grub 1.97 beta4 loads when bootup how to manually?

Hi :)

I think there are 2 main ways of doing this.
1. Install Ubuntu properly to its own partition. Then a neat trick on the command-line to pull all your data and perhaps settings into the new proper install. This needs about 15Gb of free hard-drive space but it might be the more stable long-term option

2. Attempt to find and fix or replace the missing file
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#Cannot%20boot%20into%20Ubuntu
This might be slightly easier if you can follow the guide. If it doesn't work then we can try the 1st option later

It would be helpful to know if you can boot into a LiveCd session without making changes to your machine
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD

Please let us know how any of this goes and which way you would like to try
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I am trying the step 2.

Will update after try...

It;s just stuck at 40 percent of stage 4..

performed the function in D: (where ubuntu is present)

2nd step completed..

Note that sometimes files are moved by Windows into a hidden folder called c:\found.000. You need to have c:\ubuntu\disks\root.disk and c:\ubuntu\disks\boot. If you do not see those, look for found.000. You need to change the Windows Explorer settings to be able to see hidden folders first, then move the files from found.000 to their original location.

I don't have anything like ubuntu/disks/ anywhere in C: or D:

And i guess i never had

Update
Completed:

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/bootinfoscript/index.php?title=Boot_Problems:Wubi_9.10
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WubiGuide#Cannot%20boot%20into%20Ubuntu

But no help from any of those..

I could try anything which can be done via a live CD if possible...

If i have to re-install...ok...but i need to backup all data in it.

Hi :)

Ok, so you are still not able to boot into the installed Ubuntu Wubi? I assume Windows is booting up normally? Ideally i would like to do a proper dual-boot install of Ubuntu and then try to recover your data from the Wubi afterwards. I've never used the Wubi so we would have to use the Community Documentation to help guide us. I am going to move this question into the Wubi section of Launchpad to see if anyone can help us from there.

Have you managed to boot up a LiveCd? I am just wondering which version of Windows you are using? Are you using Vista? Also do you have over 15Gb empty space on your hard-drives?

If you are already in a LiveCd session then please could you get to a command-line and give us the output of the command

sudo fdisk -l

where "-l" is a lower-case "-L". Windows tends to get very confused about what drives are but this command should let us know what is really going on.

Regards from
Tom :)

sudo fdisk -l ....I'll post results of this here tomorrow..

I would be ok if i have to convert whole D: for ubuntu without wubi........But i need to get a backup of data stored in profiles of ubuntu..such as in folders like desktop,documents,etc....

Thank You!

Hi :)

We are trying to avoid losing any data if at all possible.

Please just put the Ubuntu Cd in the cd/dvd-drive and reboot the machine. Do you get a menu that has the top default option "Try Ubuntu without changes to this machine". Do you get straight to a working desktop?

Please let us know how it goes with this
Regards from
Tom :)

I get Try Ubuntu without changes to this machine

After trying to login with that..

It just keeps on loading...i pressed some keys...and it took me to a black screen which showed many input/output errors...

Is there anyway to get inside ubuntu and take the backup and then reinstall ubuntu withuot wubi.?

Hi :)

Please can you re-post this question? Launchpad can't deal with old threads. I think this thread is too old now.
https://answers.launchpad.net/wubi/+addquestion

Can you still boot into Windows and do an md5sum check about the Ubuntu Cd?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM

When you boot up with the LiveCd and get to the menu with "Try Ubuntu without changes to this machine" can you see "Boot Options" offered at the bottom of the screen? Can you try different combinations of boot option until you find one that works?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

Sorry i haven't got a better idea just yet!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Yeah get bootoptions..

MD check sums..don't know...i got the CD delivered by shippit.

Hi :)

Md5sum check takes about 5mins if you know what you are doing but maybe about 20mins if you don't (because of the reading). It's really not to complicated, for you. I guess some people might get stuck with it
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToMD5SUM#MD5SUM%20on%20CD

Really you only need to look-up the numbers (="hashes") and compare them. Cds can get damaged in the post sometimes so it could be worth checking.

have you tried out the different boot options yet and found a combination that gets you to a LiveCd desktop?

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I can't get to the desktop..that's the problem

If you want me to do this https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CDIntegrityCheck ... ok..

not yet tried diff boot options

Hi :)

Don't bother with the Cdintegrity check, it takes ages. Maybe some other time when you can leave your machine for a few hours!

