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**dibl** · Feb 02, 2010, 10:39 AM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

I dunno -- I'm barely coping with Grub 2 myself. :P

These USB installs are problematic, because of the "ad-hoc" nature of the devices on the USB bus. It's not like the SATA bus or the IDE bus, where things stay the same.

Can you take a look at the /etc/fstab file, with your USB stick removed, and compare that with the output of

Code:

sudo blkid

? The idea is to make sure that the UUIDs match, i.e. the UUID for the root filesystem matches, and the UUID for your /dev/sda drive and partitions match whatever it says in /etc/fstab.

**verndog** · Feb 02, 2010, 11:35 AM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Originally posted by Qqmike

I'll drop this reminder, a bug that affects slow boot times on multi-disk systems:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...b2/+bug/420933
That may address the slowness part of this problem.
Hasn't been fixed for 9.10 (except by PPA), will be in 10.04 repos.

I thought about that error. I see a fix has been released. It should show up at some point.

edit:your right. The fix will likely show up for 10.04. PPA may be the only option for now.

**verndog** · Feb 02, 2010, 11:46 AM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Code:

[quote=Kemono ]
  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *      1   >>>13<<<  102400  7 HPFS/NTFS
[b]Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
[/b]/dev/sda2     >>>13 <<< 5099  40853504  7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3      5100    60801  447426315  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5      5100    60801  447426283+  7 HPFS/NTFS
=====
  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1  *      1    1023   7896506  b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
   phys=(1023, 248, 62) logical=(1022, 248, 62)

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd548d05d

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdc1  *      1     19   152586  83 Linux
/dev/sdc2       20    7945  63665595  5 Extended
/dev/sdc5       20    1356  10739421  83 Linux
/dev/sdc6      1357    7678  50781433+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7      7679    7945   2144646  82 Linux swap / Solaris[/quote]

Originally posted by Kemono

Those may be just warnings, but the ending of sda1 and starting of sda2 I don't think is correct. Mine starts +1 more.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 11:48 AM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

@dible

no USB stick means no GUI, meaning no way to compare them. Although I do remember when I was in Knoppix I took a look at grub.cfg and saw it was booting using UUIDs. I decided to check the UUIDs of my Linux partitions and they all checked out. Don't know about the Windows drive, though. It wasn't in fstab.

@Qqmike

I installed the new GRUB (1.98 if I'm correct) from the PPA but now I get: error: the symbol 'grub_puts_' not found.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 11:55 AM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Originally posted by verndog

Originally posted by Kemono

Code:

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *      1   >>>13<<<  102400  7 HPFS/NTFS
[b]Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
[/b]/dev/sda2     >>>13 <<< 5099  40853504  7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3      5100    60801  447426315  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5      5100    60801  447426283+  7 HPFS/NTFS
=====
  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdb1  *      1    1023   7896506  b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
   phys=(1023, 248, 62) logical=(1022, 248, 62)

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xd548d05d

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sdc1  *      1     19   152586  83 Linux
/dev/sdc2       20    7945  63665595  5 Extended
/dev/sdc5       20    1356  10739421  83 Linux
/dev/sdc6      1357    7678  50781433+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdc7      7679    7945   2144646  82 Linux swap / Solaris

Those may be just warnings, but the ending of sda1 and starting of sda2 I don't think is correct. Mine starts +1 more.

I don't know. The internal drive hasn't caused me any problems.

**dibl** · Feb 02, 2010, 12:00 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Originally posted by Kemono

no USB stick means no GUI, meaning no way to compare them

Ooops -- let me try again. In a terminal (either Konsole or tty1 - 6), enter these command and compare the output:

Code:

sudo fdisk -lu

Code:

sudo blkid

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

What you want to establish by comparing them is that the partition for root ("/") and swap, at least, have the same UUID in the blkid output as in /etc/fstab, and that in /etc/fstab the mount lines use the UUID, and not the /dev/sdx designation for mounting them. Also, that any other partitions that are mounted in /etc/fstab have the correct UUID as indicated in the blkid output.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 01:42 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

They all match. Besides I thought GRUB was supposed report an error in a case of missing/mismatching partitions.

**dibl** · Feb 02, 2010, 01:56 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Since it's relatively new and unproven, it's easy to blame Grub 2 -- that's where my finger is pointing.

I'm looking at your /dev/sdc, which becomes /dev/sdb when you pull the USB stick. What is that small first partition, a /boot partition? If so, is that necessary? I don't have enough Grub 2 experience to know whether that could be an issue or not, but ext4 doesn't need a separate /boot partition.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 02:21 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

I do believe it's a GRUB2 issue as well.

Yes, it's a boot partition but it's never EXT4. I always install the boot partition as EXT3 (I've reinstalled this drive so many times if it hasn't failed before it will now). I also tried installing Kubuntu without a boot partition but it's all the same. I'm downloading Kubuntu 10.04 to try and see if that works. I already know the previous versions work, so let's see about the future ones.

**dibl** · Feb 02, 2010, 02:54 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

If you're going to try something different (including 10.04), may I suggest you try installing the entire OS including /boot into single primary partition? I don't know of any reason why that should make a difference, but since you're not using any exotic filesystems there is no apparent reason that /boot needs to be on its own partition. It may be that Grub 2 is a little "funny" about such things.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 03:03 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Might as well, yeah. I'm preparing the USB right now. You'll know how it went in no more than an hour. I'll post in a bit.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 04:18 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Didn't do it. The partitioner was very buggy. I could create a new table but I couldn't add partitions, I could change an existing partition but I couldn't delete any. I simply didn't want to risk something happening to my internal HDD; but after tasting some of that sweet, sweet KDE 4.4 I'm thinking about resizing it and installing 9.10. Since this error only effects external Hard Drives I should have no problem, right?

**dibl** · Feb 02, 2010, 04:26 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

First, I've never cared for the *buntu built-in partitioner -- do yourself a big favor and make a Parted Magic or GParted Live CD. Parted Magic has some other cool stuff including a GUI tool that runs SMART diagnostics, and some benchmarking tools. http://partedmagic.com/download.html

Boot the Live CD and do your partitioning with that, before you boot the Kubuntu CD. Then you can use the Kubuntu Alternate Install CD, which comes with more of the software on it, and just proceed with installation, choosing "manual" partitioning and then merely selecting the one you want.

I see two ways to go, depending on your patience and your goals.

1. Re-partition the external drive into 4 (or fewer) primary partitions, and install Kubuntu onto one of them, and try it again that way. Just disconnect the power connector on your internal hdd if you're worried about it.

2. Follow your dream and go ahead with an installation on the internal drive.

**Kemono** · Feb 02, 2010, 04:53 PM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Hard choice.

On one hand I can have a semi-functional system with no risky hassle but on the other, I could go through a dangerous operation and if all well, end up with a beautiful system.

I'll have to sleep on it. I'll let you know when I'm done with my dilemma. Thanks

**Kemono** · Feb 03, 2010, 05:26 AM

Re: Long Failing Boot After Installing

Well, after a long relaxing sleep I decided to go with option number 2. Since I'm gonna install it on the internal drive I thought I might as well go with the 64 Bit version (I occasionally do some graphics design).

Thanks for all the help guys.

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