New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

[cchester]

Hi Guys,

Here's my problem. I installed Kubuntu to my 40 GB hard drive and let it automatically setup the drive to take over the whole hard drive and choose to have grub put in the root of that drive. ( I don't want it in my mbr because when I boot my computer I can hit F12 and it will boot that drive first so I don't need it there. )

I rebooted and pressed F12 and it said grub loading stage 1.5 then Error 17. Which I know means Cannot mount the selected partition. When I installed Kubuntu this is what it gave me for my 40 GB hard drive which is what I picked. IDE2 Slave (hdd). The when it partitioned the drive it said this Partition #1 (hdd) as ext3 and Partition #5 (hdd) as swap.

So I searched the web for an answer in Windows. I printed 69 pages of info on things to try and had no luck with any of it to get Kubuntu to boot.

I saw to try the Super Grub Disk and I burned it to a CD and it showed my drive as this when trying to boot hdb1 sdb1 (hd1,0) hd1s1. Even with that disk I could not get it to boot. Same problem error 17.

One of the ideas to try was to boot my live kubuntu CD and issue some commands but it wanted a password for su and I didn't know it so that didn't help. What is the password for su on the Kubuntu CD?

Now the strange thing is this which is something I tried for the heck of it. I have an open suse disk. I put it and and picked install like i was going to install suse and I got up to a point where it gave me a choice to install or more options so I picked the more options and it gave me the choice to boot a system that was already installed and I picked it and it booted my kubuntu system I just installed. Weird huh.

So I know my Kubuntu system is there and it can be booted with that disk but I want to boot it as is is supposed to be booted.

So can someone help me figure this out please.

I have just Xp on one drive and Kubuntu on another separate drive of its own and the rest are drives that I use for data only. The Kubuntu drive is connected to a ide connector on my motherboard which has my DVD writer on the master connector and the drive that has Kubuntu is on the slave connector.

The only other thing is I have a pci ide adapter card which runs two of my data hard drives.

Oh I also tried checking my bios and made sure my drives were set to auto not lba like one person suggested.

So does anyone have any thoughts on how I can get this working?

Is there a way I can use the Kubuntu Cd I have to fix this.

Any help would be great because I spent all day and night yesterday trying to fix this and had no luck.

Thanks.

[Fintan]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

This is just a guess but could you change your kubuntu drive to master and your dvd to slave?

[cchester]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

This is just a guess but could you change your kubuntu drive to master and your dvd to slave?

Ok I will.

I am not home right now but will when I get there.

Just curious. Why do you suggest that?

[Fintan]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

As I said, it is a guess. But bios mbr ide usually want to boot masters first and then slaves.

If it helps wonderfull. If not well (as you know ) it is deffinately a hardware issue.

Cheers
F

[cchester]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

Hey Guys,

Ok here it goes.

I switched my dvd drive and hard drive making the hard drive first and the dvd drive the slave.

I then reinstalled Kubuntu using my alternate cd and at the end first I picked install grub to mbr. Rebooted then when the computer started it show grub loading stage 1.5 then the error 17 again.

So I used my grub super disk to fix the mbr so windows could boot since it wouldn't get to the grub menu with the choice.

So I then reinstalled Kubuntu using my alternate cd and at the end this time I picked to install grub into (hd2,0) which is my hard drive I installed Kubuntu on. Tell me if I am wrong but the grub menu was there when I pick that drive as my boot drive. It said this for my partitions when it set them up. IDE2 Master (hdc), Partition #1 of ide2 master (hdc) as ext3, Partition #5 of Ide2 master (hdc) as swap.

So I then rebooted and hit F12 and picked the drive I installed Kubuntu on and it came up with the grub menu after the loading of stage 1.5.

I picked my new Kubuntu install I just did and it said error 17 again.

I used my grub super disk and tried all the options again to try and get it to boot and none worked yet again.

So I booted into my kubuntu cd and tried to get my grub menu.lst to post and etc/fstab and my etc/fstab to see if that would help in getting this to work but the cd wouldn't see the drive.

So i had to do the trick again with my suse disk again and it booted my kubuntu install again. I found hopefully the correct grub menu.lst, fstab, and mtab.

Here is the Grub Menu.lst

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)
# grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),
# grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub
# and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.

## default num
# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and
# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.
#
# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry
# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.
# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not change this entry to 'saved' or your
# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.
default 0

## timeout sec
# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry
# (normally the first entry defined).
timeout 10

## hiddenmenu
# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)
#hiddenmenu

# Pretty colours
#color cyan/blue white/blue

## password ['--md5'] passwd
# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing
# control (menu entry editor and command-line) and entries protected by the
# command 'lock'
# e.g. password topsecret
# password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/
# password topsecret

#
# examples
#
# title Windows 95/98/NT/2000
# root (hd0,0)
# makeactive
# chainloader +1
#
# title Linux
# root (hd0,1)
# kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro
#

#
# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST

### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST
## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified
## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below

## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs

## ## Start Default Options ##
## default kernel options
## default kernel options for automagic boot options
## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z
## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.
## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro
## kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro
# kopt=root=UUID=63056ea6-0d23-49a8-afef-fda0f4107a4b ro

## Setup crashdump menu entries
## e.g. crashdump=1
# crashdump=0

## default grub root device
## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)
# groot=(hd2,0)

## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. alternative=true
## alternative=false
# alternative=true

## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options
## e.g. lockalternative=true
## lockalternative=false
# lockalternative=false

## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the
## alternatives
## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5
# defoptions=quiet splash

## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options
## e.g. lockold=false
## lockold=true
# lockold=false

## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenhopt=

## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option
# xenkopt=console=tty0

## altoption boot targets option
## multiple altoptions lines are allowed
## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options
## altoptions=(recovery) single
# altoptions=(recovery mode) single

## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst
## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the
## alternative kernel options
## e.g. howmany=all
## howmany=7
# howmany=all

## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option
## e.g. memtest86=true
## memtest86=false
# memtest86=true

## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system
## can be true or false
# updatedefaultentry=false

## ## End Default Options ##

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=63056ea6-0d23-49a8-afef-fda0f4107a4b ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic
quiet
savedefault

title Ubuntu, kernel 2.6.20-15-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-15-generic root=UUID=63056ea6-0d23-49a8-afef-fda0f4107a4b ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-15-generic

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd2,0)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/hda1
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1

Here is the /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/hdc1
UUID=63056ea6-0d23-49a8-afef-fda0f4107a4b / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/hdc5
UUID=262bc1c0-b281-4b9c-82ad-64e683091e36 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0


Also here is the /etc/mtab :

/dev/hdc1 / ext3 rw,errors=remount-ro 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/sys /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
varrun /var/run tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755 0 0
varlock /var/lock tmpfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
devshm /dev/shm tmpfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/hdd /media/cdrom0 iso9660 ro,noexec,nosuid,nodev,user=chris 0 0


Hopefully by posting these it will help me get this worked out.

Thanks for anymore help.

[cchester]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

Hey Guys,

OK here is an update.

I finally have fixed my problem sort of.

Actually completely just need to get things to the way I want them now.

Just for the heck of it I downloaded the Ubuntu 7.04 CD.

I installed it and let it put grub in the mbr and then restarted.

To my suprise I got the grub loading stage 1.5 then the grub menu came up.

So I picked my new Ubuntu install and sure enough it booted with no issues and I am now in Gnome typing this.

Now my problem is this.

1.) Are the Ubuntu ISO files made different than the Kubuntu ISO files? I know the desktops are different but are the way they are setup or the software they have on them not the same? I ask this only because one CD worked and I have a working system while the other didn't. Also grub installed correctly with the Ubuntu CD but not the Kubuntu CD. Also when I used the live Ubuntu CD I was able to see all my ntfs drives with it but not with the Kubuntu CD. Which made it to where I was able to see my previous Kubuntu install that I had did and was able to look at grub and everything on the drive which I couldn't do with the Kubuntu CD.

So do you understand my confusion?

2.) I don't really like Gnome I like Kde. So is there a way to install Kde and have it look like it does when you install Kubuntu? Also will it work correctly? There are a lot of programs I use in Kde and I need it for them plus I like the look and feel better than Gnome.

3.) When I installed Ubuntu it said there were 50 updates when I booted into it. I installed them and restarted and one of them was a kernel update so I have an entry for it now in the grub menu. How do I 1 get rid of the other entries and 2 how do I make my Windows Xp entry my default boot up OS?

Thanks for anymore help guys and hopefully someone can explain my questions.

Other than those I am happy with my new Ubuntu system.

[dibl]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

Boy, that is a strange development!

Is it possible that during the jumper-shifting and perhaps BIOS-editing that occurred during your Kubuntu troubleshooting, that you actually changed the hardware/BIOS configuration? In other words, is it possible that the Ubuntu 7.04 live CD was looking at a slightly different configuration upon which to install?

It does not seem reasonable that the same version CD of Kubuntu and Ubuntu would produce different installation results on the identical hardware platform, so that is the basis for my suspicion that something changed from the first attempt to your successful installation of Ubuntu. The proof of that, of course, would be to try again with Kubuntu 7.04 (same live CD variety).

In direct answer to your question, you may use the Adept Manager to select the "kubuntu-desktop" package, and get back to KDE. You might want to first search this forum a bit -- it may be slightly more complicated than that, and I recall that there have been previous posts on the topic.

HTH

[penguin.ch]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

It does not seem reasonable that the same version CD of Kubuntu and Ubuntu would produce different installation results on the identical hardware platform

Why not? Unequal packaging of equal code does by no means necessarily lead to consistent results - compare Ubuntu to Kubuntu forum threads on similar topics and you'll get the (read: my) idea ...

[javierrivera]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

2.) I don't really like Gnome I like Kde. So is there a way to install Kde and have it look like it does when you install Kubuntu? Also will it work correctly? There are a lot of programs I use in Kde and I need it for them plus I like the look and feel better than Gnome.

Install the kubuntu-desktop package. It will be the same, but for the kdm (you will still use the gnome login screen). Anyway, you can use KDE program in gnome, and gnome programs in KDE without problem.

3.) When I installed Ubuntu it said there were 50 updates when I booted into it. I installed them and restarted and one of them was a kernel update so I have an entry for it now in the grub menu. How do I 1 get rid of the other entries and 2 how do I make my Windows Xp entry my default boot up OS?

Just uninstall them using your favourite package manager (synaptic, adept or the command line).

Javier.

[cchester]

Re: New Kubuntu Fresh Install But Wont Boot

Thanks guys for the replies and if I run into any problems I will let you know.

Thanks again.