Grub Install Failure

[Bob Rossana]

I have a mixed scsi and ide system. Two scsi hard drives (sda and sdb) and an
ide drive (hda). I boot from sda. When installing the Hoary Preview (and Warty
as well) the grub-installer is unable to install grub onto sda despite being
told to put it there. It actually installs nothing and it disables the grub
which was on that drive. It is necessary to disconnect hda, do the install, and
then grub installs fine. This does not happen in other distributions (i. e.
Mandrake). I have seen the exact same problem in Yoper. So it seems to be
specific to certain distributions, not my hardware.

[Jonathon Conte (thesicktwist)]

I have a similiar problem while installing Ubuntu Breezy Badger Colony 3. I
have two IDE drives and one SCSI drive. The SCSI drive is the one from which the
BIOS boots. I installed Breezy to the 9th partition of the SCSI drive. During
the installation of GRUB, I specified (hd0,8) as the location I wanted GRUB to
be installed. The error message printed was "Unable to install GRUB in (hd0,8).
Executing 'grub-install (hd0,8)' failed. This is a fatal error." I then tried
using the /dev/sda9 notation. At first this resulted in the same error above. I
repeated this step again using /dev/sda9 a second time and the installer did not
give an error message but proceeded with the installation. However, upon
rebooting the GRUB config file incorrectly referred my SCSI drive as
groot=(hd2,8) so the kernel parameters were wrong. After I changed everything in
the GRUB config file to (hd0,8) the system was able to boot.

[Iwan (iwan-pieterse)]

grub and lilo failed on my ASUS A8N SLI DELUXE. I have 3 disk drives, 80G as sda another identical 80G as sdb and a 300G as sdc, all of them are seagate disks. Installation of the boot loaders failed till I removed the 300G. What happend was that the Linux kernel read sda b c in the correct order, like the BIOS did, but grub and lilo read the 300G as sda. After inserting the 300G the problem didnt reoccur, so once the installation was successfull, the problem went away. https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/grub/+bug/10535/+index

[DaveW (dwagoner)]

I have the same Motherboard but my install doesnt work with the graphical installer, it installs grub onto the wrong hard drive. I have been using the text installer and manually setting grub to install on the MBR of hda and it installs but it thinks that my hda drive is really hd(1,1) instead of hd(0,1).

I have windows 2003 server on 0,0 for work.

I have in my bios the following
disk 1 = 74GB raptor sata
disk 2 = 300GB maxtor sata
disk 3 = 320GB western digital sata
sata 4 = sata dvd burner

There are no ide devices on my system. This issue started after i got my 3rd sata drive. Now i have to edit my /boot/grub/menu.lst file and change it to hd(0,1) and then whenever a new kernel is installed i have to re-edit that file and change it again.

[Michael Clay (claym-deactivatedaccount)]

This can sometimes be caused, as was my case, by device.map in the /boot/grub directory being incorrect. Causing the drive, which was (hd2) on the live CD to maybe turn out to be (hd0) on the actual installation.

My theory is that this is caused by booting of the CD making the boot order look different in the live environment, causing the (hd#) to be off. Then, when returning to a default configuration that you actively use on your system, the numbers have all changed, making Grub's installation invalid.

[Iwan (iwan-pieterse)]

My cdrom is IDE and all my disks are SATA, there is no reason for the IDE disk to change the order of the SATA disks. I have two identical SATA disks, 80G and one 300G. Seems Ubuntu wanted to recognise the biggest disk as the first one. Once I removed the 300G, installed and then put back the 300G it all worked. My motherboad clearly indicates which sata cable is which disk, 1,2,3 or 4. the 300G was #3 and still the installer wanted to make it #1.

