Ubuntu does not boot anymore...

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by Steve Cliver, Jun 10, 2009.

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  1. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    How can I get Ubuntu to boot again. Originally I had Windows XP installed. I then installed UBUNTU. Both worked fine. I then installed True Image. Now when I boot the computer says press F11 to go to True Image. If I do nothing it goes to windows XP. I no longer can get to Ubuntu. My question is the following: How can I keep the F11 prompt the way it is but if I hit nothing I don't want it to go to windows XP but instead go to my old boot window that gives me a choice between Ubuntu and XP. Please help. Thanks. (I miss Ubuntu.)
     
  2. Tatou

    Tatou Registered Member

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    It seems you installed the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager when you installed the programme. This allows you to boot to the recovery mode if your system is hosed and you want to restore

    However it also hoses the MBR when you install this See from the instruction manual below

    "When Acronis Startup Recovery Manager is activated, it overwrites the master boot record
    (MBR) with its own boot code. If you have any third-party boot managers installed, you will
    have to reactivate them after activating the Startup Recovery Manager. For Linux loaders
    (e.g. LiLo and GRUB), you might consider installing them to a Linux root (or boot) partition
    boot record instead of MBR before activating Acronis Startup Recovery Manager."

    If you deactivate the ASRM you get a standard boot MBR back but I don't think you get back what you had.
     
  3. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    OK, now I know how and why it happened. But how do I get Ubuntu to boot again. I don't want to lose/uninstall True Image. Please help. Thanks.
     
  4. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    Do you have a Live CD version of Ubuntu that you can boot your PC with? If so, I can help you fix this.
     
  5. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    Yes I do. Thank you very much for responding.
     
  6. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    Boot your PC from the Ubuntu Live CD. Go to a terminal and type the following:
    Code:
    sudo fdisk -l
    (The last letter in the command is a lower-case L). Post the output here. We need to know what the proper disk and partition designators are for your system. You can either save a screen shot or copy/paste the output to a flash drive and take it to your Windows PC, or post from Ubuntu Live.
     
  7. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    OK I did what you said and here are the results:

    ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ 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: 0x4fc34fc2

    Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
    /dev/sda1 * 1 47694 383102023+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
    /dev/sda2 47695 60801 105281977+ 5 Extended
    /dev/sda5 47695 60263 100960461 83 Linux
    /dev/sda6 60264 60801 4321453+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

    Disk /dev/sdb: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x496be7e9

    Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
    /dev/sdb1 * 1 102019 819467586 7 HPFS/NTFS
    /dev/sdb2 102020 121601 157292415 5 Extended
    /dev/sdb5 102020 121601 157292383+ bc Unknown
    ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


    Thanks again for your help.
     
  8. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    OK; I see that you have two disks and it looks like Windows is installed to the first primary partition on disk 1. Ubuntu is installed to the first logical partition on disk 1.

    Q1: Is that correct?

    Since Ubuntu is installed to a logical partition, we will first have to change that in order to accomplish your objective of leaving the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM) in the MBR yet having the PC start up by default to the GRUB boot manager.

    Q2: What is on the first NTFS partition on disk 2?

    Q3: Last question -- do you have an image of the Ubuntu partition?

    Sorry for so many questions but details are important when rearranging things! This is all fairly easy to accomplish though.
     
  9. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    Q1 - Correct

    Q2. - The NTFS is "my documents" directory for windows. The "my documents" is drive D or rather my second hard drive. The second hard drive is also where I gave about 150 GB to ACRONIS which put a hidden partition on the drive. (At this point I could no longer boot into UBUNTU.)

    Q3. - No I don't think I do. When I installed ACRONIS it told me it was making an image of Drive C but I think it only copied the windows portion of what was on drive C.

    Please do not worry about the questions. I want you to understand what I have before changes are made.

    Just to let you know: Drive C was 100% Windows and then I added UBUNTU to drive C and let it take about 20% of the Drive. That shrunk windows down to 80% of the drive. I wanted my space back so I bought a new drive and called it D. The D drive is where I moved "my documents from C to D." At this point 100% of Drive D was "my documents." I then purchased ACRONIS and installed it. I wanted to use that Try me feature in ACRONIS. It then made a hidden partition on my drive. I told it to put that hidden partition on Drive D and to be about 150GB (15% of my drive) leaving 85% of drive D for "my documents."

    Thanks for your help.
     
  10. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    OK - I understand what you have now. I had this plan in mind to have you install GRUB to the Ubuntu partition, leaving the Acronis boot manager in the MBR, but it is complicated by the fact that Ubuntu is currently installed to a logical partition. For my plan to work, Ubuntu must be installed in a primary partition. You can accomplish this by backing up the Ubuntu partition and then restoring it as a primary partition, but Ubuntu's recent change to using UUIDs (Universally Unique Identifiers) makes this process more difficult than it needs to be.

