I have recently attempted to install Ubuntu Linux and have it dual boot off XP's ntldr. I have run through several howto's and read a fair amount on forums to try and get this working myself; but am failing at getting grub chain loaded from ntldr. My disk geometry and fdisk output are at the bottom of this post.
I installed Grub by running the following commands:
sudo grub
grub> root (hd1,4)
grub> setup (hd1,4)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,4)"... failed (this is not fatal)
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,4)"... failed (this is not fatal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1,4) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu
.lst "... succeeded
Done.
I'm guessing the non-fatal error is actually fatal?
The command I'm using to create the boot file is:
dd if=/dev/hdb5 of=./ubuntu.bin bs=512 count=1
I then edited the boot.ini on my Windows partition and added a line:
Ubuntu=C:\ubuntu.bin.
I get this as a choice in the OS menu, and when I select it all I see is:
Grub _
I believe this is part of the contents of the ubuntu.bin file, and that Grub is not actually loading at all from (hd1,4) – which is where I installed it to.
I've changed my BIOS to boot off the second drive in an attempt to see whether the disk was bootable – and I get “Invalid System Disk” type error.
Has anyone got any ideas where I'm going wrong with this setup?
Many Thanks,
Phil
The output below has been edited in that i have removed my SATA drives from it, as I dont believe they are relevant to the problem. My BIOS is set to boot from IDE.
Current Disk Setup:
~$ sudo fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77545 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 63 78164351 39082144+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 63 156296384 78148161 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 * 126 71682029 35840952 83 Linux
/dev/hdb6 71682093 75874994 2096451 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb7 75875058 156296384 40210663+ b W95 FAT32
grub> geometry (hd1)
drive 0x81: C/H/S = 9729/255/63, The number of sectors = 156301488, /dev/hdb
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 6, Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xb
I installed Grub by running the following commands:
sudo grub
grub> root (hd1,4)
grub> setup (hd1,4)
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage1" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/stage2" exists... yes
Checking if "/boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5" exists... yes
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,4)"... failed (this is not fatal)
Running "embed /boot/grub/e2fs_stage1_5 (hd1,4)"... failed (this is not fatal)
Running "install /boot/grub/stage1 (hd1,4) /boot/grub/stage2 p /boot/grub/menu
.lst "... succeeded
Done.
I'm guessing the non-fatal error is actually fatal?
The command I'm using to create the boot file is:
dd if=/dev/hdb5 of=./ubuntu.bin bs=512 count=1
I then edited the boot.ini on my Windows partition and added a line:
Ubuntu=C:\ubuntu.bin.
I get this as a choice in the OS menu, and when I select it all I see is:
Grub _
I believe this is part of the contents of the ubuntu.bin file, and that Grub is not actually loading at all from (hd1,4) – which is where I installed it to.
I've changed my BIOS to boot off the second drive in an attempt to see whether the disk was bootable – and I get “Invalid System Disk” type error.
Has anyone got any ideas where I'm going wrong with this setup?
Many Thanks,
Phil
The output below has been edited in that i have removed my SATA drives from it, as I dont believe they are relevant to the problem. My BIOS is set to boot from IDE.
Current Disk Setup:
~$ sudo fdisk -lu
Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77545 cylinders, total 78165360 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 63 78164351 39082144+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
Disk /dev/hdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders, total 156301488 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 63 156296384 78148161 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 * 126 71682029 35840952 83 Linux
/dev/hdb6 71682093 75874994 2096451 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb7 75875058 156296384 40210663+ b W95 FAT32
grub> geometry (hd1)
drive 0x81: C/H/S = 9729/255/63, The number of sectors = 156301488, /dev/hdb
Partition num: 4, Filesystem type is ext2fs, partition type 0x83
Partition num: 5, Filesystem type unknown, partition type 0x82
Partition num: 6, Filesystem type is fat, partition type 0xb
