Ubuntu
grub package

Error 18

Asked by Penny

I've got a brand new pc with the following specs: motherboard - ASUS® M2A-VM, processor - AMD ATHLON™ 64 X2 4000+, RAM -1024 MB CORSAIR DDR2 667MH, harddrive - 80GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE.

I set up as a dual boot with Windows XP and Ubuntu 6.10 and a FAT 32 partition for my docs, etc and a separate home partition and all seems to have been going relatively fine until yesterday when I installed Motorola Phone Tools and Norton Go Back on the windows partition. When I rebooted I got: Error 18 Selected cylinder exceeds maximum supported by BIOS.

I've done some searching around and found various potential solutions, including installing a small boot partition at the front, updating the BIOS and reinstalling the GRUB. The trouble is I don't quite understand any of them and I'm wary of doing something that might totally mess up the system. Even the BIOS update seems to be hedged around with dire warnings. I did back up about a week ago, but I'm unable to do so now as nothing will boot up- windows or any of the Ubuntu kernels. I can boot up with a Knoppix live CD, but it can only 'see' the Windows partition.

I would like to try reinstalling the GRUB as from what I've read, it seem like a pretty good option, but I'm not up to understanding the instructions in the manual. I'd really appreciate it if someone could give me some guidance. Thanks

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Ubuntu grub Edit question
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Chris Cook
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Best Chris Cook (chris-cook10) said : 		#1

Ive not used Norton GoBack, and the documentation on Norton's website seems to be non-existent. But from what Ive pieced together from google that looks like the most likely cause of the problem.

It looks like GoBack installs its own bootloader what probably overwrote Grub (Ubuntu's bootloader). Hopefully It wont have changed the partition table. Its probably not a good idea to change the bios settings or anything.

You could try the following instructions from the ubuntu forum :

  1. Boot from a Live CD, like Ubuntu Live, Knoppix, Mepis, or similar.

  2. Open a Terminal. Type "sudo grub" which makes a GRUB prompt appear.

  3. Type "find /boot/grub/stage1". You'll get a response like "(hd0)" or in my case "(hd0,3)". Use whatever your computer spits out for step 5. This will be the partition containing Ubuntu, and grub. The first number is the harddisk counting from 0, the second the partition number also counting from 0.

  4. Type "root (hd0,3)". This tells grub which partition contains Ubuntu.

  5. Type "setup (hd0)". This bit does the hard work of installing grub as the bootloader.

  6. Type "quit".

  7. Restart the system. Remove the bootable CD.

Hope this helps

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Penny (penny) said : 		#2

Hi again

Thankyou so much for your quick response. I've only just been able to get back to the PC to try it

I booted up in Knoppix (it won't boot off an Ubuntu live CD - I just get gobbledegook), but failed at Stage 3. when it responded with: Error 15 File not found. I copied and pasted the command, so I'm sure it's right.

I'm wondering whether that partition is fatally broken, especially as Knoppix can't 'see' it. Would it be better to just reinstall Ubuntu, even though I might risk losing data?

Penny

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Chris Cook (chris-cook10) said : 		#3

Hi,

First up, I made a little mistake in my point 3, it should have started
"""
  3. Type "find /boot/grub/stage1". You'll get a response like "(hd0)" or in my case "(hd0,3)". Use whatever your computer spits out for step __4__....
"""

but I dont think that affected anything, sorry about that.

Im not sure which version of GoBack you used, but the manual for version 4:

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/goback/2005/manuals/gob2005.pdf

suggests that its incompatable with Linux (amongst other systems).

It does look like that partition could be partially corrupted, so reinstalling might be quicker. However, read on before being too hasty, there may be another solution, symantec provide this page:

http://service.symantec.com/ngb1/

if nothing on that page works, try the link near the bottom of it called "What if this didn't work".The symtpms sound different, but the solution might help.

If you do choose the reinstall, go for manual partitioning. If the original partitions are there, don't format them and you should have your data back.

Hope this helps more.

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Penny (penny) said : 		#4

Thanks so much for your patience, Chris. It wouldn´t have occurred to me that an application on the Windows partition could affect the Ubuntu one. I disabled Goback and bingo, everything was fine! All the partitions were there and seem to be unaffected. So Goback has gone and won´t be coming back.

Again, many thanks for your help.

Penny

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Penny (penny) said : 		#5

Thanks Chris Cook, that solved my question.