Confusing Grub Nightmare Win 7 Ubuntu 9.10

[AmbientOcclusion]

Hi.

I have installed Ubuntu 9.10 after installing Windows 7.

I have OSX installed on sda1 with an efi bootloader. It doesn't work and I have to boot OSX from a usb drive. I nstalled Grub ( /boot) to this partition. It identifies windows and osx but can load neither of them.

On sdb I have both Windows 7 and ubuntu 9.10 ( / )installed. Windows has it's bootloader and the main windows partition. I tried putting grub on this partition and then switching it in bios to boot from this drive first. No matter what I do, with grub on sdb, it just boots the windows bootloader.

Here are the results of sudo fdisk -l :

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 60802 488386583+ ee GPT
/dev/sda3 * 1 1 0 0 Empty
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1b2ab550

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2 13 73412 589578240 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb3 73413 108853 284679832+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb4 108854 121601 102398310 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 108854 109766 7333609+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb6 109767 121601 95064606 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x225a2221

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 15298 122881153+ 5 Extended
/dev/sdc2 15299 60801 365502847+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc5 1 15298 122881122 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdd: 300.1 GB, 300069052416 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 36481 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x13901390

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdd2 3188 36481 267434055 5 Extended
/dev/sdd5 3188 36481 267434023+ 83 Linux

Here is a screenshot of the partitions:
]http ://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9925/screenshotpalimpsestdisb.png

1 Is an EFI Bootloader that never worked. I still must boot OSX with a usb drive.

2 Is the OSX Snow Leopard Drive

3 Is GRUB

4 Is the Windows 7 Bootloader

5 Is The Widnows 7 partition

6 Just an NTFS Storage Drive

7 Swap

8 Ubuntu 9.10 Main Partition

9 Ubuntu 9.10 Home

10 Just an NTFS Parition

11 Old ext4 Jaunty backup home (not really being used)


I don't care about the OSX install not working in grub. I don't mind using a usb drive to boot into it because I only use it for Final Cut. I would like to be able to boot into windows.

Also, if I point the bios to sdb, it tries to boot windows but says the bootloader is messed up and to put in the windows 7 disk to do a repair.

Before I had nearly the same setup with Xp64 where 7 is, Ubuntu 9.04 where 9.10 is and OSX. I just had the bootloader on sdb and it worked fine. If I put the bootloader on sdb the Windows bootloader tries to boot.

Please help! I am not sure what to do.

Thanks ahead of time...

[Charles4809]

Ubuntu 9.10 uses Grub2, which is different from the "old" Grub.

You can read more on this site. There you can find more documentation as well.

To be honest, I still use the old Grub, with the easy to adapt menulist.

As far as I know you still have to install grub in the MBR of the drive your Bios uses to boot from, so installing it to a partition does not work. Your /boot partition will only hold the grub config files.

[yancek]

I agree with Charles4809, you do need to put Grub stage1 file in the master boot record of the first drive in you want to boot your systems with it.

Also, if I point the bios to sdb, it tries to boot windows but says the bootloader is messed up and to put in the windows 7 disk to do a repair.
What exactly do you mean? Do you get a Grub menu to select from? Do you just get the windows screen? with a message that says exactly? I don't think microsoft would ever say "messed up". If you want to boot from sdb, you need grub in the master boot record of sdb and you need it as first boot priority. Since you have you separate /boot partition on sda??

One thing that is a problem is that according to the image you posted, you show a 134MB Linux partition on sda which you say is the grub /boot partition formatted as ext4. I don't believe Grub recognizes ext4 and you need it to be ext3. Also, if I"m reading your image correctly, you seem to have 3 partitions on sda but your fdisk output only shows 2 and sda3 Empty??



I've not used macs so am totally unfamiliar with booting them. If you are more familiar with windows, you might try downloading EasyBCD from neosmart technologies to modify the bootloader with vista, it's recommended by microsoft by not a microsoft product because it's free. Just google it, they have good documentation.

Ubuntu 9.10 AFAIK is one of the first distributions to use Grub 2 so this is new ground for most Linux users.

[devils casper]

If you are not familiar with GRUB2 then I would suggest you to un-install it using LiveCD and install GRUB.
GRUB2 doesn't have stage1 and setup of its conf files is entirely different.
GRUB2 is much better than GRUB but I haven't researched GRUB2 much yet. Although I am using GRUB2 for a long time but GRUB2 in Ubuntu 9.10 is bit more stable and different. I need 2-3 more days to fully understand its working.