How to Boot Windows From GRUB Rescue Prompt

February 6, 2012 By 2 Comments

Hiren's Boot CD ScreenshotI recently had an experience with a corrupt dual boot setup of Kubuntu 11.10 which led to me finding a solution for reinstalling Kubuntu 11.10 in a dual boot environment. If you are curious, read about it here: How to Reinstall Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot on Dual Boot System.

This is a temporary solution for bypassing the GRUB Rescue prompt to an uncorrupted installation of Windows where the Windows MBR (Master Boot Record) is intact, but Grub is setup as your primary boot loader. To load windows, you need:

1. Working computer with a blank CD.
2. CD IMAGE burning software. You can’t use regular CD burning software for this task, you must be able to burn images so they will load on boot. Great software that runs on Windows and is FREE is ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/
3. Image of Hiren’s Boot CD: http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

Hiren’s Boot CD will download in a zip file, which will need to be extracted. Burn the .iso image from the extracted folder for your live CD. In my case, the file was: “Hiren’s.BootCD.15.1.iso”.

Once you have completed burning your Boot CD image, restart your computer and boot to Hiren’s Boot CD

The first option on the list:
“Boot From Hard Drive (Windows Vista/7/2008 or Xp)”
or scroll down two pages and select:
“Boot Windows XP (NTLDR) from Hard Drive”
or if you are running Vista/Windows 7, select:
“Boot Windows Vista/7 (BOOTMGR) from Hard Drive”

If none of the three options above work for you, you can scroll up to page two and attempt to boot (I have not tested these options, but maybe worth a try):
“Boot HDD 1 MBR”
“Boot HDD 2 MBR”
“Boot HDD 3 MBR”

If you are unable to boot to Windows with any of these methods, your Windows MBR (Master Boot Record) could be corrupt or missing.

As always, if anyone has any suggestions, feedback or advice, please comment. If this post has helped you out, please spread the word by posting a backlink from your site or blog. You can also share on facebook, linkedin, or any other social networking/bookmarking site.

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How to Reinstall Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot on Dual Boot System

February 6, 2012 By 1 Comment

It has been awhile since my last tech post, but I have been tweaking around and have some great new content. I am writing this article because of a problem I encountered when attempting to install a LAMP stack on my Kubuntu 11.10 system with tasksel.

In installed, started, and began looking at the options for installing a LAMP stack in tasksel. I checkmarked the LAMP stack box and found myself distracted by the other options that had been selected for installation – mainly system components. So like a complete Noob, I unchecked them… Well long story short, this flagged crucial components to be uninstalled!! AHHH!!!

I quickly did a hard shutdown (held finger on power button until power off). Well my shutdown was too late and I had made the system, the Kubuntu installation almost inoperable. I have been scraping the internet for a reinstallation/quick fix solution to a corrupted Ubuntu/Kubuntu installation and have not been able to find anything concrete.

So, the journey begins…

PART 1: WIPE THE PARTITION FOR LINUX WITH GPARTED

To use gParted, you need to create a live boot CD. So you need:

1. CD Burner with blank CD
2. Image burning software – I use imgburn – open source and free to download: http://www.imgburn.com/.
3. gParted Image: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Boot to your gParted Live CD and look at your partitions.

Everyone has a different setup and if anyone has a better solution to my process, please comment or send me some article content to correct this. All changes are at your own risk, you should backup all of your data before making any partition changes or anything that will create changes to your system – you have been warned!

My partitions were setup as:
/dev/sda1 – Dell Recovery Partition
/dev/sda2 – Windows Vista System
/dev/sda3 – Kubuntu Installation
–Linux Swap
–Operating system

First I erased “–Operating system”, next “–Linux Swap”, and finally “/dev/sda3″

My /dev/sda3 partition had 90GB of space, now showing up as unassigned/unrecognized, etc.

I formatted the unformatted space to match my windows vista installation as NTFS.

Once formatted I was able to resize my /dev/sda2 – Windows Vista System back to what it was before I setup the dual boot system (the full drive). I saved, and rebooted.

PART 2: REINSTALL KUBUNTU

Because I erased GRUB – the main bootloader and my Kubuntu linux installation, I received a “Grub Rescue>” prompt upon reboot. At this point, I could not boot into windows without using a different method: How to Boot Windows from Grub Rescue Prompt.

I booted off of the Kubuntu LIVE CD which I originally used to perform my dual boot setup, selected “Install Kubuntu”, ran through the first couple of usual motions and resized my drive  for Kubuntu to my previous settings. At this point, the NTFS Windows portion of the drive was unrecognizable (it fixed itself). Before the end of the re-installation, I noticed the GRUB2 setup looking for “other operating systems”. Once the installation had completed I restarted, removed the LIVE CD and rebooted.

