Booting problem

[Karl Larsen]

Keith Powell wrote:
> Karl Larsen wrote:
>   
>> Keith Powell wrote:
>>     
>>> Karl Larsen wrote:
>>>   
>>>       
>>>> Mark Haney wrote:
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>>>> Keith Powell wrote:
>>>>>       
>>>>>           
>>>>>> Thank you for your help, Mark.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> As I have said to Karl, things work properly with Ubuntu on a different 
>>>>>> hard drive - even with the new kernel.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'll do as you suggest; put the original Ubuntu drive back and see what 
>>>>>> happens when I use the older kernel.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>             
>>>>> I'm curious as to why the system boots fine without the XP drive 
>>>>> connected if the drive itself is bad. If the Ubuntu drive is flaky, I 
>>>>> should think it would be flaky no matter what else is connected to it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Hmm, how do you have your IDE drives setup?  Are the Master and slave, 
>>>>> or 'Cable Select'?  I'm wondering if the Ubuntu drive is set to cable 
>>>>> select and it's getting screwy when the kernel loads somehow.
>>>>>
>>>>> Personally, I ALWAYS manually set my IDE drives up. I never use Cable 
>>>>> Select in any way.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>           
>>>>     Excellent thought Mark. A bad HD setup when you have 2 of them can 
>>>> sure cause his problems.
>>>>
>>>> Karl
>>>>     
>>>>         
>>> Mark and Karl.
>>>
>>> I use jumper select with my drives, not cable select. They are 
>>> definitely master and slave.
>>>
>>> Using my spare 40GB hard drive, Ubuntu works with both drives connected. 
>>> So I have installed a couple of other distros on it (one at a time). 
>>> Linuxmint only works if the XP drive is unplugged (BusyBox message 
>>> again). Mandriva works with one or both connected.
>>>
>>> So I'm going to spend some time doing more tests, putting the main 250GB 
>>> hard drive back in and trying Ubuntu again.
>>>
>>> I'll post the results.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>>
>>> Keith
>>>   
>>>       
>>     OK Keith well your sure doing the Hard Drives (HD) properly. It 
>> sounds to me like there is something wrong with the 250GB HD. Do this:
>>
>>     With the spare HD installed look at your BIOS and see which HD is 
>> shown as Master and Slave. Then replace with the 250GB HD and check BIOS 
>> again. This HD should be exactly the same, master or slave of the temp HD.
>>
>>     If it changes or looks odd it means the 250GB has a problem.
>>
>>     
> Karl, Mark.
>
> I have solved the problem.
>
> Recapping, the XP drive is plugged and jumpered as the master and the 
> Ubuntu the slave.
>
> If I have the master drive plugged in when installing Ubuntu, the 
> partitioner correctly recognises the slave as 'sdb'. However, if I have 
> the master unplugged, it calls the slave 'sda'. In my 'un-expert' 
> opinion, this is in conflict with what it should be.
>
> So, I have installed Ubuntu with the master plugged in and it now works.
>
> I expect, but am guessing here, that I could alternatively have 
> installed Ubuntu with the other drive unplugged and edited grub/menu.lst 
> to change sda to sdb.
>
> There's just one thing which has happened, which I didn't want. Ubuntu 
> appears to have installed its grub onto the XP drive MBR. I want to find 
> out how to reinstall the XP MBR and change the Ubuntu one to the sdb drive.
>
> Thank you all for your help. I appreciate it.
>
> Cheers
>
> Keith
>
>   
    It works Keith. DO NOT MOVE grub anywhere! Use it like it is. This 
is what the Ubuntu loader wants. It should be what you want.

Karl


-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.
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