Ubuntu Installation :: Grub 2 Doesn't Use Boot Default?

I loaded Kubuntu 9.1 and got a mess in the Grub 2 Boot Menu, which I can't correct.

I get extra choices in the Boot menu, and the first few, which are supposedly for Kubuntu Karmic Koala all put me in a shell, which ends in a black screen, then shows up a shell once I hit "enter". Then I just have a "intramfs" (?) prompt.

So I went into Grub2 to change it, and it refuses to do it. All I get is a screen full of error messages every time I try, with no change. Apparently it is looking to access drive sdb8, which is non-existent. I DO have a drive sda8, though.

So with all the wonderfulness of the indirect system to change Grub 2 how am I supposed to set it right? The old Grub worked fine, and just took simple changes to the menu.lst file.

Can't somebody write a program that lets Grub 2 be changed from within the program, rather than all this running around trying to find what file to change, and how to get the change to work?

Just to be clear, here are the errors as they show up when grub-update is flailing around:
"error: cannot open '/dev/sdb' while attempting to get disk size
error: cannot open '/dev/sdb' while attempting to get disk size
Generating grub.cfg
error: cannot open '/dev/sdb' while attempting to get disk size

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