grub problem; lists wrong location for windows

Asked by Phil Kliewer

Hello. I listed a problem earlier (# 140039) concerning not being able to get Windows 7 to boot on my ACER Aspire One. Ubuntu netbook 10.10 is working fine, but the dual-boot is messed up.

I think I may have found another problem that may be causing it to not work, that I did not notice [or mention in the earlier post] until now;

When grub loads, it lists Windows 7 (loader) as /dev/sda1, when in actuality (upon checking in the U disk info, it shows the windows partition (acer) as /dev/sda3.

Could this be causing the problem of win. 7 not being able to load?

As I posted in the 1st post, here is what U disk info says about the partitions;

/dev/sda1 is labeled 'PSERVICE' and is 7.8gb, ntfs (I'm guessing this is the w7 erestore partition? Maybe not?)

an 'unallocated' partition of 4.3gb (I have no idea what this is)

/dev/sda3 is labeled as 'Acer' and is 74gb, ntfs

/dev/sda2 is unlabeled, is an extended partition of 63gb

/dev/sda5 is listed as a 'sub partition'(? - I don't know how else to describe it) of 61gb, ext4 file system (is this the ubuntu 10.10?)

/dev/sda6 is shown as 'linux-swap' and is 2gb

Thanks for everyone's help.

Phil

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Revision history for this message
Nitesh Mistry (mistrynitesh) said :
#1

Hi,
Did you try 'sudo update-grub' in a terminal? That should automatically detect your Windows installation and set up grub accordingly.

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Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#2

Well drat. I was really hoping this 'apparent problem' was the problem - but it must mot be.

I tried the sudo update-grub, but grub is still the same, so my theory about W7 being listed wrong must have been incorrect.

Could it be that since the W7 listing is for the W loader, the loader partition is damaged, non-existent, or something therein lies the problem?

I'm out of ideas... have tried so many things.

Any last ideas from anyone?

Thanks for the help so far.

Phil

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delance (olivier-delance) said :
#3

Could you run following procedure
---
X-provide data about boot configuration

There is a standard script provided to analyse boot configuration.

Could you download script at:

   http://sourceforge.net/projects/bootinfoscript/

Then in a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) run command:

    sudo bash boot_info_script055.sh

This will produce a file named: RESULTS.txt

Paste content of this file in http://paste.ubuntu.com/ and provide in this thread the link to Web page.

Please don't post file directly in thread, else it will make thread difficult to read.

X-Wubi question

Did you installed Ubuntu ?:

   inside a Windows partition (project Wubi)

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Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#4

OK, here ya go;

http://paste.ubuntu.com/550449/

And as far as your last question about installing Ubuntu, yes, I installed it (10.10 netbook) - I originally (when the netbook was working fine) had a dual-boot with w7 starter (OEM install) and 10.08 netbook running happily alongside each other... then the fog rolled in. In a feeble effort to try to repair things, I wiped the partition with 10.08 on it... maybe I did too much wiping? (wipe-out!). I don't ~think~ I installed it inside a windows partition?!

Very green at sudo'ism

Thanks so much for your help!

Phil

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delance (olivier-delance) said :
#5

The software os-prober failed to detect both Windows bootable partition.
Could you download latest os-prober at: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/os-prober
     http://packages.debian.org/sid/i386/os-prober/download for 32 bits
     http://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/os-prober/download for 64 bits (including Intel)
Install this packet and run again 'sudo update-grub'
If it fails again,
   1-convert this question into a bug against os-prober, as this packet needs to be fixed
   2-I will provide you a workaround
If it works, please, mark this question "Solved".

And thanks for providing results in http://paste.ubuntu.com/

Revision history for this message
Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#6

OK, I installed the latest os-prober that you gave the link for and ran it, but still the same problem.

I was curious; when I installed the prober via the link you provided and then checked the software in the list of installed programs, it showed an update available for it... I first did not install the update, but ran the one the link provided... that did not fix the boot w7 problems, so I updated the prober and ran sudo again, but unfortunately with the same problem results.

Were you able to tell by the results of the bootinfoscript that everything ~looked~ normal, that w7 should have been OK to boot [if grub was OK]? I'm still thinking that something happened when I [as I mentioned in the original post of my problem in question # 140039] was trying to do the ACER erecovery... it did start, windows did boot,got to the desktop, but it didn't finish (a bar on the bottom of the w7 screen said something like "updating system 24 of 24" and stayed there forever... hours - I had the netbook linked into a fast internet connection in case it was trying to update something, even though I had ticked the option earlier in the recovery NOT to do any updates) - I finally did a hard shutdown, and it was THEN at reboot that the problems started, w7 not booting all the way, with the previously quoted errors.

