General :: Windows Taking Over From Grub?
Mar 24, 2010
I'm trying to dual boot a server with Windows 2008 R2 and RHEL 5.4. I've done these dual boots 20 or more times in the last few months, and never had a problem. (This is the first time I've tried it with R2, mind you.) I do the normal install Windows on one drive, then install RHEL on another. The first time it reboots after the install (which is still part of the install, as it's my kickstart script prompting the install and it still has post to run), it goes to the grub menu, and I can select RHEL and it boots into it fine. After that, if I reboot it just goes directly into Windows, without seeing grub at all.
I've tried pressing esc, shift, various things in case it's hidden, with no luck (also, I have a 30 second timeout set and it's not sitting there that long). I've tried editing the grub.conf to remove Windows entirely, and it still just goes into Windows. I've reinstalled RHEL 3 times (yay for kickstart files!), and this exact behaviour happens every time. Does anyone have any idea of what might be going on here
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Dec 11, 2009
11.2 doesn't install Grub in the MBR by default, more precisely it doesn't highlight that choice during setup. But in fact it does occasionally (?) install Grub in the MBR, even when explicitely instructed not to do so. I'm starting to better understand people wondering why their Ubuntu vanished from bootmenu and swearing they did not install Grub in MBR. I'm quite sure I already experienced this issue with 11.1 as well as while installing my first 11.2. Now I decided to install 11.2 on another machine and pay double attention. I normally DON'T install openSUSE Grub in MBR. Somebody has to go in there and at the moment, I prefer to have Ubuntu's Grub2. I ran the installation twice. The first time, I added the root partition to the default location, which was in this case the extended partition's bootsector (sda4). The second time, I simply didn't touch anything. According to setup, the bootloder was supposed to get in the extended partition. I carefully copied down what the setup screen said. Here's :
BootingBoot Loader Type: GRUB
Status Location: /dev/sda4 (extended)
Change Location:Boot from MBR is disabled (enable)
Boot from "/" partition is disabled (enable)
I installed, rebooted and ended up with openSUSE Grub in MBR. Well, my partition tables are not the most usual ones. The first primary is always a 252MB FAT16. Second and third primaries are Unix. The extended partition is full of logical ones used for different Linux distros. At the end on the logical partitions, the Linux kernel adds up devices for the Unix slices found in the the other primaries after it read the FreeBSD disklabels (but not during setup). Maybe this is just my unconventional partitioning that openSUSE setup doesnt' like. However is that a reason for taking over my MBR ? Since I suspect I might not be the only one experiencing this problem (according to some threads), I thought I would report this behaviour.
BTW I just installed a Fedora 12 on the same kind of machine. It would have written its bootloader into MBR (by default) but respected my choice as I selected the root partition instead. I'm going to install openSUSE on that machine as well, deselect the extended partition and choose only the root partition as destination for Grub.
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Jul 24, 2010
Having several distros on my computer (including Windows), I prefer BING (BootIt NG) as an overall boot manager. This way, I just install a distro together with GRUB to its dedicated partition, and keep full control over what partitions are available/visible and bootable when family members use the computer.Yesterday, I tried to update Lucid (Ubuntu 10.04) and got a problem with the newly available GRUB (1.98-ubuntu7): it said that installing GRUB to a partition was a "BAD" idea, and, luckily, refused to update. I've noticed this behaviour during my last install of Sidux (great distro to keep track of what's happening at the KDE front, by the way). Same problem, same message. Result: no more new Sidux releases...
What's going on? Is this intended behaviour and thus making it impossible for people to manage their booting their own way? Are we talking about a bug here? There seems to be a mentioning of this behaviour on Launchpad, but it's unclear whether it's a bug or not; at least to me.
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Apr 15, 2010
Running first upgrade after installing 9.10.
Currently on item "Configuring linux-image-2.6.31-20-generic" and the progress bar/terminal readout has not changed for an hour or so I'd say.
Don't want to cause issues by killing it halfway through, especially as it presents an opportunity to learn something!
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Aug 6, 2010
I have windows on dev/sda1 taking up the full disc.I have set up on my second diskQuote:
sdb1 ubuntu root
sdb2 ubuntu home
sdb3 linux swap
[code]...
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Sep 11, 2010
Is it possible to have the Windows bootloader point to Windows 7 and a Linux partition instead of using GRUB to point to Windows 7 and Linux?
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Jul 8, 2011
I am new to Linux. I have installed RHEL 5.4 on my PC with preloaded Windows XP.
Windows was set as the first boot kernel. So if i do not choose which OS to be loaded it will load Windows by Default.
Today I got an error saying GRub Loading Stage2 read error.