[ahwayakchih (ahwayakchih)]

Edgy Eft RC - LIVE CD installer failed installing GRUB to first partition of 1st (and only one) HD (hd0,0).
It works only for MBR (hd0) - so i had to first overwrite MBR with it, boot into Ubuntu, and from there install it to hd0,0 (BTW grub-installer failed mentioning corrupted stage1/stage2 as a reason, so i used "sudo grub" and installed from it's commandline without any problems).

[Phillip Susi (psusi)]

Unfortunately, there isn't anything that can be done to fix this. The underlying problem is that grub can not automatically determine the relationship between the linux devices and the bios devices, so you have to manually configure /boot/grub/menu.lst to indicate those relationships. The only thing I can see that could be done is to have the installer prompt you to edit devices.map when more than one disk is detected.

[Scott Merrilees (scott.merrilees)]

A slightly different wrinkle. I netbooted my laptop to do a feisty install because there wasn't space on / to do an upgrade. Did an expert install. When I tried to install grub, it failed. Bottom line was that I didn't format /boot, and grub was finding the definition of hd0 in device.map was /dev/hda, however seems like feisty is using the libata version, so hda needed to be sda.

My usual process for debugging grub/lilo install failures on installations goes like this, in case it is useful for someone else:

cd /
/target/bin/mount --bind /dev /target/dev
/target/bin/mount --bind /proc /target/proc
chroot /target /bin/bash

then I can do things like:

# grub-install hd0
/dev/sda3 does not have any corresponding BIOS drive
# # edit /boot/grub/device.map and change hda to sda
# grub-install hd0
Installation fnished. No error reported.
...
(hd0) /dev/sda
#

And then I could complete the rebuild. Seems like with a conversion to libata, the grub setup needs to deal with an existing device.map.

[Ron F. (ronfischler)]

I am a new user, attempting to install Ubuntu on my hard drive for the first time. The live CD fails to complete, issuing a fatal error when trying to install grub.

I have a NTFS partiion with Windows XP that boots fine, and a new ext2 partition in which feisty was installed by the Live CD that I downloaded.

I have no idea how to create a grub menu, which was never written into /boot/grub, or fix the mbr. This needs to work better. As a first time new user experience, this is not pretty.

-Ron

[Charlie (cwallen19803)]

I'm with Ron F. I always thought that Linux was way too complicated for the average computer user. If it won't install, I can't use it.

If there are instructions on what a grub menu is, where it is, what to use to edit it and how, I don't know where they are. And, in what system would I edit it? Kunbuntu doesn't boot. I'd have to use Windows, which doesn't recognise the Kunbuntu partition.

rock. me. hardplace.

[IIIEars (iiiears)]

Ubuntu Feisty

    The Desktop CD fails to install grub. I have a single SCSI disk that is seen and mounted and files are copied.

Could it be the fault of "Disk Image 7" or "Norton Anti Virus" possibly V2i disk image protection system installing something to Ring 0?
<italic>(Norton Internet security also uses V2i files. Norton "Borg'd another fine company and assimilated them.) </italic>

- Thank You.

[RicB (ricbaslon)]

I too echo Ron F's comments.

Ever more frustrated by the inept antics of Gates and Balmer I tried Linux again... and was immediately reminded of why I abandoned it a few years ago... Unix is a big hairy mess and putting fancy seats and a stereo on top doesn't change what's under the hood!

People who are conditioned to endlessly twiddle their operating system instead of doing useful things with it can quote command line theories all they want... but when a product is provided to a new user, regardless of how talented and knowledgeable they may become, none of that stuff is any use to them.

Thankfully I noticed an "Advanced" button during install that let me direct boot to hd1 or my system, with lots of sophisticated, registered, expensive programs would now be dead...

Because I trusted your installation program...

This is not a good introduction folks...

THE INSTALL SHOULD NOT EXIT STATING IT WAS SUCCESSFUL UNLESS IT WAS ! ! ! !

In the absence of more elegant solutions(!), and even at the cost of bloat and a few more kilometers of semi-useless script, ***IT HAS TO WORK***.

