Linux - NewbieThis 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
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Recently, I installed xubuntu 10.10 on my machine which already had windows xp installed. After the installation (graphical) I rebooted the machine and it automatically started Windows.
There was no option to choose to boot xubuntu.
You didn't install the Grub bootloader to the master boot record of your hard drive (sda) so Grub cannot boot anything. You will need to either boot from the xp bootloader by first creating a file from the beginning of the Ubuntu partition, saving and copying to your xp partition (be sure you copy it to the root of the C:\ if that is your system partition), you will then need to modify the xp hidden boot.ini file to create an entry for Ubuntu.
Or, you can use your Ubuntu CD to install Grub to the mbr. Instructions here in Section 13, Reinstalling Grub2. The first method is very reliable and is also the easiest:
Followed the instructions in the post above and now I don't know how to boot into windows or ubuntu.... ( a simple command line grub is loaded, no options to boot windows ) Sorry but i'm a total linux noob Please help
Results.txt
Code:
Boot Info Script 0.60 from 17 May 2011
============================= Boot Info Summary: ===============================
=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
for (,msdos5)/boot/grub on this drive.
=> Syslinux MBR (3.61-4.03) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.
sda1: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows XP
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System: Windows XP
Boot files: /boot.ini /ntldr /NTDETECT.COM
sda2: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: Extended Partition
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:
sda5: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sda6: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sda7: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 11.04
Boot files: /etc/fstab
sda8: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: swap
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: vfat
Boot sector type: SYSLINUX 4.03 2010-10-22 ........>..sr>.......cT.8...0...~.....~...f...M.f.f....f..0~....>E}.u......
Boot sector info: Syslinux looks at sector 7356496 of /dev/sdb1 for its
second stage. SYSLINUX is installed in the directory.
The integrity check of the ADV area failed. No errors
found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files: /syslinux/syslinux.cfg /ldlinux.sys
============================ Drive/Partition Info: =============================
Drive: sda _____________________________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders, total 312500000 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 194,941,871 194,941,809 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 194,942,974 312,498,175 117,555,202 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 307,609,600 312,498,175 4,888,576 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 305,010,688 307,597,311 2,586,624 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 194,942,976 302,409,727 107,466,752 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 302,411,776 305,008,639 2,596,864 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Drive: sdb _____________________________________________________________________
Disk /dev/sdb: 4215 MB, 4215275520 bytes
2 heads, 63 sectors/track, 65340 cylinders, total 8232960 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Partition Boot Start Sector End Sector # of Sectors Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 64 8,232,959 8,232,896 b W95 FAT32
"blkid" output: ________________________________________________________________
Device UUID TYPE LABEL
/dev/loop0 squashfs
/dev/loop1 f205ea51-14b5-f843-8627-93b22f0977a4 ext2 casper-rw
/dev/sda1 F440BC5C40BC26F0 ntfs
/dev/sda5 679a7041-1b1f-4c87-a34d-a825faf98cd6 swap
/dev/sda6 27f958ba-01f3-4886-a85d-2ee5a962e03f swap
/dev/sda7 d82cf466-d290-41bb-be3e-dc55fb14557f ext4
/dev/sda8 8fc55709-e138-4f9a-9a9e-220663a5f29d swap
/dev/sdb1 4A16-05B7 vfat HAYDEN 3C
================================ Mount points: =================================
Device Mount_Point Type Options
/dev/loop0 /rofs squashfs (ro,noatime)
/dev/sda7 /target ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdb1 /cdrom vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
================================ sda1/boot.ini: ================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\bootsect.lnx="Linux"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=============================== sda7/etc/fstab: ================================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid -o value -s UUID' to print the universally unique identifier
# for a device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name
# devices that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda7 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=8fc55709-e138-4f9a-9a9e-220663a5f29d none swap sw 0 0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=================== sda7: Location of files loaded by Grub: ====================
GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
103.180732727 = 110.789468160 boot/vmlinuz-2.6.38-8-generic 1
103.180732727 = 110.789468160 vmlinuz 1
========================= sdb1/syslinux/syslinux.cfg: ==========================
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# D-I config version 2.0
include menu.cfg
default vesamenu.c32
prompt 0
timeout 50
# If you would like to use the new menu and be presented with the option to install or run from USB at startup, remove # from the following line. This line was commented out (by request of many) to allow the old menu to be presented and to enable booting straight into the Live Environment!
