Erroneous Boot Menu entries

[Guest]

I have Kubuntu running as a second OS along with Windows XP. Everything runs fine, the only problem is that the Boot Menu shows several Kubuntu entries, including the older version that I upgraded from. It also contains Win XP, which I want to keep, along with an unbootable partition.

On recommendations from an old post here, I located the menu.lst file and commented out the erroneous entries. The only problem is that I am unable to save the changes, and am told I don't have privileges or permission to do so. The old post says to "edit as root", but I have no idea what that means or how to do it. I tried "root" as a log-in name, and it wasn't accepted.

The main reason I got rid of Vista and went back to XP is that I found all this "Privilege" and "Permission" business infuriating. This is my personal system, and nobody uses it but me, so who the devil do I need permission from to edit a file?

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanx:

Buddha
Buddha9596@hotmail.com

[kwokyinc]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

Press Alt + F2 to open "krunner"

enter "kdesudo kate" and then, when prompted, enter your password. (Note: The command "kdesudo" gets you root privilege and "kate" is a text editor program similar to (but much more powerful than) notepad in windows.)

Then in the kate program, open the file you want to edit (i.e. /boot/grub/menu.lst)

and then edit whatever you want and you can save it.

[kwokyinc]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

If you want to know more about root, here are some excellent material:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3089088.0

[Rog131]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

Standard links:

> HOWTO find Kubuntu's manual / reference / guide / documentation / help
> Top 20 Kubuntu FAQs & Answers


=> HOW TO: GRUB Methods - Toolkit

[Guest]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

Problem solved! Thanx for all the help, guys. I've been using Windows since it's first release, and DOS before that back to 2.0 or so, but I'm new to this OS and obviously have much to learn.

On another note, when I examine my HDD partition info using my partition manager under XP, I see Kubuntu is listed as being installed on 2 virtually identical partitions of the same size and containing the same directory structures and files. Is this normal, or did I duplicate something somehow? I was having some problems with 8.04 before I upgraded, and I did a reinstall. The reinstall supposedly reformatted and redid everything, but seeing the 2 entries I wonder if I wound up with 2 installations instead.

Is this normal, or am I wasting HDD space here? And if I am, what's the best way to remedy the situation?

Thanx:

Buddha

[josefko]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

I do not think it is normal. Kubuntu has one big partition Ext3 and the second small partition named swap about 1-2 GB. You can install in Windows a driver for ext2, for example program Ext2Fsd and you can see (and use) the content of ext3 partitions. Do some changes in /home directory and you can distinguish, which partition you use. Than you can do what you like with unused one, for example reformat it with NTFS or use it as it is with the driver I mentioned.

Warning: You must be shure, that your last installation of Kubuntu replaced Grub loader made with the first installation (if you used Grub). If you didn't fiddle with Advanced button during installation I think it did.

[dibl]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

On another note, when I examine my HDD partition info using my partition manager under XP, I see Kubuntu is listed as being installed on 2 virtually identical partitions of the same size and containing the same directory structures and files. Is this normal, or did I duplicate something somehow?

Normal.

It's not really two different partitions. It is on a logical partition within an extended partition. Windows doesn't know the difference, so it counts it as two different partitions.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3090704.0

[kubicle]

Re: Erroneous Boot Menu entries

the only problem is that the Boot Menu shows several Kubuntu entries, including the older version that I upgraded from.

The best way to remove old/unused kernel entries in grub menu is removing the corresponding kernel image packages (with your chosen package manager).

The kernel image packages are named 'linux-image-<kernel.version.number>-<kernel-type>'. After removing the unneeded images, menu.lst will be cleaned automagically.

Just be careful not to remove the current kernel image.