error 21 when USB drive is not present at boot

[y2kstorm]

I have installed kubuntu 7.04 on a 60 gig USB HDD. I allowed kubuntu to automatically partition and format the USB HDD. I am using grub as the multi-boot loader. The installation was basically successful, however I now have several problem areas while booting, attempting to use my wireless card or seeing the WinXP folders in kubuntu or seeing the USB HDD at all when running winxp.

If the USB HDD is not present when the laptop boots, I get error21 and the boot up halts with a blinking cursor. What can I do to correct this so that I can boot this computer if the USB HDD with the kubuntu system is not present? I have read many FAQ's but cannot seem to find the solution for this problem.

I cannot get kubuntu to initialize my broadcom "air force one 54g" wireless card. The initialization always fails during boot up with micro-code errors. What do I need to do to get this broadcom card to work with kubuntu?

Since loading kubuntu Linux on my USB HDD, I cannot see this drive at all with winxp. What may have occurred to this drive that makes it invisible to winxp? How do I access the winxp folders from kubuntu? The winxp drive is an ntfs volume.

Thank y'all for any help you can give me.

[Earthwings]

Re: error 21 when USB drive is not present at boot

If the USB HDD is not present when the laptop boots, I get error21 and the boot up halts with a blinking cursor. What can I do to correct this so that I can boot this computer if the USB HDD with the kubuntu system is not present? I have read many FAQ's but cannot seem to find the solution for this problem.

Grub is installed on the USB drive, and if it is unplugged, loading grub fails, resulting in the blinking cursor. You can install grub on the other (internal) drive to avoid this, but you do need a Linux writable partition there. Alternatively, you can make the windows bootloader boot Linux, but it's a bit of a pain to set this up.

Since loading kubuntu Linux on my USB HDD, I cannot see this drive at all with winxp. What may have occurred to this drive that makes it invisible to winxp? How do I access the winxp folders from kubuntu? The winxp drive is an ntfs volume.

Can you maybe post the output of

fdisk -l

from Kubuntu?

No idea about the broadcom card - maybe a separate thread helps.

[y2kstorm]

thanx for the help

I was hoping that was not the option.

Can I remove grub with the following command, and will it remove the boot loader at boot up?

sudo apt-get remove grub --purge