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    #1

    Grub problem

    I have 3 hard drives on my system. 200gb for windblows, 30gb as spare and 60gb for Linux.

    Via bios, I selected the 60gb drive as the primary boot, and installed "Hardy" via the cd.

    Installation went without a hitch.

    Rebooted and chose kubuntu via grub menu and recieved an error 17: Connot mount selected partition. Press any key to continue. Key pressed and back to the menu.

    Selected Recovery - Error 17 again. Key pressed. Back to menu.
    Selected Memtest - same error

    Selected Other operating system - Error 11: Unrecognized device string. Key pressed. Back to menu.

    selected Windblows XP - Error 13: Invalid or unsupported executable format.

    At this point I rebooted, and via bios, re-selected the Windblows HD as primary boot.

    What a surprise! Presented with Grub menu! This time all options worked fine.

    My gripe is that I planned to install Kubuntu to the 60gb drive, select that hard drive as primary, and run Kubuntu. Please explain how Hardy has written Grub to my Windblows drive, when I had clearly chosen via bios the 60gb drive as my primary?

    How do I now remove grub from the Windblows drive without destroying the contents of the drive?

    Regards

    J

    PS I am no stranger to Kubuntu. I have been using it on and off now since version 5.10. So far I have been impressed by how easily Kubuntu installs. This is my first disappointment.
    Keep your eye on the ball, your shoulder to the wheel, your ear to the ground, your nose to the grindstone and your back against the wall....&nbsp; <br /><br />Now, try and work in that position!!
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    #2
    Re: Grub problem

    As for “why's” ... hmmm, always a crap shoot

    This all had to do with how the installer * saw your drive * versus how BIOS & GRUB see the drives versus how you may have seen the drives (and, even, versus how the drives are named: did you get the (hdx,y) right vs the sdx's?). And so on.

    Fact is, things are always fixable after the fact, but you may have had to use a live CD to do so if you could not boot into Kubuntu to do the work.

    Many things. Having to do with exactly how the menu.lst looks. Also, importantly, if Kubuntu is the first BIOS boot drive, then XP will be on a non-first drive, so its boot stanza in the /boot/grub/menu.lst must employ the map dance:

    title XP
    root (hd1,0)
    map (hd1) (hd0)
    map (hd0) (hd1)
    chainloader +1

    And the Kubuntu drive, if the first BIOS boot drive, will be drive hd0 in the controlling menu.lst.

    You have several factors going on here, but they can all be sorted out without too much work.

    Basic GRUB methods, principles:
    How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
    http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
    and see Reply #12—Windows on non-first HDD

    and/or Herman's classic dual-boot GRUB work:
    Bigpond, home: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/


    => Did you use the Manual partitioning method in Step 4? and specify where to put GRUB in Step 6 (under the Advanced button)?
    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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      #3
      Re: Grub problem

      Hi Johnno,

      There is no reason to be disappointed. The system did exactly as you instructed. You instructed the BIOS to use the 60G partition as primary for the BOOT. However, that does not change which drive is the primary drive. It only changes the order of booting from the BIOS.

      Consider you could have changed the CD to being the primary for BOOT. This does not change which disk is considered primary.

      So during the install, you (probably) chose the MBA on the primary disk, which was still the disk with Windows on it. So when you finally made this disk bootable it worked.

      I hope this clears up why the system works as designed, and you misunderstood the order of BOOTing for changing the status of a disk to being the primary disk.

      If you want to boot from the Linux partition, you should indicate this when installing from Kubuntu. BTW, I am not sure Kubuntu offers this choice. I know Fedora Core did, in the time I used it.

      As an aside, I see no reason, not to use the MBA of the Windows disk. Maybe you could enlighten me here?

      Anyway, hope this helps.
      -- <br />A.J. Bonnema, Leiden The Netherlands,<br />user #328198 (Linux Counter http://counter.li.org)
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        #4
        Re: Grub problem

        Qqmike,

        With all the installations of Kubuntu that I have performed, I have never had an installation problem. In all cases I have selected to do the install using the complete hard drive. Each time I have used a drive of choice and each time the installation went without a hitch. I have never had a reason to examine the Grub menu.lst in the past and never expected that I would have to.


        abonnema,

        I do not mean to be insulting, but I have been building pc's for the last 12 years, and I know my way around hard drives. But there was no way that you would have known that. I know which disk contains windows and which did not. There is no "probably" involved. The installation was deliberately installed on the spare 60gb drive.

        Please note that I found it strange that when I repaired the MBR on the windows disk, that the windows install disk showed that the drive letters had been changed. The windows partition on the 200gb had been changed to "D" and the "D" partition was changed to "C". I would say that the MBR had been effected by the installation of Kubuntu 8.04.

        I will attempt a full install with all drives disconnected, except for the 60gb drive, and see how it goes. I am quite sure that all will be well. I will then reconnect the other drives and then manually choose which os via bios.

        I have had this HD setup since version 5.10 and this is the first time that this has happened. I understand that 8.04 is still under development and there may be some "glitches" remaining. I will also look forward to the "final" release.

        Kubuntu is a great distro and the easiest that I have found in regards to installation. I am in the process of "weaning" off windblows and look forward to the day that I can "give it the flick".

        Thank you guys for the advice and for responding so quickly.

        Regards
        J
        Keep your eye on the ball, your shoulder to the wheel, your ear to the ground, your nose to the grindstone and your back against the wall....&nbsp; <br /><br />Now, try and work in that position!!
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          #5
          Re: Grub problem

          Originally posted by johnno56
          abonnema,

          I do not mean to be insulting, but I have been building pc's for the last 12 years, and I know my way around hard drives. But there was no way that you would have known that. I know which disk contains windows and which did not. There is no "probably" involved. The installation was deliberately installed on the spare 60gb drive.


          Regards
          J
          No problem m8, I don't know it all. In fact, I haven't built a machine ever, although I have installed a lot of times. Just trying to help.
          -- <br />A.J. Bonnema, Leiden The Netherlands,<br />user #328198 (Linux Counter http://counter.li.org)
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