# ui gfxboot bootlogo
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
================= sdb1: Location of files loaded by Syslinux: ==================
GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
?? = ?? ldlinux.sys 1
?? = ?? syslinux/gfxboot.c32 1
?? = ?? syslinux/syslinux.cfg 1
?? = ?? syslinux/vesamenu.c32 1
============== sdb1: Version of COM32(R) files used by Syslinux: ===============
syslinux/gfxboot.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
syslinux/vesamenu.c32 : COM32R module (v4.xx)
======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc: ========================
Unknown BootLoader on sda2
00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000010 00 00 00 00 ce 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 5c 00 57 00 |............\.W.|
00000020 49 00 4e 00 44 00 4f 00 57 00 53 00 5c 00 61 00 |I.N.D.O.W.S.\.a.|
00000030 73 00 73 00 65 00 6d 00 62 00 6c 00 79 00 5c 00 |s.s.e.m.b.l.y.\.|
00000040 4e 00 61 00 74 00 69 00 76 00 65 00 49 00 6d 00 |N.a.t.i.v.e.I.m.|
00000050 61 00 67 00 65 00 73 00 5f 00 76 00 32 00 2e 00 |a.g.e.s._.v.2...|
00000060 30 00 2e 00 35 00 30 00 37 00 32 00 37 00 5f 00 |0...5.0.7.2.7._.|
00000070 33 00 32 00 5c 00 50 00 72 00 65 00 73 00 65 00 |3.2.\.P.r.e.s.e.|
00000080 6e 00 74 00 61 00 74 00 69 00 6f 00 6e 00 46 00 |n.t.a.t.i.o.n.F.|
00000090 72 00 61 00 6d 00 65 00 77 00 6f 00 23 00 5c 00 |r.a.m.e.w.o.#.\.|
000000a0 32 00 33 00 31 00 33 00 63 00 63 00 63 00 31 00 |2.3.1.3.c.c.c.1.|
000000b0 32 00 35 00 64 00 63 00 62 00 36 00 61 00 39 00 |2.5.d.c.b.6.a.9.|
000000c0 38 00 30 00 30 00 30 00 34 00 38 00 65 00 63 00 |8.0.0.0.4.8.e.c.|
000000d0 31 00 63 00 35 00 31 00 65 00 63 00 31 00 32 00 |1.c.5.1.e.c.1.2.|
000000e0 00 00 4c 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 5c 00 57 00 49 00 |..L.......\.W.I.|
000000f0 4e 00 44 00 4f 00 57 00 53 00 5c 00 61 00 73 00 |N.D.O.W.S.\.a.s.|
00000100 73 00 65 00 6d 00 62 00 6c 00 79 00 5c 00 74 00 |s.e.m.b.l.y.\.t.|
00000110 65 00 6d 00 70 00 5c 00 4d 00 46 00 34 00 50 00 |e.m.p.\.M.F.4.P.|
00000120 5a 00 47 00 58 00 45 00 56 00 43 00 00 00 1a 00 |Z.G.X.E.V.C.....|
00000130 00 00 09 00 00 00 32 00 33 00 31 00 33 00 43 00 |......2.3.1.3.C.|
00000140 43 00 7e 00 31 00 00 00 78 01 00 00 d4 00 00 00 |C.~.1...x.......|
00000150 01 00 00 00 12 ef cd ab 04 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000160 20 00 00 00 06 00 03 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 | ...............|
00000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 90 00 00 00 |................|
00000190 03 00 00 00 5c 00 57 00 49 00 4e 00 44 00 4f 00 |....\.W.I.N.D.O.|
000001a0 57 00 53 00 5c 00 61 00 73 00 73 00 65 00 6d 00 |W.S.\.a.s.s.e.m.|
000001b0 62 00 6c 00 79 00 5c 00 74 00 65 00 6d 00 00 fe |b.l.y.\.t.e.m...|
000001c0 ff ff 82 fe ff ff 02 28 b7 06 00 98 4a 00 00 fe |.......(....J...|
000001d0 ff ff 05 fe ff ff ac 7d 8f 06 56 7a 27 00 00 00 |.......}..Vz'...|
000001e0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200
=============================== StdErr Messages: ===============================
unlzma: Decoder error
./boot_info_script.sh: line 1579: [: 2.73495e+09: integer expression expected
Do you have a grub prompt when you boot "grub>" or "grub-rescue"?
If you look at your last bootinfo script it tells you the problem. You have Grub installed to the master boot record of the hard drive (sda) and as you can see, it is looking for the rest of the Grub files on sda5. sda5 is a swap partition so that won't work. I don't know why you have three swap partitions as you only need one regardless of the number of Linux installations you have.
You might be better off just reinstalling and deleting the swap partitions on sda6 and sda8 during the installation. You would then set your root partition to a newly created (and larger) sda6 and use the existing sda5 swap partition.
The method for booting from the grub> or grub-rescue prompt from the site I linked above would be to type the following if you have a grub prompt. You need to hit the enter key after each line:
Quote:
set root=(hd0,7)
Quote:
linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 ro
Quote:
initrd /initrd.img
Quote:
boot
I just modified the instructions on the Ubuntu site referenced above to point to sda7. Never had to do this myself so it is untested but from the Ubuntu documentation site.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
Problems again
