installed Ubuntu, can't boot, grub error 18, can I fix without a floppy drive?
 

I am new to Linux. Installed Ubuntu 8.04 to a brand new unformatted hard drive. Chose the option to do a "guided" installation. Answered all the questions, then removed the CD and re-started the machine, and I get something like "grub error 18" on the screen and nothing else happens. Some of the postings I've read state to fix with a floppy by running FIXMBR. But my machine has no floppy drive, is it possible to run from a CD? Or is it best to just re-install Ubuntu and use small partitions?
Thanks in advance,
Hank

Did you choose the option to install Grub to the mbr?
No other OS on the system?

Grub Error 18 : Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS
This error is returned when a read is attempted at a linear block address beyond the end of the BIOS translated area. This generally happens if your disk is larger than the BIOS can handle (512MB for (E)IDE disks on older machines or larger than 8GB in general)

Is LBA enabled in BIOS?

hard drive partitioning learning curve
 

Is LBA inabled? Don't know. Will check. I have windows xp on another drive, no problems with it. Added another 250 Gbyte hard drive just for Linux. The Ubuntu installer has some options for partitioning that are over my head. If I manually partition the new hard drive, what do I specify for a "mount point"?

install grub to the mbr
 

And how does one "install grub to the mbr"?

Thanks for the help.

It would help if you could give us a fdisk -ls from terminal as root. This way we can see the disk numbers and layout.

Use a Live CD and post the output of 'fdisk -l' as suggested by Larry Webb.
Usually, the last thing done during an install is the bootloader and the default is to install to mbr. Did you create any partitions and/or format on the 2nd drive before/during the install? Sounds like you need to do a little reading on partitioning drives but post the fdisk -l and see what we can do.

1. ask: If I manually partition the new hard drive, what do I specify for a "mount point"?
ans: You just need to type "/" for mount point.

2. ask: And how does one "install grub to the mbr"?
ans: click it anyway. Ubuntu Grub will overwrite Xp mbr. But don't worry, Your Ubuntu Grub is able to read Xp mbr so you can use xp normally.

Hope this help you

Ups!!! I am sorry! For no 1 answer, i posted "/". I made a mistake. I think you want to located root place.

For mount point, i usually put it in where my linux installation take a place

problem solved!
 

Thanks, everyone, for your help. It really is nice to know somebody's out there!

I found the cause of my problem in another thread. What I did to fix things was go into my CMOS setup menu and set the new hard drive options to "AUTO". That was all it took.

It never occurred to me that a new drive would be handled differently than the original installed drive. Should have checked that before starting all this.

Thanks again.