Why GNU/Linux Rocks

[sgreger1]

The tutorial I was using told me I had to do that to get the option to boot either OS at startup. I've now realized that this was a bad idea and should have just left it to Grib 2. I popped in the live CD and chose to update an reinstall everything which takes about 45 minutes for some reason. Once that's done I'll have to figure out how to make it work with Grub.

[shikitohno]

Well, that answers my one question. Was about to go look at your "Installing Lubuntu" posts to see if you recommended it. Also, sgreger, it'd be helpful if you could give a definitive answer as to whether you're using UEFI or a bog-standard BIOS boot. It'll let me find answers for you faster if I only have to look up one or the other for you in order to give you the info you need, and you need to know this yourself so you know what steps you need to take in order to get things working. Don't get too discouraged with these setbacks, though. The first time is always the biggest pain in the ass, and aside from the odd bug that comes out of nowhere, it gets easier after that. Even with the bugs, it gets a lot easier once you know where to look for solutions, and can make an educated guess about what's causing the problems for you.

[sgreger1]

Okay so I just finished reinstalling it and now it has loaded me back to windows. So how do I go about using Grub to allow me the choice of which OS to boot at startup?

When you say pop in a live disc and schroot I have no idea what that means. Should I choose the "try before installing" option so that I can get into the Ubuntu desktop, then try to run the command schroot?

[sgreger1]

Well, that answers my one question. Was about to go look at your "Installing Lubuntu" posts to see if you recommended it. Also, sgreger, it'd be helpful if you could give a definitive answer as to whether you're using UEFI or a bog-standard BIOS boot. It'll let me find answers for you faster if I only have to look up one or the other for you in order to give you the info you need, and you need to know this yourself so you know what steps you need to take in order to get things working. Don't get too discouraged with these setbacks, though. The first time is always the biggest pain in the ass, and aside from the odd bug that comes out of nowhere, it gets easier after that. Even with the bugs, it gets a lot easier once you know where to look for solutions, and can make an educated guess about what's causing the problems for you.

My BIOS is UEFI (Specifically x86_64 UEFI 2.x firmware). I think at this point I have everything in order I just need to know how to give myself the dual boot option as right now it just boots straight into windows (so I have undone whatever EasyBCD did).

So we are back at square one, a fresh install. What to do from here. One website says to boot form the live CD, choose the "try it before installing" option. Open a command prompt and then do this:

Here’s the quick and easy way to re-enable Grub.
1) Boot off the LiveCD
2) Open a Terminal and type in the following commands, noting that the first command will put you into the grub “prompt”, and the next 3 commands will be executed there. Also note that hd0,0 implies the first hard drive and the first partition on that drive, which is where you probably installed grub to during installation. If not, then adjust accordingly.

sudo grub
> root (hd0,0)
> setup (hd0)
> exit

Reboot (removing the livecd), and your boot menu should be back.

[shikitohno]

Pretty sure if you do that, you'll bork your Windows boot, as you'll install a new MBR over the current Windows one. Like I said, you probably want to install to the 3TB drive, which will likely be /dev/sdb, as that's where your /boot partition is. The option I'd suggest is looking up chroot on the ArchWiki. Pop in the disk you installed off of and when it boots and you're in the live environment, hit ctrl+alt+F3. Then follow the instructions on how to enter chroot on the wiki. Once you've mounted your hard drive and changed into it, you should be able to do a "sudo apt-get install grub2-uefi" and then follow the steps to install a UEFI-compatible grub install. If you need specifics, again the Arch Wiki is your friend. Although it's written with Arch in mind specifically, a great deal of what's on it is broadly applicable to linux in general.

[lxskllr]

That looks like it would work. What I would do is boot to the liveCD, open a terminal, and type...

fdisk -l

Check the output so you know where Ubuntu's installed. Assuming it's /dev/sda then...

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub

Does that work? Damned if I know, but that's what I'd try :^D

[sgreger1]

Pretty sure if you do that, you'll bork your Windows boot, as you'll install a new MBR over the current Windows one. Like I said, you probably want to install to the 3TB drive, which will likely be /dev/sdb, as that's where your /boot partition is. The option I'd suggest is looking up chroot on the ArchWiki. Pop in the disk you installed off of and when it boots and you're in the live environment, hit ctrl+alt+F3. Then follow the instructions on how to enter chroot on the wiki. Once you've mounted your hard drive and changed into it, you should be able to do a "sudo apt-get install grub2-uefi" and then follow the steps to install a UEFI-compatible grub install. If you need specifics, again the Arch Wiki is your friend. Although it's written with Arch in mind specifically, a great deal of what's on it is broadly applicable to linux in general.

