Installation :: GRUB On A Disk That Is Going To Be Actually Installed On A Different Comput
Oct 8, 2010
I hope I'm wording this issue clearly.I'd like to plug a disk (IDE or SATA) into an adapter that lets me plug it into my workstation via USB. (E.g. N82E16817153071 at newegg) It will show up as /dev/sdX where X is some arbitrary letter depending on what other disks the system happens to have.
I'd like to have a script then partition, format and copy files onto it. Then we need to install GRUB on it.
Then I will remove the disk and install it permanently into a different computer, here it will either be /dev/hda (if IDE) or /dev/sda (if SATA). However, it seems that in general when you install GRUB on a disk, it assumes it is going to be the same disk that boots??
I am first trying an IDE disk so it will be /dev/hda. I get a "GRUB Hard Disk Error" when booting it as /dev/hda rather than whetever it was on the USB adapter. I used this to install grub:
grub-install --root-directory /mnt/removable/ /dev/sdX Where X was the appropriate letter based on the USB adapter. Then I fixed /mnt/removable/boot/grub/device.map to use /dev/hda../dev/hdc instead of sda..sdc.
I haven't found much about this specific scenario I have so far on the web. I am guessing that stage1 is either attempting to find files based on what the original workstations primary disk geometry was, or it's assuming that the disk is the same location as it was when it was a "removable" one (i.e. /dev/sdX or (hd5) or whatever, when it should just be looking at (hd0).
The goal is to do this kind of installation easily and quickly, and not have to do it individually on each final computer via install CDROM or whatever, or reboot the workstation each time in order to attach the disk as the same location there, etc. (This is a manufacturing setting).
If I use the super grub disk I can get to my ubuntu partition otherwise my windows partition boots automatically. I spent over an hour in the community documentation using the live cd to reinstall grub and nothing has fixed it. I think that grub is installed and the windows bootloader is just taking precedence.
I wanted to check what version of GRUB I have installed. I went to terminal and typed grub --versionI got this message back: The program 'grub' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing: sudo apt-get install grub
I am running Ubuntu 10.10 alongside windows xp pro. When I turn my pc on I have the option to boot to ubuntu or xp and at the top of the window it says that the version of grub running is "GNU GRUB Version 1.98+20100804-5Ubuntu-3" how I shold go about installing GRUB 2 or just leave it as is.
I installed Ubuntu 9.10 from Windows 7 and given 17GB default space for Ubuntu. I installed different programs and ...now I ran out of disk space when I tried to install Oracle XE. I tried GParted from Live CD to allocate the space, but it shows the complete partition as single partition for Windows and Ubuntu of which I could not able to allocate the specific space to Ubuntu.I don't want to reinstall the Ubuntu again as there's a lot of office work has been done.
I tried upgrading to my linux to fedora 12 through updates and that completely screwed up my computer. Next I burned a disc with F12 and tried to a clean install but the installer stops after 823 packages. I tried an older FC9 image and that does not go through either. Now I'm stuck , I cannot get to my windows because I cannot get to GRUB . Is there a way to just install GRUB and boot into windows. I see that GRUB is around package # 600 or so in the installation and it does get upto that point.I just need it to finish instead of barfing on packages (no skip option in linux installer how clever!)
I just bought a brand new hardrive (40gb western digital) IDE, 10 pin.I have gone through the installation and partioned the hardrive, when it gets to 100% it asks me to reboot.So i take the disk out, and then it says DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER:So i press enter and i get the same message> How can i get Ubuntu to boot up?The computer is a 2003 Medion pc with 512mb of RAM And an AMD Athlon processor. The computer has a sticker on that says: Designed for windows xp.
I have been upgrading Ubuntu as its new distributions are released every six months regularly since quite some time now. Is there a way I can find out which was the original installation version that I first installed after I formatted my disk. I mean as far as I remember I have been using this state of my Ubuntu since 8.04 and have been upgrading since then, but I am not sure.
Prefactory note - I've also posted this question on the Ubuntu forum, but so far no solutions have been provided.