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May 16, 2011
When i turn on my laptop the dell logo comes up, and then it goes to the Windows black "grub" (i have ubuntu and 7), if i click on "Windows 7" it starts, but if i click on "Ubuntu 11.04" it goes to the nice and purple grub that we all know, and i also have two options: Ubuntu or windows. It seems stupid and pointless to have 2 grubs.Is there any way to uninstall Window's black grub so the computer will go direct to Ubuntu's purple grub?
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Aug 30, 2011
I am currently running a dual boot machine with Ubuntu 11.04 and Windows Vista.Is there any way I can delete the Linux partition and Grub boot loader without affecting the Windows partition at all?I would also like to be able to repartition all of the space that was previously occupied by Linux.
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May 6, 2010
I have machine with Windows and Linux with GRUB, only with remote access. Is there any way to chage default OS in grub from windows? I know how to achieve it from linux, something like
echo "savedefault --default=2 --once" | grub --batch; sudo reboot
should work. Is there any way to achieve it from windows?
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Aug 29, 2009
I have 2 hard disks. In the first one, I have installed Archlinux, with GRUB. The second one is empty. I have a Windows XP .iso file. Is it possible to install Windows XP in the second hd, without having to burn the ISO file? I don't have got any CD recorder/reader.
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Sep 22, 2009
I am using windows XP.I wish to install GRUB bootloader so that I can modify menu.lst & add lines to boot from an ext2 partition having iso of linux distro.One way is to use live cd & try 'sudo grub-install <device>' but I don't have live cd.I came to know about open source software 'wingrub' but I am not able to understand how to use it even after reading [URL] what should I do to install GRUB in mbr & have option to boot to c drive which has windows & another partition (/dev/sda2) which has linux.
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Jul 10, 2011
i'm currently using ubuntu10.10(/dev/sda10) and win 7 is installed on /dev/sda1.
during installation of ubuntu bootloader failed to install.so i had to do it manually later.but now the problem is that is does not recognise my win7 os.
i have tried many different suggestions given on this and many other forums but none worked.i even tried going back to grub(legacy) but that to didn't help.editing the menu.lst didn't work nor did the sudo update-grub did.
i also used the boot_info_script.it detects my win7 partition.if u want i'll attach it here.
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Jul 3, 2010
I used Windows to reformat my Ubuntu partition and now I can't boot anything. What's the best way to recover my netbook? I'm only able to use a 256 MB flash drive.
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Sep 12, 2010
I am trying to dual boot Windows and Linux. I would like to continue using the Windows bootloader in my MBR.
I installed Windows 7 first. During the install I left some unallocated space that I intended to install Linux.
I found this guide: [URL]
It says to install GRUB to the bootsector of the partition that Linux is being installed to and not the MBR of your hard drive.
I am trying to install Linux Mint Debian to the second partition. When the installer gets to where you are asked to install GRUB the only option is to install GRUB to /dev/sda which I believe is the MBR.
I decided just not to install GRUB and proceeded with the installation.
How can I install GRUB to the bootsector of my Linux partition?
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Aug 2, 2011
I want to install grub inside windows 7. I don't want to partition anything neither I want to remove Windows Boot Loader (BCD). I simply want to Use Grub from windows 7 boot menu. I want to do this so for frugal install of linux distros such as puppy, slitaz, etc. I have used WinGrub on Windows XP and it worked fine. But I don't think that will work on Windows 7.
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Aug 16, 2011
I had Windows Vista installed on my computer and created a partition to install Fedora 15. I chose the option to install fedora on any free space, so it should have installed on the empty partition. When I boot up, there are two boot options. Fedora and Other. When I select other, it gives an error:BOOTMGR not found.Is there a way to add Windows Vista to the Grub Bootloader by editing the grub menu. I don't know if it will help, but here is what I get when I run fdisk in the terminal:
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
[code]....
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Mar 15, 2010
I installed Backtrack 4 and it is set up as a dual boot with my Windows 7 x64 bit. I want to uninstall Backtrack because I am going to put it on a different computer. The problem is - I can't do it. My laptop is an Asus K61IC, and it doesn't come with an installation CD, because the OS was factory installed. It comes with a recovery wizard instead, which gives me the options to 1) recover to first partition only, 2) recover to entire HD, and 3) recover to entire HD with 2 partitions. Because of Grub and it asking for me to choose what operating system to boot when I start my computer, when I recover Windows 7 to the entire HD and try to boot, it gives me Grub error 22. I need to fix my MBR so that the grub menu is also deleted and all of Backtrack 4 is removed, actually letting me back onto my Windows 7. I need a way to delete the Linux partition, and fix the MBR, but I don't know how to do that because I don't have an installation disk.
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Feb 14, 2011
with reference to my this thread: [URL]
After installing Windows 7, the GRUB got re-written by the windows bootloader. Now after booting into the live cd and mounting /boot partition (sda2), I tried to reinstall the GRUB with this command grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda as told by this [URL]
But I got the an error which says, Are you sure /dev is mounted? then i tried the same command on the / partition (sda5) which said, cannot find boot directory, Are you sure /dev is mounted?
