ok....please read my troubleshooter....take some notes pls

you may need to use the live cd to read your partition's /boot/grub/menu.lst syntax but we change in t/shooter mode to this format

grub appears at menu....press C for commands
root (hd0,1).....should report a format....record what you see pls
if it looks ok
kernel /boot/ ....and press tab....hopefully you will see files like vmlinuz and select one then add your 'root=/dev/sda2 ro" bit

initrd /boot/initrd/.....and press tab to see what options and select correct one


assuming you did not make a separate boot partition etc....pls read the t/shooter to get an idea as you won't have a system until you press the reset to get into windows if the t/shooter fails to get you into linux

.....but I need to know what you typed and what you saw please


thanks for your patience

edit
pls post your /boot/menu.lst first if t/shooter seems too hard for you

stupid question, but by
Do you mean I should just put in the command "root (hd0,1)"? If I do that, it does nothing.

And no,thank you for having patience with ME. XD;

ok not sure where we are at...so forgive me if we go more verbose?

after bios has done its things....it should jump to a grub menu.

However, some distros use a hidden menu option.....but press Escape and it should bring up the full menu

1) are you seeing a grub menu pls?

then some distros have a timer....countdown to zero and boots the default distro unless (arrow down) key or escape key or C for commands etc is pressed

2) CAn you press C and can you see a grub prompt.....the word grub must appear to the left of prompt

then this is where we enter commands....and or press the TAB key...which autocompletes if only one option or gives a range of options

type without quotes "root (hd"

press TAB to auto complete....

3) what does it give you?

if you have only one drive it will jump to hd0 otherwise 2 lines show up
hd0
hd1 (from memory)

assuming you have 2 lines or more type the next bit so its
root (hd1,
and press TAB to see what you get
4) what do you get?

assuming you have successfully installed grub in mbr linked to hd1,0 balance of booting files we want

root (hd1,0)

see if that helps?

pls re-read the trouble shooter

5) it would be handy for me to know "what you do not understand" about the trouble shooter if we get this solved, so if we solve it....do you have time to give me feedback? no need to reply to that yet....just an idea

okay, I had the GRUB command line in the earlier post, but I tried again.
So.

I put into it
"GRUB> root HD"
and got "Error 11: Unrecognized device string."

So then I put, as you said:
"GRUB> root (hd", and pressed the TAB button.

After pressing the TAB button it became:
"GRUB> root (hd0,"

I pressed something else, I think it was enter or so, and it ended up listing my 3 partitions.

Hi

you appear to have " quotes" around grub > root (hd, "

in case you are confused on my above use of quotes

when you see grub and the prompt >.....you type root (hd (then press TAB key)....it should auto complete to
root (hd0 if you have one drive detected or give 2 lines hd0 and hd1

then type
root (hd1,....(and press TAB) to autocomplete

2) in case you knew all that what I would like you to do...if you are not succeeding is write down what you type AND what you see on the screen...so when you say it listed your partitions please report what you are seeing in grub terms.

3) if root (hd1,0) was successful say what you see

and the try the kernel line.....

kernel /boot/....(and press TAB key to see what files grub detects in /boot if boot is a sub-folder to /

lets pretend you see a vmlinuz then we can go

kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2 ro

4) but you already know if you read grub trouble shooter you can run the cat command

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

write down what you see please so we can guide you on the kernel line......you are likely to see UUID bits and resume stuff

5) I do not want you to lose patience as your last post is very encouraging....but if I can be verbose ..I would like you to succeed but I need you to .....(if you agree)

print out bits of the troubleshooter you need
print out bits of this post you need

reboot and write down what you typed and write down what you saw then I and others know what you did and what advice we can offer.

feel free to send me an email if you have any concerns....(click on my name and select the email option)

cheerio

I am writing down what's on the screen. I have HD(0, according to GRUB after pressing the TAB key. The quotations I put so that it is easier to read.

So basically you're saying I should type into the command prompt:

kernel /boot/

now?



BTW, if by any chance this may help, this is my menu.lst on the Ubuntu partition. It is located in /boot/grub/ ( accessed through ubuntu liveCD):


EDIT:

okay, I did some experimenting.I went into the GRUB prompt and put kernel /boot/, and then pressed TAB. It listed .maps, .bins, .baks, and some without an extension.

-Among them was 'vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic'.

- So I put 'boot /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic'.

- It told me "ERROR 8: Kernel must be loaded before booting."

After the error output, I simply put "kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic", THEN followed by "boot /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-16-generic".

It started doing something, and complained about various things, the last few being:

-"VFS:Cannot open root device. "<NULL>" or unknown-block (8,3)"
-"Please append a correct "root" boot option."

and

-"Kernel panic-not syncing:VFS. Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(8,3)"

Does this info help in any way, shape, or form?

Compare your fdisk -l output with the menu.lst output. Your Ubuntu entries all point to (hd0,2) and they should be (hd0,1). Your fdisk shous sda2 as Linux and that is equal to (hd0,1) in grub. Should boot with these entries unless you have made other changes.

If this doesn't work you can install grub from the Ubuntu Live CD, go to the grub prompt and enter these commands sequentially.

root (hd0.1)
setup (hd0)
quit

agreed yancek.

oops post 16 was correct for hd0 and I have got this post confused with another post and introduced hd1

No wonder you got confused if I do pay attention to the origial image of your partitions clearly sda and clearly hd0.

and grub in command mode
root (hd0,....press tab will show what linux partitions truly are as well

2) its lower case hd not HD BTW

3) thanks for the menu and yes here is my suggested commands without that nasty tab stuff

at grub menu press C for commands then at end of each line press enter

root (hd0,1)

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-17-generic root=UUID=44093d3c-a269-4d56-b8f8-84fa244d14b0 ro quiet splash

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-17-generic

boot

EDIT

if it boots....95 % confident this time....change those linux entries with root powers to (hd0,1) pls

4) Finally we can see why you lost linux....$%^ ubuntu has used a "savedefault" command on your windows entry

what that means is...if you go into windows....that becomes the default entry which is fine if you had a
timeout N....where N is number of seconds to countdown to zero and boot default....but you do not have one unless you forgot to include it in your post.

6) Most important pls add a timeout line at the top of your menu....above all of the titles

eg

timeout 5
default 7

delete your windows menu lines and the stuff about sda1 until it looks like

title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
root (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

do nothing and in boots your default 7....counting from zero windows is the 7th title

Okay! Here's what I did:

Booted up using Ubuntu LiveCD, went and edited the Menu via Sudo gedit, replacing "hd(0,2)" with "hd(0,1)". Added what Aus gave me ( and replaced the windows thing ). Saved, rebooted, and TA-DAAAAA!!! All fine.

Thanks guys for your patience and help! It's running without complaints, like before. I'll have to get back to this thread when stuff like this happens again.

God bless, and once again: thanks.