I've been running a dual-boot ubuntu 11.04 64-bit and windows 7 64-bit for a while now, and recently got a new computer. I moved the hard drives to the new computer (one had both os's on it, the other was just a storage drive) and windows 7 would not boot, so I reinstalled it. I used a live cd to repair grub using boot repair /Boot-Repair) and everything looked to be going swell But when I tried to boot I got "invalid or damaged bootable partition" instead of a grub menu. so I went back and, copying and pasting the commands the program gave me, I manually removed and reinstalled grub on my ubuntu partition. same error. so, I backed up all my documents onto a third drive, wiped everything out, and started again. I installed win7 on one drive, and then when that was done, I installed ubuntu on the other. lo and behold when I tried to boot I got the same error message, and now I can't even boot from my windows drive. The ubuntu drive is fairly new and according to disk utility has no errors. Is this some problem with grub or what?
Windows' Master Boot Record seems to be damaged on my dual-boot.Here are the details.
Boot Info Script 0.55 dated February 15th, 2010 ============================= Boot Info Summary: ============================== => HP/Gateway is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda
Caused by Used fdisk to delete the windows partition, in my dual boot. Then I could no longer log in to ubuntu, the partition table was some how courpt and I couldnt remount I then decided to use the windows partitioner from windows setup, as I thought it is so stupid, to reformat the partition where I had ubuntu. I wanted reinstall ubuntu, and I know that during the setup I could straighten out the mess I'd made.
Windows has now installed two 8mb one cylinder partitions on my HD. When I start the PC I get a !disk error occurred Press Crlt Alt Del to restart! This happens everytime. HD boot sequence is buggered, i guess.
I can boot from other devices. USB + CD. How when I use the windows disk to boot up I can see the 2 8mb partition, which it wont let me delete. How can I delete this via linux?
Also when I try to install ubuntu from the usb drive, it stalls just after the Preparing to install part. The next screen is when you set the partition table, swap drive etc. When I quit I get the following error !Process Glib WARNING getpuuid_r() failed due to unknown id!
The usb_liveCD does however mount my hard disk partitions and luckily I have managed to back everything up to an external.
results from df /var/log# df Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on aufs 766804 68140 698664 9% / none 760892 244 760648 1% /dev /dev/sdb1 3911856 712128 3199728 19% /cdrom
The project was an update of a cluttered dual boot ubuntu/XP laptop to ubuntu 10.10. For work, I sometimes need Windows, regrettably some software needs Explorer or indeed W$ itself to operate.Grub 2 still seems buggy, install was fixed by
Code: sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
On my Laptop is an 80 GB HD. I installed Windows XP first (at this point it worked perfectly) then installed on the same HD, but on other partitions Archlinux.
The whole thing looks like this now:
/dev/sda1 <--- Windows xp /dev/sda2 <--- arch linux (/, etc, etc^^) /dev/sda3 <--- homes /dev/sda4 <--- boot partition (grub)
(I got no SWAP partition, I got 4gb RAM (well can only use 3, since my system doesn't support 64bit), and my friend told me there's no absolute need for a a swap :>)
Arch Linux is booting perfectly (and very fast), but Windows XP doesn't want to boot anymore :> (Just if it's from any importance: In the partition program I took the "bootable" flag away from my XP Partition and set it to sda4 - I thought I need to do that, but now I'm not so sure anymore :P )
My entry in the file /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like this (I also tried various others)
title Windows root (hd0,1) makeactive chainloader +1
When I boot and choose the Windows XP in the GRUB boot menu, the following message appears:
error 13: invalid or unsupported executable format
When I set root(hd0,1) to root(hd0,0) (what seemed the most logical to me) and boot again selecting the windows xp, then the GRUB cosole appears.
So what did I do wrong - or better said: what should I do now?
I followed a tutorial to install XP across my entire HDD. I installed Ubuntu 10.10 "Alongside another OS". Ubuntu loads fine, but when trying to load XP, the boot screen shows up, but then the computer restarts and returns to the GRUB menu.
I saw some threads on this site and tried to type: sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst
In the terminal. It returned a blank text document so I'm not sure if that information was outdated. I then typed: sudo fdisk -l
And got this:
Not sure what any of this means, but I sure hope someone else does. I would say forget XP, but it's hard to let go of some of the games and software I use. I appreciate any responses, thank you.
I tried to format the table as it appeared, but the forum corrected the extra spaces.
I had a working dual boot Ubuntu 10 and Windows 7. Anyways long story short, I got it working again but have lost the boot option for windows 7. If i run fdisk -l, I get the following.
