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It seems you have not tried ESC key at the boot time as taylorkh suggested (it may not be shift key in this version). Pressing ESC key may bring out the grub menu.
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.4,DD-WRT micro plus ssh,lfs-6.6,Fedora 15,Fedora 16
Posts: 3,233
Rep:
Code:
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" --class windows --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root B678B16378B122D3
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
looking back at your grub.cfg, windows IS in your boot loader properly as well, so the real question is why the menu isn't showing up.
I uncommented the resolution line in /etc/default/grub GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 and ran sudo update.grub. The PC still boots to a grub menu but now the menu is BIG
Remember to run sudo update.grub before rebooting. Otherwise your changes will not take effect. Don't ask me how I know. It took about a half dozed extra reboots before I trained myself to do this every time
Update 2... I have confirmed that the Windows repair described earlier worked on my dual boot PC. It now boots Windows ONLY. I may try manually installing grub and see if that will bring back the option to boot Linux. I have installed grub manually once but I do not remember all the steps.
Update 3... I reinstalled grub per these instructions https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...stalling_GRUB2 by booting from the Ubuntu 11.10 live CD and following the ChRoot instructions towards the bottom of the page. I can now boot Linux or XP.
So in summery I would recommend:
1 - try uncommenting the resolution setting as described above
2 - try installing and playing with the startupmanager program
3 - next to last resort repair Windows to get back to where you started from and reinstall grub
4 - last resort - repair Windows and reinstall Linux - delete all Linux partitions during the install and make sure grub installs in the MBR (I think that is the default choice).
Last edited by taylorkh; 11-05-2011 at 06:17 PM.
Reason: update
Latest updates on my computers weirdness: I reinstalled windows and instead of Xp I got a Windows 7. I read some threads that said that windows Xp can't really stand Linux so I got rid of it. Now the funny thing is that after completly reinstalling windows and formating my computers drives to their initial state I installed Linux. And guess what Windows stopped booting AGAIN. So I reinstalled Windows and Linux stoped working. So I had to format the partition again.
I gave up on installing Ubuntu like an op, right now I'll just use the wubi thingy that can be installed from windows and which happens to work on this temperamental machine of mine which can't stand two operating sistems.
What exactly is the hard drive configuration in this PC? From the fdisk -l data you provided earlier it looked like you had a 160 GB drive and a 4 GB USB flash drive in the PC. Is this correct? Did you at one time try to install Linux on the flash drive? Perhaps that caused some problems. Have you tried running the PC without the flash drive plugged in?
I hate to see you give up after all the work you have done. Would you please describe the PC which you are using? Make and model, how much RAM memory, what video card etc.?
Hey mid, i had a similar problem it sounds like with my install of 7 and ubuntu (actually i couldnt get anything to boot after the first time i booted into windows could use ubuntu all i wanted up til that time and kept restarting) but see my thread http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ws-7-a-910784/ and try the trick with reformatting your drives from within the ubuntu Live CD and gparted
Try unhiding sda1 then run update-grub also if grub is just loading directly to ubuntu then some how you have it set to load the last os that you used.
Also wins xp works fine with linux
Thanks for the sugestion, but I am going to refrain from experimenting on my computer for a while . It's working alright right now and I don't want to mess it up...again. Wubi is slower on my machine than Ubuntu 11.10 was, but at least it alows windows to boot as well .
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.4,DD-WRT micro plus ssh,lfs-6.6,Fedora 15,Fedora 16
Posts: 3,233
Rep:
hehe, best of luck
failure and blowing things up is a quick way to learn if you take the opportunity to do so. I lost count of how many times i blew up my Linux system when i was first learning, hope you won't end up having to re-install your system as many times as I did before getting into the groove
That hardware does not seem out of the ordinary. When you decide to experiment again please start a thread and I am sure that a lot of folks will offer advice and someone will come up with the answer.
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