Dual boot did not work when installed Ubuntu 9.10 on XP Pro SP3 HDD

[Ed Hightower]

I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 then burned it to CD. I then rebooted and launched Ubuntu from the disk to try it out. I loved it. After defragging my C: HDD and running TuneUp Disk Doctor on it to make sure it was in good working order, I then tried to install Ubuntu onto the C drive. I followed the guided installation which showed it repartitioning my 80GB C drive so the first part of the drive was still dedicated to Windows XP SP3 and the second part of the drive was dedicated to Ubuntu 9.10. All seemed to go well. I eventually rebooted without the CD but the system stopped and showed this message:

GRUB loading.
error: no such disk
grub rescue

I repeated the reboot and got the same message again. I've now rebooted and launched Ubuntu from the CD. I can access all the applications on the CD and am using Firefox launched from the CD to write this bug report. I can also launch Places/C: / and see all the files and documents that were on my C HDD earlier under Windows XP. I even opened one of my old Word docs, modified it using OpenOffice and resaved it.

I tried to re-install Ubuntu from the CD again but when I get to the point where it checks the C HDD, the installation program does not see the Windows XP OS. It sees the Unbutu 9.10 system and gives me two options. The first is to make the first instance of Ubuntu the OS at the front half or so of the HDD and to make the second instance of Ubuntu I'm now trying to install on the back half or so of the HDD. The second option is to install the existing instance Ubuntu on the first third or so of the drive and a shared area in the middle and the second instance of Ubuntu on the back third or so. I believe a swap file area was set up at the end. I quit the installation then launched Firefox and registered for Launchpad and began this bug report process.

What do you recommend I do next? I am new to Linux and Ubuntu but very interested in learning how to troubleshoot this problem and learn how to better utilize Ubuntu in the future.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Dec 14 22:42:04 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/nautilus
LiveMediaBuild: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Package: nautilus 1:2.28.1-0ubuntu1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: nautilus
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:3003): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:3003): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:3059): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:3079): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:6511): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to a question in the support tracker. We appreciate the difficulties you are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs .

[Ed Hightower (ed-hightower)]

Thanks Kamus. I apologize for submitting it as a bug report. I'm still
familiarizing myself with the support features (also it was very late and I
was tired and frustrated...). I'll read through the support tracker site
and see if I can find some suggestions and clues to help me figure this
out. I feel like it's 1985 all over again. My first computer had DOS on it
and I had to figure out what to type in the command line to get it to do
anything useful.

Thanks for you help. All the best.

/Ed H

On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 7:28 PM, Kamus <email address hidden> wrote:

> Thank you for taking the time to report this issue and helping to make
> Ubuntu better. Examining the information you have given us, this does
> not appear to be a bug report so we are closing it and converting it to
> a question in the support tracker. We appreciate the difficulties you
> are facing, but it would make more sense to raise problems you are
> having in the support tracker at https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu if
> you are uncertain if they are bugs. For help on reporting bugs, see
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs .
>
> --
> Dual boot did not work when installed Ubuntu 9.10 on XP Pro SP3 HDD
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/496841
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> I downloaded Ubuntu 9.10 then burned it to CD. I then rebooted and
> launched Ubuntu from the disk to try it out. I loved it. After defragging
> my C: HDD and running TuneUp Disk Doctor on it to make sure it was in good
> working order, I then tried to install Ubuntu onto the C drive. I followed
> the guided installation which showed it repartitioning my 80GB C drive so
> the first part of the drive was still dedicated to Windows XP SP3 and the
> second part of the drive was dedicated to Ubuntu 9.10. All seemed to go
> well. I eventually rebooted without the CD but the system stopped and
> showed this message:
>
> GRUB loading.
> error: no such disk
> grub rescue
>
> I repeated the reboot and got the same message again. I've now rebooted
> and launched Ubuntu from the CD. I can access all the applications on the
> CD and am using Firefox launched from the CD to write this bug report. I
> can also launch Places/C: / and see all the files and documents that were on
> my C HDD earlier under Windows XP. I even opened one of my old Word docs,
> modified it using OpenOffice and resaved it.
>
> I tried to re-install Ubuntu from the CD again but when I get to the point
> where it checks the C HDD, the installation program does not see the Windows
> XP OS. It sees the Unbutu 9.10 system and gives me two options. The first
> is to make the first instance of Ubuntu the OS at the front half or so of
> the HDD and to make the second instance of Ubuntu I'm now trying to install
> on the back half or so of the HDD. The second option is to install the
> existing instance Ubuntu on the first third or so of the drive and a shared
> area in the middle and the second instance of Ubuntu on the back third or
> so. I believe a swap file area was set up at the end. I quit the
> installation th...

[rcmichelle (wr-michelle001)]

I met the problem many times and it drew me mad! Finally I found the sofware Tuneup360 amd it worked!