After installing Kubuntu 7.10 wouldn't boot up (Grub menu.lst wrong)

[jsedwards]

I just bought a new Dell Inspiron 530 with Ubuntu 7.04 pre-installed. I tried Ubuntu but I just can't get into Gnome. I also needed to re-partition the hard drive so I installed Kubuntu 7.10.

The installation seemed to go OK, but when I tried to boot up the first time, Grub failed with the following message:

Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition

The grub/menu.lst file was completely wrong for this machine. It had the root device as (hd0,0) when it needed to be (hd0,2). And since it is a SATA drive it should have set the root file system to sda6 and instead it was hda1.

I was able to boot from the Install CD again and edit the grub/menu.lst file by hand and then it booted fine. But I am wondering why the installer borked the menu.lst file so badly?

[Qqmike]

Re: After installing Kubuntu 7.10 wouldn't boot up (Grub menu.lst wrong)

Two thoughts.

First thought:
The Kubuntu installer doesn't mess up the GRUB placement as often as people think it does. Fact is, you have two choices as to how you will install Kubuntu from Live CD:
(1) On "automatic," where you let the installer do what it wants to do.
or,
(2) You can choose the "Manual" partitioning method. In Step 6, lower right, the Advanced button, you may indicate to the installer where to put GRUB.

Or, you may use the Alternate installer and specify exactly where to put GRUB (I know, you are thinking, Where the sun doesn't shine...)

IMHO, users who let the installer run wild on its own are taking a chance about what ends up where. I just participated in a thread at Ubuntu where one (well-known) user with 13 drives (internal, external, and 5 flash drives all connected), he was *unable* to fool GRUB during installation. (Having said that, yes, strange things, anomalies, exceptions, quirks, and bugginess may happen.)

Second thought:
Some Dell's reserve one partition for Dell system/recovery stuff, I think it may be (hd0,0). And (hd0,0) is exactly where GRUB expects to see an OS. Maybe that is what you are referring to in your post. So, the first usable partition for OS files is (hd0,1). That could give the error you got (can not mount partition because it is trying to mount some Dell system partition and etc.).


BTW, good job on your successful rescue! Well done.