So maybe os-prober doesn't have a bug? If you think it does, I will still post it, and greatly anticipate your help for a different workaround!

Thanks,

Phil

Revision history for this message
delance (olivier-delance) said :
#7

I have on my PC the version 1.40 of os-prober, and I proposed you version 1.42 from Debian unstable. Could you provide me number of version installed on your computer. I'm also curious.
"So maybe os-prober doesn't have a bug?" Yes, and many. E.g. it can't distinguish on my both computers recovery and normal Windows partitions! Please convert question into a bug, else at Natty delivery I will have dozen of people asking help.

Run 'sudo blkid'. You will get something like:
/dev/sda3: LABEL="_OEMBP" UUID="AC3CCCD33CCC9A2A" TYPE="ntfs"

In /etc/grub.d, you will find file 40_custom. You have to add something like:

menuentry "Windows Seven (loader) (on /dev/sda3)" {
 insmod part_msdos
 insmod ntfs
 set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set ac3cccd33ccc9a2a
 chainloader +1
}

replace UUID by which of your partition

Then run command "sudo update-grub" and check that in /boot/grub/grub.cfg you get new entry. Then reboot.
Don't update directly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg, else it will overwritten at next kernel delivery.
Have a look at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#/etc/grub.d/%20%28directory%29

Revision history for this message
Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#8

did it all, was greatly anticipating w7 working, but got error

bootmgr missing
press ctrl=alt=del to restart

So... I thought "maybe this is getting closer!" and used my w7 system repair disc to see if it could fix the bootmgr, but it did not find any problems. I tried the startup repair anyway, but it said it could not detect a problem.

Speaking on that (the w7 system repair disc), when it looks for and finds a w7 installation, it lists it as 'Windows 7 Starter (recovered)' - with a partition size of 75gb, which from what I remember when w7 was running [along side with ubuntu happily), that is the correct partition size w7 was set at - but, could the problem lie in the fact that it lists it as 'recovered'? Is that normal? Like I had said in the original post of my problem [in the first post #140039], this whole thing started (pardon the pun... w7 is NOT starting!) with a botched ACER erestore that did not finish all the way... is it 'stuck', thus not allowing the w7 boot?

Oh and by the way, os-prober is v1.42 (like I had said earlier, I did try it first with v1.40)., and I reported the bug... never done that before, hope I did it OK

Revision history for this message
delance (olivier-delance) said :
#9

Can you provide reference of raised bug ?
When did you get error, before or after Grub menu ?
Could run again bootinfoscript ?
I will have a look this afternoon.

Revision history for this message
Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#10

grub loads fine, works fine with Ubuntu, but when tried with new w7 entry made (thanks for your help!) then right away get the

bootmgr missing
press ctrl-alt-del to restart

error on a black dos screen (windows doesn't even begin to load)... so, it seems at least grub is now looking in the right area for w7 to start... maybe it's the w7 'recovered' thing I mentioned in the last post?
Here's the latest bootinfoscript

http://paste.ubuntu.com/551880/

Thanks again for all your help.
'bout ready just to bag it and send it in to ACER... but I hate to admit defeat!

Revision history for this message
Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#11

Some more info

Tried successfully scanned something new... rebuilding the missing bootmgr via the windows 7 recovery disk (via flash drive, as before) using;

Bootrec.exe /REBUILDBCD

at the command prompt, and get

successfully scanned windows installations
total identified windows installations: 0
the operation completed csuccessfully

so, it's like 'thank you very much w7 for fixing nothing'... weird, since when the recovery starts, it does show the afore mentioned 'Windows 7 Starter (recovered)' - with a partition size of 75gb... does it look like windows is there, but isn't there?! I can see it via Ubuntu, all the directories, files and everything!

Revision history for this message
Phil Kliewer (hayoumissed) said :
#12

more...

so does it look like windows didn't create (or I somehow accidentally erased) the 100 MB bootmgr partition? Is that the main problem now? Any way to plop it back into there?

Revision history for this message
delance (olivier-delance) said :
#13

Thanks for providing good report.
It appears that sd3 was not properly added in boot menu, which only manage sda1 (recovery partition).
Could you download os-prober 1.42 from Debian unstable: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/utils/os-prober and install it.
Then run again:
   sudo os-prober; sudo update-grub
and check if with this latest version of software searching for not Ubuntu OS, /boot/grub/grub.cfg contains in section 30 two entries.
If not we will have:
1-to raise a bug
2
-to add this entry manually

My entry is: (for sda2)
menuentry "Windows Vista (loader) (on /dev/sda2)" {
 insmod part_msdos
 insmod ntfs
 set root='(hd0,msdos2)'
 search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set e490ae3490ae0cdc
 chainloader +1
}

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