Weird Grub issue

F

froot

Honorary Master
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
11,347
So I got a new computer last month, but haven't had time to reinstall Linux on it.

Installed Kubuntu this morning off a flash drive, but after the install it simply boots into Windows again. I reinstalled it a few times, even onto another harddisk, but in no fashion can I get it to find Grub. Each of the attempts were successfully installed.

Disk layout:
/sda
1 Linux partition
2 NTFS

/sdb
1 Win7 boot partition
2 Windows7
3 Linux partition
4 NTFS

I have tried this:
Install Linux to /sdb3
Install Grub to /sdb and /sdb1
and
Install Linux to /sda1 and Grub to /sda

In both cases I opted to boot from both drives but it still pops up at the Windows loader.

Any ideas? I can't remember ever having this issue.
 
N

Neverwhere

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Messages
551
Could you add Linux to the windows bootloader with easybcd and boot from there, or is Grub essential? I'm no expert.. My only foray into messing with boot loaders and such was a week ago, I built a hackintosh that triple boots OSX Lion, Win7 and Ubuntu..(3 partitions on a single drive) and in my case I'm using the Chimera boot loader to boot all 3.. though when selecting Ubuntu, it brings up grub, so I still need to make grub silent.

First I installed OSX on the first partition, then Win 7 on 2, and Ubuntu last on 3. The OSX install method I used installed chimera at first (in the mbr of the drive I think), then when I installed Win 7, it's boot loader took over. After I installed ubuntu, with grub on the linux partition, I still only got the windows loader (probably because it was installed to the mbr).. At first I wanted to use the windows boot loader to do everything, and I used Easybcd to add osx and ubuntu to it, and it worked fine.. I later learned about chameleon/chimera which are really graphically pretty boot loaders, and I just installed chimera to the mbr and that worked right away.

So when you install Grub to /sda shouldn't it be overwriting windows bootloader that's sitting there? I installed Chimera over the windows bootloader just fine. In the bios, are you definitely booting the correct drive first? Maybe disconnect one drive and work on just one so see what happens.
 
ponder

ponder

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Jan 22, 2005
Messages
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F

froot

Honorary Master
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
11,347
Well it's the Asus P67 Evo motherboard. It certainly sees my flash drive as a UEFI device...
Not sure as to grub/grub2, haven't specifically checked. It's just Kubuntu 11.10.
 
F

froot

Honorary Master
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Messages
11,347
ponder said:
Grub2
Click to expand...
Don't laugh. Haven't had Linux on my machine in a while.

So... after an hour of sukkeling, I finally got it working.

Live-DVD-boot, installed restore-grub (20MB odd to download), followed the instructions on Ubuntu-forum's website (which included removing the current grub setup and reinstalling and configuring grub2) and Bob became my uncle.
 
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