[boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

[AndyMcGowan]

As I was saying in my other post, I just re-installed Kubuntu and now Grub is not showing up anymore (I can't choose between Kubuntu and XP, it simply log in Kubuntu).

I searched in the forum but wasn't able to find anything similar...


this is the output of SUDO FDISK -L

Disk /dev/sda: 82.0 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 testine, 63 settori/tracce, 9964 cilindri, totale 160086528 settori
Unità = settori di 1 * 512 = 512 byte
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Identificativo disco: 0xd9b7d9b7

Dispositivo Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *    2048  27342847  13670400  83 Linux
/dev/sda3    27344894  160055594  66355350+  5 Esteso
/dev/sda5    107442783  149565149  21061183+  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6    149565213  160055594   5245191  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7    27344896  107442175  40048640  83 Linux

sda1 is "/" partition
sda7 is "home" partition
sda5 is XP partition



I tried:

sudo update-grub2

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done

but still no grub at all when starting PC (neither with Kubuntu, Kubuntu recovery and memtest... simply, no grub is shown)

any idea
thanks!

Andy

[vinnywright]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

grub probably got set to not display the boot screen and just boot the first entry .
wile starting the box right after pressing the power button start taping the shift key......and the boot menu should appear .

and post the contents of /etc/default/grub you can get it quick with

cat /etc/default/grub

VINNY

[AndyMcGowan]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

Hi Vinny, thanks for your answer!

Here's the output

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#  info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=" splash"

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

[vinnywright]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

you need to change "GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true" to

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false

and it will display again ..........I am concerned with the fact that it is defaulting to this behavior as this is usualy the case when thar is only ONE operating system.

AND your

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-12-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-12-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
done

dose not show XP

IF your XP partition IS intact this COULD be du to file system corruption that is not letting linux read it.

did you do some moving/resizing of the XP partition ?

VINNY

[oshunluvr]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

Unless somethings changed I am unaware of, windows can't boot from a logical partition, can it?

Either you moved it or your partition table is trashed. Plus, the partitions are out of order, which isn't a deal breaker per se, but is confusing.

Here's your actual order:

/dev/sda1 * 2048 27342847 13670400 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 27344894 160055594 66355350+ 5 Esteso
/dev/sda7 27344896 107442175 40048640 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 107442783 149565149 21061183+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 149565213 160055594 5245191 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[vinnywright]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

Unless somethings changed I am unaware of, windows can't boot from a logical partition, can it?

Either you moved it or your partition table is trashed. Plus, the partitions are out of order, which isn't a deal breaker per se, but is confusing.

Here's your actual order:

/dev/sda1 * 2048 27342847 13670400 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 27344894 160055594 66355350+ 5 Esteso
/dev/sda7 27344896 107442175 40048640 83 Linux
/dev/sda5 107442783 149565149 21061183+ 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda6 149565213 160055594 5245191 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I beleve you are corect about XP not booting off a logical partition I beleve .......I over looked that

VINNY

[SteveRiley]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

If a drive contains an MBR partition table, and there is no GRUB, then NTLDR must reside on the same primary partition that contains the boot sector, but the rest of the operating system can reside on a logical drive contained within an extended partition.

If your MBR drive's loader is GRUB (rather than NTLDR), then GRUB can chainload to NTLDR placed on a logical drive within an extended partition.

[AndyMcGowan]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

@ Vinny

the only thing I did was to resize " / " partition and "home" partition, format them and reinstall Kubuntu.
I didn't touch XP partition

could that cause the problem?
I don't think I changed XP partition from primary to logical (I actually don't even know what that means )

ps: tonight I'll try to change that setting in grub.cfg




@ oshunluvr

I'm kind of noob: the 4th column in "sudo fdisk -l" shows partitions size?
then, I'm sure sda1 is /
sda7 is "home"
sda5 is XP

what sda3 could it be
I'm pretty sure my HD is 80GB

how should I organize my partition table to handle /, home and XP?


thanks a lot everybody!

[oshunluvr]

Re: [boot] Grub disappeared after Kubuntu fresh installation

If I'm reading Steve right I suspect your original config (pre kubuntu) had the NTLDR (windows master boot record) on the primary drive and this allowed your computer to boot to the logical partition that XP resides on. GRUB has replaced NTLDR with it boot loader, leaving XP unbootable. This is likely why GRUB isn't detecting it - because it's non-standard.

I believe (take over anytime Steve ) you could recover normal booting for XP by install the NTLDR to the XP partition and then "chainload" to the XP partition. You should be able to download the NTLDR from somewhere, it's only 446 bytes after all.

Another solution, but riskier and more work would be to re-arrange the partitions, move the XP data to a primary partition, and re-try but that's a ton of work.

The fdisk "columns" are:

Device Boot Start End Blocks ID System

Boot is just an asterisk if the partition is marked bootable so it's usually blank space. The fact that your partition table isn't in order has no bearing on your problem, I just noticed it was messed up and wanted to point that out. It's easily fixed if desired, but I'd solve your problem first. Also, the logical order of partitions and the naming structure doesn't effect the data on them. In other words sda7 is in fact your /home BUT sda7 should be sda5, sda5 should be sda6, and sda6 should be sda7.