Ubuntu Multi-Boot issue

Hi, am fairly new to Linux, and am in over my head with Multi-Booting.

Essentially, I have managed the following :-

1. Shrink Linpus to 10Gb partition (no swap)
2. Install WindowsXP on 1st Partition
3. Install Ubuntu on partition 4&5 (OS and Swap)
4. Install OSX on Partition3

I then made XP the active partition and installed Wingrub, and with some hacking I am using the XP loader, and have no problemsmulti-booting from the Windows loader with Wingrub other than the Ubuntu partition, and cannot boot it. I rescued the original grub menu.lst from the Ubuntu installation by booting from a USB stick, but having copied the boot parameters it says incorrect device or folder.

Setup is below on 120Gb Hard Disk :-

Partition 1 : NTFS: XP: 60Gb
Partition 2 : EXT Linpus Linux: 10Gb
Partition 3: EXT MACOSX: 20gb
Partition 4: SWAP: 3Gb
Partition 5: EXT Ubuntu: 18Gb

Menu.lst says the following :-

default=0
timeout=10

title Acer Linpus Linux Lite
rootnoverify (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/bzImage ro root=LABEL=linpus vga=0x311 splash=silent loglevel=1 console=tty1 quiet nolapic_timer nolapic_timer
initrd /boot/initrd-splash.img

title Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=/dev/sda2 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic quiet
boot

title Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop (recovery mode)
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=/dev/sda2 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic
boot

title Ubuntu, memtest86+
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/memtest86+.bin
boot

Can anyone advise what is wrong with the Ubuntu entries above?

 

If your windows partition is the first, it will be called sda1 on Linux. So sda2 would be Linpus, sda3 MacOS, and sda5 Ubuntu.

I assume you will have to change to root= parameter to root=/dev/sda5

Does this help?

 

I think something's wrong with your partition numbering. With every HDD I've ever used, one may have up to four primary partitions. To get more than four partitions, you need to make one of those four an extended partition.
This is from my desktop, but if you execute the command on the first line from Linpus, it'll show you the partition layout of your HDD.

Code:

~$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda
[sudo] password for a: 

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xa785a785

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        1275    10241406    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            1276        1288      104422+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3            1289        1320      257040   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda4            1321       19457   145685452+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5            1321        2365     8393931   83  Linux
/dev/sda6            2366        3410     8393931   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            3411        4656    10008463+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8            4657        8421    30242331   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            8422       12186    30242331   83  Linux
/dev/sda10          12187       13432    10008463+  83  Linux
/dev/sda11          13433       14055     5004216   83  Linux
/dev/sda12          14056       15100     8393931   83  Linux
/dev/sda13          15101       16145     8393931   83  Linux
/dev/sda14          16146       17190     8393931   83  Linux
/dev/sda15          17191       19457    18209646   83  Linux

The key here is that partition #4 is an extended partition; it just contains other partitions. I suspect that's your situation too, and that your actual partition numbering scheme is not quite what you think it is.

 

OK, here's the output from Linpus

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000345a5

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 7963 63962766 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 7964 9268 10482412+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 9269 11879 20972857+ af Unknown
/dev/sda4 11880 14593 21800205 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 11880 12253 3004123+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 12254 14593 18796018+ 83 Linux

So I can see the post I made and the Menu.lst has a couple of mistakes, so I'll make some changes and try again

 

SDA=6 and HD(0,5) have been added\changed

I have tried the Ubuntu using both UUID and dev\sda6 method.

Both options show the partition, but then I get

Error2 Bad File or Directory

 

Not sure why that error is coming up. Here are two entries from my desktop PC's /boot/grub/menu.lst:

Code:

title		Intrepid-LXDE on sda11
root		(hd0,10)
kernel	/vmlinuz root=LABEL=Intrepid-LXDE ro
initrd		/initrd.img

title		Intrepid 2.6.27-7 on sda13
root		(hd0,12)
kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda13 ro 
initrd		/initrd.img

 

Well, I just can't get this to work, the entries below are all the ones I've tried :-

title Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop
root (hd0,5)
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda6 ro
initrd /initrd.img

title Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=/dev/sda6 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic

title Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27-9-generic root=UUID=2bc636cd-96d2-4932-9d91-21baa62b19c4 ro single
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.27-9-generic

 

Looks like you're doing the right sort of thing in all three of the above. What's the exact error message you're getting?

 

Something like - Error 2 - Invalid File or Directory

Anyway, consider this solved or more accurately abandoned.

I reinstalled Ubuntu in the final extended partition.

I then cut=pasted the Grub entries, into the Wingrub menu.lst but still got the error.

Ubuntu uses Grub 1.5, WinGrub uses 0.95, maybe Wingrub is too old and incompatible?

So I've abandoned Wingrub now, I'm using Grub 1.5 as default bootloader to boot to Ubuntu, Linpus, and WindowsXP, which in turn allows me to boot MAC OSX from the subsequent Windows Bootloader.

Thanks for all the attempted help