Ubuntu install question

Al_Vampyre · Sep 3, 2006, 08:25 AM

I have posted this in the Ubuntu forums but thought I'd try here as well because I know how you guys like a challenge!!

From the Ubuntu forums

This is my first post, and can I just say that if the people here hadn't seemed so helpful when I was searching other peoples posts for an answer I would probably have given up by now, so a big pat on the back all round

OK, a little background first, I am an experienced Windows user but have never dabbled with Linux before so as far as Linix terminology goes I am a complete n00b! My question may have been answered in another post but if it was I didn't understand the answer so please bear with me...

My setup is as follows;

Opteron 165 on an Asrock 939 Dual Sata with 2Gb DDR400 and an X1800XT, using onboard sound. I have 3 HDD installed, WD Raptor SATA contains my XP install (which I would prefer not to touch if I can). 2 IDE drives on Primary channel, the master is a 200Gb Sammy Spinpoint which contains all my music, downloads, iso's, etc. The Slave is a 120Gb Maxtor which I was using a data dump and temp file repository. The Master on the Secondary IDE channel is a Pioneer 107 DVD RW.

The idea was that I would like to try Ubuntu, if possible migrating most of the stuff I do to Linux versions and maintaining XP solely for the few apps that don't have Linux equivalents and for games.

So I downloaded the desktop cd and started playing and doing some reading up on my favorite apps to see which ones would work in Linux.

A couple of nights ago I decided to clear the drive that was easiest to clear (ie the IDE Primary Slave) and install Ubuntu as I was really impressed with the LiveCD.

Everything seems to go as planned, I get to choose all my options etc and on partitioning instruct the Live CD to clear hdb and use that for my Ubuntu install which it duly does, sets up the partitions correctly (as far as I can tell) and goes on to install the files. Installation reports as completed, I get the instruction to take out the disk and reboot, so I do.

On first attempt the PC boots straight into XP so I reboot and hit F11 which on my mobo brings up the boot disk options and I tell it to boot from the Maxtor where I have just installed Ubuntu. I then get an 'Error Loading Operating System' message and nothing else. Thinking something had fouled up somewhere I went through the install process again with exactly the same result.

I have searched for an answer in various forums and I get the impression that towards the end of the install process I should have been asked where to install Grub(?)and that it should be installed on the MBR of the SATA drive (cos thats where XP resides). Thing is I don't remember the installer even acknowledging that I had another OS installed but I'm fairly sure that it did see the SATA drive.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as I really would like to minimize my Microshaft dependency! Thanks in anticipation...

Vamp

UberLord · Sep 5, 2006, 08:59 AM

If you can boot off a live CD and get to a command prompt you can do this - assuming you will use grub to choose between XP and Linux

Code:

cd /tmp
mkdir ubuntu
mount /dev/<WHERE UBUNTUU IS INSTALLED - like hda6 fex>
chroot ubuntu /bin/bash
source /etc/profile
mount /boot
grub

At this point enter these grub commands - note hd0,0 refers to first disk, first parition - change accordingly to where grub is installed

Code:

root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)
quit

Now reboot like so

Code:

umount /boot
exit
umount ubuntu
reboot

Al_Vampyre · Sep 5, 2006, 09:19 AM

Thanks Uberlord...with a bit of playing around and installing off the text installer rather than the live CD I managed to get Grub running so that when I boot into my PC I have to tell the bios to boot from /hdb where Ubuntu is installed and then I get the GRUB menu which will let me boot in Ubuntu. It won't let me boot into XP which is on a SATA drive unless I force 1st boot drive to be SATA from the boot menu of the bios in which case it bypasses GRUB and just uses the Windows MBR.

I have seen some stuff on Ubuntu and other forums about adjust GRUB with an argument that looks something like this

Map (hd0,1)(hd1,0)
Map (hd1,0)(hd0,1)

etc

My understanding is that this somehow fools Windows into thinking that it is on the first partition of the first drive (where it likes to be...way to go Microshaft!!), problem is that in my normal boot sequence the first boot drive is a SATA drive. Can I just replace the (hd0,1) with (sd0,1) etc or is the numbering sequence directly related to the boot order in whicha case I think my SATA drive would be hd2, it certainly appeared last in teh list when I was installing GRUB...

UberLord · Sep 5, 2006, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Al_Vampyre

Can I just replace the (hd0,1) with (sd0,1) etc or is the numbering sequence directly related to the boot order in whicha case I think my SATA drive would be hd2, it certainly appeared last in teh list when I was installing GRUB...

The numbering is directly related to the disk, not the bus.

So if the BIOS goes IDE1, IDE2, SATA1, SATA2 in grub it would go (hd0) (hd1) (hd2) (hd3)

Al_Vampyre · Sep 5, 2006, 12:08 PM

Thanks for that, I';ll have another play around!!