Ubuntu + XP... Restoring grub

NewTechGuy · 09-24-2008, 08:09 PM

I had an entirely unallocated HDD that I partitioned with Ubuntu into:

Root - 5Gig
Swap - 3Gig
NTSF - 20Gig
Unallocated - almost 50Gig

I then installed Ubunto which worked great. Followed that with installing XP on the 20Gig partition and it also runs good but I can no longer get to Ubuntu. Looking at the dual boot xp+linux (linux first) guide I can see I was supposed to back grub up first. Is there a simple way to fix my mistake and restore grub so it boots first? I am a newb to Linux and dual booting of all kinds.

Thanks,
NewTechGuy

Mak213 · 09-24-2008, 09:09 PM

How to install Grub from a live Ubuntu cd. - Ubuntu Forums

CalcProgrammer1 · 09-24-2008, 10:22 PM

Yeah, I use that guide all the time lol, reinstalling Windows is a pain cause it insists on killing the MBR and ruining GRUB, though it's a super easy fix.

NewTechGuy · 09-24-2008, 11:01 PM

Halfway home, Ubuntu loaded right away after Grub loaded now. Almost too fast actually, only left me 1 second to hit esc to go to the menu. But when I got to the menu XP wasn't an option and there was no "Other operating systems" list. How do I make XP visible now and can I just get a list right away instead of a short timer before Ubuntu loads?

**EDIT**
I solved this part of it with a little googling...
In the terminal I entered

Code:

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Then my root password. This gave access to edit Grub's menu. I edited the timeout line to read

Code:

timeout                   30

and added these lines below the Ubuntu's listed towards the bottom.

Code:

title              Microsoft Windows XP Pro
root		  (hd0,2)
makeactive
chainloader	+1

The 2 is the partition since XP is on my 3rd partition (0,1,2...)
**END EDIT**

Also, my external drive was visible before and now I get the error that its volume can't be read and am unable to mount it at all.

brad8266 · 09-25-2008, 02:03 PM

Glad you got that grub sorted out. Check to see if the device shows up, fdisk -l
If it lists the external drive try mounting it manually to an empty directory.

Jayce · 09-26-2008, 10:08 AM

Not to butt in, but I noticed you edited the timeout time on the boot menu. Can you change the order of the menu as well?

NewTechGuy · 09-28-2008, 09:50 PM

I believe that should work fine as long as you make sure you have the right hd and partition numbers.

CalcProgrammer1 · 10-02-2008, 01:00 AM

You can change the order of the GRUB menu, simply copy/paste the OS entries in the desired order (for instance, move the XP entry from the bottom up to the top to make XP the primary OS, or make an order, mine's Vista, then XP, then Mac, then Ubuntu, then Ubuntu recovery, then Memtest).

Jayce · 10-02-2008, 09:17 AM

Calc - Instead of changing the order, I just changed which one was by default highlighted.

When I boot up, I have a total of 6 things load. 5 are Ubuntu... recovery mode, memtest, the regular OS, blah blah. By default the regular OS shows up. But on my laptop, which has RTL8187B wireless and I haven't figured it out on Ubuntu yet, I use XP 99% of the time. There's a "default = 0" setting. If you change that 0 accordingly to whatever number is on the boot loader, that one will load first. For me, XP was 6. Default = 6 highlights XP first, but I can still hit my up arrow key to toggle to memtest or ubuntu or whatever else I want.

CalcProgrammer1 · 10-02-2008, 02:23 PM

Yeah, I know about the default one, but I don't call that "changing the order", just changing the default. I like to have my default as the first one on the list.

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