Linux installs have been trouble free for many years. I've done at least 7 that ran flawlessly. So why are we hung and having trouble with an antiquated but sort of well proven little thing like GRUB?

[flying penguin (frankyanzi)]

I got a error window saying "grub-install (hd0) failed. This is a fatal error." during my last step of installation of ubuntu 7.04 (at 94%) this morning. My PC had 4 NTFS partitions and I used the "Manual Configure" to instruct the installer to reformat one partition to "ext3".

After the failure of installation, I searched around on Internet and followed one person's experience by trying to set the format of the partition to "ext2", then the installation succeeded !

Before getting that error, I got another message saying sth like "no root file system is defined". At that time, the mounting point was "/media/sdb1". After I changed the mounting point directory to "/", following another person's post, the error message disappeared.

I confirmed I am having dual-booting OS now and both worked normally. By using Konqueror, I can copy files from NTFS parition to Linux one. So far I have to say I like linux, like Ubuntu. Many free softwares, unlike under MS windows, you are supposed to pay for most of softwares you are interested.

[DanieW (dawessels)]

We had a live CD installed Ubuntu 7.10 (feitsy) on a SATA (over a previous dual boot FC6) - succesful (also the booting). But after I allowed an automatic kernel update grub could not boot Ubuntu, only XP. The problem was in "/boot/grub/menu.lst" Ubuntu is actually on sda3 (found by inspecting the mount points after booting the live CD) but all the links in grub pointed to (hd0,0) instead of (hd0,2). After correcting this all was fine again.

[Cmp1988 (cpena1988)]

You're not really me are you? Because this is just about the EXACT SAME THING, that's been plaguing me since Feisty. This still is a problem in Gutsy (Alpha tests were the only thing I've done).

[Cmp1988 (cpena1988)]

I should also add that when I do "Advanced Install" and choose the correct HD as listed by the GRUB device map, all I'd get is an endless looping of the word GRUB filling my screen when I boot up the system. The workaround I found was using Grub4DOS, but I don't like to do that, I'd prefer installing Grub normally.

[howlingmadhowie (howlingmadhowie)]

i was having a similar problem with booting from a scsi drive. the solution was to switch off support for INT 13 (LBA) in the SCSI BIOS (see http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub-faq.html#q14)

[lfrittelli (leonardo-frittelli)]

I am too having a similar problem. I have a single SATA disk, and an existing Windows partition in sda1. I install Ubuntu in sda2, and everything is fine, except that grub's menu.lst still configures Ubuntu to boot up from (hd0,0) and root in /dev/hda1. This has been happening at least since Breezy.

[e_james (e-james)]

Based on the error messages I have seen so far I have come to some provisional conclusions.
1. grub is not comfortable with the ubuntu strategy of using UUID instead of /dev/hdax.
2. The default grub behaviour of assuming (hd0,0) after the kernel isn't found tends to hide errors if (hd0,0) is actually valid.
3. The ubuntu grub installer needs some work.

[Dan Quade (danquade)]

Why exactly is the importance for this set only to High?
It's preventing new users from using Ubuntu!
It should be _at least_ Critical!

[BearTM (beartm)]

I have been experiencing the exact same issue. In order to complete the installation, I physically remove and disable the additional "SCSI" drives, and only then can I install Ubuntu. Then comes the job of putting everything back in, and thankfully, the first boot then completes without any issues, all drives are mounted and visible, and life is good from then on. It's only the installation and specification of the drives (and mounts) which causes grief.