My system has several hard drives. The important ones are these:
Sata 1 - Fedora 12 Sata 3 - Windows 7 Slave 1 - Storage
Sata 1 was NOT installed with grub. When I switch OSs, I do it by rebooting and choosing the other drive as primary.
I downloaded an ISO of Ubuntu 9.10 (64 bit) and burned the DVD of it. I backed up Slave 1 and then booted off the Ubuntu DVD. I clicked on "Install Ubuntu", selected Slave 1, and installed onto it.
Subsequently I rebooted the machine, going into the BIOS to boot off Sata 1, so I could get my Fedora Firefox settings to replicate them under Ubuntu.
Instead of Fedora 12 booting, Grub 1.97 came up. It had 5 choices, Ubuntu, Ubuntu Repair, Memtest, some other Memtest, and Windows 7.
Subsequently I tried cracking the box and physically disconnecting Slave 1. When I rebooted Sata 1, it crashed to a grub command line. Apparently when Ubuntu installed, it infected Sata 1 with grub, even though it installed the rest of Ubuntu on Slave 1.
I really, really, REALLY need to get access to the Fedora 12 drive. It's got my work on it.
how I can get grub out of Sata 1 and regain access, or maybe reconfigure it so it recognizes the existence of Sata 1? Personally, I don't want it there; that's why I never installed it in the first place.
However, I think grub may have installed to my media drive and not my main HD.
Here is the output of fdisk -l:
Code:
dev/sda1 is my media drive and I think during setup grub-install may have been automatically run on /dev/sda1. If this is the case,
1) How can I remove grub from sda1 and install it on sdb? 2) Should it be on sdb1 or sdb2? 3) Can I change the naming so my main drive is sda and my media drive is sdb?
Firstly, I'm ubuntu-naive so things may need to be explained painfully slowly. Secondly, I tried doing a search for similar problems but I had a hard time following the solutions so rather than just jump on another thread I figure i'd start a new one.I am trying to move on from XP and tried setting up 9.10. I did the LiveCD; followed the installtion prompts and installed, and restarted. Following restart I get the following;GRUB loading.error: no such diskgrub rescue>I've tried doing the boot info script lines but I keep getting "unknown command sudo" msgs.I can't get beyond this point.
I have an hp pavilion 15-b106ed with UEFI. I disabled secure boot and installed debian jessie form the CD1 iso (RC1 installer) burned to an USB key. Installation went smoothly, but after rebooting I get grub's terminal-like screen saying:
"GNU GRUB version 2.02 beta2-9ubuntu1. Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported... etc"
The problem is that as soon as I turn on the computer that grub screen shows up and I can't boot from USB anymore nor access the BIOS settings, no matter how fast I press F9, F10 and such. I guess I have to tell him to boot from the USB using the grub terminal...
I have installed fedora core 9 with a successful installment but the GRUB is not loading Vista BOOT MGR is Missing root chain loader +1. Booting Other does not load.
i have Vista 64Bits Ultimate installed on an 1TB hard disk whit 3 partitons I have a 2nd 160GB HD in my system which i installed Ubuntu 10.4 on. All went ok, except after the installation finished and the system rebooted it booted straight into windows, whitout ever displaying GRUB. Now i found a way to boot either system, by using the bios and setting the applicable HD to 1st device. (or something similar)
Any way on how to solve this? keeping to have to enter the BIOS to select the HD and Thus OS i want to boot aint very practical. (im currently using ubuntu BTW)
Code:
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010 ============================= Boot Info Summary: ============================== => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks on the same drive in partition #1 for /boot/grub.
I have a system with two hard drives: an old one with XP and Ubuntu on it, and a new one on which I have done a fresh install of XP. The BIOS is set to boot off the new drive. I have now installed Ubuntu Studio 10.04(off an alternate install disc, not a live CD)onto a partition on the new drive. The installation went fine, but it appears to have written the GRUB bootloader to the old disc. The result is that when I boot up, the system boots straight into XP off the new drive, without ever seeing GRUB. I could reset the boot order in the BIOS each time I boot according to which OS I want, but that is cumbersome; also I would like to be able to remove the old drive at some point.
