Ubuntu won't boot after XP installation! (not the typical reason)

[Themer]

OK, I'm sure you've all heard this one a million times, XP overwrites the MBR, won't boot, etc. But my problem is more complicated than that.

Normally, in this case, I would do 1 or more of a few things, not in any particular order.

• First, I'd ignore it until I needed Linux again (usually dieing without it within a few days)
• Then, I'd use super grub disk to either restore GRUB, or just boot the partition directly
• Then, if necessary, I'd boot to an ubuntu live CD to finish any remaining issues

However this time it's different. None of those steps work. I try to boot directly, doesn't work. I try to restore it with SGD, doesn't work. I try using Ubuntu itself to restore GRUB using the standard procedure, doesn't work. I'm at a loss of what to do. Re-installing is almost certain to work, is it not? But if that could be avoided, it would be nice. I do have a backup of everything, and am quite certain my files are not in any way damaged, but it's just not booting no matter what!

I'm wondering if any of you have seen this before, and/or know what to do. If this means anything, I noticed that on the last shut down before installing Windows, it had installed some kernel updates - not a new one, but just an update - enough though to place the "reboot required" icon in the notification area. I am fairly sure that this did not mess up the menu.lst or anything else, and I'm fairly sure it's not a problem with the new kernel, but those are both possibilities. My main concern would be the chance that Ubuntu requires a normal boot after restart to finish some things up maybe?

[rokytnji]

I noticed that on the last shut down before installing Windows,

Are you sure you didn't wipe out Ubuntu with the Windows install . Does Windows show that Ubuntu is still on a seperate partition?

[Themer]

On one of my boots to an Ubuntu live CD, I mounted every partition and looked around to make sure I didn't do that very thing, as that was one of my fears too (well, not that I so much as Windows had done that).

As a result, I noticed that everything appeared the way I had left it, with no horrible mistakes, and no removals of the Linux installation

[Jonathan183]

When you restore grub using sgd what happens ... do you get the grub menu? do you get a grub error message? does the system just boot into Windows?

[rokytnji]

Ok, Have you tried what is on this page to restore grub using your Ubuntu live cd.

How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

[Themer]

When I tried to restore GRUB it gave me an error - something about not being able to find a file - I think a more strange problem was that I couldn't boot the partition directly.

[Themer]

Ok, Have you tried what is on this page to restore grub using your Ubuntu live cd.

How to dual boot Linux and Windows XP (Linux installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

I will try that...

[Jonathan183]

What happens when you install manually using the live CD?

sudo fdisk -l
sudo grub
root (hd0,1)
setup (hd0)
quit

assuming Linux boot/root partition is sda2 ... does the process fail with critical error/unable to find file? do you get a grub menu on reboot?

Ed: if that does not work then what does

sudo grub
find /boot/grub/menu.lst

report?

[Themer]

I tried something along the lines of
-sudo grub
-root (hd0....

and it had some kind of "find: could not find file" error as well

[rokytnji]

As Johnathan stated what does

sudo grub
find /boot/grub/menu.lst

report