OSS not seeing Ubuntu 10.04

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Hi
I have Windows XP SP3 on my machine (Lenovo ThinkCenter). Having first partioned my HD with Disk Director 11 I then installed Ubuntu 10.04 LTS which worked fine. I was able to select an OS with the Ubuntu selector. I then installed OSS and was able to boot XP. But OSS did not find Ubuntu and would not boot it.
I followed some hints on this Forum and managed to access Terminal.
My partitions look like this:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 11029 88590411 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 11030 37867 215575415 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 37868 38913 8401995 12 Compaq diagnostics
/dev/sda5 11030 16128 40957686 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 16129 37170 169016320 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 37170 37867 5600256 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Next I tried to start GRUB
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo grub
sudo: grub: command not found

I then tried GRUB without sudo
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ grub
The program 'grub' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install grub

Does this mean that OSS has deleted GRUB?
Please advise on next steps...
Thanks
John

Thu, 07/29/2010 - 20:52
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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GRUB hasn't been deleted. Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't use GRUB, it uses GRUB2.

The most likely reason that OSS can't find Ubuntu is because GRUB2 was installed to the MBR and when you installed OSS it overwrote it. You should be able to get it back by installing GRUB2 to the Ubuntu partition. You may also be able to get it back by reinstalling the loading to the MBR and then reactivating OSS. However, this method has problems if you're using DD 11 because you can't reactivate easily.

If I remember correctly, the basic steps are:

  1. Boot to the Ubuntu CD.
  2. Mount the Ubuntu partition. This can be done by starting the Terminal program and running: sudo mount /dev/sda6 /mnt
  3. Install GRUB2 to the partition: sudo grub-install --force --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda6
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 01:40
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A colleague suggests that GRUB is called GRUB-PC under Ubuntu 10.04. I understand in outline what needs to be done but we need a clearer understanding of what and how to complete the process. Am I looking for GRUB, GRUB2 or GRUB-PC.
Thanks

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 16:36
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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The version of GRUB doesn't make a huge difference here (except that Legacy GRUB is easier to install). Ubuntu 10.04 doesn't use Legacy GRUB. Below, "GRUB" refers to Ubuntu 10.04's version.

The instructions I posted are a slight modification of what I've used for Ubuntu 10.04. If you want to use OSS and GRUB, it's best to install GRUB to the partition's boot sector.

Trying to setup or install GRUB using "normal" methods will not work in this type of configuration. In many cases, it fails to install properly and there's no error. For quite a few versions I've had to manually install GRUB after installing Ubuntu because of this.

OSS needs to find GRUB's code in the boot sector of the Linux partition. It will then add it to the menu. Currently, your setup has no GRUB code in the boot sector. GRUB was in the MBR.

Fri, 07/30/2010 - 17:43