GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

[NTICompass]

My Setup:

• Dual-booting Windows XP and Kubuntu using the NT Bootloader
• In Windows, I use the driver from http://fs-driver.org/ to access the EXT2 partition

My Problem:

• When I select Kubuntu from the NT Bootloader's screen, it says "GRUB Loading Stage1.5"
• It stops there, and does nothing

In order to fix this problem, I have to:

• Use the "Super GRUB Disk" to automatically restore GRUB to the MBR
• Extract GRUB from the MBR using "dd if=/dev/sda of=/home/Ubuntu.mbr bs=512 count=1"
• Use a Windows ME bootdisk to run "fdisk /mbr" to remove GRUB from the MBR

After doing that that, I can select Kubuntu from the NT Bootloader and GRUB will load normally.

But, my question is, is there an easier way to fix GRUB? Why did this happen in the first place?
I think it is the Windows driver that is messing up GRUB. If so, how can I access the EXT2 partition from Windows without messing up GRUB?

[analyticalman]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

This is an interesting problem - first off I can't help with your setup. You are obviously using the NT bootloader to chainload Grub to boot your kubuntu. Is there any reason why you just don't use Grub (i.e, install Grub to your mbr)?

[NTICompass]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

There are 2 reasons that I don't have GRUB in the MBR.

• If I have this problem while GRUB is in the MBR, I won't be able to boot anything.
• I have Norton GoBack installed. It is disabled right now, and I would like to re-enable it.

[analyticalman]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

OK - makes sense, dual booting with Norton GoBack isn't trivial.

If you did want to try Grub then relating to the other point you made, if you have the same problem with Grub in the Mbr, it won't necessarily stop you booting windows. You could check that out by putting a valid boot loading sequence for Windows into your /boot/grub/menu.lst file and see what happens

[NTICompass]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

How do I do that?

[analyticalman]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

open up your menu.lst

kdesu kate /boot/grub/menu.lst

At the bottom, you should find a set of commands that boot your Kubuntu - they will say something like:
title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.17-25-386
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.17-25-386 root=/dev/hda2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.17-25-386
savedefault
boot

Immediately above this insert a section that reads
Title Windows
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

save the file and exit

Then you will need to install grub on your mbr like so
sudo grub-install /dev/hda

This assumes that you have 1 hard disk with windows on the first partition and kubuntu on the second. You need to modify this appropriately for other setups. A comprehensive guide is here

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/

but you can get lots of advice on dual booting at this forum

[NTICompass]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

Ummm.......... my menu.lst file already has that......

I don't think you're understanding my problem....... The problem is that when I load GRUB it just sits there...

[analyticalman]

Re: GRUB Frozen on Stage 1.5

Sorry - The problem is perhaps that I'm not answering your query. I'm only suggesting a way forward if you were to try installing Grub to your mbr and using that to boot. If it continued to hang you would know that your problem was not related to your use of the NT bootloader, if it worked then you would know it isn''t a Grub problem.

btw - as you have to keep typing the dd command - could it be that it isn' being properly written to your boot partition? (can happen if boot partition is NTFS) - but as I said, I've never used this way of booting