grub doesnt recognize linux partition

[Crispies]

first i wanna say im semi new to linux so i only know partially what im doing. iv tried searching for a fix and have found usefull information but nothing for my problem.

Im trying to get kubuntu on a computer with windows xp installed 1st and id rather not have to uninstall it. i made my xp partition 50gb smaller so i can install linux after it. my installation goes fine, i manually set up 3 partitions for linux after my xp partition one is / for my root and is 10gb ext3 logical, second is my swap 2gb, third is my /home 28gb logical. i have tried partitioning my drive with gparted also. i installed grub to my mbr.

now when my computer restarts i get grub error 5. i have a super grub disk so i used it to look at my partitions and it sees hd0 195gb so thats my xp and it sees hd2 0kb which should be my 40gb linux. so i tried to reinstall grub from my disk at the grub prompt hoping that would make grub see it but when i do

 find /boot/grub/stage1

it comes up with error 15: file not found. i do geometry (hd2) and i get

drive 0x82: c/h/s = 0/1/15, the number of sectors = 2147483647, LBA

i used a livecd i have to go see if my partitions are there and they are. everything in them seems to be fine, my grub menu.1st are there. and now i dont know what to do

[Teunis]

Re: grub doesnt recognize linux partition

There might be a versioning problem with ext3.

Kubuntu uses as of 8.10 an ext3 inode size of 256 bytes against 128 before., older versions of Grub can't see the newer partitions.

[Crispies]

Re: grub doesnt recognize linux partition

well i acually tried 2 and 3 and got the same thing and its the version of grub thats on the disk so it should work with it

[Qqmike]

Re: grub doesnt recognize linux partition

Not clear where you put the OSs. Sounds like you put them all on the same disk (as XP), but now you talk about hd2 ... ?

sudo fdsik -lu
from a Live CD would tell.

If it is the case that you have a corrupt partition table, that's not good.
You might first try to run TestDisk and fix it. That usually does the trick.

Otherwise, zero-out the MBR (using dd) and start all over, but that is not fun having to repartition and reinstall everything. TestDisk is your answer for now. It is available on GParted Live CD: boot to it, right-click on the GParted Desktop, testdisk. Study the instructions at the TestDisk site for how to run it -- excellent tips given there. TestDisk can work even if you "deleted" the whole MBR (as I have done in experiments).

[Qqmike]

Re: grub doesnt recognize linux partition

btw, GRUB Error 5 = Corrupt Partition Table.

[Crispies]

Re: grub doesnt recognize linux partition

i thought it odd that it said that since there isnt a second hd in the comp i was just saying what it said
the output of sudo fdisk -lu is

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3c3c3c3c

  Device Boot   Start     End   Blocks  Id System
/dev/sda1  *     63  409593239  204796588+  7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2    409593240  488392064  39399412+  5 Extended
/dev/sda5    409593303  429128279   9767488+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6    429128343  433032074   1951866  82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7    433032138  488392064  27679963+ 83 Linux

will get back to u on testdisk