Ubuntu Linux

D.K.

Many thanks Wolfman and Bat999,
Have tried cutting and pasting over and over but no Windows. I get the grub menu after I type in my password, funny thing is the cursor does not move or my password appear.
I'm a bit concerned that I can't see my hard drives in "Places">"computer" or can find any of my files. Do you think Windows is still there?

Regards,
D.

bat999

Hi DK
Now that you've pasted those extra lines to the menu.lst file and saved it.
When you boot the pc do you come to a black and white screen with options similar to this:-

Ubuntu kernel 2.6.20-16.generic
Ubuntu kernel 2.6.20-16.generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu memtest 86+
Windows XP

and a 30 second countdown?

D.K.

Hello again,
No, I'm afraid not.

D.K.

bat999 wrote: »

Hi DK
Now that you've pasted those extra lines to the menu.lst file and saved it.
When you boot the pc do you come to a black and white screen with options similar to this:-

Ubuntu kernel 2.6.20-16.generic
Ubuntu kernel 2.6.20-16.generic (recovery mode)
Ubuntu memtest 86+
Windows XP

and a 30 second countdown?

Hi, After the countdown would it automatically boot Ubuntu. Just thought, but I have been watching very carefully, I am also concerned that I cannot see any Windows files on Ubuntu although I can see a networked computer.
What do you think?
Cheers,

D.

wolfman

When Terminal asks you for your password it won't show anything being typed.

Also at the boot menu, you need to use the arrow keys (up and down) to select Windows. You can change the order of all the items by moving them around when you edit grub's menu.lst file.

Can you do the following:

1) Go to Terminal again, this time enter:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Press enter, and put in your password again. A file will open. Highlight everything and paste it here. That file basically shows all your drives and partitions and how they are mounted.

D.K.

wolfman wrote: »

When Terminal asks you for your password it won't show anything being typed.

Also at the boot menu, you need to use the arrow keys (up and down) to select Windows. You can change the order of all the items by moving them around when you edit grub's menu.lst file.

Can you do the following:

1) Go to Terminal again, this time enter:

sudo gedit /etc/fstab

Press enter, and put in your password again. A file will open. Highlight everything and paste it here. That file basically shows all your drives and partitions and how they are mounted.

I'm afraid that I just don't see Windows at all in the boot menu.
Hope this is useful!

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda2
UUID=09be300e-5702-470a-bb6b-0e6d7592621b / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda1
UUID=541a3895-6c84-473a-a9e2-7e33dce02017 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/scd1 /media/cdrom1 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto 0 0

Thanks again,
D.

wolfman

Ok, stay with me, and try not to be put off by all of this. Your Windows partition isn't listed.

Open up Terminal again.

1) Enter the following, press enter, and paste the results here. Note Ctrl+C won't work in a terminal window, just use right click > copy. This'll basically list all of your hard drives/partitions.

sudo fdisk -l

2) It's probably worth installing the ntfs module needed. It's basically so you can read/write a windows partition in Ubuntu. It's usually best to try and avoid writing to a windows partition in Linux.

In Terminal,

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

I'll post my /boot/grub/menu.lst file when I get home (am on a Windows box at the moment) so you can see what it looks like.

D.K.

wolfman wrote: »

Ok, stay with me, and try not to be put off by all of this. Your Windows partition isn't listed.

Open up Terminal again.

1) Enter the following, press enter, and paste the results here. Note Ctrl+C won't work in a terminal window, just use right click > copy. This'll basically list all of your hard drives/partitions.

sudo fdisk -l

2) It's probably worth installing the ntfs module needed. It's basically so you can read/write a windows partition in Ubuntu. It's usually best to try and avoid writing to a windows partition in Linux.

In Terminal,

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

I'll post my /boot/grub/menu.lst file when I get home (am on a Windows box at the moment) so you can see what it looks like.

Thanks, I certainly won't be put off!


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

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 243 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 244 2067 14651280 83 Linux

wolfman

Hmmm ok.

Did you per chance backup all of your personal stuff before installing Ubuntu?

It looks like you don't have a Windows partition! It's not listed from what you've posted. It may have been overwritten during the install.

Mine as an example, reads

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2550    20482843+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            2551       24792   178658865    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            2551        4982    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda6            4983        5225     1951866   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            6928       14222    58597056   83  Linux
/dev/sda8           14223       24792    84903493+  83  Linux
/dev/sda9            5226        6761    12337888+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10           6762        6927     1333363+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

You can see sda1 is the Windows partition. Also strange that your SWAP partition is on the first partition, and your Linux install is on the 2nd.

wolfman

I'd recommend, if you have the time, starting over.

When partitioning your system, it's a good idea to separate your "home" folder from the main linux files.

I usually go for a setup like (the numbers are the partitions):

1) Windows (NTFS) - allow 15gb
2) Linux (EXT3) - allow 10gb
3) Linux SWAP (SWAP) - allow 1-2gb
4) Home directory (EXT3) - use up whatever is left

The home directory stores all your settings, and you can also use it to keep photos, work etc... Then should you want to install a different or newer version of Linux, you do so on partition 2), and tell it your home directory is on 4). That way you keep your settings and personal files.

I'm about to install Ubuntu Gutsy (Tribe 5) (a test release), and can point it at my home directory. Once it's installed, when it loads up all my desktop image, settings for applications, messenger etc... you name it, will be there.

The easiest way to go about it, is to install Windows first, and then Ubuntu.