What is the easiest way for me to re-install GRUB to the new disc ?
I just installed ubuntu on a partition on my laptop that already had a windows7 partition. First I had Kubuntu installed, but I decided to just try Ubuntu instead. I did things the right way when I installed Kubuntu and I could switch between OSes on reboot. Then when I installed Ubuntu I accidentally put grub on /dev/sda1 instead of /dev/sda. I didn't even notice for a while because I never felt like I needed to go back to Windows until I felt like playing starcraft 2. That's when I noticed that when the boot options screen appears and I select Windows, the screen goes black, a cursor flashes in the upper left corner for about a second, then the boot options screen reappears.
If I boot using my windows 7 cd and go into recovery, get a command prompt and type Bootrec.exe /FixMbr and Bootrec.exe /FixBoot, the options appear to complete successfully, but then when I reboot, I get a permanent flashing cursor.
If I follow that by inserting my parted magic cd and running testdisk and overwriting the mbr, I get back to the first situation where the boot options screen will appear, but the windows boot loader just returns me to the boot options screen. I can get into ubuntu, at least. Whenever I run testdisk I can't replace the boot with the backup boot because I'm pretty sure it's identical to the flawed one.
My boot disk is failing! I am a little nervous, so I'd like to have extra eyes on this so that I don't fubar it.
My setup is as follows, with WinXP and Ubuntu living on completely separate drives:
The boot disk (WinXP with grub2 on MBR) is failing. I need to replace it, pronto.
Do I need to get any data from the MBR on the failing disk before removing it?
Should I make the Karmic disk bootable and install grub on it before removing the failing boot disk?
Once I have Windows (re)installed on a new disc (which will still be /dev/sda) I want to install GRUB2 to its MBR and re-instate the old (current) boot options. How should I do this?
Trying to do a new install of ubuntu 10.10 to my laptop. Installation and all works fine, but upon rebooting, after the bios screen i get:
Code: error: out of disk. grub rescue> I tried using following some instructions i found after googling for the problem: Code: ls (displays the partitions and devices Grub can see) set prefix=(hdX,Y)/boot/grub
[Code]...
but after the 5th step, i get another "error: out of disk" message. The odd thing is that I had an install of 10.10 on this laptop a month ago, and it worked fine. As a side note, I installed fedora 14 after this happened, which worked fine. Reinstalled ubuntu, and it was back to the same problem. I also tried installing with a kubuntu cd I had, to make sure it wasnt the install media, and had the same problem.
I've had this problem on a couple of Ubuntu server upgrades and am keen to get to the bottom of it. Basically, with an Ubuntu 10.10 server installtion where LVM has been used, running through the do-release-upgrade process works perfectly until the reboot stage. Then grub complains with "no such disk" and dumps me out to the grub shell. From here, I can see (from ls) the following:
Code: (hostname-swap_1) (hostname-root) (hd0) (hd0,5) (hd0,1) (fd0) I can enumerate the filesystem on (hd0,1) which seems to contain the /boot filesystem and the filesystem on (hostname-root) seems to contain the / filesystem.
If I execute: Code: linux=(hd0,1)/vmlinuz-image-2.6.38-8-server root=(hostname-root) initrd=(hd0,1)/initrd.img-2.6.38-8-server boot It boots, but into busybox saying that the target filesystem doesn't have requested /sbin/init.
Plan to use GRUB for multiple booting to select the OS but only with luck have I got it partially to work. Windows 98 and Puppy 431 O.K on first HDD but Puppy 421 on second HDD /dev/sdb1 stops at error 21.
I have just installed Debian and the installation went smooth (net installation). The last prompt was to specify if you want to be able to boot 3 different OS's using grub. I answered yes (I have Win7, Ubuntu and now wanted to install Debian for testing purposes). Is there any way I could manually add entry to grub for booting Debian, for instance from Ubuntu adding to menu.lst?
