No Dual Boot - Windows and Ubuntu

[buddytd]

I am VERY new to Ubuntu and Linux, but not to computers (30+ years as a consulting professional, hardware and software). Even so, assume nothing when you respond, thanks in advance.

Anyway, I told the installer to reserve 50% of the partition to Windows XP and the other half to Ubuntu. Everything seemed to go normally until I rebooted.

I was not given any option for choice of bootup - it just came up in Windows XP as if I had never installed Ubuntu at all.

What do I do to make it give me the option to boot into one or the other?

Thanks in advance.

Bud Izen
Turner Oregon
budizen@msn.com

[Seti]

Is it possible you installed Ubuntu first and then Windows? In that case, Windows would have over-written the disc's MBR during installation.

[cdtech]

It's just the GRUB boot loader wasn't installed to the boot sector.

You'll have to use the Live CD to install GRUB.

1) Boot off the LiveCD

2) Open a Terminal and type in the following commands.

$sudo grub
> root (hd0,0)
> setup (hd0)
> exit

Remove the Live CD reboot and you should see a GRUB boot menu.

##############################################
Differences of the GNU/Linux and GRUB device names:

1st Physical Hard Drive:
Linux IDE: GRUB IDE: Linux SCSI: GRUB SCSI:
/dev/hda1 ----(hd0,0)----- /dev/sda1-------(hd0,0)
/dev/hda2 ----(hd0,1)----- /dev/sda2-------(hd0,1)
/dev/hda3 ----(hd0,2)----- /dev/sda1-------(hd0,2)
/dev/hda4 ----(hd0,3)------/dev/sda2-------(hd0,3)

2nd Physical Hard Drive:
Linux IDE: GRUB IDE: Linux SCSI: GRUB SCSI:
/dev/hdb1---- (hd1,0)----- /dev/sdb1------ (hd1,0)
/dev/hdb2---- (hd1,1)----- /dev/sdb2------ (hd1,1)
/dev/hdb3---- (hd1,2)----- /dev/sdb1------ (hd1,2)
/dev/hdb4---- (hd1,3)----- /dev/sdb2-------(hd1,3)

[buddytd]

As I said, I am only new to Ubuntu, not to computers. I set up Windows XP first, then Ubuntu. It only boots into Windows and does not give any alternative options. Not sure if I can make this any clearer. Please let me know if you need more information. Here's what I did, in the order I did it:

Installed Windows XP, SP2. Updated to SP3 and all relevant patches. Ran defrag. Tested for proper operation.

Downloaded Ubuntu disk, checked it for validity, no problems.

Rebooted and installed Ubuntu, creating a 50-50 partition for each OS.

Rebooted. Now it only boots into Windows with no options given on boot.

Hope that makes things more clear.

Bud

[cdtech]

Again, read my post. You'll have to boot using the Ubuntu Live CD to repair the issue.

P.S.
You have to have a mutual boot loader that can understand both Linux and Windows which will be the GRUB boot loader. This has to be installed over the Windows boot loader within the MBR (first sector of the drive)

[Seti]

Actually that is not too clear; from your description, you make it sound like you did your partitioning AFTER you had already installed Windows.
By 50-50 I take it you mean you divided your hard-drive into two paritions?

If you are going to dual-boot, I always suggest the following partition scheme to people. Use Gparted on the live CD to do this if you don't know how to use unix fdisk or cfdisk.

Make a primary partition for Windows. Typically it will be called /dev/hda1 or something along those lines. Then make a second primary partition of only about 500 MB for /swap. Make an extended partition after that to house your linux partitions. I always recommend making at least two separate paritions, one for / and one for /home/. That way, in the future if you need to reinstall Ubuntu, you only have to format / while all your personal files on /home remain intact.
Good luck!

[epiphonygirl]

Well, this might be a different take on things, you said you were new to linux, ubuntu specifically. Like you I am rather new to linux and ubuntu so I used wubi to install ubuntu inside of windows and haven't looked back. I would just format the harddrive and then install windows and use wubi for linux so that you can really give it a try and learn how to use it. Then you will probably learn a lot without a headache to begin with. All that you need to do is pop in the disk you made while running windows and then install, allocate up to 30GB of harddrive space to ubuntu and it'll install and offer you the boot option before windows starts to load. That would be my fix to allow you to just use the OS without having to troubleshoot right off the bat, or maybe troubleshoot something smaller, like wireless was in my case. Just a suggestion

[gbrad901]

It's just the GRUB boot loader wasn't installed to the boot sector.

You'll have to use the Live CD to install GRUB.

1) Boot off the LiveCD

2) Open a Terminal and type in the following commands.

$sudo grub
> root (hd0,0)
> setup (hd0)
> exit

Remove the Live CD reboot and you should see a GRUB boot menu.

##############################################
Differences of the GNU/Linux and GRUB device names:

1st Physical Hard Drive:
Linux IDE: GRUB IDE: Linux SCSI: GRUB SCSI:
/dev/hda1 ----(hd0,0)----- /dev/sda1-------(hd0,0)
/dev/hda2 ----(hd0,1)----- /dev/sda2-------(hd0,1)
/dev/hda3 ----(hd0,2)----- /dev/sda1-------(hd0,2)
/dev/hda4 ----(hd0,3)------/dev/sda2-------(hd0,3)

2nd Physical Hard Drive:
Linux IDE: GRUB IDE: Linux SCSI: GRUB SCSI:
/dev/hdb1---- (hd1,0)----- /dev/sdb1------ (hd1,0)
/dev/hdb2---- (hd1,1)----- /dev/sdb2------ (hd1,1)
/dev/hdb3---- (hd1,2)----- /dev/sdb1------ (hd1,2)
/dev/hdb4---- (hd1,3)----- /dev/sdb2-------(hd1,3)

I was having a similar issue. i installed windows xp into a partition i set up with the partition editor. windows took over and i followed your steps but windows does not show up on the grub list. i looked at the partition editor and that partition has an orange triangle with an exclamation point instead of the keys symbol.any ideas?

[cdtech]

You should shut down windows properly or it leaves the filesystem dirty. Some how you'll need to run "chkdsk /f" from the windows command prompt, or "chkdsk /p" from the recovery console. Try to use the latest gparted live cd. It is the latest version available, newer than the one on the Ubuntu cd.

[gbrad901]

i can't get into windows at all. so i should run the gparted live cd and repeat your steps?