[Novalug] GRUBing Around / A Handy Gui

Roger W. Broseus rogerb@bronord.com
Thu Oct 23 20:52:09 EDT 2008


GRUB / Ubuntu Install and StartUp-Manager (System | Administration)

1. I decided to do a "clean" install of Ubuntu, moving up to 8.04 from 
7.10. (Why install? 'Cause I couldn't figure out what was wrong with / 
(root) - it appeared to be full. I suspect disk corruption related to an 
attempt to backup with "Simple Backup" but that's another story with 
water over the levee.)

After installation I could not boot to Linux, nor to Win, on this dual 
boot machine. Having had this problem before, I suspected a maligned 
menu.lst. Sure enough, the installer had specified the wrong location 
for *root*: the give away: a file not found error. Background: I used 
the "manual" option with the partitioner, having /boot, /, and /home on 
hard disk 2. Booting with Knoppix confirmed that the install had placed 
files in the proper locations so it became a simple matter of editing 
the command line during grub-induced booting to ensure I could get to 
the proper place. Afterwards, editing menu.lst solved problems. Luckily, 
I kept a copy of menu.lst from the pre-install (7.10 setup) for 
reference. From this it was easy to see that the installer had also 
whacked the lines for booting Win, including a "swap" of HD 
designations, and I just copied the old stuff there.

2. StartUp-Manager: a handy tool one can add, via add applications, in 
Ubuntu. It's a graphical / GUI front end for editing menu.lst. After 
installation, it appears under
    System | