GRUB not functioning on triple boot system - XP, UbuntuStudio and PCLINUXOS

[Tweaksta]

Greetings;

Ok - I did this in several stages, the laptop was already running XP. I installed PCLINUXOS successfully. I managed to create the three partitions on my external 500GB USB HD. At the end of the installation it showed what the GRUB menu would contain - (PCLINUXOS+SAFEBOOT+WINDOWS XP). It then asked to confirm before committing the changes to disk.

After it restarted I got GRUB error 5 and couldn't load any OS. (I also saw an error 21 in my adventures).

Luckily I ran the XP recovery console and the FIXMBR util got my XP back.

Convinced that PCLINUXOS had GRUBBY problems I thought that if I installed a more foolproof distro I could use it's GRUB setup functions so I installed UbuntuStudio. This installation went fine and looked good when the GRUB setup stage started. It found my XP and PCLINUXOS partitions - and it was going to add UbuntuStudio to the GRUB menu....but again the changes weren't written to disk (or at least the correct one). Upon reboot all I could see was XP.

I know that my other two Linux installations are there but I just can't boot to them.

a) Is there an easy way to modify the way my system boots?
b) Can I add the extra OSes to the XP boot.ini?
c) Is there such a thing as a Linux boot disk which scans all partitions for installations and makes them available from a menu?

I feel close - but so far.

Thanks!

[Tweaksta]

To answer a potion of my own question......

There is a disk image called Super Grub Disk - you can get it at Super Grub Disk Webpage - Download CDROM

[yancek]

Grub Error 5: Partition table invalid or corrupt

Definitely a bad thing.

Grub Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

Also a very bad thing.

Major problems. Do you have a Live CD so that you can get information to post?
From you first post it seems you have three partitions on your external drive for xp, PCLinuxOS and UbuntuStudio? Do you have anything on an internal disk? When you installed Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, did you install Grub to the mbr of the external drive, internal drive (if you have one)?
If you have a Live CD, as root (su or sudo) type 'fdisk -l' and post results.

[Tweaksta]

Hi...

The laptop was already running Windows XP - so XP was on the internal HD. PCLINUXOS and UbuntuStudio are on the external HD and both have their own separate partitions.

Will post results of 'fdisk -l' this afternoon Sydney time!!

Thanks!

[yancek]

I expect that after the Ubuntu install, if you were able to only boot xp, you installed the bootloader to the external drive. If you want to boot Linux from xp you can do that, here's a link:

Linux.com :: Convert a Windows system to dual-boot Linux on a second drive

You could also install Grub to the mbr of the internal drive (which has xp) overwriting your xp bootloader. You would need to have the external attached at all times for it to work. Additionally, you could install Grub to the mbr of the external drive and set it to boot first in the BIOS. That way, if you disconnected the external you would still be able to boot xp as long as you have the drive listed in the boot order of your BIOS.

Post the output of 'fdisk -l' and you should get more detailed instructions.