Solve : Ubuntu (Total New Experience)?

1.	Solve : Ubuntu (Total New Experience)?
Answer» Hi Folks. Hoping someone here would GIVE me some help. Like you can gather from the title , I have very little knowledge of Ubuntu. I mean little. Anyway, I would like to add to the Grub menu and I'm a little intimidated even after reading about Grub either within CH or online. I was able though to change the boot order and the menu time but as far as knowing anything else about Grub, I don't. Anyway, here's my story. I started off with one HDD (250 GB) with WinXP installed. I added another HDD (750 GB) and cloned XP to it , and then (with lots and lots of help) I was able to install Ubuntu as well on this larger drive. For a while I had the smaller drive disconnected and was using only the larger drive. Then because the smaller drive was not being used I decided to upgrade that drive from XP to Vista . When I purchased this system 4 yrs. back it had XP installed but came with a Vista upgrade. So I thought that I'd give Vista a shot and after a number of problems it appears that it's running OK now. Currently I'm using only the smaller drive (Vista) and I'm a little anxious to get back to Ubuntu, which is on the other drive. Because I've found some pretty neat features in Vista I'll probably use that until I learn a lot, lot, more about Ubuntu. Connecting and disconnecting DRIVES just ain't cutting it . So I'm sure that you've surmised this, but what I would like to do now is add Vista from the other drive to XP and Ubuntu in the Grub menu. This whole ordeal has been quite a chore for this old fella and I sure don't want to mess things up now. If you don't mind helping, please go very slowly. And thanks, overthehill Don you want the long answer or the simple answer? Here is the simple answer. Don't change anything. You can use it "as is" with a feature in your BIOS that allows you to select a drive at boot time. Also you can go into the BIOS and SPECIFY which is the first boot device. Why?, you ask. If you are new to Vista and Ubuntu , you want to avoid the long answer. Yeah, somebody will come along and tell how how easy it is. Ignore them. Quote from: Geek-9pm on March 26, 2011, 10:11:57 PM Don you want the long answer or the simple answer? Here is the simple answer. Don't change anything. You can use it "as is" with a feature in your BIOS that allows you to select a drive at boot time. Also you can go into the BIOS and specify which is the first boot device. Why?, you ask. If you are new to Vista and Ubuntu , you want to avoid the long answer. Yeah, somebody will come along and tell how how easy it is. Ignore them. Thanks Geek. Well the simpler the better. And I realize that I can specify the first boot device in the BIOS. But, I didn't know that I could choose which of the three O/S's that I want from there? And does the first boot device default after a period of time?. Right now it boots to the Grub and I thought that I would be adding Vista there? So if I understand you correctly, I really don't need the Grub? And, what do I have to do in the BIOS to be able to choose which O/S I want at boot time.? And, what happens to the Grub ? Now I'm really lost overthehill GRUB is needed when you have two or more OS on one drive. The BIOS can only select the drive. If the drive times out, it picks the next in the chain. One this laptop i have, the F12 keys selects which drive at boot time. On my Desktop, the BIOS expects the F8 key. I have to be quick, because windows wants that for the safe mode. When the PC is turned on from a cold start, there should be a little message in top of bottom corner that says: F2 for setup. F12 drive select Or something like that. Here is a possible configuration: Drive 0 GRUB to select Ubuntu or Windows XP Drive 1 Windows Vista. If BIOS LOADS Drive 1, you never see the GRUB. But Vista can see the Windows XP partition and assign it a different drive letter. Maybe. If BIOS loads Drive 0, you see the GRUB and can select Ubuntu or Windows XP. If you boot XP, it can see the stuff on the other drive. Ubntu can mount any drive or partition. Normally, Vista and XP consider the boot drive to be "C" and a partition can have a drive letter. But in Linux the drives and partitions are given more specific names that do not change when you boot from another drive or partition. Quote from: Geek-9pm on March 26, 2011, 11:02:50 PM GRUB is needed when you have two or more OS on one drive. Thanks once more Geek. I'll have to digest all of this. But, I want to point out that I do have two OS's on one drive. XP and Ubuntu on one drive, and Vista on the other. overthehillNormally, Most Distros will see there is another OS and install GRUB automatically. I had to do nothing to my laptop after installing Mint to get the GRUB menu. Geek's suggestion is that you only install GRUB on one of the drives. That's utterly pointless since it just complicates things. If you are going to install GRUB you may as well make it work with all drives. Particularly since his pretend scenario will still work. The Vista drive would still boot up on it's own. Quote from: BC_Programmer on March 27, 2011, 08:50:58 AM Normally, Most Distros will see there is another OS and install GRUB automatically. I had to do nothing to my laptop after installing Mint to get the GRUB menu. Geek's suggestion is that you only install GRUB on one of the drives. That's utterly pointless since it just complicates things. If you are going to install GRUB you may as well make it work with all drives. Particularly since his pretend scenario will still work. The Vista drive would still boot up on it's own. Took me quite a while to get back. I thought before I got too comfortable with Vista that I'd better find out if I could download/install the Service Packs. It took forever (stalled a number of times) but finally (whew!)got it done. Anyway, BC_ . You were right . Vista was recognized in the Grub menu. Thanks. But now people, I'm certainly not out of the woods yet. Of the 3 OS's the only one that loads from Grub is Ubuntu?. XP attempts to load but reverts back to the screen with the BIOS option, and when I choose Vista, it immediately shows that it's going to load XP ?, but doesn't. I'll give you an idea of what the Grub menu consists of, to see if that looks OK. Now I understand, menuentry 'Ubuntu', Windows Vista and Win MCE ,the ones that I require. But I don't understand the two that read, Windows NT/2000/ XP etc.? menuentry 'Ubuntu' with Linux menuentry 'Ubuntu'Recovery Memory Test (memtest 86+) Memory Test (memtest 86+, serial console 115200. Windows Vista (loader) on/dev/sda1 Windows NT/2000/XP (on/dev/sda2) Windows XP Media Center Edition (on/dev/sdb1) Windows NT/2000/XP (on/dev/sdb2) One observation. When both drives are connected Vista becomes Drive (I:). And,before I changed the boot order,when it defaulted to Vista Drive (I:), none of my desktop shortscuts would work and neither would my sound. Don't know what's going to happen with that if I ever get this whole thing straightened out? I'm guessing that the shortcuts were looking for Drive (C:) or ? One last thing. It appears that I have four drive connects on the mobo. Don't suppose it does, but could the choice of the two possibly matter? Thank you, overthehill Boot to Ubuntu. