XP/Vista?Ubuntu TRi Boot

Mak 2.0

Mak 2.0

Mod...WAFFLES!?!?
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Well i tell you what. Ubuntu is really getting under my skin and i am about to give up on it. Now i have freshly formatted my drives for my OS's. I have created partitions for them and freshly installed. Now i got XP and VIsta to Dual Boot with no problem. But Ubuntu keeps giving me crap.

XP/Vista is flawless. But everytime i try to setup Ubuntu when i go to restart it crashes. The Gub keeps giving me the Error 22. Which means ti cant find the boot files or soemthing. Even though i have formatted and put XP back on the Boot drive primary partition and put Vista on the 2nd drives primary partition.

So why is it that Ubuntu keeps messing up? I have it installed but yet i cant boot to it. Even with trying to use EasyBCD. I lead it right to the drive that i have Ubuntu installed on and when i tried to ge there it says something about hte boot files being wrong.

I am ready to give up. Close but not yet. Words of advice almighty one?

Addendum:

Alright i have a gripe. After days of trying i figured it out. I can not believe that Linux will not boot with a BLANK DVD in the drive. That is why i keep getting the Error 22. Cause of a Blank DVD being in my drive.

Sorry but that is a annoyance. I forget to take them out from time to time. But at least i am in Ubuntu right now with my Opera 9.5 isntalled.
 
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Hmm... I booted with a blank CD just last night, but never tried a DVD.

Do you even see the GRUB screen if the blank DVD is in the drive?
 
Nope. It went straight to the Grub Loading....error 22. After i removed the DVD everythign was fine.
 
I don't think it's an Ubunutu bug as much as it is a GRUB one - possibly...

I think GRUB is counting CD drives before HD drives on your (not mine, just tested) PC and as such, cannot load Ubuntu.

If you can post a copy of /boot/grub/menu.lst from Ubuntu, I should be able to modify it to work even with a blank DVD in the drive :smile:
 
Well right now i am having issues with this all over again. I tried to delete GRUB and use the EasyBCD to boot into all 3. Well lets jsut say that the GRUB doesnt see Ubuntu anymore and the EasyBCD doesnt work either. So i took the boot files and replaced the ones i had. Hopefully i can just re-install Ubuntu and format another drive and install PCLinuxOS as well.
 
You're not supposed to delete GRUB to use EasyBCD :wink:
They work together, so that probably explains it not working any more. :smile:
 
Yeah. Well i have tried to delete GRUB. But i jsut got done with a re-install of Ubuntu (WIth no discs in the drives) and i still get a Error 22.

So i have used GParted to delete teh Linux partition. I also created another for Linux. So basically i am going to do a Quad boot. XP, Vista, Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS. But the thing is how can i get rid off the old GRUB files?

I mena i have a lot of Boot files and even more in my Boot folder. Any way i can delete any of these??

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None of those files are GRUB-related :S

That's just the Vista bootloader, and translation files for th Vista bootloader :smile:
 
So basically when i go to re-install Ubuntu and PCLinuxOS since i am getting GRUB issues now, that effort will be futile as well...

Great. Even if i replace the NTLDR and the NTDETECT this will still happen??

Addendum:

You know i really have to learn to stop when i am ahead and have things working...:tongueout:
 
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OK, you lost me now, Mak :smile:

What do NTLDR and NTDETECT have to do with GRUB? Or is XP not bootinG?
 
Sorry i was reading online that GRUB ties itself to the boot.ini of XP. So i figured if i got rid of the old ones that have GRUB already tied to them i could create GRUB again and not have issues.
 
That's the old way of doing it, before Windows Vista and EasyBCD :smile:

OK, it's quite simple actually:

Install Ubuntu. After you select the partition you want to install it to, you'll see a button that says "Advanced" click it and it'll ask where you want to install GRUB to.

The default is something like hd0 - meaning the MBR of the first drive. Change that to hd0,0 meaning Ubuntu's partition on this drive (assuming Ubuntu is the first partition).

Finish up the setup, and you'll be back in Vista.

In Vista, launch EasyBCD and add an entry pointing to the partition that Ubuntu was just installed to.

That should get Ubuntu working from the Vista bootloader.

Do the same for PCLinuxOS :smile:

I haven't rewritten it yet, but perhaps this will help:
Linux - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
 
See i didnt realize i could change where GRUB was loaded too. I will do this after finishing the Vista REcovery Disc task for you. Then let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the help Guru.

Addendum:

Well i hope that the correct place to install the GRUB to was the Home folder. Cause that is where i am doing it too. If i do it to just the / or the /boot it gives me the GRUB error 22.
 
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I don't understand :S

Aren't they all on the same drive?

No matter, even if GRUB is mis-installed, EasyBCD 1.7's "GRUBless-Linux" feature should still do the trick.
 
Well i have 3 SATA HDD's. XP is on the first drive where PCLinuxOS will be installed. Vista is on the 2nd SATA HDD where Ubuntu will be isntall on the 2nd partition.

But i have PCLOS installed alredy. I tried the EasyBCD settings. Once with the No GRUB installed and once without. The time without i get a error to insert system disc and hit any key. The time iwth the GRUB-less feature on i gor just a GRUB prompt. No matter what i tried i couldnt get into PCLOS.

So when chooing where to install GRUB where should i choose? When i was in PCLOS i got plenty of options for just the / (I am guessing this si the root of the boot drive) /boot (Which i am guessing is the boot folder of XP since that is the primary partition on the boot drive) /home or many other options which are all Linux based folders.

I really wish i made life simple for myself when it came to things like this...:tongueout:
 
I am still having trouble getting all this to work fluently. With EasyBCD with NeoGRUB and without.

Would it just be easier for me to install Linux first?

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As you see from my partition table here i got some wierd stuff going on. But here is my thoughts. I am going to empty the Emulators drive by putting that on my External. Which will allow me to move all the stuff of my first primary drive. That is a 320GB drive. So i can partition that to 4x80GB partitions.
So then i can use the first partition for Ubuntu, 2nd for PCLinuxOS, 3rd for XP and 4th for Vista. Would that work better than all this shuffling i am trying to do with having a partition on 2 different drives and trying to get Linux to work whne on such odd partitions.

Thoughts CG?
 
You can install Linux first, that shouldn't be a problem.

Here's the easiest way:
Install PCLinuxOS with defaults.
Install Ubuntu with defaults, no need to change ANY bootloader settings.
Install whatever else.

Use EasyBCD, select the GRUB isn't installed option, and add.

That should work with little to no trouble.
 
Well when i get back into XP or Vista i will show you my new look. It is much more clean and organized. But so far i got XP installed on the first partition on the first HDD. Vista is isntalled on the 2nd partition on the first HDD. Then PCLinuxOS is installed on the 3rd partition on the first HDD. I am going for Ubuntu on the last partition on the first HDD. I made them all 80GB so that each install would have enough room.

I must say that PCLinuxOS is nice. But just like Ubuntu this will take some getting used to. Time to finish up on the web and get Ubuntu installed. I have my fingers crossed that i wont mess up the GRUB or Bootloader yet again. :grinning:
 
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