  c0 03 6d 07 20 03 00 00  |..........m. ...|
000001e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200

[Quackers]

That's a very complicated set up for a first try.
According to the boot script 2 of your Ubuntu boot files are in sda2, but the 3rd one (etc/fstab) is in sda5, which is designated as your Ubuntu root (/) partition. I don't know whether that can work or not. I haven't seen it done.
Did Windows boot? Not sure if it will now without fixing the mbr.
I would have one Windows partition and for Ubuntu a root (/) partition and a /home partition and try again. You could leave spaces in the partition table for the creation of other partitions later.
Also the Windows partition needs to be a primary partition whereas the Ubuntu partitions can be logical.
These are just my own views, you understand

BTW welcome to Ubuntu

[oldfred]

Please post result.txt in code tags (#), not quotes.

I do not recommend /boot partitions for standard desktops. Servers, RAID, LVM partitions may have need for a separate /boot.

Any grub2 reinstall instructions your find may not include the additional mount of the /boot. Some have a footnote saying you also have to mount the /boot partition when reinstalling grub2.

Your /boot is not complete and you seem to have part of it in your root?
Your are missing vmlinuz -xx and the two link files that refer to the most recent kernel & vmlinuz.

Did you use manual install? That is where you choose which partitions to use & what format. It autofinds swap. If you use any of the other installs it shrinks a partition and creates new / & swap. It does not give a option to mount the data partition(s), but you can do that afterwards.

I now see Quackers beat me to it. I tend to like to repair, but we sometimes spend days fixing things and a new install is only about an hour. So if you have no data to recover a new install may be best. Are partitions still set up the way you want. If not adjust before installing & use manual install.

[Quackers]

Forget what I said Listen to oldfred. He has forgotten more about partitioning than I'll ever know!

[oldfred]

Thanks, but I only admit I have forgotten it all. Any help at this point is appreciated.

But a link to show manual install with some partitioning. I still like to use gparted in advance of the install. But I have also chosen the wrong partition when I installed a new drive. I had create a lot of partitions and put my install in my planned data partition. I had not copied data, so I just had to go back and relabel and tweak sizes. (I now keep manual notes on which partition is which, or hard copy printouts of fstab or blkid)

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Insta...0-160966.shtml

[yuler]

Thanks for the replies. I'm familiar with partitioning, cluster size, and platter location strategies, so it was not a stretch to extend it to Linux. This was my intended partition strategy:

sda1 XP (2gb)
sda2 bootloader (11mb)
sda5 ubuntu
sda6 winapps
sda7 audio
sda8 general data
sda9 secure
sda10 unallocated
swap on sda9, until OS is running and sdb is installed.

The problem is that I'm unfamiliar with Linux's layout. After many failed attempts at loading Linux packages in the past (mostly due to using proprietary laptops), I figured it was time with Ubuntu v10.10 on a standard desktop.

I didn't choose an automated install because I wanted control over which partitions were assigned data, so I chose a manual install. The first step was installing XP on sda2.

My guess as to why the boot partition is split is because I thought boot partition meant bootloader, when it actually means OS boot files (kernel), so I put /boot on sda2 (MBR partition). Not knowing specificlly, I don't think 11mb is enough room for kernel files.

Since sda9 was 100gb and was to be a temporarily swap location, I assume the installer saw that as too much space and divided it, creating another partition (sda11).

Even though Ububtu failed, I decided to try XP from the GRUB menu per your request. It failed.

Figuring the pointers were wrong and assuming Ubuntu could fix it if I set the parameters right, I reinstalled Ubuntu using manual allcocation.

sda2: do not use
sda5: format as ext4, mount as /
bootloader: sda2

After restart, there was some boot text, the CD kicked out, and a screen full of errors:

squashFS error: unable to read fragment cache entry e40156
squashFS error: unable to read page, block e40156a, size 1cfff
.
.
end request: I/O error, dev sr0m sector 533096
.
.
plymouth post-start process (32390) terminated with status 2
unexpectedly disconnected fron boot system daemon
.
.
plymouth post-start process (32390) terminated with status 1
end request

Not knowing what else to do, I pulled the CD out and reboot. The GRUB menu came up with Ubuntu and XP. XP failed to load. Reboot. Ubuntu, with more errors:

[0.544686] kernel panic - not syncing: VFS : unable to mount root FS on unknown block (0,0)
[0.544756] Pid: 1, comm: swapper not tainted 2.6.35-22-generic #33-Ubuntu
[0.544818] Call Trace:
[0.544882]
[<c05c6468>] ? printk+0x2d/0x35
[<c05c6468>] panic+...
[<c05c6468>] mount_block_root+...
[<c05c6468>] ? sys_mkmod+...
[<c05c6468>] mount_root+...
[<c05c6468>] prepare namespace+...
[<c05c6468>] sys_acces+...
[<c05c6468>] kernel_int+...
[<c05c6468>] ? kernel_init+...
[<c05c6468>] kernel_thread_helper+...