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Type sudo update-grub at the prompt and press enter. Let grub update. reboot the computer and see if you can choose the other OSs from the grub menu. Quote One observation. When both drives are connected Vista becomes Drive (I:). And,before I changed the boot order,when it defaulted to Vista Drive (I:), none of my desktop shortscuts would work and neither would my sound. Don't know what's going to happen with that if I ever get this whole thing straightened out? Are you saying that when you boot into vista, It's drive letter is I? Or do you mean it shows up as I: when you look at it in XP? Did the Vista installation ever work right? Did you ever have sound? Also, were you ever able to boot into XP after you installed Ubuntu? Did the problem start after you connected the drive with vista or have you not been able to use XP since you installed Ubuntu? Quote from: JJ 3000 on March 28, 2011, 01:05:21 AM Boot to Ubuntu. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Type sudo update-grub at the prompt and press enter. Let grub update. reboot the computer and see if you can choose the other OSs from the grub menu. Are you saying that when you boot into vista, It's drive letter is I? Or do you mean it shows up as I: when you look at it in XP? Did the Vista installation ever work right? Did you ever have sound? Also, were you ever able to boot into XP after you installed Ubuntu? Did the problem start after you connected the drive with vista or have you not been able to use XP since you installed Ubuntu? Firstly JJ thanks for responding to my plea. I followed your instructions and updated grub. Sorry for confusing you with the info. that I provided. I'll attempt to be more precise. Are you saying that when you boot into vista, It's drive letter is I? Or do you mean it shows up as I: when you look at it in XP? Did the Vista installation ever work right? Did you ever have sound? JJ, what I meant by this is; when I had both drives connected at first(when Vista was first in the boot order as you'll see below) (when I couldn't access shortcuts or sound) I looked at the drives in "Computer" it showed Drive (C:) and Drive (I:) Vista. But,as I've explained below, the shortcuts and the sound problems no longer exist,(at least for now) and yes, everything was working fine as long as the drives were connected , but only one at a time. Also, were you ever able to boot into XP after you installed Ubuntu? Did the problem start after you connected the drive with vista or have you not been able to use XP since you installed Ubuntu? Yes I had no problem booting into XP after I installed Ubuntu. And yes again, my problems all started when when I connected the two drives to be able to run the 3 OS's., I haven't seen XP since. I'm undoubtedly repeating myself below, but after writing this I decided to go back and make an attempt to specifically answer your questions. XP was running fine on the(250GB)drive before I installed the (500 GB )drive I installed the (500 GB) drive and cloned XP to it from the (250 GB) drive. Once I had cloned XP to the(500 GB) I disconnected the(250 GB) and checked out the (500 GB) drive to make sure that everything had copied properly. Once I was satisfied that it was OK I installed Ubuntu on the (500 GB) drive and left the (250 GB) drive disconnected. I ran XP and Ubuntu for days with no problems. Because the (250 GB) drive was just gathering dust and because I had a Vista Upgrade disk I got the brainwave to upgrade to Vista on the(250 GB). Before the upgrade, the(500 GB) drive was disconnected. And, just prior to the disconnect both OS's (XP and Ubuntu) were running fine on the (500 GB) drive. Then, for some time with the (500 GB) drive disconnected I worked on Vista. It took some time but finally got Vista running fine too on the (250 GB) drive. But, here's where the fun starts. . Thinking that all was well because individually the OS's were running fine on both drives, I connected both drives. But I'm thinking now that I should have changed the boot order first, because it defaulted to the (250 GB) drive where Vista is installed. This is when I encountered the problem of not being able to access the desktop shortcuts and I had no sound. At this point I didn't know how to get Vista into the Grub.I didn't expect that Vista would be added to the Grub even if I would have had the correct boot order. I posted in the forum and took BC_ 's advice. With both drives connected I booted up and like he said Vista was indeed in the grub.This time I had the boot order having the (500 GB) drive boot before the (250 GB) drive. But although the 3 OS's were in the Grub the only OS that I could access was Ubuntu. Actually the same is true today even after updating the grub. The same scenario. Ubuntu loads fine. Vista almost immediately goes to XP start up, then goes back to the BIOS screen.This very same thing happens when XP is selected. It attempts to run and then it too goes back to the BIOS screen. Now all of a sudden what is different is; with both drives connected (which it is right now), I'm having no problems at all with Vista as long as it is selected first in the boot order. Shortcuts are fine, sound is working, the whole shebang. That wasn't the case previously as I stated above? But, no way now can I access XP, even with the (250 GB) drive disconnected. Hope this makes sense and sure appreciate any help. Thks, overthehill if xp wasnt found automatically or installed after you installed ubuntu try Code: [Select]update-grub which should automatically detect your bootable parts and allow you to select them in grub loader. failing that , manually define them , google it cos i dont wanna get it wrong XD

