boot problem after upgrading to 10.10

Boot to liveCD, chroot to the installed OS and run:

sudo update-grub

Also try testing your RAM using the liveCD

Could you tell me how to 'chroot' to the installed OS?

Sorry for such a lamer question - I'm new to Linux

http://karuppuswamy.com/wordpress/2010/06/02/how-to-chroot-to-ubuntu-using-live-cd-to-fix-grub-rescue-prompt/

You could have websearched and researched yourself, you will learn more about the OS if you take the direction and use it rather than asking.

Hi :)

From the picture it looks as though you have done a proper dual-boot install, not using the Wubi? Could you boot up to a LiveCd session using the Ubuntu Cd or Usb-stick
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

and get to a command-line. From the top taskbar click on

Applications - Accessories - Terminal

and then on the command-line type (or cop&paste with the mouse)

sudo fdisk -l

where "-l" is a lower-case "-L" and then copy&paste the result into here? Firefox should find your internet connection on the LiveCd session and you should be able to navigate into here easily with any luck. Hopefully that should show that you have linux partitions and swap aswell as your Windows partition.

If the install really is a Wubi install then it will show only the 1 (or perhaps 2) Windows partitions. In which case i am not sure that chroot will work, it might do but i think you might need to use a "loopback system"? I am not sure about this sort of stuff tho and AP knows a lot more than me about loopback and chroot.

I tend to be wary about doing internet searches about stuff like this. There are a lot of people with a vested interest in spreading FUD about Linux systems and trying to make sure that people get pushed back into Windows. At best there are a lot of people giving bad advice on the internet generally. While AP and i can spot legitimate linux forums, blogs and documentation i would be slightly wary of accepting anyone's advice unless i could double check it. Google searches and stuff can be extremely useful but in an area i didn't know i would then make sure i double-checked it or experimented in a sandboxed area before committing my main install to it.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

As said Tom, do you use Wubi (Ubuntu instaled inside Windows partition but with dual boot) or not ?
The solution are not the same in both cases (and also people who can help in this forum).

Thank you Tom, thank you delance!

I used Wubi to install Ubuntu. I downloaded it form Ununtu website and ran it under Windows Vista.

What's the proper solution in my case?

Hi :)

Please can you get to a command-line in either the Wubi install or through a LiveCd session and give us the result of this command?

sudo fdisk -l

where "-l" is a lower-case "-L"
Regards from
Tom :)

Tom, here's the result of the command

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x97646c29

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1530 12289693+ 1c Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda2 * 1531 20987 156284928 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 20987 38914 143994880 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 20987 38914 143993856 7 HPFS/NTFS

Artem

Thanks :) Ok, that shows only Windows partions so you must have installed Ubuntu as a Wubi inside Windows. Did you use Ubuntu much? I mean do you have any data inside the Wubi that you need to recover?

If not then the easiest thing would be to boot up to the LiveCd of Ubuntu again and install Ubuntu as a proper dual-boot NOT as a Wubi. Then you should be able to boot into Windows and uninstall the Wubi.

These 2 links give pretty much the same info but the 1st one is a LOT more long-winded
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/DualBoot

I hope they help you if you get stuck in the install process
Please ask if you are unsure of anything
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thank you very much Tom!
You helped me solve the problem.
Now I'll have to deal with another one, cuz Ubuntu won't start again after the update.
It seems Ubuntu never survives updates :[
the problem you helped me solve also appeared after the update.

Hi :)

How far do you get in the boot-up process? Do you get all the way to the desktop or only as far as the grub menu? Have you tried "recovery mode" from the grub menu and run through a few of those options?

Regards from
Tom :)

Hello, Tom! Thank you very much again for your help!

It seems Ubuntu is missing some component. So when I choose Ubunto from the list of OSs it says this:

udevadm is not permitted while udev is unconfigured

[5 seconds later it displays the following strings]

Gave up wating for root device. Common problems:
- Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
- Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
- Check root\ (did the system wait for the right device?)
- Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; is /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/a1507e9d-4106-4749-84fb-9dad31723b0a does not exist.
Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.15.3 (Ubuntu 1:1.15.3-1ubuntu5) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)_ <- coursor blinks there waiting for some input

Do you have any ideas to make the loader ignore this and continue?

Hi

The only bit i can make any sense of is the
"ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/a1507e9d-4106-4749-84fb-9dad31723b0a does not exist."
I take it that you have installed Ubuntu as a proper dual-boot now rather than just inside Windows as a Wubi?

I think this guide should help you reinstall Grub2 and that should sort the problem out.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Reinstalling%20from%20LiveCD
but it might be that something in your "fstab" is trying to "mount" a drive/partition that doesn't exist. I am not sure why it would want to do that, perhaps it thinks there is a swap-partition that has been deleted or something.

Like i say, hopefully reinstalling grub2 should sort that out but there might be something else that fstab has decided is critical so it might be worth unplugging things like printers, cameras, scanners and stuff that you really don't need for the initial boot-up. Then plug them back in again after reinstalling grub2. I would normally have all that type of stuff plugged in during install to make sure the OS installer picked them up and installed the right drivers automatically.

It might be worth posting a separate question about the error messages you got, the ones i didn't understand. Here, and these 2 forums are good places
http://www.ubuntuforums.com
http://www.linuxquestions.org
Whichever gives a helpful answer is worth cop&pasting the url/address of the post into the other forums to help answerers see what else has been tried/suggested or what has solved the issue.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

In a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), type the following command:
   sudo parted -l
where "-l" is lowercase "L". This will display list of partition.
Could you post result.

Hi Delance?

We used

sudo fdisk -l

to get a list of partitions last time but it doesn't give the uuid numbers. I know there is a simple command to get the list of uuids but i can't remember it. Can you?
Regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

I tried 'the obvious' built-in help

fdisk --help
parted --help

but neither showed me a way of displaying the uuid numbers. When i tried the suggested "sudo parted -l" it left me on the "PartEd" command-line and the post that suggested using that command forgot to mention that is quite a dangerous place to be! It would have helped to point out that typing "info" or "help" in most of the different command-lines usually gives some quite useful help and that typing "quit" or "exit" is usually a good way to get back to the normal linux command-line. I found the "sudo parted -l" really desperately slow although it did seem to be very thorough which was nice :)
Thanks and regards from
Tom :)

Hi Tom :)
The command to display UUID is
    sudo blkid
Best regards
Olivier

Artem

Please could you give us the output of

sudo fdisk -l
sudo blkid

which can be done from any linux command-line, I would use the LiveCd to get the outputs
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

PS @Delance, thanks chap :))