And installation failed, now after restarting its just a black screen with grub> prompt.
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Jan 8, 2011
I have a laptop with two partitions, dual booting Vista and Ubuntu. laptop was originally furnished with Vista. It's become totally unusable and I want to install XP on the NTFS partition erasing Vista. I know that after installing XP it will overwrite the MBR and GRUB will be lost. how to recover GRUB after the XP install. all data is now on the Ubuntu partition. I need XP just for games for my kids. barbie and harry potter ...
I spent 30min looking for sth like that but could not find it, just reference if such a thread exists.
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Jul 20, 2011
I have Recently downloaded Fedora 15.|64bit| & I Think its a very good distro. However I Realised Once My Pc Restarted My Windows 7 Was Removed from my boot entry. I am Not At All familar with Linux, Ive Read millions of forums trying to fix my problem but all has failed.Could someone show me how to add The OS Back or How To Burn A Bootable OS (Win7) Using This Distro Of Linux.
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Nov 19, 2010
I had a dual boot system - windows in primary active /dev/sda1 and fedora in /dev/sda5 onwards till /dev/sda7 ( /boot, / and swap partitions).I reinstalled windows vista and it removed grub and replaced it with the MBR or windows loader.So now I can't boot into the linux OS. I tried out a live cd and tried grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/_boot /dev/sda (after mounting /boot partition at /mnt/_boot location from the live cd.)But on reboot I donot get the menu.lst options, only the black screen with a grub prompt.
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Jan 2, 2010
When i tried to install windows xp and ubuntu 9.04 together i got an error as GRUB 18. Then i installed only ubuntu 9.04. Now i am planning to have both ubuntu 9.04 and fedora 12 on my system. Is it possible that i'll again get the same error? If yes what are the possible solutions?? and is it advisable to have both fedora and ubuntu in the same system??
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Jul 20, 2010
I have a dual boot system (Linux and Windows) that I normally run headless and which boots by default into Linux (which is what I use mainly). This all works fine, except that on occasions when I want to boot Windows I have to plug in a keyboard and monitor just to select Windows in the initial grub boot screen. I'm wondering if there is an easier way to do this ? I don't mind if I have to boot Linux first, I just want to be able to reboot into Windows occasionally without having to plug in any peripherals.
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Sep 1, 2010
I had two OS in laptop windows vista and linux mint and when I used to start my computer I used to get different option for os like linux mint, linux mint memory check, windows vista etc.. but because of virus windows vista got crashed so I formatted disk drive C: which were containing windows vista and reinstalled fresh copy of vista.. but now when I start my computer vista start automatically, I do not see GRUB options to run windows os or linux mint..Is there a way to reinstall GRUB to get options like I used to get before formatting ?
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Sep 13, 2010
I have windows 7 home premium currently installed and I have just recently installed Linux Mint and it has replaced my MBR with GRUB. Is there any way I can restore the normal Windows 7 Boot Loader and have the secondary option to boot my Linux Mint?
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May 31, 2010
Two days ago i turned on my pc and suddenly there was a message:"Minimal Bash-like line editing is supported.For the first word,TAB lists possible command completions.Anywhere else TAB lists the possible completions of a device/filename.ESC any time exists...
When i googled this message it came out that this has got to do with linux (i have never used linux and i formated my disc once or twice since i bought it so i found it very strange that this problem is related to linux).Anyway,i found out that grub is the problem and that it isnt a big deal to solve it.I downloaded Ubuntu,booted it from the cd and followed the instructions...I typed in grub (in the terminal) and it told me to download it so i typed in "get-apt grub install" or something like that and it all went well,i was now in the grub directory.Then i typed " find /boot/grub/stage1" and it told me that the file was not found.
I have tried everything,i have downloaded the super rescue cd the fix the problem but i have still the same problem.
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Sep 11, 2009
I hav two 40 GB hard disks.RHEL5 is installed on 1st and Windows on 2nd. In order to use each OS I manually hav to go and change the "first boot device" option in BIOS setting and boot into required OS. GRUB doesn't show Windows in its boot menu.How can I make GRUB recognize Windows and boot into both OS using GRUB boot menu?
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Jan 28, 2011
recently i installed ubuntu 10.10 and now when i start my computor i dont see windows xp in the grub bootloader anymore. (it worked fine for 10.04) my brother as well has had the same problem.
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Jul 25, 2010
I know its not a Linux program but my brother had Linux on his HP DV9000 Laptop, Well he wants to go back to windows XP home edition or what ever, he played around with it and messed something up and when you boot it, it comes up with a GRUB error 22, so I try to boot it with the windows XP CD and when i try to install windows or repair it tells me there is no hard disk... which seems kinda stupid considering your PC needs a hard disk to boot up, so in the BIOS menu i did the hard disk testing and what not and it came back 100%...
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