Remnants from a previous installation

[lmilano]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

My pleasure! Hope we can solve this. It really is weird. Did you notice that fdisk sees both sda1 and sdb1 starting at the same block ? (63), with different end points? Both are vfat, it is really weird. I've never seen anything like this! It seems as if blocks 63 through 12594959 belong to both sda1 and sdb1 !!!!!!!

Dibl, any ideas? Thanks a lot!

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Imilano,

It just bubbled up in me that the sdb thing is my second harddrive. A time ago I updated my machine. The sdb is my old internal HDD now working as the second internal HDD.

Sorry for the mis-information.

BTW they all start at block 63. The first are used for system info probably.

Does this lighten things up ?? It should be less weird now ?

Remmelt

[lmilano]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Well, it all makes more sense now. Can you disable the old drive in the bios and try again? Most likely you have two grub installations, one in each disk. Also, check in the BIOS which of the two HDD's it's trying to boot from, it should be the newest one. Let's see how it goes!

[dibl]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

OK, first things first -- HAPPY THANKSGIVING!



Now, to business ...

Schijf /dev/sdb: 6448 MB, 6448619520 bytes
255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 784 cilinders, totaal 12594960 sectoren
Eenheid = sectoren van 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Schijf-ID: 0x0eaf0eae

This is clearly a separate device -- an old 6.5G IDE drive, I suspect. As I suspected, I see the "*" boot flag set on both internal hard drives. Although Linux itself does normally use that information, Grub sees it, and of course Windows requires it. On a Windows system, you only want one boot flag set, and it may be confusing to Grub as well.

When you have confusion about Grub booting on a multi-drive system, you have to remember how complex the situation really is. There are three major variables at work:

1. BIOS -- which drive is "Master" on the IDE channel, and which is set to "first" in the boot sequence? It needs to look first to the drive where you have installed Grub.

2. The Linux installer -- it is supposed to take its cues from BIOS, but funny things happen when there are multiple drives, and especially if you tell it to install Grub on a partition that is not otherwise being "read" for its Master Boot Record.

3. Grub -- a little OS with its own view of how the drives should be enumerated. To learn which drive Grub is using to boot from, follow the guidance in Qqmike's writeup, linked above, and run the "find /boot/grub/stage1 " command as described there. Once you are sure that BIOS is sorted correctly, use the Grub commands to, if necessary, reinstall Grub and set it to boot the partition where the /boot/grub/menu.lst file is actually installed.

That's as specific as I can be, without seeing the BIOS and the Grub outputs myself. I'd also advise using GParted to turn OFF those boot flags -- they either aren't needed, or, if I'm wrong, only one is needed, and that one by Windows. A little experimentation should reveal the facts of that situation.

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Hello again,

Using Gparted I removed the boot flag from the small 6GB partition. That did not help.
BIOS is set to boot first from CD-rom and then from the C-drive (the internal HDD) which is the first master drive.

If I search for Grub via Konsole it is found at hd0,5. So it is not at hd0,0. Could that be a cause ?

Thanks again guys,

Remmelt

[dibl]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

If I search for Grub via Konsole it is found at hd0,5. So it is not at hd0,0. Could that be a cause ?

Absolutely, Yes!

So, Grub is on the 6th partition of the first drive -- that matches your fdisk output perfectly, which says Linux is installed on /dev/sda6. That's important to know.

Possibly there is another bootloader on the Master Boot Record, which may be the first one you see, and that one is pointing to Grub on your Linux partition, and then that second one is actually running your boot menu. If you can follow Qqmike's guidance to move/reinstall Grub on hd(0,0), that might be all that is needed to fix your "double-boot" situation.

[lmilano]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Hello again,

Using Gparted I removed the boot flag from the small 6GB partition. That did not help.
BIOS is set to boot first from CD-rom and then from the C-drive (the internal HDD) which is the first master drive.

WHICH one? The large drive or the small drive? That is crucial! It needs to boot from the large drive.  Have you tried disabling this small drive temporarily as I mentioned above? Please try to test these things and report back, it will take forever to fix this if you only try some things and report some. I don;t always have time to explain exactly why, but believe me, I propose them for a reason. For instance, as dibl was pointing out, there are many moving pieces (BIOS, OS, Grub).

If I search for Grub via  Konsole it is found at hd0,5. So it is not at hd0,0. Could that be a cause ?

This could be confusing, what does this mean exactly? You mean that the grub configuration files and directory are in hf0,5? That's fine, we knew that already (that's where /boot/grub is according to the info you sent above). Grub is then installed in a place where you can boot: typically a MBR in a disk. But it can also be put in a partition. If you want to make sure is installed in the MBR of the large drive, you can do

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

DISCLAIMER: messing with these things can break your system, please be careful! If that goes OK, since your menu.lst seems fine, you should be OK, assuming you DO point your BIOS to boot from the LARGE disk (please please please see my comment above)

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Imiliano,

You are asking things which I have already explained. I removed the boot flag from the small 6GB HDD. How more explicit do you want me to be ??

I have not disabled the small drive cause the PC is not booting from it.

As far as I know GRUB should be on the boot disk which is always hd0,0.

I'll try you other suggestions.

Thanks again,

Remmel

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Hi Dibl,

I just tried this from Qqmike's thread:

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

Does not work. I did it via Konsole and the sudo grub.

Remmelt.

[dibl]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Does not work. I did it via Konsole and the sudo grub.

Hmmmm.

Details, please! Which step did not work? Did you:

- get a grub prompt?
- get any error on any command?
- try the "setup (hd0)" command?

What was the result?

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Dibl,

As I mentioned in my post I did it via Konsole, type sudo grub and started typing. First I typed root (hd0,5). After the enter buttin I typed setup (hd0). Then after hitting the Enter buttin no error messages, just positive messages that things/files were found. (I do no remember that, but things were ok).

Then leaving Konsole and reboot.

Problem still there. Back in Kubuntu Grub is still at hd 0,5.

Well, hopefully this is detailed enough.

Thanks again,

Remmelt

[dibl]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

So, when you see the first boot menu, and the Kubuntu line is highlighted, press "e" and look to see which hd(x,y) partition is listed there. It should be hd(0,5).

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Hi,

It does show that after pressing e during first boot menu. I also tried changing that to hd0,0. But then the system was unable to boot.

So, now comes your final suggestion ??

Remmelt

[dibl]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

So, now comes your final suggestion ??

Heh hehh heh .. noooooo, it's a NEVER-ENDING PROCESS!


I dunno, I think you're chainloading from one Grub to the next. On the second boot menu, press "e" again and see what that one is pointing at. I suppose it is hd(0,5) again.

So, the Grub on hd(0,0) boots first, and boots to the Grub on hd(0,5). Then the Grub on hd(0,5) comes up and offers to boot Kubuntu. The only way I know to change it would be to delete/remove the Grub on hd(0,5).

[Remmelt]

Re: Remnants from a previous installation

Hi Dibl,

I found out that the second boot menu is not like I first described it. This menu seems to have been made by Windows. There's not an option to use -e- to edit any rules. There is an option to press F8.
When I choose Kubuntu form this menu it will return to the grub menu from which I can choose Kubuntu again.

Sorry for the total misinformation I have given you (and some others).

But the problem still exists.

Hopefully you still have the energy to help me.

Remmelt