Grub is not booting into one of my partitions.
 

I have installed two xubuntu systems on two partitons, xubuntu 32 and xubuntu AMD64.

The AMD64 system was installed last and works fine, grub is able to boot into it.

I can not boot into Xubuntu32 though.

Here is my grub/menu.lst file which I edited and cleaned up. ( I made a copy of my old menu.lst file but that was on the xubuntu32 install)

title XUbuntu32, kernel ???2.6.12-10 Default
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

title XUbuntu32, kernel ???2.6.12-10-generic Default (recovery mode)
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda3 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

title xUbuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot


title XUbuntu64, kernel 2.6.12-10-amd64-generic
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img
savedefault
boot

title XUbuntu64, kernel 2.6.12-10-amd64-generic (recovery mode)
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda4 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img
boot

title xUbuntu64, memtest86+
root (hd0,3)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title Other operating systems:
root

I put in the ???? so that once I can boot into this system I can out the correct kernel version in here.

I am not sure about where Xubuntu should be booting from although I think I put the fist install ie / on sda2 with /home on sda3, but I am not sure. How can I check this so that I can set grub to look in the correct place to boot?

As a last resort I could always reinstall the xubuntu32 and get the installer to correct my grub/menu.conf file but I would rather not do this as I am sure the install is fine it appears to be the grub/menu.lst file at fault.

I have a feeling that all I need to do is to correct the (hd0,x) parameters so that grub knows where to look.

Can anyone tell me how I can take a look at the drive partions in sda?

Many thanks.

what's on the 1st parition of your 1st hard drive?


seems to me like you need to change

root (hd0,1)

to

root (hd0,2)

does the recovery mode boot work??

Easy to find out. Boot into xubuntu 64 and mount sda1 and sda2 and sda3 and possible sda4 on some mount points and use ls to list the contents. home would contain your user accounts directories and / would contain the entire directory tree viz. /boot, /bin, /dev, /etc .............

btw whatz on the first partition, as your menu.lst file doesn't reference it ?

Thanks for the help guys but I really needed to get this system up and running today so I reinstalled Xubuntu 32bit, it only took about 30 mins anyway and as I had nto data to loose is no big deal.

my first partition on the first drive contains the /boot files and is about 100Mb. I assume it contains the Master Boot loader.

In any case i can now boot into all my windows Oss and both of my Xubuntu installs.

Thanks again.

no the mbr is not "on" any partitions. it's a special area on the disk... seperate to any partioning. the disk needs to be told what to do when it's read at boot time - that's what the mbr does.


i don't understand what you mean. the fact that there is a /boot on your 1st partition means nothing - every instance of linux has this. it's where the kernel lives.

satinet,

Thanks for clearing that up for me about the MBR. I thought that it was a separate partition.

Anyhow, the first partition I have is sda1, is about 100Mb and /boot is the mount point.

Not sure I completly understand all this but my system is working.

Things on hard drives live in "blocks" which are one or more "sectors".
The mbr lives in the first 512 byte block (block 0).
Partition tables for primary partitions live in this same block.
Partition tables for **extended** partitions live in blocks 1 and above
The actual partitions start in block 63 or 64, but I think this is convention and not a hard requirement.

Amadeus (the movie): After listening intently to Mozart's latest masterpiece, the emperor frowns, shakes his head, and declares: "No--too many notes."