[SOLVED] Newbie problem getting Ubuntu s/w to start on triple boot Acer Aspire One netbook

meggiedude · 05-13-2011, 03:21 AM

Hi there,

I currently have an Acer Aspire One netbook 120GB drive which came with Linpus lite preloaded. I have set-up dual boot a year or so ago. It now dual boots to either Linpus or Vista (yes I know!) via the Linpus grub.conf ( I got the instructions I think from here: http://jargongeneration.com/AcerAspire/index.php)

I want to get the latest Ubuntu 11.04 build on this as a third boot option. If this work OK I may ditch the Linpus or Vista build at some point.

So I've used Gparted on a USB drive to setup up three extended Logical Partitions (sda5, 6 and 7).

I then loaded Ubuntu s/w via an external drive with
/boot on 100MB /sda5
Swap on 1GB /sda6
/ on the 40GB+ /sda7

When I was asked for the bootloader location in the Ubuntu install gui I chose /sda5 (out of complete ignorance)

All fine at this point.
What do I have to get the linpus lite /boot/grub/grub.conf to see and start ubuntu?? Or is there something else I need to do??

Also, how does Ubuntu know which swap partition to use, as there is already one for the linpus lite install.

Thanks in advance

MD

papul1993 · 05-13-2011, 04:51 AM

I think different linux distros can share the same swap partition. And you should have chose sda instead of sda5 to install the bootloader. try running the ubuntu installer again and this time choose sda for bootloader install location.

yancek · 05-13-2011, 09:31 AM

Since Linpus is not very popular and you may be switching to Ubuntu, papul1993s suggestion is good. If you want to add an entry to Linpus grub.conf try this:

Quote:

title Ubuntu-10.10
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/grub/core.img
savedefault
boot

This works for me booting Ubuntu Grub2 from Grub Legacy. Obviously, you need to core.img file in /boot/grub and if this fails, that would be the first thing to check. You could also try the chainload command entry since you have Grub2 installed on sda5.

meggiedude · 05-13-2011, 11:31 AM

Thanks Gents.
Well I'm getting somewhere now thanks to papul1993s suggestion.
I now have the startup grub menu giving me the Ubuntu boot options, plus the Vista one (Ubuntu seemed to recognise I had Vista on the disk and setup this up for me). These boot options work OK and I now have configured Ubuntu for wireless network, users etc.

Clearly the bootloader for Ubuntu has replaced the linpus bootloader.
What do I do to add the linpus startup to the end of the Ubuntu grub boot list - i.e the other way round to what yancek detailed above (FYI, Linpus OS is on sda1, and its swap on sda2).
I would have a go at editing the new grub.cfg file, but there a bit at the top that tells you not to do that.

I want to leave Linpus on the netbook on there for two reasons :
Firstly, its a low footprint OS, so it uses less battery than most other OS's on this netbook (which runs out of battery very quick)
Secondly my wife is used to using Linpus and will need some education to use the Ubuntu. So for now I still need it operational on the Acer.

BTW, I am used to working with Windows, and I was a UNIX admin some years ago, but I am not that familiar with Linux configs/protocol/commands. So you may have to spell things out a little for me.

Cheers

yancek · 05-13-2011, 01:19 PM

In Ubuntu, open a terminal and run: sudo update-grub
Should pick up Linpus and add it to the menu. If it doesn't, run os-prober from terminal

meggiedude · 05-13-2011, 04:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

In Ubuntu, open a terminal and run: sudo update-grub
Should pick up Linpus and add it to the menu. If it doesn't, run os-prober from terminal

Tried that yancek. No joy unfortunately.
Linpus is not listed.

sudo update-grub gives me:

Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /memtest86+.bin
Found Windows Vista (loader) on /dev/sda2

(P.S I thought that the swap for linpus was on sda2 - but must have got that wrong as it appears from this that the vista loader runs from there - How do I get a list of the latest partition table?)

yancek · 05-13-2011, 07:03 PM

Quote:

How do I get a list of the latest partition table?)

You can get your partition information from a terminal in Ubuntu with: sudo fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command)

meggiedude · 05-14-2011, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

You can get your partition information from a terminal in Ubuntu with: sudo fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command)

OK, Thanks

Well my parition table looks like this
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 3824 30716248+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 3825 8309 36018172 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 19327 19457 1052257+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4 8309 19326 88499201 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 8309 8322 102400 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 8322 8452 1048576 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 13674 19326 45402112 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 8452 13479 40378368 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 13479 13673 1559552 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I don't know how I've ended up with 3 linux swap partition - but never mind.
SO I believe Linpus partitions are sda1 and sda3. The rest are either the Vista partitions or Ubuntu
So still struggling to get those Linpus partitions in the startup menu

meggiedude · 05-14-2011, 04:55 AM

Just to add to this. Another reason I need to get the linpus working again is that Ubuntu seems to have a bug when connecting to hidden wireless networks. Other have the same issue with Ubuntu 11.04