My first reboot after installation was a great success, the GRUB bootloader came up and I was able to boot into both Windows and Kubuntu 11.10 – Viola, the problem had been fixed.

I wrote this article to document my eight hours of trial and error. Please, if anyone has a better method for solving this problem I encourage you to comment. Also, if this article helped you out, please link to it from your blog, share it on facebook, twitter, linkedin, etc…

 

 

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5 Great Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Tips and Tricks

February 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ubuntu is a great distribution for anyone from the beginner, all the way to the advanced level. Canonical, the company that works on and hosts releases for

Ubuntu releases a new distribution every April and October. The first two numbers in the release version relate to the year that the distribution was released, and the second two numbers after the “dot” relate to the month of the release.

The most current release as of this post is Ubuntu 10.10 named Maverick Meerkat. The next version is expected in April of this year (2011) and will be Version 11.04 named Natty Narwhal.

  • Better Clipboard Package
    Clipboard packages are very linear in use, but why do they have to be BORING… Change up your default Ubuntu clipboard package by opening your terminal and typing: “sudo apt-get install glipper”
  • Archive Creation and Management Options
    Ubuntu 10.10 provides many different options for creating, extracting, and managing archives. With over a dozen different archive formats available, Ubuntu provides amazing control and flexibility over this sometimes tedious and confusing process. By default, Ubuntu provides support for .zip and .tar.gz without purchasing winrar or other insignificant costly software. To make your Ubuntu distribution more flexible, open your terminal and type: “sudo apt-get install unace rar unrar arj zip p7zip-full p7zip-rar sharutils mpack lha unzip file-roller” without quotes. Follow the onscreen instructions and you will be able to open any type of archive imaginable!
  • Fully personalize visual effects
    Ubuntu 10.10 is a very flexible operation system with an almost unlimited selection of options for expansion. For example, one can personalize visual effects that would make any Mac OS X user envious with Compiz Fusion. To install Compiz Fusion, select Applicatons>Ubuntu Software Center or if you are a power user, open your terminal and type: “sudo apt-get install ccsm” without quotes.
  • Drivers are hardware flexible
    Drivers included with Ubuntu allow for support of most computing equipment right out of the box. I have a dell laptop and I once had to reinstall Windows XP. Windows did not support any hardware on my laptop out of the box, I had to browse to the dell website (with another computer) just to download a driver for my WIRED Network controller. I installed Ubuntu on the same laptop and everything worked right out of the box: wired and wireless networking, graphics card, usb connections, printers (most will just work, extra feature s scanning/photos/etc, may require digging for drivers), I connected an epson All-In-One and used the built in scanner. The scanner just worked, no hassle, no drivers, no popups.
  • Windows Dual Boot Installation is Simple.
    The same laptop referenced to above is a system that I installed a dual-boot environment – Here is an earlier post I made for “How to Dual Boot Ubuntu 10.10 and Windows XP Professional”. The installation was easy and flawless, providing me with an ultra flexible system.

These are just some high points of using Ubuntu Linux. Remember, you don’t have to completely switch over, you can install a dual boot installation and take advantage of the speed, power, and flexibility of Ubuntu by still keeping Windows.

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Run Ubuntu in Windows 7, XP, Vista with VMware Player

February 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Do you run Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 7, or Windows Vista and need to run Ubuntu Linux software without setting up dual boot? With just a few easy steps, VMware player is a great solution!

How the Process Works

Download VMware Player

From this link: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
You will need to complete a short registration form before downloading VMware player. Install your VMware Player software. On occasion, and this will vary system to system, you may see some prompts about installing drivers – Approve Them. After installing VMware player, restart your computer.

Install Ubuntu 10.10, or most recent distribution

Open VMware Player and select “Create a New Virtual Machine.”

VMware allows you to install from a disk or directly from the .iso image provided by Ubuntu. If you don’t already have the .iso image file from Ubuntu, you may download it from here: http://www.ubuntu.com/

If you insert your disk, VMware player should detect it, otherwise browse to your .iso image file to complete installation.

  1. 1. Enter your name, username, and password as required.
  2. 2. Choose a name for your virtual machine and save it in your location of choice. Click next to accept default settings. Default hard-drive setting is 20gb, but you have the ability to choose something different.
  3. 3. Review your settings and click “Finish” to start installing Ubuntu.

NOTE: During installation you will be prompted to install VMware tools for linux. Just click “Download” and the tools will automatically download and install – you will have to approve the UAC prompt.

