dual ubuntu xp broke--trying to load stage 2 from wrong partition
 

I had just gotten dual boot with Ubuntu Intrepid added to drive that was previously only XP.

Something happened where now it is trying to load stage2 from (hd3,4) whereas it should be loading everything from (hd0,4). I may have gotten an additional grub install on hd3 by mistake, in all my efforts to make this work.

hd0 / hd1 is a raid-1 mirror also fyi.

How can I tell my grub to look for stage2 in (hd0,4)?
Can I remove grub from hd3?
I have tried of course the root/setup/reboot stuff and many other things I found while googling, including various things with Super Grub Disk.

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 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
Disk identifier: 0x78d578d5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 17294 138914023+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 17295 30401 105281977+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 17295 29863 100960461 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 29864 30401 4321453+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x78d578d5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 17294 138914023+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 17295 30401 105281977+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 17295 29863 100960461 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 29864 30401 4321453+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdc: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x91c53552

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 30401 244196001 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdd: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 969021 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x25a45971

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd1 1 969018 488385040+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sde: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc80f68d5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 1 30401 244196001 7 HPFS/NTFS


----------------------------------------------------
menu.lst (minus comments)
-------------------------
title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic
uuid 3604ff57-e944-4928-ab70-0811188e3a12
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=3604ff57-e944-4928-ab70-0811188e3a12 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic
quiet

title Ubuntu 8.10, kernel 2.6.27-7-generic (recovery mode)
uuid 3604ff57-e944-4928-ab70-0811188e3a12
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-7-generic root=UUID=3604ff57-e944-4928-ab70-0811188e3a12 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-7-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10, memtest86+
uuid 3604ff57-e944-4928-ab70-0811188e3a12
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet


title Other operating systems:
root


title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1


title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd1,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd1)
map (hd1) (hd0)
chainloader +1


title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd4,0)
savedefault
makeactive
map (hd0) (hd4)
map (hd4) (hd0)
chainloader +1

Bear in mind that I myself am also a nOOb, but I've had success with dual booting Ubuntu 8.10 and XP.

If you boot into the Ubuntu Live CD, you can easily access the partition manager, GParted. From there you can change the flags for each partition. Make sure that the partition containing GRUB is set as boot.

If you don't have any luck there, you could try turning off RAID in the BIOS. I've seen a lot of posts about issues with RAID.

You might try adding this line to your Ubuntu entries:

So it looks like this:

decided to break the raid
 

I finally decided to break the raid.

I'm just going to install linux on one of the two former raid drives. The other one I already filled with an XP image I fortunately made a few days ago before I attempted the dual boot.

So my plan now, when I have more time probably tomorrow, is to put Ubuntu Intrepid on the other of my former raid drives, with all other drives physically unplugged and just use BIOS and/or one-time-boot menu to choose what to boot to... Unless someone has a better suggestion but I don't even want to look at grub at this point.

When I get ubuntu and the software I want properly set up, I expect that I'll only ever have to boot to windows on the rare occasion I want to play with some audio software (my sort of home DAW).



Chris