The diff boot options should get you to a working desktop.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

PS thx for the new thread about this
https://answers.launchpad.net/wubi/+question/107905
Hopefully you might get better answers in there. You & me can carry on in here until then tho :)

I tried other boot options...even tried the install option..

all give errors...

most of the errors are /dev/sr0 /dev/sr1 /dev/fd0
/usr/bin/curl something etc etc

Hi :)

Ok, if it can't boot up the LiveCd then what-ever suggestions are made in the other thread about accessing your data will probably work better from a LiveCd session of sliTaz or something.

SliTaz is a 30Mb download. Much better than Ubuntu's 750Mb! If you have a cd/dvd-drive that can make Cds then try using a blank extremely cheap Cd. More expensive Cds tend not to wok quite so well!
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=slitaz
Their LiveCd stable version is probably the best one to be certain it works!

The fd0 is your floppy disk-drive. If you can unplug it easily then that might get past that error. If it is inside the machine then please let me know before trying anything! I might be able to advise on safety precautions.

The sr0 & sr1 are likely to be things plugged into your machine. Cameras, mobile phones, printers, errr anything like that might be called sr0. If you can unplug any of these it might help get the LiveCd working.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I have no floppy disks and cameras attached..
I will download that sliTaz but my net speed is too slow...so it might take around an hour..

Thnk You!

Hi :)

Good luck with this. I hope the sliTaz LiveCd works well after all this! Hopefully we might start getting answers about how to "mount" the Wubi install so that we can read the data you have there.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

SliTaz liveCD is working...

I am currently posting this using SliTaz

WoooHooo :))

Congrats & nicely done :) So now you have a working linux system :)

You can install it to your hard-drive if you want as part of a dual/multi-boot system. This guide can give some help even tho it is made for Ubuntu

All the different linux distros work very much the same & sliTaz doesn't take up much space on the hard-drive. Installing onto hard-drive gives the advantage that you can use it's package manager to install some useful programs. I would guess that sliTaz only has very light-weight equivalents which are great to try out but you will probably want a few much heavier programs such as "OpenOffice".

Anyway, you are only really using sliTaz temporarily i think so it's up to you how much effort you want to make with it. The important thing is can you easily see the Windows folders from inside sliTaz? If not then we can try to get that working. Please le tus know!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Yes i can see windows...

But can't get into ubuntu files..

I'll be using it temporarily :)

After then...I will just format the whole PC and install Ubuntu 10.04 ;)

I got good news...

I re-did ubuntu in a new disk

and it has loaded.

I am currently inside ubuntu
i had performed sudo -i before so didn't type sudo in the next command
After doing sudo fdisk -l
result:-
Disk /dev/sda: 80.1 GB, 80060424192 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9733 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x2f382f38

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 2551 9732 57689415 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 2551 6087 28410921 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 6375 9732 26973103+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Any help ?

Thanks!

Hi :)

So where are we? Can you boot into Windows and see sda5 & sda6 as "drives"?

I think the best plan is to move all your data into a /home partition which can then potentially be shared by different linux installs (such as 10.04, 9.10 & perhaps sliTaz). If we are really cunning we could make sure the /home partition is an NTFS so that even Windows can read it too. Then we could really minimise the amount of space taken up by the installs and maximise the space for your data which will all be on the /home.

Whether from linux (LiveCd of sliTaz, Ubuntu or installed(?) of either) or from Windows can you hunt around to see if there is any data on those that you want to keep? Hopefully we can delete or re-size at least 1 partition to create some space? Ideally need about 15-20Gb of free-space to set things up and install Ubuntu. Please let me know when you think you are ready, hopefully i might be around then too, with any luck.

Windows data is mostly usually kept in
C:/Users&Document/names/name Documents or
C:/Users&Document/names/name Desktop or
D:/
E:/
Sometimes photo albums and stuff get a bit scattered so try using a "Search for files" feature to hunt down some of the trickier missing stuff. Often found in an "Applications Data" folder somewhere. Sorry, it's been a long time & i can't remember where that folder is. I think each user gets their own "Application Data" folder and then there is another one used by everyone. Looking from inside linux those paths would look the same except at the very start. So, in sliTaz probably something like
/mnt/sda1/Users&Document/names/name Documents or
/mnt/sda1/Users&Document/names/name Desktop or
/mnt/sda5
/mnt/sda6
Things are changing to new standards in linux and i think Ubuntu, along with the other major distros, is leading the way. I think in 9.10 it's a bit painful with stuff like
/media/disk-1
in 10.04 it looks worse but actually makes some weird sense as it uses Uuid numbers which makes it all a lot more robust. So instead of "disk-1" we get stuff like "fa8de3e2-0ab1-4009-bfec-4087efdd88de" but at least we can easily work out which partition it is talking about now rather than just guessing! To find the Uuid numbers for your partitions try

sudo blkid

(=BLKID) but in lower-case. Copy&paste is going to be very useful with this new system!

