Ideas booting Ubuntu

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NJC

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Is there an easy way to boot Ubuntu off of sdb, considering Win is the primary partition? Currently sda is the first disk that boots, and Grub redirects it to start the other disks as needed. But I want to remove sda so no longer will Grub show up when booting from sdb. Grub is loaded in sdb7.

Code:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 1 637 5116671 83 Linux

/dev/sda2 638 8961 66862530 b W95 FAT32

/dev/sda3 8962 9599 5124735 83 Linux

/dev/sda4 9600 9729 1044225 82 Linux swap / Solaris



Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sdb1 * 1 7860 63135418+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sdb2 7861 33561 206443282+ b W95 FAT32

/dev/sdb3 33562 38913 42989940 5 Extended

/dev/sdb5 35995 38426 19535008+ 83 Linux

/dev/sdb6 38427 38913 3911796 82 Linux swap / Solaris

/dev/sdb7 33563 35994 19535008+ 83 Linux
 
I thought you were calling for the ouster of some leader of a third world nation. Don't have a clue about computers.
 
Here's an option to use WinGrub, but not sure if I want to risk farging my XP installation.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p9.html
 
Originally Posted By: tig1
I thought you were calling for the ouster of some leader of a third world nation. Don't have a clue about computers.


LOL!
 
You need to edit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Are you basically trying to remove the Windows from the boot choice? You can also change the default partition to boot within grub.

http://www.thpc.info/how/edit_grub_menu.html

I'm also assuming you aren't removing sda from the machine. Only some of grub is loaded in sdb7, the important part is on the mbr of sda; maybe Wayne will chime in since I detest x86 boot architecture and kick and scream when such circumstances come up.
 
Last edited:
The more I deal with BIOS, the more I love OBP.

If I recall, BIOS will scan the drives and look for the active partition on the first drive it scans and start booting.

So why not make whatever changes (menu.lst) you need to GRUB installed on /dev/sdb7 and make that partition active.

Where I think you may have problems is when you remove /dev/sda. Will /dev/sdb remain /dev/sdb, or is this some sort of IDE setup and you'll change /dev/sdb from slave to master, and ultimately make it /dev/sda in the process?

Have you considered a boot floppy, LOL?
 
sda=sata or scsi drives, hda=ide drives. IIRC, my machine hangs in the early stages of booting if I move the drive to the other sata controller.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Are you basically trying to remove the Windows from the boot choice? You can also change the default partition to boot within grub.

I wanted to be able to boot into Grub on sdb but XP had the MBR. Here's the code I used, with "setup (hd1)" writing Grub to MBR.

Code:
sudo grub



find /boot/grub/stage1



(returned value of hd0,0 and hd1,6)



root (hd1,6)



setup (hd1)

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
I'm also assuming you aren't removing sda from the machine. Only some of grub is loaded in sdb7, the important part is on the mbr of sda

sda is being removed.

I can boot Ubuntu now from sdb, but not Win. I need to fiddle with menu.lst. This is what I have on sda and sdb menu.lst ... of course it starts Win properly from sda but not sdb.

Code:
title Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

rootnoverify (hd1,0)

savedefault

map (hd0) (hd1)

map (hd1) (hd0)

chainloader +1
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
Will /dev/sdb remain /dev/sdb, or is this some sort of IDE setup and you'll change /dev/sdb from slave to master, and ultimately make it /dev/sda in the process?

Have you considered a boot floppy, LOL?

No, but I have considering adding another layer of tape to my glasses.
grin2.gif


Grub uses the drive's UUID to boot so no worries. Although now when booting from sdb Ubuntu starts from hd (0,6).
21.gif
 
I should have recognized that hd is IDE and sd is SCSI or SATA, shows you how often I play in the Linux world these days.

Like I said before, I appreciate OBP, I can tell it which disk and which partition to boot :)
 
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