Ubuntu Help - Won't Load

[walkerakl]

Good morning all,

I'm very new to linux. I dove in a couple years back with the 7.x operating system and didn't have much luck with it.

I thought I would get back in to it, as I just built a computer and wanted to dual boot with Vista -- mainly because I'm bored.

I downloaded 9.04 and burned the image to a cd and it checked out fine. It installed fine as well. It gets to the end of the install and says to reboot to finish the process and then to take out the cd and close the tray. I do that and the system restarts. I expect to get to the boot load screen here so that I may pick which OS to load, instead, it takes me straight to Vista with no option to load Linux.

Quick PC Specs
Intel Core 2 duo 3.06 CPU with wolfdale core
4 gig memory
1 tb western digital hd (vista installed)
300 gb seagate hd (for storage)
1gb nvidia graphics
windows vista home premium x64

Like I said, I'm very new at this, and really want to learn it. I can't learn it until I can get in to it! I'm not sure if there is a similar thread, if there is I'm very sorry. I just didn't know what question to ask. Let me know if you need any more information, and I look forward to hearing from someone. Thanks in advance for any help!

[Kieren]

Hello walkerakl and welcome back to Linux

It sounds like for some reason grub hasn't installed properly. When entering your settings during installation, the last page has an option for installing grub (boot loader). You didn't set this not to install did you?

I think the easiest way for you to fix this is run the installation again but when you get the partition options make sure no changes are made (it doesn't matter if you reinstall over your previous Ubuntu installation but it's a waste of time) and make sure that on the last page of options that grub is going to be installed

[D-cat]

I'd try SuperGrub. It's a small download, can probably fix the problem automatically without going through the whole install process again.

Super Grub Disk Homepage

[walkerakl]

For some reason I never get to that last page on the install. As soon as I select my partitions (I am just choosing to run it along side vista as a dual boot) then it just takes off and starts installing. I have no option to install/change grub at all. Maybe I have a bad install disk?

[Kieren]

I think it comes after it has installed. You should be able to set the partitioning to not make any changes so it should just skip straight to the final page

[walkerakl]

Makes sense, but..

I can't get anywhere in linux after the install. After it tells me to reboot because it's finished, it takes me straight to vista.

[D-cat]

also, you didin't happen to have any USB drives plugged in during the install did you? That's been known to throw the bootloader install for a loop.

[Kieren]

Oh, I was expecting it before it reboots.

I would suggest trying D-cat's suggestion of using SuperGrub to install a grub. You should be able to use the Live CD to do this

[walkerakl]

Yeah, I get nothing. And yes, there is a USB drive plugged in. My keyboard is the usb type. So I'll plug in the adapter and put it in through the mobo to try that. If that doesn't work, I'll try the super grub to try and fix it that way. Thanks for your help! I'll report back soon with what I find.

[D-cat]

Keyboard shouldn't have an effect, I was referring to actual hard drives or USB pen drives, flash card adapters, that sort of thing. - Media storage devices.

If you have one of those computers with a flash card panel built in, this is okay, but do not have any cards inserted during install. This goes for supergrub too.