LinuxQuestions.org
Review your favorite Linux distribution.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie
User Name
Password
Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question? If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place!

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 12-26-2009, 01:11 AM   #1
xph
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Dec 2009
Posts: 3

Rep: Reputation: 0
Defunct WinXP in Ubuntu boot menu after upgrading from a dual-boot


Hey everyone,

I'm a new Linux user and also new to these forums. I started out with WinXP and two partitions, C and D. WinXP was installed on C. Needing Linux to run some computational software I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10. It had an install-within-Windows option so I did that and decided to dump it onto the D drive. A couple of days later (yesterday) I decided to upgrade from WinXP to Win7 while still keeping Ubuntu. After backing everything up and installing Win7 on top of WinXP, I noticed that Ubuntu was still intact - good news!

The boot menu was a little weird though. There were initially 3 options:

Previous Version of Windows
Windows 7
Ubuntu

Selecting Windows 7 boots Win7, great. Selecting either of the other two options brings me to the Linux boot menu (GNU Grub v1.97~beta4), where I get to select some version of Ubuntu in regular mode or recovery mode... and then an extra option at the bottom:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)

Selecting this option brings up an error: unknown command 'drivemap'.

I like having everything nice and clean so I set out to fix these problems. I first removed the "Previous Version of Windows" using a tool called EasyBCD in Win7, but that program does not detect anything Linux. So now I would like to remove the extraneous "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" selection item in grub. Well, either that, or update it to a bootable version of Win7, which I guess is fine also. I probably have to edit some file in Ubuntu, right? Following advice on some other thread, I checked /boot/grub/menu.lst but the file doesn't exist. Can anybody offer some advice?

Thanks so much in advance, and merry belated Christmas to all!
 
Old 12-26-2009, 01:13 AM   #2
xph
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Dec 2009
Posts: 3

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Oh, a clarification. Ubuntu itself starts up and works perfectly fine. I just wanted to fix an annoyance in the boot menu, is all. Thanks!
 
Old 12-26-2009, 03:33 AM   #3
syg00
LQ Veteran
 
Registered: Aug 2003
Location: Australia
Distribution: Lots ...
Posts: 21,119

Rep: Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120Reputation: 4120
Quote:
Originally Posted by xph View Post
I like having everything nice and clean so I set out to fix these problems.
Uh oh ... I hear alarm bells ...
Quote:
... using a tool called EasyBCD in Win7, but that program does not detect anything Linux.
It certainly does - one of its primary uses (for me at least).
Quote:
I probably have to edit some file in Ubuntu, right? Following advice on some other thread, I checked /boot/grub/menu.lst but the file doesn't exist.
Indeed - that advice was for the previous version of grub. You are using grub2 with Karmic - see this for some (good) background.

Last edited by syg00; 12-26-2009 at 03:35 AM.
 
1 members found this post helpful.
Old 12-26-2009, 11:51 AM   #4
xph
LQ Newbie
 
Registered: Dec 2009
Posts: 3

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 0
Thanks so much for your response. The link was very helpful. update-grub was the key command I was missing. The problem has been solved now.

Thanks again!
 
Old 12-27-2009, 10:48 AM   #5
anand.arumug
Member
 
Registered: Oct 2009
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Distribution: ubuntu, centos
Posts: 68
Blog Entries: 2

Rep: Reputation: 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by xph View Post
Hey everyone,

I'm a new Linux user and also new to these forums. I started out with WinXP and two partitions, C and D. WinXP was installed on C. Needing Linux to run some computational software I decided to install Ubuntu 9.10. It had an install-within-Windows option so I did that and decided to dump it onto the D drive. A couple of days later (yesterday) I decided to upgrade from WinXP to Win7 while still keeping Ubuntu. After backing everything up and installing Win7 on top of WinXP, I noticed that Ubuntu was still intact - good news!

The boot menu was a little weird though. There were initially 3 options:

Previous Version of Windows
Windows 7
Ubuntu

Selecting Windows 7 boots Win7, great. Selecting either of the other two options brings me to the Linux boot menu (GNU Grub v1.97~beta4), where I get to select some version of Ubuntu in regular mode or recovery mode... and then an extra option at the bottom:

Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)

Selecting this option brings up an error: unknown command 'drivemap'.

I like having everything nice and clean so I set out to fix these problems. I first removed the "Previous Version of Windows" using a tool called EasyBCD in Win7, but that program does not detect anything Linux. So now I would like to remove the extraneous "Microsoft Windows XP Professional" selection item in grub. Well, either that, or update it to a bootable version of Win7, which I guess is fine also. I probably have to edit some file in Ubuntu, right? Following advice on some other thread, I checked /boot/grub/menu.lst but the file doesn't exist. Can anybody offer some advice?

Thanks so much in advance, and merry belated Christmas to all!
I think you are getting the WinXP entry in your boot menu probably because it is still there in the /boot/grub/menu.lst file. But its strange that you say the menu.lst file is not there. Without that, I dont know how you are getting that boot menu

You can try this: Boot up your computer in Ubuntu and then open a terminal window and type:

Code:
sudo vi /boot/grub/menu.lst
You can replace 'vi' with the editor you are comfortable with. Scroll all the way down and you should see the entry for WinXP and Win7. Comment out or remove the WinXP portion. This will get rid of the WinXP option from the boot menu.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How to make XP boot as default OS in WinXP-Ubuntu dual boot system svin Ubuntu 14 11-04-2009 04:49 PM
Help Upgrading XP/Ubuntu Dual Boot to 8.10 JonnyBGood Ubuntu 15 12-18-2008 03:54 PM
Problem with Ubuntu/WinXp dual-boot Ay-Karamba! Linux - General 4 09-08-2005 07:27 PM
Need help fixing boot problem on Ubuntu/WinXp dual-boot Ay-Karamba! Linux - General 5 09-06-2005 09:20 PM
Upgrading to WinXP on a dual-boot system srcosmo Linux - General 6 05-26-2004 08:20 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Newbie

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:28 AM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration