Help with Windows XP dual boot

[olgarosh]

Hi, I installed Kubuntu from a DVD that I burned. I have a 32 bit, 1GB RAM Desktop PC.
The original OS is XP Professional. I have 4 HDs totaling 460 GB. I believe the installation went smoothly,
but when it prompted me to restart my PC it keeps going straight to Windows login. How do I get the screen with the dual boot option?
Thanks in advance

[NickStone]

As you have 4 hard disks, I am assuming that you have Kubuntu installed on one of those 4 disks but either you or the installer had failed to install grub boot loader on the primary hard disk.

Try this http://docs.kubuntu.org/installation.html#disk-setup to set up your disks for the installation.

[Shabakthanai]

I am not the guru that most of the helpers are, however, you may be at a similar or lesser level of operator, so I will ask a couple of questioins to see if I can help. By the way, the previous post was just terrific, but there were a couple of points not stressed that may be the reason you are having difficulty. Do you remember, when installing Kubuntu, did you choose custom install? If you did, did you make partitions for the kubuntu installation, ie. "/" (or boot partition containing your new operating system), "Linux swap", needed in a Kubuntu application (choose this when naming your file systems), and "/home".

Do you remember choosing whether the partitions were "Logical" of "Extended". The boot partition must be a logical partition. Did you create a partition for /home. It contains all your files and is separate from the OS should you have an Operating System catastrophic failure that requires re-installation. Having /home as a designated private partition, protects your data from that loss.

Next, do you remember selecting a file system for those partitions, for example, "ext2, ext3, ext4, Linux swap" and perhaps "extended partition" perhaps for your /home partition? And finally before clicking on "install", do you remember naming each of your partitions, "/" for the operating system, "Linux swap", for the swap area, and "/home" for your data. This step would identify your boot partition containing your new operating system and is necessary for your boot loader to recognize it when you restart after installation. What should happen next is your computer opening to a page that offers you the choice to select either Kubuntu or Windows XP. Because of the order of installation, your computer will automatically open in Kubuntu, if you don't select XP, that is what should have happened, according to my understanding.

Remember, if you are past my level of skill, you will probably think me presumptuous in my attempt at help, however, if you are a beginner, my information should be a great help to you.

The fact that your system boots to XP suggests that it was not deleted accidentally in your attempt to install. If you naturally did the things I suggested, I probably am not the one to help you, however if you did not do those steps, you may be able to solve your problem by naming your file system (I prefer ext4, however ext2 is fine for your boot partition and ext3 or 4 is suitable for your home partition, typing in the mount points, ie. "/" for the boot mount point, type in "/home" for your data partition, "swap" (minus the quote signs), "swap" will enter itself and does not need to be mounted.

Strangely enough, installing a new operating system seems to have its own personality and new unexpected things happen rather naturally, however, some things are a must with your linux installation, especially when dual-booting. Hope this helps and does not appear condescending. It is the way I need help when I ask on the forum, really basic. Good luck, friend.

As you have 4 hard disks, I am assuming that you have Kubuntu installed on one of those 4 disks but either you or the installer had failed to install grub boot loader on the primary hard disk.

Try this http://docs.kubuntu.org/installation.html#disk-setup to set up your disks for the installation.

[mr_raider]

Hi, I installed Kubuntu from a DVD that I burned. I have a 32 bit, 1GB RAM Desktop PC.
The original OS is XP Professional. I have 4 HDs totaling 460 GB. I believe the installation went smoothly,
but when it prompted me to restart my PC it keeps going straight to Windows login. How do I get the screen with the dual boot option?
Thanks in advance

The simplest way to troubleshoot it now is to go in to your BIOS, and change the boot order, trying all 4 disks one after the other. Take note of the one that works. ANd try to but Linux from tehre

[sithlord48]

in addition to the wonderfull stuff that Shabakthanai had above (a seperate /home partition is very good idea). I would like to add there is also durring setup a chance to select the location to install the bootloader . you will want to select the disk that your computer is going to attempt to boot from first. Grub the bootloader used for kubuntu should detect your windows install and when booting will allow you to select your OS. If you try what Mr_Raider suggests you should find your kubuntu install because with 4 Hdd's chances are good that it didn't overwrite the mbr on the correct disk or you placed it on the wrong disk while installing if you did a manual partition selection.