That's where it stopped, keyboard indicator lights blinking. No soft boot allowed. Had to hard reboot into the LiveCD, which is where I'm at now.

Apparently, I still don't understand Linux's layout. What options do I choose if I want:

bootloader on sda2 (11mb)
Ubuntu on sda5
swap on sda9

I found I could not set /home to NTFS, FAT, or FAT32, so I'll just have to accept it as sda5 (with the rest of the Ubuntu files) for now and change it later.

[wilee-nilee]

I would just say here since you are obviously experienced, loading the bootloader whether MS or grub or any to the HD mbr to boot is easy. The boot partition is not needed the regular mbr the first 512Mib of the HD is fine, you have heard inaccurate descriptions of dual booting problems cross distros.

As was mentioned you where missing files in the original script, and you have messed around so generally we ask to see another script if things are different.

If it was me I would reload the MS bootloader to the HD mbr to confirm XP runs, you know the drill I suspect, fixmbr from the XP install disc repair command line.

I would then just reinstall Ubuntu to the partition you want it in and let grub go to the mbr at the front of the disc. Get rid of the boot partition it is not needed.

[oldfred]

You may be mixing up /boot partition which is where the kernel & grub are and the boot loader which is installed in the MBR. BIOS only boots from the MBR. If you install the part of grub that goes into the MBR into a partition it is considered less reliable. Also if you install to a windows partition it corrupts windows as windows has to have the second part of its boot loader in the PBR or partition boot sector. Grub does not normally use the PBR.

[yuler]

Thanks again. I ran the script again and compared it with the old, but I'm not at the machine at the moment to paste it. However, I can tell you what I did in the interim:

1) Booted to XP CD, ran fixmbr. Reboot. No OS.
2) Booted to XP CD, ran fixboot. Reboot. No OS.
3) Booted to Hiren's Boot CD, ran GRUB2 entry:

title ³ Boot from Hard Drive - Windows XP (NTLDR)        ³\n
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /ntldr
map () (hd0)
map (hd0) ()
map --rehook
find --set-root --ignore-floppies --ignore-cd /ntldr
chainloader /ntldr
savedefault --wait=2

XP booted.

4) Booted into Ubuntu LiveCD. Compared sda2 (the boot partition) to sda5/boot (Ubuntu). The files are exactly the same (GRUB2, etc).

5) Booted to Hiren's Boot CD to launch the boot partition. Ran GRUB2 entry:

title Boot HDD 1 Partition 2\n
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
chainloader +1

That was intended for sda2 (boot partition). No OS.

I don't recall if I ran Hiren's Boot CD GRUB2 menu to launch sda5 (Ubuntu).

6) Ran Hiren's Boot CD > MBR utils > MBRwork to look at the MBR pointers.

• Partition 0 (sda1) pointed to the CHS/LBA corrosponding to the XP partition.
• Partition 1 (sda2) pointed to the CHS/LBA corrosponding to the boot partition (starting at sector 2048, I believe).
• Partition 2 (sda5) pointed to the CHS/LBA corrosponding to the Ubuntu partition

Taking a cue from the UbuntuGuide Multiple OS Installation, my intention is to use the "boot partition" (sda2) as a master bootloader. I don't want the master bootloader inside the Ubuntu /boot folder, which is what I suspect the default setttings do. If I decide to wipe the Ubuntu partition, I won't be able to get into XP. Further, I may decide to have partitions for current and previous versions of Ubuntu, or try out other flavors of Ubuntu. In short, I want the boot path to look like:

MBR > boot partition with GRUB2 > branch to OS's, other options

[oldfred]

You can do what you what and I did have a dedicated grub partition with grub legacy. But If you do that you have to manually edit all grub stanzas. If you understand grub that is not impossible, but many versions want grub2 installed to a PBR so you can chainboot.

Grub2 has an osprober that is very good at finding other systems and setting up the boot stanza. Since grub2 I rarely use my grub partiiton. If I install another system, I decide which I want in charge and either update the MBR or not. When I reboot the system in charge I can run sudo update-grub and it finds the new system.

A boot stanza that boots a partition not the specific system. Ubuntu puts links in / that link to the newest kernel & initrd.

Ranch hand
Note that this does not define the kernel. It defines the partition. It boots the newest boatable kernel that it finds at that partition.

menuentry "Daily on sda13" {
set root=(hd0,13)
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda13 ro quiet splash
initrd /initrd.img
}

http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/...to_a_Partition
grub-setup -v /dev/sda6
Attempting to install GRUB to a partition instead of the MBR. This is a BAD idea.
Embedding is not possible, GRUB can only be installed in this setup by using blocklists. However blocklists are UNRELIABLE and its use is discouraged.
error: If you really want blocklists, use --force

Herman on separate grub partition:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1320270
Grub partition slakkie
http://blog.opperschaap.net/2009/11/...-belong-to-us/


Grub2 with chainboot examples
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3106368.0