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**Fintan** · Mar 24, 2008, 06:59 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

5 GB looks a bit small to me for / (Kubuntu HH)

7-10GB would be better

I also don't grook:

hd0 - storage drive 80GB
sda0 - 200GB Windows XP x64

what is hd0?

I dont know what you mean by:

under the advanced tab in the installer, there is an option to pass a help line, or some such to grub - where is this meant to point? to the root of the installation? to the primary HDD?

with the advanced option you should be able to install grub on any partition you wish.
By default grub goes to hda0.

can you start winxp? If yes your grub hasn't been installed yet.

Also try using the alternate install cd for your system.

I hope this points you in the right direction

**jcbray** · Mar 24, 2008, 05:11 PM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

Slow reply...

That's two typo's actually - 25GB for / and it's hda0 for the first drive.

It seems no matter what destination I pass to grub, it still fails at the same point - I've pointed it to hda0, hd0 (it's default) sda, and sda2.

Yes, Windows XP works, and GAG bootloader fails to find any other OS, so i'm guessing grub is not installing, or if it is, not able to run anyways.

I'll have a look at the alternate install and see what the difference - is there a reason this CD would be more successful?

**pyriander** · May 20, 2008, 10:19 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

same problem for me... i've tried to install grub everywhere but it fails.

maybe an installation-bug on the 8.04-kde4 disc?

**Fintan** · May 20, 2008, 10:36 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

Have a look here:
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
from Qmike.

specificly here:

Install or Re-install GRUB

How to: Install (or re-install) GRUB from your “main” Linux OS to the MBR of the main hard drive. Let's say your “main” Linux OS (the root files containing /boot/grub) is located in (hdx,y). (See Notation below.)

Case 1: You are able to boot into a (any) Linux OS on your PC.
If so, do so. Then open a terminal (Konsole) get a GRUB prompt as root by typing sudo grub (then press Enter), and type the following (press Enter after each command):
grub> root (hdx,y) # (hdx,y) is the partition of your "main" Linux OS
grub> setup (hd0) # This assumes (hd0) is your “main” booting hard drive MBR
grub> quit
$ exit

Case 2: You can't boot into any of your Linux OSs.
First, you need to get a grub prompt (grub>) somehow. Your two choices are: (1) Use a rescue disk, like Super Grub Disk, from which you can boot into your OS, or press the “c” key to get a GRUB prompt. Or, (2) Use your Live Kubuntu CD. Let's assume (2) here. Put your Live CD in the CD tray, re-boot your PC, startup your Live Kubuntu. Now get a terminal (Konsole) and proceed exactly as in Case 1, starting with “sudo grub” to get a GRUB prompt.

I hope this helps

**Qqmike** · May 20, 2008, 10:48 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

Fintan got there!

I'll go ahead and tack mine on just in case you need more ...

First:
“I'll have a look at the alternate install and see what the difference - is there a reason this CD would be more successful?”

Probably no better than the Live Desktop installer for your purpose.

The Kubuntu installer MAY be getting confused about your mixture of IDE (hda) and SATA (sda) drives. Maybe and maybe not.

GAG—no need for GAG here; GRUB can load both XP & Kubuntu.

What to do? What to try next?

... I would install Kubuntu as you have to its root partition (as you specify in Step 5)
In Step 6, Advanced button, it should say the default choice of location for GRUB is (hd0), which means the MBR of the first BIOS boot drive << as seen by the installer >>. Just let it do that. Why not? It doesn't seem to help when you try to do anything there.

See if that works when you finish the installation and reboot.

If not, then try to re-install GRUB to the MBR of the first boot-drive as listed in BIOS (and therefore as also seen by GRUB since GRUB sees things the same way BIOS sees things).

This will show you how to re-install GRUB:
How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0

Notes, Tips:

> If you can't boot into your new Kubuntu to do this work, then use a Live Kubuntu CD.

> To see how BIOS & GRUB see your drives before re-installing GRUB, use the geometry command (listed toward the end of that how-to):
grub> geometry (hd0)
grub> geometry (hd1)

=> which drive is which? Which one do you wish BIOS to boot from? THAT drive will be where you want to re-install GRUB:

grub> root (hdx,y)
grub> setup (hdz)
grub> quit
reboot to test it

where:

(hdx,y) is the root partition of your new Kubuntu installation
and
(hdz) is the MBR of the first-BIOS boot drive as decided from the geometry command analysis.

You can get this.
The Dx is: Kubuntu installer gets confused about devices (hd?,?).
The Rx is: Manually re-install GRUB where you want it to be AFTER installing Kubuntu.
Use the GRUB files located in the root partition of the new Kubuntu (hdx,y) to re-install GRUB to the MBR of the first BIOS boot drive.

**pyriander** · May 20, 2008, 12:08 PM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

okay, i've tried your way and it doesn't work for me.