[olgarosh]

Ok I am a real rookie because I don't know half the stuff you all write about.

I read through the document NickStone linked to, except I didn't resize any partitions( I didn't know I could adjust it). I did check my ISO file (downloaded from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/re...14.04/release/) with MD5SUMS.
First time it went though the entire installation, and installed on the same physical drive as XP. I decided to reinstall it because when It finished installation and said I can now reboot the PC it went straight to windows. I formatted that partition, but instead of rewriting at the same location the next time I run the installation (which I did from inside the "try it out" section), it Installed it on another physical drive, I seems to have crushed half way through. I got stuck on the "installation will finish shortly" for 2.5 hours at which point I gave up. Through Windows computer management it does show the "Healthy; unknown" partition with Linux on it. Since you said I didn't install GRUB correctly I run through a boot repair disk it didn't fix the problem, here is the log :http://paste.ubuntu.com/7521757/
I must be missing something because during the installation I never saw anywhere a chance to choose where to install GRUB.
As mr_raider suggested I went through putting each of the drives first in the boot order with no success. Twice it booted straight to Windows, once it didn't boot at all and once to Windows safe mode.
Any Ideas where I went wrong? I'm guessing I have to reinstall it all over again?
Thanks for all the help

[sithlord48]

when you do reinstall please use the manual disk partitioning selection. make 3 partitions

1. for root (/ will be the mount point and ext4 the filesystem) no more then 30GB should be needed for / (EVER)
2. for swap. swap is a special format that is like linux equlivent of the windows "page file" this should be of type swap and 1.5x your ram amount (2GB should be ok unless you plan to hybernate the system then at least 1.5x your ram.
3. for home (/home is the mount point and ext4 is the file system) this will hold all user files and their settings.use all the space left on your disk after you make the other partitions.

4. look for the Install bootloader to and install it to sda (this should be your first drive. ) you should only see the option of where to install bootloader if you choose to manually set up your partitoins.

[mr_raider]

Ok I am a real rookie because I don't know half the stuff you all write about.

I read through the document NickStone linked to, except I didn't resize any partitions( I didn't know I could adjust it). I did check my ISO file (downloaded from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/re...14.04/release/) with MD5SUMS.
First time it went though the entire installation, and installed on the same physical drive as XP. I decided to reinstall it because when It finished installation and said I can now reboot the PC it went straight to windows. I formatted that partition, but instead of rewriting at the same location the next time I run the installation (which I did from inside the "try it out" section), it Installed it on another physical drive, I seems to have crushed half way through. I got stuck on the "installation will finish shortly" for 2.5 hours at which point I gave up. Through Windows computer management it does show the "Healthy; unknown" partition with Linux on it. Since you said I didn't install GRUB correctly I run through a boot repair disk it didn't fix the problem, here is the log :http://paste.ubuntu.com/7521757/
I must be missing something because during the installation I never saw anywhere a chance to choose where to install GRUB.
As mr_raider suggested I went through putting each of the drives first in the boot order with no success. Twice it booted straight to Windows, once it didn't boot at all and once to Windows safe mode.
Any Ideas where I went wrong? I'm guessing I have to reinstall it all over again?
Thanks for all the help

This is drastic but it may solve the problem. Your Linux install is on sdc, teh 120gb drive. Physically disconnect every other drive from your PC (SATA cable) and reboot from the live CD and try to run boot repair again. This should force boot-repair to install the loader on drive sdc (which wil become sda). Then you can use BIOS to toggle the boot order and try to boot in to Linux.