    On reflection I think there is an easier solution. If your main use for the Acronis Secure Zone is for Try and Decide, then you may not need the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM). I need to do some more research (or have someone else help me with details about how Try and Decide works) before concluding that, but even if the ASRM is required it is easy to re-activate it later if need be.

    It's getting late here, so I'll have to get back to you tomorrow. In the mean time, if you want to proceed then it's really easy to fix up your current issue and get Ubuntu working again. All you need to do is reinstall GRUB to the MBR and you're back in business.

    If this sounds like a good plan, just do this:

    1. Boot your PC from the Ubuntu Live CD.
    2. In a terminal window type the following. (Do not type the comments in blue):
    Code:
    sudo grub                  [color=blue]Start GRUB in command mode[/color]
    find /boot/grub/stage1     [COLOR="Blue"]Confirm that grub returns (hd0,4) as the location of its files[/COLOR]
    root (hd0,4)               [color=blue]Point to the partition containing GRUB's files[/color]
    setup (hd0)                [color=blue]Install GRUB to the MBR of disk 0[/color]
    quit                       [color=blue]Exit GRUB[/color]
    3. Reboot the PC to test.
     
    Last edited: Jun 13, 2009
  11. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    After reading more about Try and Decide, and after getting some advice from forum member MudCrab, who tested this, I believe your best approach is the one in post #10 above. So, go ahead and try it.

    Be aware that reinstalling GRUB to the MBR will remove the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM), so you will no longer see the "Press F11...." prompt when you boot your PC, and you will not be able to run the Acronis recovery environment directly from your hard disk. To use the recovery environment you will need to boot from the Acronis recovery CD instead. But Try and Decide should continue to function normally, and you will still have an Acronis Secure Zone on your second disk.

    Let us know if this fixes your issue.
     
  12. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    OK - It sounds like a plan. When I get home tonight, I will try it out. If you say that I will get my computer to allow me to choose between UBUNTU and Windows XP, will still be able to use the recovery feature not from the hard drive but from the original CD, then that's exactly what I want. I wish I could still have had the option with F11 but that's ok. I will always have the original CD available for ACRONIS (Which of course is bootable and does the same job.) I hope this works like you said. Also, if the feature TRY AND DECIDE (which is what I was trying to use when all this happened) works after doing your suggestion in Post #10, then I'm extremely happy with the outcome. I will try this out tonight when I get home and post back with the results. Thanks again for your help? By the way, I read so many articles, spent so much time on the Internet about this, read tons of posts on this site and not once did anyone have this same problem. I thought it would have been a little more common. Thanks again.
    I would also like to thank “MudCrab” for adding input on this problem. Thanks MudCrab.
     
  13. Steve Cliver

    Steve Cliver Registered Member

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    By the way, if I would have done the steps mentioned in the beginning of Post #10: back-up UBUNTU’s partition and then restored it as a primary partition (I assume I do the back-up and restore using ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE HOME 2009), would the job have got done? Could have anything gone wrong? Is that all it would have taken? I’m not sure why you said this process is more difficult. Was it because before UBUNTU’s use of UUIDs that I could have done the same thing above but with a couple of commands instead of the back-up and install routine? Just curious. Thanks.
     
  14. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    It's a little more involved than just restoring the Ubuntu partition as a primary partition. Doing this causes the Ubuntu root partition (and maybe the swap partition if it gets relocated in the process) to have new UUIDs generated. A UUID is formed by combining the starting sector of a partition with the disk ID and some other calculations and results in a long string of hex digits. In Ubuntu, the file system table (/etc/fstab) references partitions by UUID, so it would have incorrect values. Also, there is a settings file (at the moment I forget which one) that references the swap partition by UUID that needs to be changed if the swap file UUID changes. This settings file is used whenever the Initial RAM Disk Image file (/boot/initdr.gz) is regenerated, which happens after some software updates. Finally, the menu file for GRUB (/boot/grub/menu.lst) references the Ubuntu root partition by UUID. All of these UUID values may be wrong after converting the partition from logical to primary and would need to be fixed before Ubuntu would boot.

    This is easily done from an Ubuntu Live CD if you know which files to edit. My comment about UUIDs making life more difficult is that they defy human interpretation. You cannot look at one and tell what it means. Before Ubuntu changed to this method the partitions were referenced in the configuration files by device name; for example /dev/sda5, which is something that a human can understand and relate to. I changed all of my file references back to the older standard to avoid this issue and to be able to make changes and fix problems easier.
     
  15. K0LO

    K0LO Registered Member

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    Steve:

    I missed a step in post #10 and have edited the instructions for installing GRUB to the MBR of your disk. Sorry for any confusion. Let me know if this works for you.
     
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