I use Linux Mint, and I installed a linux-rt from the repository, but when I restart my computer no grub menu shows up. It just boots linux mint. How can I get it to show the menu so I can choose the real time kernel?
Upon installation of Ubuntu a while back, i was using a windows xp machine with two different harddrives. Instead of formatting the xp drive and installing Linux, i decided to install Linux on the secondary harddrive. This worked all fine and dandy until recent, when I have found my linux drive filling up near capacity. I would like to format the XP harddrive and mount it in linux to give some more disk space. The problem i have found, is that the XP drive is the drive with GRUB.
I am a novice in Linux but due to my academic requirement I had to install Linux (Fedora 8). I have 2 hard disk's (80GB & 20GB), on the first HD which is 80GB I have Windows XP and the other one I partitioned and installed Linux. Now the first problem is that, whenever I start my PC I get a error which says "GRUB hard disk error", however when I restart the machine it's fine and gives me the boot options.
Secondly, the HD containing windows was affected by virus so I had to format & reinstall XP. Strangely after that I am not getting any boot options and it's like windows is the only 1 OS running. But on windows the partition on which Linux is installed in intact. So I assume something is deleted maybe the Linux boot file.
I have a dual boot machine (Win XP + Ubuntu 9.10 on separate physical drives) which was working fine. I now want to replace the Ubuntu 9.10 with LinuxMCE which is based on Ubuntu 8.10. Using the LinuxMCE install disk, I did a fresh install of Ubuntu 8.10 over the top of Ubuntu 9.10 (repartitioning the whole drive). On reboot, I now get a Grub "no such disk" error. I have run the boot info script which produced the following RESULT.txt:
Code: Boot Info Summary: => Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks for (UUID=6a59ab9e-041f-41e2-b27c-02b8ada4c1af)/boot/grub. => Grub 0.97 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on the same drive in partition #1 for /boot/grub/stage2 and /boot/grub/menu.lst. => Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc
I have windows 7 installed in my internal laptop hard disk and I have installed Ubuntu 9.10 "the Karmic Koala - released in October 2009 and supported until April 2011", on my external hard disk. The problem I am facing is that the GRUB have been installed on the hard disk, for that reason if my laptop have restarted I need the hard disk to be attached to it to load the GRUB and to log in to windows. I need guidance in moving the GRUB to my internal hard disk or return the windows boot loader in charge, so I can boot my windows without the hard disk.
I recently bought a new Gateway desktop. I use mostly Ubuntu but like to boot into Windows once in a while. Have used Ubuntu as my main OS for about 3 to 4 years, dual booting. After the Ubuntu 10.04 release, I decided to throw in another hard drive into the new computer and make it dual boot.
Mistakes:
1. I did not create the Gateway Recovery Disk in Windows before installing Ubuntu.
2. Installed Ubuntu 10.04 without disconnecting the Windows 7 drive.
3. The Ubuntu install never prompted me asking where to install Grub (apparently there is an advanced menu somewhere in the install process that lets you select), and it was installed to the first drive on the PC by default, which happened to be the Win 7 drive.
This left the Windows 7 unbootable because it did not appear in the Grub menu. I did some searching and managed to install Grub on the second drive (the one with the Ubuntu install) and also managed to add Windows 7 to the Grub menu so I could boot into Windows. This last procedure added the Windows 7 option to the Grub on both drives.
I then managed to fix the Windows 7 mbr using /fixmbr and /fixboot. The problems I still have are as following. I can't create the Windows Gateway Recovery Disk in Windows. Every time I try, I get a message telling me "Hard drive configuration is not set to the factory default. Restore aborted.". I already disconnected the Ubuntu drive but get the same results. I know this one is not a Linux issue, but maybe someone had a similar issue and might be able to help.
The next problem I have is that it looks like after the las Kernel update in Ubuntu, Grub overwrote the Windows 7 mbr again. Is there a setting file somewhere that now tells Ubuntu that Grub is installed in two places and that whenever there is an update it updates both? Can I change this? I really would like to avoid re-installing Ubuntu to fix this.