Ok, so that's all the easy Windows stuff lo !! To find linux data just look in

/home/names

or

/media/fa8de3e2-0ab1-4009-bfec-4087efdd88de/home

or

/media/disk-1/home

Most of us keep an existing Windows as part of a dual/multi-boot system, gradually shrinking it & un-installing programs where we have grown to prefer the linux equivalent. Some mainstream games and things still work better in Windows & it can be good to go back into just to see what you/me used to put up with! Often good for a laugh :) Also re-installing Windows is hugely painful so it's better just to keep an existing one jic.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi again :)

I was very unclear in my last posting. I think first step is to get a 15-20Gb empty space on the drive so that we can install Ubuntu onto 3 partitions

/
/home
linux-swap

The space for linux-swap only needs to be just slightly larger than your Ram size, which you can find from the linux command

free -m

or by right-click on "My Computer" in Windows.
The / partition is going to need about 5Gb
The /home partition needs to be over 5Gb but ideally about 10Gb should be a bit more perfect for now. We can resize it larger later.

Generally we can set up these partitions when we get to the "Partitioning Section" of the installer using the bottom option which is "Advanced" or "Manual" partitioning. So, don't worry about this step yet.

To get the free space i wanted to make sure you could safely delete a partition without losing any valuable data. Just resizing them smaller would be fine if that's easy?
Regards from
Tom :)

um...

Still didn't understand :(

hi :)

Ok, you have 3 Ntfs partitions which can be seen by booting into Windows (calls them 'drives') or by booting into Ubuntu. Can you get all your data into just 1 or 2 of those partitions? or can you resize the last 2 (sda5 & sad6) to be smaller by at least 15 or 20Gb ?

Please let us know.
Regards from
Tom :)

Yes there are 3
1st Windows
2nd Ubuntu
3rd stuff required

Every drive has stuff required...

Hi :)

Superb!! you have already installed Ubuntu onto the hard-drive? Can you boot up into it? make sure the Ubuntu Cd is not in the cd/dvd-drive and just boot into Ubuntu like that?

Regards from
Tom :)

I mean D: is totally occupied by wubi :P

Hi :

Ok, but can you boot into the proper install of Ubuntu on your hard-drive or are you just using LiveCD sessions?

If you are booting into an install on the hard-drive please can you try to gives us the results of "sudo fdisk -l" again from inside that? Also go up to the top taskbar and click on

System - Administration - GParted (or Partition Editor)

And let us know what the "Mount Points" lists for each partition. Mostly the column will be empty. I think its about the 2nd or 3rd column in GPartEd? This will tell us which partitions do exactly which function :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi ?

How are you doing? Please elt me know how you are doing. Sorry i totally lost track of this during the excitement about the 10.04 release.

Regards from
Tom :)

Hi again

I have been trying to read up a bit about this and this advice from the guide might help

"Boot the Ubuntu Desktop CD, or another LiveCD, then mount the windows partition:

sudo mkdir /win
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /win

Replace sda1 with the appropriate device (a = disk, 1 = partition number), then mount the virtual disk therein. [i am pretty sure your Windows install is in sda1 so this example seems exactly right so far]

sudo mkdir /vdisk
sudo mount -o loop /win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /vdisk

Now the content of the virtual disk will be visible under /vdisk. To check the file-system you can use:

sudo fsck /win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk
"

If you are trying this from inside sliTaz then don't use "sudo" just delete that from the start of each line. However, you would need to start by using "su" before typing any other commands in. So for sliTaz i think it would be

"
su
mkdir /win
mount /dev/sda1 /win

mkdir /vdisk
mount -o loop /win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /vdisk

fsck /win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk
"

but then make sure you close that terminal window and open a new one, otherwise you are still in as Root which could cause a lot of files to get the wrong permissions.

If this does work then please let me know because i think using "rsync" might be good for moving the file to somewhere safer.

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

OH man you are cool!!!

What is rsync and how to use it ??

Thanks :D

Guess what's the good news?

Finally the problem is solved!

Thanks a lot Tom!

Thanks Tom, that solved my question.

Hi :)

Were you able to access your files and read/write them? I can't believe this is solved really. Did you click the solved button by mistake?

I found this Community Documentation page about rsync
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/rsync

but i am not completely certain about the path-name you use to access your files on Wubi. Do you access Wubi files from the file-browser? If you can access them from the command-line then please copy&paste how you do that into here and i will try to help you work out what to do with rsync

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Yea i got the files copied..:)

and then burned them in windows..

Now planning to make a format to whole PC....and install the 10.04...

Thanks :)

Hi :)

I would seriously recommend just installing Ubuntu as a proper dual-boot
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

Putting it on its own partitions like that makes it rock-solid and very reliable since it really is completely independent of Windows then :) It is good to keep a working Windows even if just to have a laugh at every few months. Sometimes some games & things are only written fro Windows and it takes a while to work out how to get them working in Ubuntu, sometimes they never do. Also while all the data in Ubuntu is neatly stored in /home on Windows you can often find that a few things didn't get copied across so being able to get back into Windows helps recover those odd photo albums and stuff.

Congrats and regards from
Tom :)

Oh..alright ...

I have the whole sda5 partition blank.. (D:)

Now Just got to wait until the CD arrives..

BTW, Do you know any place which sells ubuntu disks and delivers in 2-3 days..

Looking for price around 8$ or less

Hi :)

So are you using sliTaz installed on your machine at the moment or still using LiveCds? If you are using sliTaz then please can you copy&paste into here the output from

su
fdisk -l

where "-l" is a lower-case "-L". For Ubuntu a better way is to use "sudo" instead of "su" so it would be

sudo fdisk -l

errr, if you are using sliTaz please could you let me know if this command just gives an error message or does it give a nice little help-file?

sudo -h

Right, ok, for buying Ubuntu you have options (of course)

1. The Cannonical Shop
http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=625
is a good place. For about the money you are talking about you can get 5 Cds. You can then sell these on to people & i think you only need to let people know about the free download site so that they can make their own Cds if they choose, instead of buying from you. However, the official Cd is usually preferred depending on how much you charge. I think i am going to start charging about $10/Cd because i think when i hand them out for free people don't really value them. $10 means people are not messing around with change & it covers for my time&effort a bit too. I will keep 2 Cds for myself to make sure i always have a back-up copy.

2. OnDisk sell a tailored Dvd which includes some multimedia codecs, the VLC player (as well as the standard Totem), flash-player and a few other tweaks. For $15 it saves you some hassle downloading the Medibuntu stuff & a bit more.
http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/products_id/1033
Other options from them
http://on-disk.com/index.php/cPath/28_135_375
I am tempted but i'm not sure about selling copies i make so i probably wont.

3. OsDisc sell the 10.04 for $6 but also they sell the full Ubuntu repositories! I am not sure but i think these might include the Medibuntu repositories. If so then it is very well worth the money because it should be able to save you almost all downloading except for updates. Even without the Medibuntu repos this is still great value but it is $30 !
http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/linux/ubuntu/repo.html
Other options from them
http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/linux/ubuntu
The 2nd link to them has the $6 Ubuntu 10.04

If the idea of selling Ubuntu seems a bit cheeky then check these pages
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MarketingTeam
http://spreadubuntu.neomenlo.org/

Note that it should be fairly easy to copy yourself a back-up copy and in most cases you should be able to make your Cds look quite professional using the SpreadUbuntu and/or Marketing artwork to label the CDs. You are unlikely to sell many copies but we have 2 years to try because 10.04 has 3years support. Before selling any Cd on it is worth checking the md5sum but if you do them all in one go and use the calculator on "advanced" setting (so it can use Hexadecimal instead of decimal) then it shouldn't take long :)

Usually the main way of making any money with OpenSource is by providing "tech.support". While they, and you, can use online support there is often a lot of advantage in being able to sit in front of a machine and hunt around.

It's partly for this reason that i am getting the full repos on dvds because i have at least 1 client that has a somewhat quirky wireless connection that doesn't always work on a new install.

It is also a good idea to join your Local Community (=LoCo) Team. Most countries have them and they might be able to suggest places inside your own country that might be able to sell you Ubuntu on Cd. Also they might be able to help you get further support from them. Who knows? Perhaps you could help them a lot too now! :)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Naah i require something in 2-3 days...i better ask some friend of mine to download it..

BTW now i am able to manually load in ubuntu by entering commands in grub :)

Hi :)

When you say "manually load in ubuntu" are you saying you can boot into ubuntu? If so what are the commands you type into grub?

Also which grub are you using? Are you using the one installed with sliTaz or one we installed from an Ubuntu Cd? If you are using the sliTaz one then we could easily edit
??something.not sure what??/boot/grub/menu.lst
but first it would be wise to back it up using "sudo cp". If you are managing to edit grub2 "on the fly" then that is even more awesome because most of us haven't figured grub2 at all yet.