Answer»

Hi Folks. Hoping someone here would GIVE me some help. Like you can gather from the title , I have very little knowledge of Ubuntu. I mean little. Anyway, I would like to add to the Grub menu and I'm a little intimidated even after reading about Grub either within CH or online. I was able though to change the boot order and the menu time but as far as knowing anything else about Grub, I don't.
Anyway, here's my story.
I started off with one HDD (250 GB) with WinXP installed. I added another HDD (750 GB) and cloned XP to it , and then (with lots and lots of help) I was able to install Ubuntu as well on this larger drive. For a while I had the smaller drive disconnected and was using only the larger drive. Then because the smaller drive was not being used I decided to upgrade that drive from XP to Vista . When I purchased this system 4 yrs. back it had XP installed but came with a Vista upgrade. So I thought that I'd give Vista a shot and after a number of problems it appears that it's running OK now.
Currently I'm using only the smaller drive (Vista) and I'm a little anxious to get back to Ubuntu, which is on the other drive. Because I've found some pretty neat features in Vista I'll probably use that until I learn a lot, lot, more about Ubuntu. Connecting and disconnecting DRIVES just ain't cutting it .
So I'm sure that you've surmised this, but what I would like to do now is add Vista from the other drive to XP and Ubuntu in the Grub menu. This whole ordeal has been quite a chore for this old fella and I sure don't want to mess things up now. If you don't mind helping, please go very slowly.
And thanks, overthehill
Don you want the long answer or the simple answer?
Here is the simple answer.
Don't change anything.
You can use it "as is" with a feature in your BIOS that allows you to select a drive at boot time. Also you can go into the BIOS and SPECIFY which is the first boot device.

Why?, you ask.
If you are new to Vista and Ubuntu , you want to avoid the long answer. Yeah, somebody will come along and tell how how easy it is. Ignore them. Quote from: Geek-9pm on March 26, 2011, 10:11:57 PM

Don you want the long answer or the simple answer?
Here is the simple answer.
Don't change anything.
You can use it "as is" with a feature in your BIOS that allows you to select a drive at boot time. Also you can go into the BIOS and specify which is the first boot device.

Why?, you ask.
If you are new to Vista and Ubuntu , you want to avoid the long answer. Yeah, somebody will come along and tell how how easy it is. Ignore them.