My configuration: (for a MythTV/RAID/Ubuntu box - Using Mythbuntu)
ASUS P4B533-E / 2Gb / P4 2.8GHz
- Onboard Standard PATA (3 Drives + DVD R/W 2nd/Slave)
- Onboard Promise FastTrack 133 RAID PATA (4 Drives - Used in s/w RAID5)
- PCI Promise Ultra TX/100 PATA (4 Drives - Used in s/w RAID5)

Boot in BIOS is set to Onboard PATA first. Drives are in order: 160Gb (Boot), 300Gb (Storage), 40Gb (Windoz XP), DVD R/W

Trying to install Ubuntu on the 160Gb drive I experience the GRUB issues:

1). With all drives in the machine, the boot drive is recognized as /dev/sdi, and not /dev/sda (as might be expected). No success ever getting GRUB to work through the installer. Specifying explicitly the drive to install on will not work.
2). Removing the drives, but leaving the BIOS (both Onboard and TX/100 enabled) also leads to failure, even though drive is "correctly" detected as /dev/sda. Alone the presence of the controllers / BIOS causes the GRUB failure.
3). Only when removing all drives, physically removing the TX/100, and disabling the onboard RAID BIOS will GRUB be able to successfully install. This is akin to changing the entire machine in order to get things to install - although Ubuntu has no problems afterwards using the drives/controllers/hardware/etc.

After this, one other 'odd' thing ... the only way I'm able to successfully (or properly) mount drives (/etc/fstab) is to always use the GUID methodology. This works reliably. Specifying /dev/sdaX does not work, and leads to the incorrect drive being mapped to the mount point each and every time. The drives swap ordering if specified in /etc/fstab. Very frustrating and odd.

Annoying that the full install can complete, and then it fails writing the GRUB boot ... *sigh*

[Piers Lauder (pierslauder)]

This bug also affects Hardy beta - I have two SATA drives which appear as sda/b. Ubuntu 6.10 is installed
on sda. When I installed Hardy on sdb, the /boot/grub/menu.lst had the drive identifiers inverted (hd1,1) in place of (hd0,1) and vice-versa). The MBR was overwritten and wouldn't boot. I had to use a rescue CD and re-install the original MBR before I could boot.

[No_Gate$ (paulf-davies)]

Being a new user and already successfully building 2 PCs, one MythTV based on Hoary Beta and one server based on Gutsy 7.1, to have this fail on my main PC is a little disappointing to say the least.

I have 2 SATA drives of 250GB ea with XP on SDA1 and wanted Ubuntu on SDA2. Don't have the expertise to manually install and configure Grub nor can I afford to end up with a PC that wont boot. Previous experience with XP attempting to repair the MBR is not good.

Agree with the previous comments, can't believe that this bug is only rated high as it ends up with a failed install. Most new users will not bother to keep trying if the install fails at 94% with a fatal error. It's reminiscent of the BSOD......

[adder1972 (adder1972)]

1 ATA and 2 SATA drives. Installing U8.04 alternate 32bit on one of the SATAs. Installation craches (red warning) when it is reaching the GRUB-install-step.

[John Martin (john-d-martin-iii)]

1 250GB SATA drive. Installing Ubuntu 8.04 Beta Alternate 64bit with drive formatted using encrypted LVM. Installation crash (red screen box warning), GRUB would not install. Installed LILO instead.

This might be a serious problem for any user not realizing that they have an option of installing a different bootloader. I would prefer GRUB anyway, but the system starts just fine using LILO. I concur with one previous post that having an installation crash when it is nearly complete is quite a deterrent.

Maybe the problem is with the setup though, I am not sure. I need to attempt to manually install GRUB and if that fails then there is obviously another problem.

[John Martin (john-d-martin-iii)]

Following up on my last post, I was able to manually install GRUB and uninstall LILO with no ill-effect on the above-mentioned configuration. So, the problem isn't in the setup or with GRUB, but something going on during the install, at least in this case.

Where do logs from installs end up? It might be worth checking those.

[slush (slush)]

flying penguin wrote:
> I got a error window saying "grub-install (hd0) failed. This is a fatal error." during my last step
> of installation of ubuntu 7.04 (at 94%) this morning. My PC had 4 NTFS partitions and
> I used the "Manual Configure" to instruct the installer to reformat one partition to "ext3".

