Grub boot confusion

Karl Larsen k5di at zianet.com
Fri Aug 29 20:22:51 UTC 2008


Karl Larsen wrote:
> Keith Clark wrote:
>   
>> Karl Larsen wrote:
>>     
>>> Keith Clark wrote:
>>>  
>>>       
>>>> Mark Haney wrote:
>>>>    
>>>>         
>>>>> Keith Clark wrote:
>>>>>  
>>>>>      
>>>>>           
>>>>>> On my system, Ubuntu seems to have been updating just fine, but it 
>>>>>> was modifying the wrong menu.lst grub file, as my computer was 
>>>>>> booting from another drive.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I finally discovered the problem and changed the boot order in my 
>>>>>> BIOS.  I was booting to kernal 2.6.24-16-generic.  Now I'm booting 
>>>>>> to kernal 2.6.24-19-386.
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>             
>>>>>  
>>>>>      
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Any ways to correct these?
>>>>>>             
>>>>>>             
>>>>> I am not sure I understand your setup.  You say you were updating 
>>>>> just fine, but the system was updating the wrong menu.lst file?  Do 
>>>>> you have /another/ Ubuntu install on this system?  I fail to see 
>>>>> how you could have two otherwise.  I could be wrong on that 
>>>>> though.  Is it possible that the new boot setup is booting to 
>>>>> another Ubuntu instance altogether?
>>>>>
>>>>> I need more info....
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>         
>>>>>           
>>>> Only one Ubuntu installation.  Three hard drives.  Two are bootable 
>>>> and it was booting from one drive, but Ubuntu was updating the grub 
>>>> from the second drive.
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>     OK stop here. You have only one Ubuntu installed but you have 3 
>>> hard drives and one of the hard drives without Ubuntu installed was 
>>> being updated with kernels and other things.
>>>
>>>     Question 1: Why do you have two grub setups? How did you do this?
>>>
>>>     Question 2. What is on the 2 unused hard drives?
>>>
>>>
>>> Karl
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  
>>>       
>>>> I was then stuck at booting an old version of the kernal, but still 
>>>> running the same installation.
>>>>
>>>> I've managed to repair the video driver by installing the correct 
>>>> restricted driver, but I'm still having a problem with the sound card.
>>>>
>>>> Keith
>>>>
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>   
>>>       
>> The original (incorrect) boot drive has XP and PCLinuxOS installed on 
>> it.  When I installed Ubuntu 7.10 onto the second hard drive, all went 
>> well.  It updated the correct Grub and all was well.
>>     
>     What is on the third hard drive?
>   
>> When things went wrong was when I upgraded to 8.04.  Things have been 
>> wacky ever since.  I just discovered the dual grub/boot problem 
>> yesterday.
>>     
>     Well updating Gutsy with Hardy can not cause your PCLinux to work! 
> If anything it would write over all other Grub and Windows at the MBR on 
> the first bootable hard drive. So this is a mystery. You must have done 
> something else.
>
>     Do you boot Windows and the other Linux?
>
>     You said there was nothing on the other two hard drives. We know 
> know different :-)
>
> Karl
>
>   
>> Keith
>>
>> Hard Drive arrangement:
>>
>> sda
>>       sda1 fat32
>>       sda2 ntfs
>>
>> hda
>>       hda1 ntfs
>>       hda2 extended
>>             hda5 ext2
>>             hda6 linux-swap
>>             hda7 ext2
>>
>> hdd
>>       hdd1 ext3
>>       hdd2 extended
>>             hdd5 linux-swap
>>
>> sda is the original hard drive and contains XP.  hda contains 
>> PCLinuxOS.  hdd contains Ubuntu 8.04.1
>>
>>
>>     
>
>
>   
    It is interesting how you help people on this list. This fellow said 
he had 3 hard drives but only one had Ubuntu on it. But with discussion 
it was obvious there HAD to be another Linux somehere.

    Then I discovered sure enough there IS another Linux and a Windows. 
Asked what was on the third Hard Drive and the subject dropped. I assume 
the discussion got his mind working and all is fine, or he is back to 
Windows :-)


Karl



-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
   PGP 4208 4D6E 595F 22B9 FF1C  ECB6 4A3C 2C54 FE23 53A7





More information about the ubuntu-users mailing list