I've tried to install Kubuntu 8.04-kde4 on my Asus X53Ka laptop - just one harddrive.

Installation of GRUB into (hdo) failed so i booted with the live-cd and started a console. sudo grub.

geometry (hd0) shows me three partitions which is correct. He isn't able to tell me the format but okay.... first is vista (hd0,0) / second is kubuntu (hd0,1) / third is data (hd0,2)

root (hd0,1) works fine... no problems

setup (hd0) -> he cannot mount the drive...?? mounting via sudo mount won't work because the hd is not in the fstab of the live-cd...

so what can i do?

**Qqmike** · May 20, 2008, 12:38 PM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

Instead of
root (hd0,1)
try this:
rootnoverify (hd0,1)

(I didn't know you had Vista vs just XP).

btw, you already have
sudo grub
so you have root privileges as far as GRUB goes
(in fact, you can't do much in GRUB without sudo grub).

**pyriander** · May 20, 2008, 04:01 PM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

thanks for that too but it doesn't help me with the mount-problem

setup (hd0) leads to "cannot mount the device" ...

is it possible to start the installed kubuntu via the live-cd? ....like starting the live-cd and then changing to the installed kubuntu?

**Qqmike** · May 20, 2008, 04:11 PM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

"is it possible to start the installed kubuntu via the live-cd? ."

--No.

Now, if you are working on this from a live CD, then you should try mounting the (drive,partition) before working on the installed Kubuntu. The how-to shows how, but, the two ways from the live CD would be:
(1) Disk & Filesystems
and
(2) Konsole:
sudo mkdir /media/sdxn
sudo mount /dev/sdxn /media/sdxn
where, for example, sdxn = sdb2 (or whatever--wherever your Kubuntu root partition is).

(Strange mount error; I don't think I ever got that error, but that's irrelevant here.)

**pyriander** · May 21, 2008, 03:23 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

I've tried everything but it won't work.... wtf

I get Error 17: cannot mount selected partition

i mounted all three partitions before as you said to media/sda1-3 so... i'm done... don't know what to do...

the boot flag is set to first partition... vista... maybe change to sda2 could help? but i don't think so...

**Qqmike** · May 21, 2008, 05:33 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

Well, yes, strange. You have a simple setup, one hard drive two OSs.
I suppose I should have had you post two things--
/boot/grub/menu.lst
(Error 17 suggests it could be wrong);
and the output of
sudo fdisk -lu
in case we can see something from that.
Vista uses two partitions, so you have to get the right one in menu.lst.

=> The standard GRUB methods of my how-to should fix this.

You might try Super Grub Disk Live CD, see if you can get Kubuntu booted.
Super Grub Disk: http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/
Herman has a SGD page (probably under his GRUB page):
Bigpond, home: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/

(But all the methods are the same standard ones, except SGD does the details for you.)

Vista *** The definitive dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step
http://apcmag.com/dualboot

**pyriander** · May 21, 2008, 06:58 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

so ... here are the great news :-)

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
129 heads, 4 sectors/track, 605778 cylinders, total 312581808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfdef043a

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *      4  41943059  20971528  7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2    41943060  58720283   8388612  bb Boot Wizard hidden
/dev/sda3    58720284  312581447  126930582  7 HPFS/NTFS
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$

and... /boot/grub/menu.lst doesn't exist... in the folder is only one file : device.map content:
(hd0) /dev/sda

nothing more... no hidden files... nothing
think its because the grub failed to install during system installation...

one more thing... in the defenitive dual-booting guide is written following:

On the "Ready to install" screen, you'll see that Ubuntu now has enough information to commence the installation. In the summary under Migrate Assistant, it should say "Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)". This means that regardless of whether Ubuntu found any user account to migrate, it certainly knows that Windows Vista is installed on the other partition and is aware of it. Click Install.

I can remember during my installation process there was nothing under Migration Assistant... so the installer wasn't able to recognize vista?

thanks for the help so far...

shall i write my own menu.lst now? don't think this will help but

hey why not...

**Qqmike** · May 21, 2008, 07:28 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

Yeah, I see.
Instead of doing all this manually (my preference), it's probably best now to use Super Grub Disk Live CD to install/fix GRUB. See what Herman says about the choices in SGD, as I believe he keeps his SGD page up to date as adrian15 develops new SGD products. I need to review Herman's pages myself but haven't had time. We hope that by just running SGD, it will detect everything and give you the GRUB files you certainly deserve to have at this point

(SGD will run all the grub-install routines, the whole show, behind the scenes).

**pyriander** · May 21, 2008, 11:47 AM

Re: GRUB fails to install - bug or user error?

i've tried to boot the kubuntu via SGD and got an error 13...

i'm a bit worried to kill my vista with the install of grub

and if i will get an error 13 also with installed grub it was for nothing....

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