Fail mode is as described here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/760015

I have to f*nny around every time I boot, or sometimes even if I switch users, to get my hidden wireless network to connect. This is more than just an annoyance as it effectively prevents my wife and kids from using Ubuntu and this netbook unless I am in the house.

yancek · 05-14-2011, 04:28 PM

Quote:

Another reason I need to get the linpus working again

Did you try running os-prober? In a terminal just type: sudo os-prober, you should get some output and hopefully it will show your Linpus kernel? I'm not sure whether you will need to run: sudo update-grub after, I don't use Grub2 but I doubt it would hurt to do so.

RockDoctor · 05-14-2011, 06:19 PM

If this were to happen (again; it's already happened a couple of times) to my AOA-150, here's what I'd do (again):

1. Boot from a live USB drive
2. Install grub legacy (into the live environment)
3. As root (replace x with the location of your Linpus partition)

Code:

grub
root (hd0,x)
setup (hd0)

4. Mount the Linpus partition if it's not already mounted
5. chroot to the Linpus partition
6. Fix /boot/grub/grub.conf. The entry for Ubuntu on sda5 would look like this:

Code:

title Ubuntu 11.04 sda5
	rootnoverify (hd0,4)
	chainloader +1

meggiedude · 05-16-2011, 03:08 AM

Thanks RockDoctor - a few questions as below in red.
Sorry to ask them but as I say I am a newbie to the Ubuntu/Linux way of working.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RockDoctor

If this were to happen (again; it's already happened a couple of times) to my AOA-150, here's what I'd do (again):

1. Boot from a live USB drive I take it you mean a Live Ubuntu USB drive - not Linpus?
2. Install grub legacy (into the live environment) As in "Uninstall Grub 2" ? - as shown here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ing%20GRUB%202
3. As root Sorry - but in which file am I making these changes?
(replace x with the location of your Linpus partition)

Code:

grub
root (hd0,x)
setup (hd0)

4. Mount the Linpus partition if it's not already mounted
As in??: sudo umount /dev/sda1 /mnt
5. chroot to the Linpus partition - as in?? : sudo chroot /mnt
6. Fix /boot/grub/grub.conf. This bit I do recognise as I had it in the Linpus grub.conf when I tried to get this working.
The entry for Ubuntu on sda5 would look like this:

Code:

title Ubuntu 11.04 sda5
	rootnoverify (hd0,4)
	chainloader +1

I may give this a go, however I am blown away by this latest version of Ubuntu. I did load a prior version of Ubuntu (ver 8.04 or 8.10 I think) some time ago - but this version looks a lot friendlier to use for a novice.
If I can persuade my wife to start using Ubuntu then I may end up blowing Linpus away at some point.

RockDoctor · 05-16-2011, 07:10 AM

My approach above is to do things the Fedora way (Linpus was based on Fedora 8; Fedora 15 comes out later this month), by reinstalling the bootloader (the legacy version of grub) used by Linpus and Fedora. .

To answer your question:
1. A non-Linpus live USB. The Ubuntu live USB should be fine
2. Yes
3. The code in question #3 is run from a terminal as root
The value of x should be 0
4. I recommend mounting to /opt, just because I know nothing else will be mounted there
5,6. My bad - this is unnecessary. Since you're already root, exit grub (type quit at the grub prompt). Then, while you're still in the terminal window, gedit /opt/boot/grub/grub.conf.

meggiedude · 05-16-2011, 07:18 AM

OK, cheers RockDoctor. Will try it out.

meggiedude · 05-18-2011, 07:25 AM

OK, I've cracked it, although I'm not sure which of my actions did so.

I struggled with your instructions Rockdoctor when it came to installing the legacy grub to the Live USB env. I created the live env OK, but got an error near the end of the legacy grub install.

SO I tried another method I'd seen in the official Ubuntu GRUB2 online docs, namely to change the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file, which allows new entries to be added to the grub.cfg.
To get the right linpus grub.conf syntax I mounted Linpus sda1 partition (to /opt as you advised) for reference, making the corresponding additions for Linpus to the 40_custom_file. Then I ran a grub-update.

This added two, not one, entry to the grub startup menu.
So it looks like I did not need my entry in 40_custom_file after all. I removed these changes, updated the grub again, and Bob's your uncle, it works :-)

So I don't know what fixed this: the mount? other updates I've done to Ubuntu via the s/w manager over the last couple of days,? or something else?
I have updated grub in the past a couple of times, and it only ever found the Ubuntu and Vista loads, not the Linpus one, so a little confused here.

Does not matter anyway. I now have a grub2 menu entry at boot which allows me into Linpus.

Thanks for your help.

MD.