Grub can't find Ubuntu [SOLVED]

[boardstupid]

First, some background info.

I triple boot Ubuntu 8.10, Kubuntu 8.10, and Win7 on my laptop.

The layout of the partitions I use is as follows.


sda1 - Boot - 100MB
sda2 - Win7 - 14.5GB
sda3 - extended - 95GB
sda5 - Ubuntu - 14.5GB
sda6 - Kubuntu - 14.5GB
sda7 - /home - 60GB
sda8 - FAT32 (so I can access files from Win7) - 8GB
sda4 - swap - 2GB

I decided that today would be a fine day to practice installing Kubuntu to a flash drive, so I went through the motions and set the installation away.
After installation finished, I removed the live cd and restarted. Turns out the flash drive I used isn't suitable for booting from. Never mind, there is always tomorrow.

I then went to boot normally and GRUB could not be found. I have encountered this before so I put UBCD in and installed GRUB, just like I have in the past.
Restarted the machine and everything looked fine. Two Ubuntu's and a win7 to choose from GRUB. I picked the first Ubuntu expecting Ubuntu to run but was presented with Kubuntu. I thought they must have got mixed up due to the kernel numbers, so to check I restarted and selected the second Ubuntu on the list. Kubuntu again but with a different kernel number.

I have tried altering GRUB using GRUB editor in System Settings, manually doing it with Kate, and even sudo update-grub. I just can't seem to find Ubuntu.

I can mount sda5 and see everything is still where it should be, but I am at a loss.

Have I missed something blatantly obvious that I should have done first or is this a genuine puzzle? Any help would be appreciated.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub can't find Ubuntu

I would have a look at the menu.lst that is running the show. Of course, that begs the issue because you MAY not know which menu.lst is running the show since the work was done by UBCD and not manually by you. When GRUB is setup, it is installed FROM some GRUB files in a partition to the MBR of the first BIOS boot drive (hd0). Then THAT menu.lst (in that partition) becomes the boot menu.

How To GRUB Methods - Toolkit
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081671.0
SECTION 3: Re-installing GRUB: the cure for many problems.

What you must do here is simply explore what's there.

When the machine re-boots, press and up or down arrow key to stop the timeout timer.
The explore the boot entries using the edit function (see explanations at the bottom of the menu).
Highlight Ubuntu, press "e" key, see the entry it represents, and again you can press "e."


Also, another idea to play with this:
When you re-boot, see the boot menu, press "c" quickly to get a GRUB prompt, thus: grub>
Then try to manually boot into Ubuntu or Kubuntu.
We know Ubuntu is on sda5 and that is probably (hd0,4) (GRUB counts from zero: sda = hd0 and partition 5 = partition 4 in GRUB).
So try this to get a menu.lst FROM the Ubuntu partition sda5:
grub>configfile (hd0,4)/boot/grub/menu.lst
Be prepare to press an up or down arrow key just to stop the menu so you can see it/study it. You can select an entry to boot, too, at any time.

This can be sorted out.


Same how-to (above), other ideas:
SECTION 8: Rescue booting or by menu.lst
GRUB booting methods; => booting in an emergency at grub>
--- Configfile -- Booting
--- Chainloading Booting a partition, a hard drive (MBR) by chainloading
--- Booting directly using kernel & initrd; Tab-completion
--- Boot into Kubuntu using the edit function “e” on a broken boot menu

[boardstupid]

Re: Grub can't find Ubuntu

grub>configfile (hd0,4)/boot/grub/menu.lst

This was the magic line. I figured sda5 was (hd0,4) but couldn't figure out how to boot into it. I had already tried editing the GRUB lines at boot by simply replacing (hd0,5) {Kubuntu's path} with (hd0,4) but it wouldn't work.

Thanks for your quick response.

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub can't find Ubuntu [SOLVED]

And in Ubuntu (after using configfile to get there), if you continue to use configfile and so get TWO boot menus, you can make the default=the ubuntu you want there and the timeout on the 2nd boot menu something quick, like 2-3 seconds (but *not* zero seconds! -- you couldn't boot into anything else that way or have any time to interrupt/edit/etc.).

So, is that it? Fixed?

[boardstupid]

Re: Grub can't find Ubuntu [SOLVED]

Yeah that's it. When I got into Ubuntu I restored that menu.lst to my boot partition and everything is back the way I like it. Thanks for the help

[Qqmike]

Re: Grub can't find Ubuntu [SOLVED]

Well, good work there, boardstupid. You know, it's easy helping someone who basically, already knows what he's doing.