Skip to main content

boot - Not Loading GRUB After Installing Mint and Ubuntu


On a new computer (less than 3 months), I originally installed Fedora 16 to give it to try.


I wasn't all that impressed and un-installed it about a month ago and I'm not exactly sure how it happened but I deleted the partition which had grub installed on it, or at least that's what I think happened because when I rebooted my computer It wasn't able to get into any bootloader.


Eventually I was able to run the Windows recovery and repair the MBR and I was able to boot back into Windows.


Since then I've installed Linux Mint 14 and Ubuntu 12.04, and I can see using the EaseUS software in Windows that the partitions have been succesfully created and there was no problems during the installation process, however when I start up the computer it just goes straight into Windows and not GRUB.


I haven't installed a Linux OS for some time but I'm sure the partition set up I used for both Mint and Ubuntu should work.


I have 2 x 500gb hard drives - one is purely for data, one has 250gb aside for OS's and 250gb aside for data.


On the second drive the Windows OS occupies approximately 100gb.


Both Ubuntu and Mint were configured approximately like this:


ext4 - 3gb /boot
swap - 4gb
ext4 - 12gb /
ext4 - 25gb /home

I'm not 100% sure now but i'm certain I choose the bootloader to load out of the partition /boot (makes sense?) for both of them. I definately did for Ubuntu cause I installed that yesterday, but I can't fully remember for Mint.


Any help as to where I can go from here as I'm a bit stuck. This is the first time I've had trouble installing a Linux system. I wonder if it has to do with me possibly deleting the grub partition and having to have Windows automatically repair the MBR between uninstalling Fedora and installing Mint and Ubuntu....



Answer



You should boot into a Linux live session and reinstall GRUB manually. Have a look at this page for example.


The basic procedure involves booting into the live sesion, mounting your / partition, using chroot to set it as /root/ and then installing GRUB.


There is a very good answer on how to use chroot here.


The Ubuntu (will apply to any linux really) instructions on reinstalling GRUB are here.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

keyboard - Is there any utility/method to change Windows key bindings to type rare chars to currently empty bindings?

I'm currently typing this post with my windows XP machine and (Spanish) keyboard, and I'd like to add some extra symbols to my text. I could open the "char map" windows utility, look for the desired symbols, and paste them. But I'd like something quickier. For example, when I'm using my OSX Mac at work, I can easily add a ©, ™, ® or similar symbols, just pressing some weird ALT-GR + G / H / J, key combinations. In my (Spanish) keyboard mapping, these combinations are empty, as they don't produce any char at all, which, on the other hand, is perfectly normal and desirable. So, I thought: Why couldn't I add some extra key mappings on top of my currently empty ALT-GR + G/J/H Keys in my Spanish keyboard, and thus, being able to quickly type these special symbols? So that's my question: Is there any utility/method to achieve that effect under windows? (My version is XP). I've even googled this for some time but no luck. I've been a long term Hot...
Post a Comment
Read more

virtualization - How to select paravirtualization interface in VirtualBox?

Given a windows 8 host system (Intel Core i5) and a Linux Fedora host, I would like to determine the optimal setting for the paravirtual interface. Options are none Default Legacy minimal Hyper-V KVM This page suggest the selection is only based on the guest system: The biggest change in VirtualBox 5.0 is the introduction of paravirtualization support, bringing higher performance and time-keeping accuracy to supported guest operating systems (Hyper-V on Windows and KVM on Linux). Is that correct? Answer The VirtualBox Manual , in the section titled Paravirtualization providers explains very clearly when each should be used (emphasis added): Minimal: Announces the presence of a virtualized environment. Additionally, reports the TSC and APIC frequency to the guest operating system. This provider is mandatory for running any Mac OS X guests. KVM: Presents a Linux KVM hypervisor interface which is recognized by Linux kernels starting with version 2.6.25. VirtualBox's implementati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Desktop reboots itself on sleep or hibernate

I have been using an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard for main home desktop workstation, operating Windows Vista x64. This computer has right from day one not been able to enter hibernate or standby; after Windows performs its final actions and brings the machine down, it would automatically revive itself for a reboot. Updating to the second latest BIOS (1201)has not helped (the latest BIOS revision would induce video refresh problems rendering it unusable). I have been reading related discussions on incidents similar to mine to no avail of a true workable solution. They appear to be more speculative guesses rather than actual knowledge on the inner workings of motherboard hardware. Does anybody have any electronic engineering experience on PC energy-saving standards to provide a more informed opinion how to go about getting this to work? More stories: this motherboard could not even reboot properly the first thing i used it. It was due to refresh rate of the onboard GPU, which had no influe...
Post a Comment
Read more

security - How is Linux not prone to viruses, malware and those kinds of things?

How is Linux protected against viruses? This question was a Super User Question of the Week . Read the blog entry for more details or contribute to the blog yourself Answer Well, it factually is not... it's just less subject to hackers developing viruses that target Linux systems. Consumer grade computers usually run on Windows and thus, when targeting a wide audience, Windows is the way to go. Don't misunderstand Linux and viruses, there definitely ARE Linux viruses. Some distros have additional protection layers such as SELinux (See here ) in Ubuntu for example. Then there's the default firewall and the fact that alien files don't automatically have permission to be executed. Specific execution permission has to be granted before execution is possible. (See here ) Then there are several other factors that make Linux a hard place to be for viruses usually non-root users on linux systems have no to little executable files at their disposal that would allow for virus...
Post a Comment
Read more