No Boot Device - kubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD Installation

[tfbiv427]

After I figured out how to get the video set up to work with my widescreen LCD monitor (1680x1050), I was able to see the KDE desktop. Installation appeared to work perfectly, but upon reboot (after the CD was ejected) I get "no boot device". This is a Dell Dimension 8400, P4 1GB RAM, 2x160GB drives in RAID-1 on the Intel controller. I told Install to use the entire drive (formerly Windows XP Pro XP2 in RAID-0).

Tried install twice, same result. Second install saw the partitioning from the first one; I still told it to use the entire drive.

Any suggestions? I'm not afraid of the command line. I've tried switching to Linux about 12 times...

thx
vettesiv

[Qqmike]

Re: No Boot Device - kubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD Installation

I have no experience with RAID. Normally, in a non-RAID system, for “no boot device,” you would first make sure your BIOS is setup correctly, the boot drive sequencing, and in your case, maybe, RAID settings? BIOS will look for a hard drive with a Master Boot Record on it indicating it is a bootable device.

After that, for systems with normal hard drives, not in RAID, you would try re-installing the Kubuntu bootloader GRUB. That's easy stuff, standard methods, and here's a local How-To on that subject:
How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

(The part you want is to re-install GRUB to the MBR of the “main” booting hard drive, usually called (hd0), and done with root (hdx,y), setup (hd0), quit, exit, re-boot to test it, where (hdx,y) is (usually) where you put your Kubuntu, hard drive x and partition y, and the counting starts at zero; so the first hard drive, the second partition is (hd0,1), etc.)

That's what I'd normally do, without the RAID. Maybe you can see how to modify.

[dibl]

Re: No Boot Device - kubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD Installation

The posts that I have read on the subject of setting up a RAID array in *buntu indicate that "hardware" RAID setups don't work, the way they do in Windows. For one thing, there aren't Linux drivers for the RAID controller chips that are common on motherboards.

So, if you really want the RAID setup, you need to search on Ubuntu Forum for "fakeraid", "dmraid" and "mdadm" and there are some "how tos" there.

This should get you started: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FakeRaidHowto

[tfbiv427]

Re: No Boot Device - kubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD Installation

OK, here's how I resolved this issue (for which I found a clue on the dellcommunity forums).

The Intel RAID controller has 4 modes of operation configurable in the BIOS:
RAID autodetect / AHCI (the default, which works with Windows)
RAID autodetect / ATA
RAID on
Combination (SATA/PATA)

The *last* selection is the only one that works for kubuntu/grub. Simply changing that BIOS setting cured the problem.

vettesiv

[Qqmike]

Re: No Boot Device - kubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD Installation

Good, or Great!
Thanks for the feedback, too.
Interesting.

Fact is, during your install, as you describe it, GRUB should have already been correctly installed somewhere. It was just not accessible (nor was any boot drive, apparently).

[tfbiv427]

Re: No Boot Device - kubuntu 7.04 Desktop CD Installation

You're quite right; grub *was* installed. When I first switched the BIOS to Combination mode, kubuntu booted successfully. (I have no idea what those BIOS settings are really doing, but the mention of PATA had me hopeful.)

So I probably only needed to switch to Combination mode after the install completed. But I also wanted to make sure that the installation process would work in that mode too. So I reinstalled one more time and it worked fine.

Thanks for the help
vettesiv