Ubuntu
grub package

Any way to install Ubuntu without grub?

Asked by Doug

I currently have 3 internal hard drives, 2 of which I use for Windows 7 Beta 64-bit plus extra storage and the third I'm trying to install Ubuntu on. However, every time I try to install Ubuntu I get some sort of error with GRUB. First I kept getting GRUB 1.5 Error 17 but eventually I figured out that it was because I was trying to boot from what WAS my primary hard drive. Once I learned to boot from the drive that Ubuntu was installed on I was able to start up Ubuntu without any problems but then I couldn't boot into Windows 7. I tried several times to restore the master boot record but nothing worked and eventually I ended having to reformat the primary hard drive and reinstall Windows. I'm installing ubuntu for purely recreational purposes, my primary OS will still be Windows and I don't plan on using Ubuntu all that often so I don't have a problem needing to manually boot in ubuntu, but can I even do that? I just don't want to go through another installation only to need to reinstall windows again. Here are my system specs:

XFX nVidia 780i SLI mobo
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
4GB DDR2
2x nVidia 8800GT's (512MB) in SLI
500 GB SATA drive (NTFS)
250 GB SATA dirve (NTFS)
250 GB SATA drive (ext3)

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Ubuntu grub Edit question
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nhasian
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  • by Doug
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Best nhasian (nhasian) said : 		#1

probably the easiest thing for you to do is enter your computer's bios and tell it to boot from whatever drive you want to install ubuntu on. this will make it the first drive. now when you install ubuntu grub will be installed on this drive. when you want to go back to windows, go into your bios again and change it back to make your windows drive the first drive to boot from.

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#2

Hi,
there are several options to use Ubuntu for recreational purposes.
Wubi, VMware or just insert LiveCD and boot from it, latter espicially secure for Internet usage.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation#Other%20installation%20guides

GRUB recognizes M$ if you tell it the menu.lst, sort of configuration file for GRUB.
path: /boot/grub/menu.lst
quote example:
### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

title Microsoft Windows XP Professional
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
chainloader +1

GRUB starts counting from zero=0, e.g. first partition on first hdd. ##primary
Logical Volume counting starts from 5 Linux devices, 4 is GRUB notation.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#3

yes so if Ubuntu is on the 1st partition on the third drivve then change it's menu.lst (in /boot/grub) to include these lines for the first two drives

title Windows7 on 1
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1

title Windows7 on 2
root (hd1,0)
savedefault
chainloader +1

All Windows OS's need the chainloader bit but linux doesn't. Obviously the root part for the Ubuntu would be

root (hd2,0)

unless it was on the 2nd partition on the 3rd drive in which case

root (hd2,1)

If either of your Win7 boot-loaders can handle multi-boot menus then it'd be interesting to see what their menu's look like. Alternatively there's a version of Grub made for Windows but doubtless M$ have don something wierd in Win7

Good luck with this
Regards from
Tom

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Doug (bikeracer4487) said : 		#4

I should also mention, that although I said I use 2 drives for Windows 7, the second is purely for storage, so there's no bootloader on it.

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Doug (bikeracer4487) said : 		#5

I should also mention, that although I said I use 2 drives for Windows 7, the second is purely for storage, so there's no bootloader on it.

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#6

It doesn't matter the numbers stay the same. Just cut out the one i titled

title Windows7 on 2

and modify the title of the first one

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Tom (tom6) said : 		#7

It doesn't matter - the numbers stay the same. Just cut out the one i titled

title Windows7 on 2

and modify the title of the first one

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Sam_ (and-sam) said : 		#8

Hi,
in simple words, GRUB itself has nothing to do with how many drives exist, it just needs a little space to install and connect from there to other modules. Philosophical one could say, it's not a matter of objects, what matters is how they interconnect.

http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.html
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/multiboot/multiboot.html#Boot-modules

From an enthusiast
http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/

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Doug (bikeracer4487) said : 		#9

Hey, thanks guys, turnsout out I never noticed the "Advanced..." button on the last screen during the install that lets me choose whether I want the boot loader and where to install it. Also, to any Vista / Windows 7 users reading this, if you can no longer boot to windows the command to rewrite the bootloader is "bootrec /fixmbr" NOT fdisk...thanks again!

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Doug (bikeracer4487) said : 		#10

Thanks nhasian, that solved my question.