grub not installing

[allanj]

I recently got a new box and wanted to set it up as usual with a WinXP/Kubuntu dual boot. Installed WinXP, then Kubuntu. The Kubuntu installation seemed to go OK (dapper), but when I rebooted there was no grub: I boot straight into WinXP. When I try to manually install grub, I see the problem, but I don't know what to do about it:

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       16708   134206978+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2           16709       30140   107892540   83  Linux
/dev/sda3           30141       30401     2096482+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hda: 300.0 GB, 300090728448 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36483 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1               1       18241   146520801    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2           18242       36483   146528865   83  Linux

sudo grub

grub> root (hd0,0)
Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x7

Any suggestions? Any help appreciated.

[DrRider]

Re: grub not installing

Which one do you use to boot your box, IDE or SATA? I think grub was installed on your IDE drive already because grub will see the IDE drive as the first drive (hd0). So, if you are using SATA drive to boot your box, my suggestion is to reinstall grub to hd1 using:

sudo grub

grub> root (hd1,1) #The partition that contains /boot/grub/stage1
grub> setup (hd1) #Set it up to the MBR

or... if you don't want to mess around grub command line, just remove IDE drive and reinstall again.

Hope this will help. Good luck.

[allanj]

Re: grub not installing

Thanks! Your first suggestion didn't work out, but yanking the IDE drive did: up and running.