Ubuntu
grub2 package

xubuntu 9.10 shows "GRUB read error - operating system not found"

Asked by Ted Pritchard

Xubuntu 9.10 appears to install without issue but when it then attempts to boot for the first time the message "GRUB read error - operating system not found" appears. Re-installation did not solve the problem. Using Parted Magic 4.8 it's clear that the Xubuntu files have installed.

Prior to attempting a clean install of 9.10, I was running Ubuntu 8.04 satisfactorily (albeit very slow as the PC is a legacy P2 with ~ 500mb memory).

Ctrl+Alt+F1 doesn't achieve any result.

Ted Pritchard

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Boot to liveCD and reinstall grub:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

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Wim (launchpad-xs4all) said : 		#2

Sometimes the BIOS cannot read beyond sector 1023 of your hard disk.

You can cope this problem by partitioning your disk in a way that the ROOT file system (where /boot/grub/ is on) is placed between sector 0 and 1023.
(e.g. make the ROOT file system 7.8 Gb of size)

Make a second EXT3-partition which is larger and contains HOME, so it is mounted on /home

At the end the partition SWAP can be placed, because linux can reache that far on your hard disk.

Second way to handle this problem is to use 2 hard disks:
the first one (6-8 Gb) only holds the root-file system (and grub)
the second one (as large as you want) holds as well /home as SWAP

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