I installed gparted and can see that windows 7 is installed in dev/sda6. In another forum, i read that someone had to edit their menu.lst so i did with the following.
Since upgrading to Lucid (I think), I can't boot into Windows. When I select the Windows Vista entry in GRUB, the screen goes blank for a moment before returning me to the GRUB menu.I have tried pressing 'e' to edit the GRUB entry before booting, and what I find is that it says the root is hd0,1Since my Windows partition is sda1 in GPartEd, should that translate to, for example hd0,0 ?The only reason I want to boot into Windows in the first place is to install a BIOS upgrade from HP, which only works with their Windows software. If someone can suggest an alternative way of doing this then I won't need to boot into Windows at all.
When I try to boot into windows through grub it just returns to the grub menu.also system recovery options from bios just end up in grub screen too.here is boot script.From reading forums I think I need to get grub out of windows partition but I don't know how
I use DOS and WIndows XP for engineering and CAD work, and HAD a WORKING dual boot system, with NTLDR booting both systems. Now, after my attempts to add Fedora 14, I don't have ANY working OS. I don't know much of anything about Linux. I just wanted to add it to my to machine for safe and reliable web browsing and email. I know it can be used for much more, but that was just the initial goal.
I've watched a friend create a triple boot with Linux a couple years ago, and he wrote the procedure up for me. (I've seen the same procedure posted many places online.) It involves installing linux to a clean formatted XT3 OR XT4 partition and GRUB to the root of the same partition. Then you "DD" the first 512 bytes of the partition to a file "bootsect.lnx" in the primary partition. And finally, you reference "bootsect.lnx" in the Windows BOOT.INI.
I repartitioned the drive for Linux, using Partition Commander 11. It's structured like this. (sizes are my best recollection)
I booted from a Fedora 14 LIVE CD. Ran GPARTED from a terminal window. It identified the 100GB XT 4 partition as SDA7 and the 2GB Linux swap as SDA8. I figured this was the only place Fedora would go. So I started the installer.
It didn't tell me where it was going to install, but alerted me that I had FAT, FAT32 and NTFS partitions. I was given several choices and selected the option that would not touch those partitions. The installation proceeded, and I was never given the chance to tell the installer where to install GRUB. I had every reason to expect that it installed to the XT4 partition. On reboot, I now have a command line, "GRUB:" No DOS, WINDOWS or Linux.
Is there anyway to restore my DOS and WIndows booting under NT Loader? Or is it gone for good? I may want Linux, but I can't live without the DOS and WIndows for my work. If it IS possible to fix this can we do that BEFORE we get back to installing Linux?
I had a dual boot system(WinXP and Ubuntu). But something happened and I was not able to boot into my Ubuntu partition. It gave GRUB missing error. I tried reformatting the dedicated 40 GB ubuntu partition to NTFS and again try to reinstall ubuntu. But now, when I install ubuntu through boot time install, it shows that my whole hard disk is empty( but I have windows XP on whole hdd at the moment) and do not give any other option but to use whole hdd.
Alternatively when I try to install it inside windows, then after rebooting it shows, no root file system defined error and neither gives any option to do so also ( this method worked earlier o my PC). At the moment, It still shows ubuntu and windowsXP at OS choice menu at boot time but when booting in ubuntu, it shows GRUB missing. (I don't have any ubuntu installation on my hard disk at the moment).
While installing with a separate /boot partition I cannot get two distinct copies of ubu installed on one machine and be able to choose between them. Each is installed on a different hard drive. x64 versions. I've had this issue both ways:
Stepsinstall mythbuntu install ubuntu Result
Two entries in grub. Both cause ubuntu to boot
Stepsinstall ubuntu install mythbuntu Result
Two entries in grub. Both cause mythbuntu to boot Grub 2 is so unfriendly for fixing these things. I don't know where to make changes. Ok, Grub 2 is very powerful, maybe it's the lagging documentation, or lack of tutorials that is the problem. But I don't know how to fix this. Do I start over without the /boot partition? Do I bail on ubu?
I'm dual boot with Vista(TM) and UBUNTU(tm) and ran out of space on Ubuntu partition:I booted Ubuntu 10.04LTS live CD and shrank the VISTA. It would NOT let me grow the extended partition? So now I have:
sda1 ntfs /media/TOSHIBA_SYSTEM_VOLUME 1.46GB sda2 ntfs /media/SQ004588V03 88GB sda4 ext3 THIS IS MY NEW PARTITION 15GB
I am new to Debian but have some basic experience with Linux and am currently trying to triple boot Windows 7, Fedora 16, and Debian on an HP Pavilion dv7. I have the Windows Boot Loader on my MBR because I've heard that Windows updates can cause boot issues if GRUB is installed there. This means that I've been installing GRUB in the /boot partition for each Linux distro and creating corresponding entries in the Windows boot menu.