Thanks Geek. Well the simpler the better. And I realize that I can specify the first boot device in the BIOS. But, I didn't know that I could choose which of the three O/S's that I want from there? And does the first boot device default after a period of time?. Right now it boots to the Grub and I thought that I would be adding Vista there? So if I understand you correctly, I really don't need the Grub? And, what do I have to do in the BIOS to be able to choose which O/S I want at boot time.? And, what happens to the Grub ? Now I'm really lost overthehill
GRUB is needed when you have two or more OS on one drive.
The BIOS can only select the drive. If the drive times out, it picks the next in the chain.
One this laptop i have, the F12 keys selects which drive at boot time.
On my Desktop, the BIOS expects the F8 key. I have to be quick, because windows wants that for the safe mode. When the PC is turned on from a cold start, there should be a little message in top of bottom corner that says:
F2 for setup. F12 drive select
Or something like that.

Here is a possible configuration:
Drive 0 GRUB to select Ubuntu or Windows XP
Drive 1 Windows Vista.

If BIOS LOADS Drive 1, you never see the GRUB. But Vista can see the Windows XP partition and assign it a different drive letter. Maybe.

If BIOS loads Drive 0, you see the GRUB and can select Ubuntu or Windows XP. If you boot XP, it can see the stuff on the other drive.

Ubntu can mount any drive or partition.

Normally, Vista and XP consider the boot drive to be "C" and a partition can have a drive letter. But in Linux the drives and partitions are given more specific names that do not change when you boot from another drive or partition.
Quote from: Geek-9pm on March 26, 2011, 11:02:50 PM

GRUB is needed when you have two or more OS on one drive.

Thanks once more Geek. I'll have to digest all of this. But, I want to point out that I do have two OS's on one drive. XP and Ubuntu on one drive, and Vista on the other. overthehillNormally, Most Distros will see there is another OS and install GRUB automatically. I had to do nothing to my laptop after installing Mint to get the GRUB menu.

Geek's suggestion is that you only install GRUB on one of the drives. That's utterly pointless since it just complicates things. If you are going to install GRUB you may as well make it work with all drives. Particularly since his pretend scenario will still work. The Vista drive would still boot up on it's own. Quote from: BC_Programmer on March 27, 2011, 08:50:58 AM

Normally, Most Distros will see there is another OS and install GRUB automatically. I had to do nothing to my laptop after installing Mint to get the GRUB menu.

Geek's suggestion is that you only install GRUB on one of the drives. That's utterly pointless since it just complicates things. If you are going to install GRUB you may as well make it work with all drives. Particularly since his pretend scenario will still work. The Vista drive would still boot up on it's own.

Took me quite a while to get back. I thought before I got too comfortable with Vista that I'd better find out if I could download/install the Service Packs. It took forever (stalled a number of times) but finally (whew!)got it done.

Anyway, BC_ . You were right . Vista was recognized in the Grub menu. Thanks.

But now people, I'm certainly not out of the woods yet.

Of the 3 OS's the only one that loads from Grub is Ubuntu?. XP attempts to load but reverts back to the screen with the BIOS option, and when I choose Vista, it immediately shows that it's going to load XP ?, but doesn't.

I'll give you an idea of what the Grub menu consists of, to see if that looks OK. Now I understand, menuentry 'Ubuntu', Windows Vista and Win MCE ,the ones that I require. But I don't understand the two that read, Windows NT/2000/ XP etc.?

menuentry 'Ubuntu' with Linux
menuentry 'Ubuntu'Recovery
Memory Test (memtest 86+)
Memory Test (memtest 86+, serial console 115200.
Windows Vista (loader) on/dev/sda1
Windows NT/2000/XP (on/dev/sda2)
Windows XP Media Center Edition (on/dev/sdb1)
Windows NT/2000/XP (on/dev/sdb2)

One observation.
When both drives are connected Vista becomes Drive (I:). And,before I changed the boot order,when it defaulted to Vista Drive (I:), none of my desktop shortscuts would work and neither would my sound. Don't know what's going to happen with that if I ever get this whole thing straightened out? I'm guessing that the shortcuts were looking for Drive (C:) or ?
One last thing. It appears that I have four drive connects on the mobo. Don't suppose it does, but could the choice of the two possibly matter?

Thank you, overthehill

Boot to Ubuntu. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Type sudo update-grub at the prompt and press enter. Let grub update. reboot the computer and see if you can choose the other OSs from the grub menu.

Quote

One observation.
When both drives are connected Vista becomes Drive (I:). And,before I changed the boot order,when it defaulted to Vista Drive (I:), none of my desktop shortscuts would work and neither would my sound. Don't know what's going to happen with that if I ever get this whole thing straightened out?