I have exactly the same problem with 8.04 RC !! Can somebody take a look on that problem? I tried to trace problem in sources, but not succesfully :(.

I vote to move it from Hight to Critical.

[Martin Hahn (hahnson)]

i have the same problem. i got 10 hdds, all ide, but only 3 of them are connected to the mainboard, the rest are connected to two promise ultra ata133tx2 conntroller cards. in setup all drives ar designated as scsi drives, install completes ok but when i start i get grub 1.5 error 22 or error 17 (it changes from time to time) first drive are recognized as /dev/sdi.

I also vote for moving it to critical, it renders the system inoperativ.

[slush (slush)]

Me wrote:
> I have exactly the same problem with 8.04 RC !!

Interesting! Something happens, because when I tried to install 8.04 (final) on _same_ computer it was succesful!
Notice: I tried to install 8.04 RC many times before final version and without success.

[Dread Knight (dread.knight)]

+1 for CRITICAL!

This is damn annoying.. managed to get kubuntu hardy installed but i don't have grub so i can boot into it.. WTF MAN!?

[Dread Knight (dread.knight)]

I have found an workaround for this problem!

My dad woke me up this morning so that i'll install kubuntu on his lenovo laptop running vista.
Booted up the hardy live cd, started installation, repartitioned/reformated everything to ext3 so i got rid of vista, but at 94% i got a fatal error about grub not being able to install. Tried again, same error.
Reinstalled without grub but then i couldn't load the OS.
Googled and played around looking for a solution.

Running the live cd, i tried fdisk -l in the terminal as seen that there was an extra small NTFS partition that was first on the hdd, as sda1, that was otherwise hidden in the kubuntu partitioner; wtf?! thought my root is hda1...
So i actually reinstalled making a <b>new allocation for the whole hdd</b> and rebuilding the partitions once again, installation run smooth this time! Everything looks as it should now in fdisk -l

Hope this helps you out! Cheers!

[e_james (e-james)]

Just a quick comment on some of the above. I speak from very limited experience so please feel free to correct any misinformation.

I have seen comments to the effect that some aspects of Grub / Grub install are not under active development which could be significant.

I have seen a PC running XP where none of the partitioning software I wanted to use would work. I believe it was "Vista ready". After some investigation I believe that Microsoft "improved" NTFS along with the Vista development. This implies that partition aware software (including Microsoft), older than Vista, is likely to have problems.

I have installed Ubuntu 7.04 or 7.10 in dual boot with XP on at least 7 PCs and I have not had a situation where grub failed to install. On one PC it did fail to install correctly at every attempt. It was necessary to edit the grub commands to get the PC to boot up. It may be significant that only this PC has a second linux OS (KnoppMyth) and the 2 linux partitioning choices are different. Ubuntu uses a boot partition and KnoppMyth does not. Installation order - XP -> KnoppMyth -> Ubuntu. What is most annoying is that every time the kernel is updated, I need to edit the grub menu again.

[ramses501 (ramses501)]

I had a hard time installing the 8.04 on a Scsi Raid device. Grub failed to install in all versions I could find. Finally I got the alternate version and when the Grub Install failed, I chose LILO and selected the Master Boot Record and all is well. I am a newbie and Ubuntu is worth the time, I think. I feel compelled to contribute in even the smallest way possible as Ubuntu is free and so many are contributing. Thanks everyone for your part in this.

[Kenobi (kazmirzak)]

I have similar problems: grub installing just doesn't end up with anything usable.

______________________________________
SOLUTION:
can grub and ubuntu be configured as to interprete Disk Labels or UUIDs? It would be so great if it worked like this:

    Where do you want grub to be installed on:
      C (UUID: 1234-AABB)
      DATA (UUID: 3456)
      GAMES (UUID: ABCD)
_________________________________________

And no more confusion and all that disk order crap can be forgot.
P.S. I have a CD ROM as primary device and a SATA-IDE- adaptor for a drive. Believe me, Labels or it will never work.

