Help needed please! I keep getting Ubuntu 13.04 (and other versions, Mint etc) failing to boot after the install ("not a system disk, insert system disk and press enter").

I have tried Boot-repair, Grub2 etc, all no good. I have my log of boot repair here http://paste.Ubuntu.com/5924774 but I can't find the problem.

I've tried it on a HDD in an machines 770 and Acer aspire T160, both which originally came with Win XP.

The Linux distro installs fine, but won't boot.

Any help at all please? #Ubuntu #boot #bootfailure #raringringtail

I don't see any obvious problems in the output you posted. The error message your report:

is what one would expect if you remove the disk from the CD drive and do not change the boot priority to boot from the hard drive first.

Thanks for the reply.

I have checked the boot order, even disconnected the CDROM drive and it still comes up with that error.

I think it may have something to do with the UEFI or secure boot? I can't find a reference to either in the BIOS?

I would not expect a computer which originally came with xp to be using EFI. I don't believe Secure Boot was used prior to windows 8.
Boot one of the CDs, Mint or Ubuntu whichever you have and after booting, open a Terminal and mount your / partition on the hard drive.
sudo mkdir /mnt/sda1 to create the mount point from the CD. Then do: mount -t ext4 /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1. Then navigate to the /mnt/sda1 in the terminal or file manager and verify that the initrd and vmlinuz files are there under the /boot directory. If they are, that is not the problem.

Also, look in the /boot/grub/i386-pc directory to see if the core.img file is there. I have Ubuntu 12.04 installed and the core.img is under /boot/grub. Don't really know if that makes a difference or this was changed on 13.04. You could copy it to /boot/grub and check to see if makes any difference.

I don't really have any other suggestions. Maybe a lighter weight distro would work but the error doesn't indicate anything like that.

Do u have 2 hd installed ? one winxp and one ubuntu , and the boot loader is in the hd installed with ubuntu ? Is so, make sure the boot priority is the one with ubuntu prior to winxp. Get this done by the setting in BIOS.

Thanks for the post. I have tried this, pretty much the first thing I did. I have even disabled the other HDD and CDROM to force it to boot from the Ubuntu drive.

Still get the 'not a system disk, replace the disk and press enter'