It would not let me create the /root, /boot etc partitions on my 3TB hard drive so I installed it on the master 1.5tb drive (the one that came with the computer). That's fine though so I will just be using that since I have at least gotten this far.

I will check out the arch wiki and get back with what i've learned.

[shikitohno]

No longer an option for grub2, lx. And I say /dev/sdb because I know this is a drive that he recently added, and I'm assuming he's got windows on /dev/sda. Chroot will look imposing, but in actuality, it'll probably only take about 10 minutes from start to reboot.

Ah, in light of that, I'd guess /dev/sda would be the right one. Did you install it over your old install of Windows sgreger? If you did, first I hope you know all your data on that drive is gone for good. Second, reinstall Windows before you do anything else with linux. It's much easier to install WIndows and then linux compared to the other way around.

[sgreger1]

That looks like it would work. What I would do is boot to the liveCD, open a terminal, and type...

fdisk -l

Check the output so you know where Ubuntu's installed. Assuming it's /dev/sda then...

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub

Does that work? Damned if I know, but that's what I'd try :^D

Gonna try this now. I installed it on my master HD (in slot 1) so it should be /dev/sda.

I'll try this now and let you know how it works!

[lxskllr]

No longer an option for grub2, lx.

How's that? I've done that a couple times now on the Debian install I'm using on a thumb drive. I haven't used GRUB1 since 2010.

[sgreger1]

No longer an option for grub2, lx. And I say /dev/sdb because I know this is a drive that he recently added, and I'm assuming he's got windows on /dev/sda. Chroot will look imposing, but in actuality, it'll probably only take about 10 minutes from start to reboot.

Oh really, so what Lx recommended won't work? ****.

Well it's installed on my /dev/sba. Windows is also on this drive. I just couldn't ge tit to make the necessary partitions on /dev/sbd so I had to go with /sba.

So I have to use CHROOT?


Edit: Archwiki looks like i'm reading Arabic. Not beginner friendly. If I try what Lx says is there any possibility of it messing anything up?

[sgreger1]

No longer an option for grub2, lx. And I say /dev/sdb because I know this is a drive that he recently added, and I'm assuming he's got windows on /dev/sda. Chroot will look imposing, but in actuality, it'll probably only take about 10 minutes from start to reboot.

Ah, in light of that, I'd guess /dev/sda would be the right one. Did you install it over your old install of Windows sgreger? If you did, first I hope you know all your data on that drive is gone for good. Second, reinstall Windows before you do anything else with linux. It's much easier to install WIndows and then linux compared to the other way around.

Um, no I am in windows now and everything seems to be right where I left it. I guess what I am saying is that it gave me the option of installing to to my 1st hard drive or the second one. I chose the first since the 2nd (3TB) one wouldn't let me. I created new partitions and it doesn't appear to have destroyed anything.


I would like to add that I really can not afford to lose all of my data so if at any point in this process I am at risk of wiping my drive please let me know so I can not d that. Is it impossible to have ubuntu and windows on the same hard drive?

[lxskllr]

The worst thing that'll happen AFAIK is you'll end up with 2 bootloaders; 1 on each drive. Imo, that's a desirable outcome. That way if one goes bad, you can switch to the other drive to rescue the broken one. That's assuming you're using 2 physical drives. I forgot how you set things up.

Edit:
You just clarified the drive issue for me.

Let me give it some thought, and get back

[sgreger1]

The worst thing that'll happen AFAIK is you'll end up with 2 bootloaders; 1 on each drive. Imo, that's a desirable outcome. That way if one goes bad, you can switch to the other drive to rescue the broken one. That's assuming you're using 2 physical drives. I forgot how you set things up.

Yah I have two physical drives in my computer case. one is C: and one is X:

By installing it onto my first one, that's /dev/sda correct? And the second 3TB one is refered to as /dev/sdb? I installed all of this onto my first drive so I am assuming it is on /dev/sda.

[lxskllr]

Alright, I'm just gonna go with it. I'm not backing this up with any web information, so do it at your own risk. Your data partitions should be fine, and the absolute worst thing that'll happen is you lose boot to both O/Ss. That can be fixed, but you have to be prepared to do it. Boot to the LiveCD, and check the partition you have Ubuntu on. There should be a folder in there called boot. If that's the case, open the terminal, and do the fdisk -l deal just to confirm the device Ubuntu is on(/dev/sdb). I believe shikitohno's right, but it always pays to check first. Assuming that's right, do the commands above...

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb
update-grub

then reboot. hopefully it'll put you at the GRUB boot menu, but I'm not 100% sure that it will :^/