This has worked in the past with both Fedora and Ubuntu, but I have not been able to work around it with Debian. When I choose my Debian option in the Windows boot loader, it loads GRUB but hangs after it prints "Welcome to GRUB!", and I have to restart the computer. I would like to hear what more experienced Linux users have to say both about why this isn't working for Debian and about if keeping the WIndows boot loader is the right way to go.
Also, here is my partition layout:
Partition 1: SYSTEM (HP pre-installed) (209 MB) Partition 2: Windows Partition (472 GB) Partition 3: Extended (160 GB) 1: /boot for Fedora (524 MB) 2: Physical Volume for other Fedora partitions (79 GB) 3: /boot for Debian (749 MB) 4: Physical Volume for other Debian partitions (80 GB) 118 GB free space Partition 4: HP_TOOLS (HP pre-installed) (108 MB)
I set up my Dell Inspiron Laptop as Dual Boot -> Xp / Ubuntu 10.04. - all worked well. I had 2 installations of XP on this machine and I removed one - all worked well. I then went into XP and deleted the partion (4) that the old XP had resided on (using Easeus Partition Master) All NOT working well !! Now when booting the machine I get grub rescue> I did ls and got ....
Here's what I want to do. I have two separate HDD HDD 1 : 160 GB (dedicated to windows, already working) HDD 2 : 500 GB Will be using dedicated to ubuntu (not partitioned yet)
I want to use the HDD two only for linux and this HDD is not partitioned yet. What I want to do is - A dedicated Grub partition (/boot) on HDD 2 (Do I really need it when I am using just two os? Will it work on second HDD?) - / root partition - /home partition - /swap partition - /fat32 partition (do I need it to share files with win?)
Bottom Line: Dvd Drive died in my toshiba laptop and it was replaced (not before tech for some reason reformatted the Win7 partition... which was 100% un-needed, but thats beside the point now. I redid win7 (the tech installed vista) and am TRYING to "redo grub". Facts: The Slackware AND Ubuntu Partitions ARE STILL THERE and when i use SuperGrub Boot CD (which doesn't restore my grub by itself) to boot into slackware, i can see ALL THE CONTENT of both Linuxes still there including grub on ubuntu partition
(Tri-Boot: Ubuntu, Slackware, and WIn7) I had it working for two years or so, SO i know this "setup" works fine. I am A) Trying to do this as simply as possible. B) Trying to avoid the need to download a 800MB ISO (as seen for this issue on this forum) and trying not to have to reformat Ubuntu Partition (though I have the .Debs I have downloaded for it backed up ... all 1.7GB of them) I have /dev/sda1 as win7, /dev/sda2 as Slack and /dev/sda3 as Ubuntu (which contains Grub Legacy).. Every command I do seems to result in an error like "invalid command" or "invalid Execution format " (i think that second one is right) type errors. I compiled (awhile back) a few kernels for Slackware, but feel goofy that I cant figure what i this out (what i thought was going to be a "2 minute" fix)
I somehow recalled a rule re the location of the boot partitions with LILO being required to be in the first part of the drive (1024 cylinders, it seems) and I found it indeed in an old doc:
Boot Partition: Your boot partition ought to be a primary partition, not a logical partition. This will ease recovery in case of disaster, but it is not technically necessary. It must be of type 0x83 "Linux native". If you are using lilo, your boot partition must be contained within the first 1024 cylinders of the drive. (Typically, the boot partition need only contain the kernel image.) Is this still valid in GRUB, esp in Fedora 10?
Noobish question on multibooting multiple Linux distros. I have four of the current major Linux distributions. Each has been installed and run individually (no other Linux distribution installed) in a dual-boot configuration with Windoze. No problem.
What I want to do is install all four Linux distributions and multiboot them. Reading the internet it would seem this is a simple task with GRUB. The short version being - install a Linux distro with a separate /boot partition for GRUB and use GRUB to boot the other Linux distros from the GRUB boot menu.
So I installed one of the Linux distros with a separate partition for /boot. The distro installer installed GRUB in /boot and correctly setup a dual-boot configuration with Windoze. GRUB was installed to the MBR. Next I installed a second Linux distro in its own root partition and told the distros installer NOT to install GRUB to the MBR, but rather, to the boot sector of the root partion of the second Linux distro. Installation was uneventful (and I could access the second Linux partition from the first installed Linux distro, things looked ok). Then I added to following to the installed (MBR - /boot) GRUB's menu.lst:
Code: title lixux distro 2 root (hd0,7)
chainloader +1 After which I rebooted the system and the new entry for the second Linux distro now appears in the GRUB boot menu. I selected the second Linux distro from the boot menu and got the following GRUB error: Error 5 : Partition table invalid or corrupt [Code]....
