Can't boot linux

[Womble]

Hi,

I am yet another newbie with boot problems. I downloaded and installed a version of linux called "Pinguy" which the review said was a mix of the best bits from Ubuntu and Mint with everything else that a newbie might need so it seemed just what i wanted. Has anyone else locked horns with this, opinions welcome.

The Pinguy installation is on an otherwise empty second physical hard drive of 70 gB which I left in place when I installed a larger 320gig drive which I partitioned 30gig as drive C with windows XP installed and the remainder as drive D on which I have documents music and pictures etc. The problem is that I don't know how to access or run the linux installation on the second drive as it did not seem to come with any boot software ie. Grub or similar and Windows insists on loading with no option at startup to run linux.

I would like to configure the setup to load windows by default with the option to run linux. Can anyone help me to achieve this in words of one syllable please as i am not a "techy" and tend to glaze over when unfamiliar terms are bandied about. Or perhaps I should ditch Pinguy and and try another distro, Mint for instance as long as it comes with a suitable boot capability.

Any assistance gratefully accepted.

Dave.

[devils casper]

Hi and Welcome !

How did you burn .iso image of Pinguy? It must be burned as an Image. Most of .iso file are bootable by default and creating bootable installation CD or Data CD doesn't work.

Burn .iso image as an Image, set CD/DVD drive as First Boot Device in BIOS and you are good to go. Machine will boot up from CD and you will have option to install Pinguy.

I have never installed Pinguy and don't know if it's installer gives any option for Default OS during installation but you can change order after installation easily.

[Womble]

Thanks for the welcome and the advice both are much appreciated.

Your advice was spot on I did originally burn the dvd from the iso file as a data image. There was no option to burn as an iso file in the rather basic (and paid for) burning program that i used so it seemed logical to burn as a data file. Following your advice I burned the file as an image and re installed. It now loads without problems.

I now just need to figure out how change the boot order so that my wife can get into windows without too much trouble. I think I read somewhere that grub needs to be edited to do this.

Just as an observation, it took me half an hour to figure out how to exit linux (via the system menu) I hope that other stuff doesn't take a circuitous route to achieve basic needs. I guess I am in for a lot of fun and a steep learning curve. I think I have been with windows for too long.

Best regards, Dave.

[devils casper]

Linux is a steep learning curve but when you explore it a little bit, you will love it.

We have to check which version of GRUB are PinGuy is using. Execute this in Terminal :

ls /boot/grub

Post output here.

[Womble]

I have another problem now. Linux won't let me in!!! At the desktop log in I am asked for my password but at this point the keyboard freezes and I am unable to enter anything. My only option is to switch off the computer. It looks like I need to reinstall and try again but I don't have the time until Friday. I have had to resort to windows to reply to this.

I did notice that "grub2" was installed along with linux but as soon as I get back in I will check using the code you have given me and post the output as requested.

[devils casper]

I have another problem now. Linux won't let me in!!! At the desktop log in I am asked for my password but at this point the keyboard freezes and I am unable to enter anything. My only option is to switch off the computer.

Have you tried pressing Alt+Ctrl+F3? Does any key ( Caps Lock or Num lock ) give response?


It's easy to change OS Order in GRUB2. You have to edit only one file for that. Let's fix Keyboard problem first.

[Womble]

Hi,
Thanks for your patience. I have got myself into a bit of a mess. As usual I jumped in with both feet. Not only could I not access Linux I also managed to "lose" windows as well so I reinstalled it as I have done often before but this time I reinstalled over the old o.s. without formatting. I now have a choice of multiple copies of windows only one of which works and I cant get rid of the bad copys even though I installed again this time doing a full install. I don't know if this is a BIOS or a software fault. I then reinstalled Linux and now I am back to the original problem, that is, Grub doesn't seem to run and I still can't access Linux even though it did appear to install correctly. I think I am going to have to sort out my disc drives before I can go much further.

[yancek]

If your PinGuy CD is a LiveCD, that is, you have an option to try it without installing, put it in the drive and boot from the CD. You can use it to get partition and drive information to post here to get help. After booting PinGuy, you need to get to a terminal. I think there is a terminal icon at the bottom of the Desktop, it looks like a small monitor. If you can open that, type: sudo fdisk -l (lower case Letter L in the command). PinGuy is an Ubuntu derivative so you need the sudo in front of the command, I believe? This should give you partition information on both drives as long as they are both attached when you run the command. Post that info here and you should get specific instructions.