Once the installation of ubuntu has completed, enter your username and password and WELCOME TO UBUNTU!!!

VMware Tools for Linux Installation Failure

If you are connected to the internet during installation, the VMware toolset for linux should download and install successfully. If you were not connected to the internet during installation, these tools will not be installed successfully.

To Complete Installation of VMware Tools for Linux:

  1. Make sure you are connected to the internet
  2. Click “VM” and then select “Install VMware Tools” in the menu.
  3. In the file browser window, double-click the VMwareTools icon and Click “Extract” on the button at the top of the window. Select “Desktop” on the left as the location to extract the files and click the “Extract” button to complete. Once all files are extracted, click close.
  4. At the top of the screen in Ubuntu, click “Applications>Accessories>Terminal”
  5. Once in the Terminal, type (case-sensitive and without quotes): “cd ./Desktop/vmware-tools-distrib”
  6. Now type (without quotes): “sudo bash” – enter your password at prompt
  7. Now install wmware tools by typing (without quotes): “./vmware-install.pl”. Press enter to accept prompted default settings at installation. If prompted with questions about documentation files, press enter through prompts to accept defaults.
  8. VMware tools should now be installed. When asked to configure tools, select “Yes” at the prompt. If prompted for the experimental backup feature, select “no”
  9. When prompted to set up graphics configurations, select “yes”
  10. You should see a message that install has been completed. Restart Ubuntu by clicking on the on/off symbol at the top right corner and select restart.
  11. Log back in to ubuntu and enjoy.


I hope that you enjoy this tutorial. As always, with any questions or comments, please use the comment feature below.

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How to Dual Boot Ubuntu 10.10 and Windows XP Professional

November 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment


Background

I have been using Ubuntu on my Dell Inspiron 8600 for just over a year now and I am impressed with the quality and performance that Linux has to offer. Originally, I had installed it as a standalone operating system and upon installation it took to all of my OEM hardware with absolutely zero issues. Not only did the hardware work flawlessly, but I have never had issues with pesky popup windows, spyware, or the threat of viruses. Linux just works!

Linux is an amazing operating system, but in a world where Microsoft dominates the market, the Windows platform is king for many high productivity software titles that do not work on Linux. For this reason, I have decided to create a dual-boot environment (and write this tutorial).

Dual Boot Ubuntu 10.10 and Windows XP ProfessionalBefore we begin, I have to say that I am offering this tutorial as a simple guideline and offer ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY or promise of any support. As a friendly reminder, make sure you backup all of your files, e-mail, etc… before making any changes.

Before you begin, you will need the Windows Operating System disk that came with your PC. You will also need a bootable live CD of Ubuntu 10.10.

To create a live CD, you will need to burn the Ubuntu 10.10 image to a CD using image burning software. Windows 7 has image burning ability out of the box, but if you are running Vista, XP, etc… You will need software that will burn an image. Most versions of Nero will work, otherwise if you need a more economical solution, check out ImgBurn. ImgBurn is a great open source software that you can download and use free of charge.

STEP 1
To make the installation run more smoothly, I decided to wipe all partitions, reformat my hard-drive, and install a fresh copy of Windows XP Professional to the entire drive (very important to install to the whole drive).

So, remember to back everything up, and reinstall windows with the disk set that came with your system. NOTE: All systems are different. If your system didn’t come with a packaged disk set, check to see if you have pre-installed software that will allow you to create system disks. Generally this software is located in a folder labeled with the manufacturer’s name under the Start menu.

STEP 2
Once your Windows XP re-installation has completed and you have added basic drivers, etc… Restart your computer, and boot to the Ubuntu 10.10 live CD.

A welcome window will appear where you will select your preferred language (on the left), English should be selected by default and you will select the option on the right to install Ubuntu 10.10.

The next window that will appear asks that you have at least 2.6 GB available, your computer is plugged in, and you are connected to the internet. I selected both check-boxes at the bottom, the first one to download updates during installation and the second one to install third-party software (if you are not connected to the internet, don’t select the boxes). Click Next.

The next window that will appear offers you three options, select the first option to install along with other operating systems and click Next.

The next window that will appear gives you a graphical representation of your installation’s and the hard drive space that they will occupy. If you would like to modify these amounts, you can click and drag left and right by the bar in between Windows XP and Ubuntu.

Once you are happy with the space you would like to allocate, select next and follow any additional instructions.

STEP 3
Once Ubuntu is installed, remove the live CD, reboot. After reboot, you should see the GRUB bootloader option window where you can select the operating system you would like to boot.

RESOURCES/LINKS

Ubuntu Live CD Image
ImgBurn (Image Burning Software)

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