Victor Churchill wrote:
> Hello, I am in a silly situation.
>
> My laptop hard disk was as follows:
> 40GB:
> 4 GB Ubuntu Intrepid 8.10
> 36GB WinXP:
> 20GB Wubi installation of Hardy 8.04 under WinXP
>
> The reason for the odd setup is that I needed a working install this
> time last year and 8.04 would not install cleanly on this Panasonic
> CF-T2 whereas Wubi 8.04 did. Later I got 8.10 to install at top level
> successfully.
>
> Now the 8.10 has been running out of space in its wee 4GB partition so
> I thought I could uninstall the Wubi which is not often used and
> reclaim the 20GB space for the main Ubuntu. So in WinXP I ran the
> Ubuntu uninstaller. Did not do anything with the But then on
> attempting to reboot into 8.10 I see
>
> Boot from (hd0,4) ext3 ca902c8-xx-xxx Error 15 File not found.
>
> So I can boot into WIndows and nothing else.
>
>>From a live CD I tried
> 1. mount the '3.9GB disk' containing Intrepid from the File Manager.
> All files are visible. 'mount' shows
> /dev/sda5 on /media/disk type ext3 (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
>
> 2. grub-install /dev/sda5 --root-directory=/media/disk
> - whirs for a few seconds and then says
> The file /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1 not read correctly.
>
> root@ubuntu:~# ls -l /media/disk/boot/grub
> total 212
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 197 2009-07-26 14:03 default
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 15 2008-11-08 21:45 device.map
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8660 2009-07-26 14:03 e2fs_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8452 2009-07-26 14:03 fat_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16 2008-11-08 21:45 installed-version
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9152 2009-07-26 14:03 jfs_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4609 2009-02-10 20:22 menu.lst
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4621 2008-11-08 21:45 menu.lst~
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 7860 2009-07-26 14:03 minix_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10132 2009-07-26 14:03 reiserfs_stage1_5
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 512 2009-07-26 14:03 stage1
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 110132 2009-07-26 14:03 stage2
> -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9980 2009-07-26 14:03 xfs_stage1_5
> root@ubuntu:~# file /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1
> /media/disk/boot/grub/stage1: x86 boot sector, code offset 0x48
>
> Now when I rty to boot I get straight to a grub> prompt. If I say
> grub>boot I see
> Error 8: Kernel must be loaded before booting.
>
> ANy clue what has gone wrong and how to fix it? I have the contents of
> /home on a backup but would prefer not to do a full reinstall. just
> aat the moment.
>
> thanks as ever,
>
Don't Panic!
:-)
My first thoughts are to suggest you go also to ubuntu forums and get
some more expert advice if possible
http://ubuntuforums.org/
So as I understand it - in a windows machine, you installed with wubi,
then installed a dual boot (grub) then uninstalled wubi, and now
grub is still your default boot loader and reports file not found.
I am not skilled enough to appreciate most of your information above,
however,
Wubi uses the Windows boot loader, and an uninstall of wubi will
(presumably ) edit the windows boot loader, but not change the mbr.
In your case, the install of 8.10 meant that grub took over and the
mbr was then pointing to 8.10 (presumably first hard drive, partiton
5) (this is grub (0,4) )
My guess is that all that has happened is that your
/boot/grub/menu.lst in 8.10 is now somehow pointing to a wrong place.
Careful use of a live CD could verify that the partitions are still in
place - windows ntfs and ubuntu ext3 and linux swap, and will probably
let you view the files on these for further reassurance.
good luck.
--
alan cocks
Ubuntu user