[Womble]

Thanks for the info. I did it the hard way and frormatted and reinstalled everything and it all seems to work now. That justleaves the matter of getting windows to boot by default.

Here is the result of running ls /boot/grub that Devils Casper asked for.

dave@dave-MS-7253:~$ ls /boot/grub
915resolution.mod gcry_serpent.mod parttool.lst
acpi.mod gcry_sha1.mod parttool.mod
affs.mod gcry_sha256.mod password.mod
afs_be.mod gcry_sha512.mod password_pbkdf2.mod
afs.mod gcry_tiger.mod pbkdf2.mod
aout.mod gcry_twofish.mod pci.mod
ata.mod gcry_whirlpool.mod play.mod
ata_pthru.mod gettext.mod png.mod
at_keyboard.mod gfxmenu.mod probe.mod
befs_be.mod gfxterm.mod pxeboot.img
befs.mod gptsync.mod pxecmd.mod
biosdisk.mod grldr.img pxe.mod
bitmap.mod grub.cfg raid5rec.mod
bitmap_scale.mod grubenv raid6rec.mod
blocklist.mod gzio.mod raid.mod
boot.img halt.mod read.mod
boot.mod handler.lst reboot.mod
bsd.mod hashsum.mod regexp.mod
bufio.mod hdparm.mod reiserfs.mod
cat.mod hello.mod relocator.mod
cdboot.img help.mod scsi.mod
chain.mod hexdump.mod search_fs_file.mod
cmostest.mod hfs.mod search_fs_uuid.mod
cmp.mod hfsplus.mod search_label.mod
command.lst iorw.mod search.mod
configfile.mod iso9660.mod serial.mod
core.img jfs.mod setjmp.mod
cpio.mod jpeg.mod setpci.mod
cpuid.mod kernel.img sfs.mod
crc.mod keystatus.mod sleep.mod
crypto.lst linux16.mod tar.mod
crypto.mod linux.mod terminal.lst
cs5536.mod lnxboot.img terminal.mod
datehook.mod loadenv.mod terminfo.mod
date.mod locale test.mod
datetime.mod loopback.mod tga.mod
diskboot.img lsmmap.mod trig.mod
dm_nv.mod ls.mod true.mod
drivemap.mod lspci.mod udf.mod
echo.mod lvm.mod ufs1.mod
efiemu32.o mdraid.mod ufs2.mod
efiemu64.o memdisk.mod uhci.mod
efiemu.mod memrw.mod usb_keyboard.mod
elf.mod minicmd.mod usb.mod
example_functional_test.mod minix.mod usbms.mod
ext2.mod mmap.mod usbtest.mod
extcmd.mod moddep.lst vbeinfo.mod
fat.mod msdospart.mod vbe.mod
font.mod multiboot2.mod vbetest.mod
fshelp.mod multiboot.mod vga.mod
fs.lst nilfs2.mod vga_text.mod
functional_test.mod normal.mod video_bochs.mod
gcry_arcfour.mod ntfscomp.mod video_cirrus.mod
gcry_blowfish.mod ntfs.mod video_fb.mod
gcry_camellia.mod ohci.mod video.lst
gcry_cast5.mod part_acorn.mod video.mod
gcry_crc.mod part_amiga.mod videotest.mod
gcry_des.mod part_apple.mod xfs.mod
gcry_md4.mod part_bsd.mod xnu.mod
gcry_md5.mod part_gpt.mod xnu_uuid.mod
gcry_rfc2268.mod partmap.lst zfsinfo.mod
gcry_rijndael.mod part_msdos.mod zfs.mod
gcry_rmd160.mod part_sun.mod
gcry_seed.mod part_sunpc.mod
dave@dave-MS-7253:~$

I hope it makes sense.

Regards Dave.

[Womble]

It has been a while without any replies so I reckon everyone has given up on me as a hopeless case. However I did persevere and found the solution elsewhere on the internet.

If anyone else chances upon this thread with a similar problem the solution is:

From terminal run the following command line:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

you will see a line which reads GRUB_DEFAULT=0. If you want windows to be the default option and this is the 5th option on the grub menu then count down the lines from the top starting at 0. In this case change the 0 to 4. That is GRUB_DEFAULT=4.

Similarly GRUB_TIMEOUT can be edited to the defult delay in seconds before grub boots.

Now from the terminal run:

sudo update-grub

and the boot order will be changed.