Are you saying that when you boot into vista, It's drive letter is I? Or do you mean it shows up as I: when you look at it in XP? Did the Vista installation ever work right? Did you ever have sound?

Also, were you ever able to boot into XP after you installed Ubuntu? Did the problem start after you connected the drive with vista or have you not been able to use XP since you installed Ubuntu?

Quote from: JJ 3000 on March 28, 2011, 01:05:21 AM

Boot to Ubuntu. Go to Applications > Accessories > Terminal. Type sudo update-grub at the prompt and press enter. Let grub update. reboot the computer and see if you can choose the other OSs from the grub menu.

Are you saying that when you boot into vista, It's drive letter is I? Or do you mean it shows up as I: when you look at it in XP? Did the Vista installation ever work right? Did you ever have sound?

Also, were you ever able to boot into XP after you installed Ubuntu? Did the problem start after you connected the drive with vista or have you not been able to use XP since you installed Ubuntu?

Firstly JJ thanks for responding to my plea. I followed your instructions and updated grub.

Sorry for confusing you with the info. that I provided. I'll attempt to be more precise.

Are you saying that when you boot into vista, It's drive letter is I? Or do you mean it shows up as I: when you look at it in XP? Did the Vista installation ever work right? Did you ever have sound?

JJ, what I meant by this is; when I had both drives connected at first(when Vista was first in the boot order as you'll see below) (when I couldn't access shortcuts or sound) I looked at the drives in "Computer" it showed Drive (C:) and Drive (I:) Vista. But,as I've explained below, the shortcuts and the sound problems no longer exist,(at least for now) and yes, everything was working fine as long as the drives were connected , but only one at a time.

Also, were you ever able to boot into XP after you installed Ubuntu? Did the problem start after you connected the drive with vista or have you not been able to use XP since you installed Ubuntu?

Yes I had no problem booting into XP after I installed Ubuntu. And yes again, my problems all started when when I connected the two drives to be able to run the 3 OS's., I haven't seen XP since.

I'm undoubtedly repeating myself below, but after writing this I decided to go back and make an attempt to specifically answer your questions.

XP was running fine on the(250GB)drive before I installed the (500 GB )drive
I installed the (500 GB) drive and cloned XP to it from the (250 GB) drive.
Once I had cloned XP to the(500 GB) I disconnected the(250 GB) and checked out the (500 GB) drive to make sure that everything had copied properly. Once I was satisfied that it was OK I installed Ubuntu on the (500 GB) drive and left the (250 GB) drive disconnected. I ran XP and Ubuntu for days with no problems.
Because the (250 GB) drive was just gathering dust and because I had a Vista Upgrade disk I got the brainwave to upgrade to Vista on the(250 GB). Before the upgrade, the(500 GB) drive was disconnected. And, just prior to the disconnect both OS's (XP and Ubuntu) were running fine on the (500 GB) drive. Then, for some time with the (500 GB) drive disconnected I worked on Vista. It took some time but finally got Vista running fine too on the (250 GB) drive.
But, here's where the fun starts. .
Thinking that all was well because individually the OS's were running fine on both drives, I connected both drives. But I'm thinking now that I should have changed the boot order first, because it defaulted to the (250 GB) drive where Vista is installed. This is when I encountered the problem of not being able to access the desktop shortcuts and I had no sound. At this point I didn't know how to get Vista into the Grub.I didn't expect that Vista would be added to the Grub even if I would have had the correct boot order. I posted in the forum and took BC_ 's advice. With both drives connected I booted up and like he said Vista was indeed in the grub.This time I had the boot order having the (500 GB) drive boot before the (250 GB) drive. But although the 3 OS's were in the Grub the only OS that I could access was Ubuntu. Actually the same is true today even after updating the grub. The same scenario. Ubuntu loads fine. Vista almost immediately goes to XP start up, then goes back to the BIOS screen.This very same thing happens when XP is selected. It attempts to run and then it too goes back to the BIOS screen.

Now all of a sudden what is different is; with both drives connected (which it is right now), I'm having no problems at all with Vista as long as it is selected first in the boot order. Shortcuts are fine, sound is working, the whole shebang.
That wasn't the case previously as I stated above?
But, no way now can I access XP, even with the (250 GB) drive disconnected.

Hope this makes sense and sure appreciate any help. Thks, overthehill

if xp wasnt found automatically or installed after you installed ubuntu try

Code: [Select]update-grub
which should automatically detect your bootable parts and allow you to select them in grub loader. failing that , manually define them , google it cos i dont wanna get it wrong XD

Solve : Ubuntu (Total New Experience)?

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