Installing from hard drive

[lakeyboyben]

Hi, ive installed kubuntu from my moms laptop onto my external hard drive due to boot problems.
Now, ive tried loading up, and i can boot from hard drive, but there is an error loading the OS.
Anything i can do?

any help is deeply appreciated

[Snowhog]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Would be helpful if you tell us what error you are receiving.

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

all im told is error loading OS... maybe because im using it on a different laptop, than the one installed...


god, linux had been nothing but problems for me... i hate using windows and have used linux before.... its my stupid laptop.... i hate ASUS!

[Snowhog]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Let me see if I have this straight:

1) You used your mom's laptop to boot the LiveCD and then installed Kubuntu to an external HD. Correct?
2) You disconnected the external HD from your mom's laptop and have installed the HD in your laptop? Correct?
3) You get an error loading OS message when you try to boot from the HD in your laptop. Correct?

When you installed Kubuntu to this HD from your mom's laptop, where did you tell GRUB to install itself to??

When you boot up your laptop, do you get a GRUB menu at all? If yes, have you tried booting into Safe Mode?

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

all three are correct, and i can boot from the hard drive itself, but my laptop doesn't recognise the OS...

i get no grub, just a simple error message that literally says "OS FOUND, ERROR LOADING OS"

i think i chose grub to load from the hard drive it installed on... but not too sure, where should i install it to be able to boot from the hard drive?

seeing as my laptop wont let me install Linux, and will have to use my moms...

(BTW, when i did this, grub installed itself onto my mums PC i think because after, i had grub trying to load, but wouldn't because of error 21, and basically had to uninstall grub so she could load back windows... and i don't really want that hassle again...)

is there a way i could put CD in moms laptop, install to external hard drive, not effect my mums laptop and run Linux from the HD onto MY laptop

[Snowhog]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Okay. So I think what happened, is that while you had your external HD attached to your mom's PC, and installed Kubuntu to it, you had GRUB install its self to the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your mom's HD. What you wanted to do was to have GRUB installed to the MBR of your HD. I believe that this can be fixed. What you want/need to do is read Qqmike's HOW TO: GRUB Methods - Tookit It contains steps for reinstalling GRUB to a HD.

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Thankyou, i will give it a try tomorrow, as now, i NEED SLEEP... for me its half 5 in the morning. i will try this and if it has worked, i would seriously pay you. Thanks for all your help and will psot back and let you know how this has worked out.

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

i know that it might be kind of like, spoon feeding me, and its really cheeky to ask, but would you be able to help me out on deciding what it is i actually need to do from that guide, because to be honest, it just isn't making sense to me.

normally im fine but i think where im so tired, i just cant take it all in...

im REALLY sorry asking you to do this but it just isnt making sense on what i actually need to do... once i get into linux on moms laptop, what do i do?

[Snowhog]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Not a problem in asking. Forum member Qqmike is best qualified to assist you with any specific questions on getting GRUB reinstalled on your HD. You said it's late, so get some rest - if your not alert you are only asking for trouble if you attempt any thing now.

I'll drop Qqmike a line and ask him to review this thread and give you some assistance.

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing from hard drive

I don't see it as a GRUB problem at all.

Only thing you have to do when installing from your mom's PC to the external HD is to put GRUB in the MBR of the external HD (probably called something like (hd1) for the MBR of the external HD).

The problem seems to be running the external HD off your laptop properly – BIOS must be able to “boot from USB,” and the Kubuntu partition on the external HD must be marked as “boot.” That's it as far as I can see. Not GRUB per se.

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Thank you so much... i got my sleep now and it all sorta just came to me.... thanks for all of your help and it is much appreciated.

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

If i want to install grub to the boot partition of the external hard drive, how do i do that?

Is there an easy way to do it? and would it wipe anything on my moms laptop, because im only using this to install linux, she still wants her windows.

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing from hard drive

If Kubuntu is already installed to the external HD, then to install GRUB to the MBR of the external HD do this:

Plug the external HD in to your mom's laptop.
Boot the laptop so it boots from the Windows drive (in BIOS).
Insert the Kubuntu Live CD.
Now re-boot the laptop so it boots up using the Live Kubuntu CD (and both HDs are connected).
Now you are in the Live Kubuntu session.
Open K > System > Konsole.
Type
sudo grub
to get a GRUB prompt (grub>).
Now, just to be sure about the drives, type
grub> geometry (hd0)
and see if that looks like your mom's Window's drive.
Then type
grub> geometry (hd1)
and see that it is your external HD (with Kubuntu on it).
Let's assume the Kubuntu drive is known FOR CERTAIN to be (hd1).
Type
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
and that will return your Kubuntu partition, which we think should be (hd1,y) (y should be 0, 1, 2, 3, or something like that).
Now, install GRUB to BOTH the boot sector (of the Kubuntu partition) of the external HD and to the MBR of the external HD * just in case you may need this in the future and just so you will have it all done now *. Here's how, using that value (hd1,y) that was returned from the find command:
grub> root (hd1,y)
grub> setup (hd1,y)
grub> setup (hd1)
grub> quit
exit
and exit out of the Live CD session.

Caution: The two setup commands above will write GRUB to the hard drive hd1 (to both the boot sector of partition y and to the MBR of the hard drive hd1), so make sure that hd1 is, in fact, the external HD and not the Windows drive (or, otherwise, you will overwrite and mess up your mom's Windows drive and it can only be fixed by running her Windows CD!)

Then you can shutdown, turn off the external hard drive and unplug it.
Take the external drive to your machine, plug it in and turn it on, turn on your machine, configure your BIOS to set your machine to “boot from USB,” and make sure your external HD is recognized by your BIOS.

[Qqmike]

Re: Installing from hard drive

and if you haven't already installed Kubuntu to the external HD, then do so, AND install GRUB to the MBR of the external HD, using your mom's laptop as follows:

Turn off the laptop.
Plug in and turn on the external HD.
Turn on laptop.
It will boot up to your mom's Windows.
Insert Kubuntu Live install CD.
Reboot the laptop.
It will boot into the Live Kubuntu CD and then you select Install (icon on Desktop).
In Step 4, be careful to select the Manual method (of partitioning).
For Step 5, be prepared to tell the installer where to put Kubuntu root partition (/), swap partition, and /home partition on the external HD (which may be called sdb or hdb, but be careful to see this and to identify which drive is which).
In Step 6, before clicking Finish, click the Advanced button at bottom right.
That's where you may tell the installer where to put GRUB.
I'm afraid it will say
(hd0)
which is ALMOST ALWAYS the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the internal laptop hard drive (your mom's Windows drive)!
During the installation. you should have seen sda (or hda) refer to your mom's hard drive where Windows is; your external hard drive should have been referred to as sdb (or hdb) where Kubuntu is to be installed. That almost always means that hd0 is your mom's hard drive, and hd1 is your (Kubuntu) hard drive.
So, if that's all true, in Step 6, behind that Advanced button, where to put GRUB, it should read
(hd1)
(with the parentheses, exactly as I typed it here).
That will install GRUB to the MBR of the external HD.
Then, again Step 6, click Finish, and it should install Kubuntu to the external HD and GRUB to the MBR of the external HD, where the external HD is seen as hd1 (we hope).

[lakeyboyben]

Re: Installing from hard drive

Thanks, i did as you said, all worked well.. i booted up from ext hard drive and grub loaded and then i get error 18 for grub which i think is the cylinder count... i cant remember how big i set it to.. (if i did at all)

is there anyway to alter that, or should i just install from fresh?