The LoCo Team in your country should be able to help you get a Cd quite fast but one of these 2 options should be fairly fast now ...

1. The Cannonical Shop
http://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=625
3. OsDisc sell the 10.04 for $6
http://www.osdisc.com/cgi-bin/view.cgi/products/linux/ubuntu

I ordered the main Cd from one place but then also sent off for the Repos separately. That option 2 looked like a really good deal even though it is a bit more money.

Getting a friend to download and then give you the file so you can make your own Cd is a superb way to do this tho. That's really the way this is meant to b done. Perhaps your friend might try it out him/herself too ;)

Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Thanks for the oSDisk :)

Hi :)

You are welcome :)

Please let me know which boot-loader you are suing. I would really like to learn something new here & i think i can then use that to avoid you having to edit the grub each time. I think we can make it more permanent.

Congrats, good luck and regards from
Tom :)

I don't really knwo about which bootloader..

But i type the commands into grub :)

Hi :)

Could you tell me what command you type into grub?

Regards from
Tom :)

Hi

Sorry for the late reply :(

set root=(hd0,5)
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda5 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
boot

Hi :)

Wow, well found or figured! That all looks a lot like grub1 (= grub original) to me.

Can you allow the boot-up menu to choose it's own default? Presumably that boots you into sliTaz? If the default boot-menu choice doesn't get you into a working distro desktop then please can you use the Wubi to find which partition "grub" is installed on and navigate to it? We should be able to find & edit "menu.lst". If you booted into sliTaz it should be in

/boot/grub

but if you booted into the Wubi then it might take a bt of searching before you find where

boot/grub

is. Probably in

/media/(long uuid number)/boot/grub

Anyway once you have got into the grub folder try

ls
sudo cp menu.lst menu.lst.080510
ls
sudo gedit menu.lst

err, i am not sure what the text-editor in sliTaz is called. perhaps you could use their package-manager to find out? Any text-editor should be able to do the job quite easily just replace "gedit" with which-ever one is easiest for you to use. Note that the "l" is always a lower-case "L" in those commands. The "cp" command makes a back-up of "menu.lst" and calls it "menu.lst.080510", just in case we need to get it back using a LiveCd session later. Hopefully we wont need to but it's always a good plan to make sure we back-up stuff before messing around with it!

Ok, once you have "menu.lst" open so that you can edit it please scroll all the way to the end section where there are hardly any lines starting with "#". These "stanzas" each start with a line saying "title" and that's the line that appears in the boot-menu. The lines that follow the "title" are the commands that get followed during boot-up when that particular title gets chosen. The "stanzas" are in the order they appear in the boot-menu. We want a new "stanza" and preferably at the top of the boot-menu list. I would suggest adding this stanza in at the top of the stanzas in that end section

title The Wubi of Ubuntu
set root=(hd0,5)
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda5 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic
boot

Hopefully when you save that and reboot then you should get a new item in the boot menu offering you the choice to boot into "The Wubi of Ubuntu"
Please let us know how this goes!
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

Hi ?

How is it going? All good or some problems?

Regards from
Tom :)

Working Good :D

Coool, did you save the changes into your grub? Did that work well too? Have you been able to transfer your data onto the proper install of Ubuntu or are you still using the Wubi?

Regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

I have posted a new thread about making this work permanently so that you don't need to keep editing the grub menu as you boot up
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+question/111218

I take it that when you manually edit the grub in the way you described then you boot into the Wubi? Have you tried my edit of the grub menu yet? I have a feeling it would only work with grub1 but i think that is the one you are using?
Regards from
Tom :)

Hi :)

Yea it works perfect now :D

now again problem https://answers.launchpad.net/wubi/+question/117145

Hi

I think it is worth posting the same question at linuxquestions
http://www.linuxquestions.org
and worth saying in the question that you have been booting up using a "loopback system" i think those 2 words in the summary/subject-line should make it easier for people to understand what we have been doing
Regards from
Tom :)

done.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?p=4030947#post4030947

Thanks ;)

Hi ?

I just wondered how things are going at the moment? Have you solved any of the
problems? or recovered data? Sorry i forgot all about all this when i started
work a few months ago but i might have an opportunity to test a few things on
these Windows machines.

Regards from
Tom :)

Hi,

Nope i wasn't able to do it.

Anyway i purchased a new PC :) ( i wanted an upgrade to everything :P )

Thank You!

Yep.. i can do crap on the old machine :P

@Tom: sr0 and sr1 are usually CD drives (and burners)