I have a HDD with OS Win with three partitions NTFS.I installed Ubuntu 10.10 on new partition, and I left the old partitions on the disk, because there are a lot of my personal data.When I was looking for how to mount partitions on startup, I was fortuitously to Palimpsest Disk Utility selecting the checkbox on sda2 as a boot, and apply. But I saw that it was wrong and took the check back. And after this was damaged NTFS on the partition sda2. Windows shows the partition as RAW.
i have just discoverd i can't enter my windows 7 via grub boot menu i get error 13 Invalid or unsupported executable format what can i do? # This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS # on /dev/sdb1
I have an Ubuntu server virtual machine running in vmware server on a Win2003 server host. A locked up machine forced a hard reset a couple of days ago and my VM seems to be damaged.At first VMware wouldn't start the VM, complaining of a locked file. I deleted 3 .lckdirectories and was able to start up the VM. I then get a GRUB menu with 6 options - booting any of them other than memtest results in a lone underscore cursor at the upper left corner.me in the right direction as far as the next thing I should try at this point? Unfortunately I had not yet set up a rigorous backup scheme, other than internal daily db/web backups that are stored inside the VM. I have a snapshot from 3 weeks ago but upon loading the snapshot I get the same cursor.
I got ubuntu 10.04 lucid lynx along with windows (dual boot) and using Grub. On my computer, I have my C:/ (programs) and D:/ (data). I've never used my D:/ before that day that I've lost my windows partition on my grub menu. I usually use my D:/ with windows. The first time I used my D:/ to store data with linux, I lost my windows option in my grub menu. I'm not sure what I did wrong but I do want to restore my windows option in my grub menu.
After "fdisk -l",
I checked in /boot/grub and there is no menu.lst to modify. how I can get back my windows option in my grub menu ?
is it possible to use a Windows-based recovery partition on a dual-boot computer to overwrite the Ubuntu partition and remove the GRUB loader? For instance, if you booted up your computer, accessed the hidden recovery partition and used it to reset the computer to it's factory default settings, would that effectively remove the Ubuntu partition and the GRUB loader? Would a completely new installation of Windows overwrite/uninstall Ubuntu and GRUB automatically?
I have just installed the newest Debian Stable 7.8 release on my new notebook. Before installation I had to free some disk space from the preinstalled Windows7 with ntfsresize and fdisk. In addition to the existing three primary partitions I created an extended one with three logical partitions for /(root) /home and swap, see the output of 'fdisk -lu'
For some reason I put a bootable flag on sda7, and the only small concern during installation was that some BIOS systems might not work with boot-flag no logical drives. Now, every time I boot I get this "Invalid partition table!' message which I must 'enter" away before I get to the GRUB menu.
following problem. A friend phoned me in despair. Her Ubuntu didn't start any more - ASUS-Laptop switched on stops at a ramfs-prompt. I started Puppy-Linux from DVD-Drive. Worked fine. But puppy can't mount her /dev/sda1 partition either. At least you can see that the partition is still there. Fsck stops with an error. May be the initial problem is a sort of bad hardware by which bad bytes were written to the hard drive. Hard drive and/or memory could be replaced but not the data.
I having a problem getting my grub loader to see one of my hard drives. I added a drive, and my grub loader lost track of where everything was. I couldn't get my old linux (Red Hat 9) so I installed SuSe on my new hard drive. But I need my be able to boot from my old hard drive because it has apps that only run on the earlier version. From /proc/partitions the old hard drive is sdd
major minor #blocks name 8 0 976762584 sda 8 1 2104483 sda1 8 2 20972857 sda2
I am having trouble getting my HP 6310 All-In-One scanner working using it on its ethernet interface, set to 192.168.1.208. Installed fine under cups for printing. hplib installed. I do the following.~ $ hp-makeuri 192.168.1.208HP Linux Imaging and Printing System (ver. 3.9.4b)Device URI Creation Utility ver. 5.0Copyright (c) 2001-9 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, LPThis software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.This is free software, and you are welcome to distribute itunder certain conditions. See COPYING file for more details.
CUPS URI: hp:/net/Officejet_6300_series?ip=192.168.1.208 SANE URI: hpaio:/net/Officejet_6300_series?ip=192.168.1.208 HP Fax URI: hpfax:/net/Officejet_6300_series?ip=192.168.1.208