[olgarosh]

OK I reinstalled Kubuntu on the same drive as XP(did a manual install like you all suggested) which is 1st in the boot order. GRUB is installed on it too. Now it works, but boots straight to Kubuntu, no boot menu, only "out of range" message for one minute before loading Kubuntu. I can see the XP files from here, so I know I didn't delete them. I tried to run the boot repair disk again, no change, here is the info http://paste.ubuntu.com/7524864/

[mr_raider]

OK I reinstalled Kubuntu on the same drive as XP(did a manual install like you all suggested) which is 1st in the boot order. GRUB is installed on it too. Now it works, but boots straight to Kubuntu, no boot menu, only "out of range" message for one minute before loading Kubuntu. I can see the XP files from here, so I know I didn't delete them. I tried to run the boot repair disk again, no change, here is the info http://paste.ubuntu.com/7524864/

Once booted into kubuntu try the following commands:

sudo os-prober

sudo grub-update

[mr_raider]

Found your problem:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FlexNet_Publisher


Solution is ugly:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1661254


I would just wipe the drive, re-install XP, then re-install Kubuntu elsewhere.

[olgarosh]

Thank you. It does seem to be the problem. I tried his solution, it didn't work, no change. However I'm trying out Kubuntu and loving it. It is much faster on my computer, and if I find all the functions I need here I hopefully will never have to go back to XP.
I have two questions about it: what will happen if I just format the XP partition? will it affect Kubuntu as they are on the same drive?
Also here is what partition manager shows what I thought is my home partition but I can't save any files to it, what did I set up wrong?

[olgarosh]

file:///tmp/kde-olga/snapshot2.png

[vinnywright]

?? what is the problem you are having right now.......you do not get a chance to chose XP wile booting ??

.....that file is not your /home

you may not be seeing the grub menu ,,,,,,try holding down the shift key as soon as you power on the box....... if grub is set for hidden time out it wont show .

to know the location of home and the rest of your mounted file systems just open a konsole and do

df -h

you will see somthing like

vinny@vinnys-HP-G62:~$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6        30G  9.7G   19G  35% /
none            4.0K     0  4.0K   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
udev            1.9G  4.0K  1.9G   1% /dev
tmpfs           376M  1.1M  375M   1% /run
none            5.0M     0  5.0M   0% /run/lock
none            1.9G  148K  1.9G   1% /run/shm
none            100M   20K  100M   1% /run/user
/dev/sda7       184G  124G   51G  72% /mnt/disk1
/dev/sda3       193G  182G  1.9G 100% /mnt/disk

I dont have a sepret /home on this instalation so it's in / .....and as we see hear that's on /dev/sda6

VINNY

[mr_raider]

You can fix your issues with a little bit of elbow grease.

1. Go get a drink, and block off 1 afternoon

2. Download and burn 2 CDs;

Easy BCD free

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

Rescatux
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/


3. Open your computer. Disconnect all drives except the one with Windows. The 250gb one. Boot with Easy BCD and use it to fix the windows bootloader. Boot in to windows, remove the Linux partitions with disk management. Re-expand your windows partition to take up all the space on the 250gb drive. Make sure verything works the way you like it, including whatever software use Flexnet.

4. Disconnect the windows drive and connect only the drive where you want Kubuntu. Boot the Live CD. Using KDE partition manager, completely remove all partitions from the drive. Purge the boot sector fully with this command:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1


5. Install kubuntu with any partition scheme you like. I suggest:

1 swap = 1x RAM size
2 root, ext4, 20gb
3 /home, ext4, the rest

Make absolutely sure you set the bootloader to install to /dev/sda, not /dev/sda1.

6. Boot into Ubuntu and make sure you are Ok. If not use Rescatux to fix the boot problems.

7. Reconnect your windows hard drive, and use BIOS to select the boot drive. This will be your method of selecting the boot OS for now. At some point you can add windows to the GRUB2 bootloader, but that is not necessary. Once everything works reconnect the other 2 drives


8. Decide how you want use the other two drives. Drives to accessed by windows alone should be formatted within XP to NTFS. Drives to be accessed by Linux alone should be formatted from Kubuntu to ext4, with the optional step of mounting them in fstab. Drives that will be shared for passing data back and forth can be formatted to ntfs or fat32. Fat32 has a 4gb file size limit, NTFS permissions are a pain in the ass in Linux.

9. Close your PC.