[Evan (ev)]

Kenobi,

Yes, UUID support as a patch to GRUB is planned for Ubuntu 8.10.

[Kenobi (kazmirzak)]

That sounds aweful!! Which part do you mean: the installer, or grub itself?

[Hooya (tjbassoon)]

Similar experience here. When attempting to install with a separate /home partition I cannot under any circumstances get grub to install. Error 15 all over the place, can't chroot into the installation via live CD due to "cannot resolve host ubuntu" error, even manually creating all the files in the /boot and /boot/grub directories results in not bootable system due to grub error 15. The installation doesn't even create the valid initrd.img file or a grub directory!

The only way I've been able to install from the xubuntu live CD is to have it wipe the entire hard drive, removing my /home partition. I cannot install the OS with the advanced partitioning option at all.

I've not been able to get it to work and I'm not afraid to tweak the crap out of this machine as there's nothing vital on it. I'm also a more advanced user, and although I'm new to linux I'm not afraid of the command line, but have not been able to work around this.

Critical bug. Results in OS not being bootable, why is this not fixed? The fix should go into the Live CD, since that's where the problem is, it's that serious.

[Evan (ev)]

The installer now specifies the GRUB root device by UUID so I'm marking this as fixed. If you still experience issues please open a new bug report, describe the problem in as great detail as possible, and attach full installer logs.

Thanks

[Ron F. (ronfischler)]

Fabulous! Great news and thank you.

Best Regards,
Ron

On Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 4:12 AM, Evan Dandrea <email address hidden> wrote:

> The installer now specifies the GRUB root device by UUID so I'm marking
> this as fixed. If you still experience issues please open a new bug
> report, describe the problem in as great detail as possible, and attach
> full installer logs.
>
> Thanks
>
> ** Changed in: grub-installer (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Fix Released
>
> --
> Grub Install Failure
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/14135
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[DaveAbrahams (boostpro)]

OK, I'm having this problem with Jaunty Server AMD64. It worked fine when I only had scsi hard disks (my CDRom is IDE). When I added an IDE hard drive and tried to install there, it failed. I'm attaching everything in /var/log (which, by the way, is painful to recover!)

[DaveAbrahams (boostpro)]

By the way, Scott Merrilee's hint above seems to be a cure. Thanks, Scott!

I think the bigger problem may be that device.map isn't done by UUID. This issue is most definitely NOT fixed!

[Vincent Hindriksen (vhindriksen)]

With 9.10 alpha 6 I could not install Ubuntu on the second hdd (sdb) without problems. When rebooting after the installation, I got a Grub error 15. I could solve it by switching the first and second hdd in the bios (so sda was switched with sdb).

I had the two partitions on sda configured as "not used", and mapped /, /home and /boot on hdb. sda is a sata-drive and sdb a normal ide (before switching!). Ubuntu 9.10 alpha 5 was already installed, before I installed alpha 6 over it. Besides the previous installation was totally wrecked during one of the updates a few weeks ago, it did boot normal.

It looks like Grub was not updated/configured correctly on sda.

[ReimarBauer (reimarbauer)]

With 9.04 it seems not possible to reinstall grub by using the livecd if I don't have a boot partition.
It seems to require a boot partition and a dir only does not install grub

[benjaveri (ubuntu-bronzecastle)]

I have a single 2TB SATA drive. I experienced the same error message as above although I cant really use most of the suggested workarounds.

My workaround involved manually creating a /boot partition of around 100MB at the beginning of the disk.

Unsure if this is related. Either way, the installer needs to understand the limitations of boot loaders.

FWIW, my bios is post y2k. I dont think I have the ubiquity bug #252047 problem.

[Espen Klem (eklem)]

Yesterday I used netboot install of the Karmic beta-version . Have a server set up with tftpd and http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/karmic/main/installer-i386/current/images/netboot/netboot.tar.gz .

