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I have looked into the 1000s of hits returned by Google, but no dice. So I have come here to ask for help to get my system in operational mode again .
I run dual-boot Vista and Ubuntu. I am now using an Ubuntu Live CD. Here is some info that might be useful:
Code:
root@ubuntu:/# fdisk -l
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Warning: ignoring extra data in partition table 5
Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x030bda60
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 24260 194866144+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 24261 24758 4000185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 24759 28828 32692275 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 28829 30401 12627968 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 24759 24759 4096 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
I have done the "partition reordering" using fdisk /dev/sda which changed the order, but did very little about my problem.
There is no /boot/grub directory now (i.e. when I am using the Live CD), so I have no menu.lst file to play with (or copy here).
Any help with resolving this issue would be much appreciated.
There should be a /boot directory on /dev/sda2. Do these commands at a terminal:
Code:
sudo mkdir /mnt/part2
sudo mount -t ext2 /dev/sda2/ /mnt/part2
cd /mnt/part2/boot
ls
and you should see the listing of your /boot directory. Each time you boot your liveCD, these commands can be issued to mount any partition. Looking at your partition table:
Code:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 24260 194866144+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 24261 24758 4000185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 24759 28828 32692275 5 Extended
/dev/sda4 28829 30401 12627968 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 24759 24759 4096 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
I notice there is no boot flag set for /dev/sda2. This may be the problem you are having.
Solution: In the liveCD menus, somewhere you will find a app called gparted. Run this, and you will see your partition table in a GUI. Right click on /dev/sda2 and select 'Manage Flags'. click on 'boot' at the top and click Ok. Then reboot your machine without the liveCD and see does that solve your problem.
Last edited by irishbitte; 06-04-2009 at 07:26 PM..
/dev/sda2 is a swap partition, so grub won't boot off that. In fact I'm nor sure what you are trying to do to be honest - you don't appear to have linux installed on this disk.
/dev/sda2 is a swap partition, so grub won't boot off that. In fact I'm nor sure what you are trying to do to be honest - you don't appear to have linux installed on this disk.
Hey,
That is exactly why I don't really know how to approach the problem. I mean I was using Ubuntu, and the rebooted the system, and was faced with the problem that I am facing. It almost looks to me like /dev/sd3 should be the Linux partition, but it says that it isn't. Again, I have no technical way of proving this to myself, but I had 2+1 Windows partitions (+1 = small recovery partition), a partition where Linux was installed + a Swap partition.
If you have any idea on how to proceed with this, please advise . If unnecessary, I am prepared to reinstall Ubuntu, but would prefer not to have to do the same for Vista.
/dev/sda2 is a swap partition, so grub won't boot off that. In fact I'm nor sure what you are trying to do to be honest - you don't appear to have linux installed on this disk.
billymayday is 100% right there. Guess it's time I went to bed!
It does seem that you do not have linux installed, however, you seem to have two HPFS/NTFS partitions, is that correct? I assume /dev/sda1 is Vista?
You can try looking at /dev/sda3, but it looks to me like you've fried your partition table. I suggest a reinstall of ubuntu, or you risk instability no matter what you do.
/dev/sda3 is an extended partition, so its only role is to "hold" logical partitions.
Is there any free space on sda?
/dev/sda1 and /dev/sda4 are Windows partitions. Is /dev/sda5 the recovery? I don't see any linux partition (it would be Id 83)
I am not sure how to check for certain if there is (and how much) free space on the entire HD. But from the fdisk -l, and looking at the sectors information, I sort of guess there is no free space.
Also, the recovery is sda4, so I am not sure what sda5 is. It looks tiny.
--
Edit: by sectors I mean cylinders.
Last edited by ibaniski; 06-04-2009 at 07:59 PM..
Reason: wrong terminology
It actually looks to me as if you extended partition is empty, with only one cylinder used by /dev/sda5. I can't look at a disk with an extended partition at the moment, but that is my guess.
i would assume that you could install linux on a new logical partition using blocks 24760-28828
Try booting from a live cd and then run gparted to look at your drive.
Your partition numbers seem out of order.
Off hand it looks like you probably deleted your Linux partition (sda3) and created an extended partition in its place!
You then created a small logical Fat32 partition within it thus the sda5 designation.
But you had an existing sda4 (ntfs) partition from before.
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Grub error 17 - already tried Google
.
. If unnecessary, I am prepared to reinstall Ubuntu, but would prefer not to have to do the same for Vista.
