Conversely, without his inattention to a minute detail (that only the greenest of newbz like me wouldn't infer), I wouldn't have made a friend :-]

Thanks again, friend!

You'll find out that a lot of friendships are build upon the foundations of LinuxQuestion amigo.

Even though I marked this thread SOLVED,
I'd like to add more, and possibly UNsolve it.
I am having more problems, very similar.

I anyone thinks I should start a NEW THREAD, please say so, and then I will. No offense taken. But I think the solutions will go hand-in-hand with the problem as above.

After much research, I have found some interesting, simple-yet-confusing documentation for the remedy of GRUB error 17.

I seek advice from Eric or any other qualified person to guide me so I don't blow out my system.

I am getting error 17, when trying to install Kubuntu 9.10.
Here is the link to the site with what seems to be a remedy. It is Ubuntu Forums. Entry #9 is of particular interest.

My system specs are on page 1 of this LQ thread.

Again, if anyone thinks this belongs in a new thread, just say so. Thanks!

so whats the exact problem
its not booting at all?

whats your BIOS type?
Phoenix?

Please explain exactly when the install fails?

Is Kubuntu using Grub2?

Ok hold...
Gettin the kid outta bath!

Ok, Linus :-)

The issues up to post 242 are solved. I successfully Installed Debian KDE, next to winderz in a crappy old 20GB HDD. The Most prominent, or maybe only, error, was that I was leaving a copy of the ISO on the partition-to-be, and not leaving a copy in C:\

So, I switched HDD, to a 60GB. I installed winderz, and created partitions, and formatted successfully. The only thing different is that Im not using a NETINST. Before I go any further, you think I should try it?

I'm an idiot sometimes....

So after meticulously following instructions for the Grub4Dos trick, I restarted, as instructed:

1. I selected Start GRUB
2. I selected Install Linux
3. Just 5 seconds after, the screen spits this:
"Booting 'find /menu.lst'
find --set-root /menu.lst
error 17: file not found"

I started Goooogling this issue. Read the Ubuntu forum above. Thought, what-the-heck, I'll just poke into the BIOS n have a looky. Doingso, and seeing my DVD drive listed there reminded me that the DVD unit was NOT plugged into the IDE cable during the successful install.

Powered down.
Uninstalled DVD.
Rebooted.
Results:
1. I selected Start GRUB
2. I selected Install Linux
3. Just 5 seconds after, the screen spits this:
"Booting 'Install Linux'
kernel (hd0,0)/boot/v,linuz
[linux-bzimage, setup=0x3400, size=0x3b26e0]
initrd (hd0,0)/boot/initrd.gz
error17: file not found"

Although only a small change, removing the DVD made a change. My unqualified opinion says that #9 on Ubuntu forum may be right. But, I don't really know....

well
something' wrong


its not finding the initrd.gz

However, if you installed Ubuntu or Debian
it should be looking for vmlinuz-2.6.??.?-generic
or some such

not vmlinuz/initrd.gz

98% of the time vmlinuz/initrd.gz
are the kernel/initrd found on livecd's
not installed systems...

what kernel and initrd.img is in your /boot folder??

and what system(ubuntu?) do you have installed and HOW did you install it??

vmlinuz & initrd.gz

what about the other questions-
and what system(ubuntu?) do you have installed and HOW did you install it??

also, whats your partition layout?
like

hda1 =
hda2 =
etc

Darn, I posted like 15 min ago. Didnt make it..

For the 20 GB drive: xp 8GB partition, Debian 12GB.
Used grub4dos with NETINST ISO, which only worked with a CD in the drive! Ha! Took all 3 methods at once to get it installed...


_________________

This 60 GB drive:
Partitions:

08 GB NTFS winderz xp
32 GB FAT32 Kubuntu, tentative...
16 GB FAT32 (other linux eventually)
03 GB SWAP

I can get Kubuntu from Ubuntu w/ apt-get.
Going to try Ubuntu install.
Back in a bit...

whoa

theres your issue maybe
your booting ubuntu and other linux from a fat32 filesystem?
are you booting the livecd/usb or is that a fully
installled system?

Linux can only run from a ext2/3/4, etc type partition
except when running from livecd/usb

and your using grub4dos to boot?

Mmmm...I think you/me/somebody may be complicating things
lets break it down to a reg install from a livecd/usb??

wait
come back...

gimme your top 5-10 distros
you wanna try out and were gonna use one of the fat partitions
to boot the 5-10 distros from
and then you can install each one to the other partition till you find one you like
you can also run each livecd one from the fat32 partition with persistence
I'll make it real simple
you down?