It's a thin-client with a small flash-thingy inside (512 mb). Installed the beta on a usb-disk (/dev/sdb). Both Grub2 and Grub refused to install on it. I tried to instal them as master boot record (/dev/sdb), but no luck. LiLo worked. Let me know if you need any hardware- or other type of info about the system.

[slayer (antoniochiaravalloti)]

My 9.10 karmic fails to install grub 2 with every version of the cd (live cd, alternate) and every architecture. With the live cd it tells me that grub couldn't have been installed and the system won't boot, but the windows partition doesn't boot anymore.

I have two hard disks in raid (Motherboard RAID -it should be RAID0 fakeraid, i guess).

Please note that the installation goes ok, raid is automatically recognized with the live cd and with no problem activated with the alternate installer... everything is absolutely ok, just grub 2 can't be installed.

i didn't use LILO because i don't want to use lilo...

interestingly, Ubuntu 9.04 jaunty installs flawlessly, and grub 1 works like a charm. It just didn't recognize the windows partition and i had to add it manualle in menu.lst, but I was able to upgrade to karmic and I experience no boot problems (yet I am still using grub 1 and not 2).

I don't remember the model of the motherboard, if you think it's important let me know it and I'll add more info...

[jkxx74 (jkxxster)]

Related problem, grub failed to install for me several times, though the root was /dev/sdc5. Apparently the only valid place for grub would have been /dev/sdc5 yet the installer didn't display any warnings. After rebooting the above partition had no boot loader and an otherwise complete install. I had to reinstall Kubuntu (9.10) about 8 times and finally place grub on /dev/sdb to get it to boot.

[susanne (susanne-horst)]

I wanted to change from ubuntu 9.10 back to Windows XP and now I do not even see a command prompt. Do I have to throw the computer away? Thanks very much.

[Kenobi (kazmirzak)]

Ähhmmm.... well you should never throw your computer away, unless it starts to smoke...

What you could do is simply install Windows XP from your Windows CD. No matter what happend to your hard drive, your CD will always work. Make sure that your computer is set up in a way that it boots from CD first, unless it will ignore the CD.

[susanne (susanne-horst)]

Thanks for the comment, but I already did that, I installed Windows XP from the backup CDs and VOILA got the same result: "GRUB loading, error: unknown filesystem grub rescue> " That is it. As Cameron Diaz said "Now what?"

[e_james (e-james)]

I suspect that the backup CDs did a Windows restore and not an install. If you had installed Windows XP, it should have eliminated Grub. There are ways of restoring the Windows boot process. Have a look at some of these.

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-how-to-uninstall-grub/
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/sujet-2677-super-grub-disk-live-cd
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=linux+windows+grub+mbr+repair&meta=&aq=f&oq=linux+windows+grub+mbr+repair&fp=177016bc12fe49d4

[Kenobi (kazmirzak)]

Ok, take you Windows CD, and format the hard disk. That will do the trick.

Alternatively, take the Linux CD, boot in life mode, act as if you wanted to install Linux up to the point where the partition editor shows up. Enable manual editing, and you can format your hard drive from there.

Warning: Formatting the hard drive will erase all data on it, so save everything that is important to you beforehand! But, as a side effect, GRUB will be erased alongside with everything else.

Then, a Windows installation should run without any problem.

[susanne (susanne-horst)]

No, this seems not to be working, right now I see the error message: "Sorry, the program gtk-logout-helper closed unexpectedly". May I suggest humbly that this is not a user error?

[Neil Perry (nperry)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. If you could test the current Ubuntu development version, this would help us a lot. If you can test it, and it is still an issue, we would appreciate if you could upload updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #>, and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Abhishek Sutar (asutar)]

getting error: executing 'grub-install/dev/sda' failed
This is a fatal erro

[vikas reddy kunapally (vikas9542)]

i think you will solve my problem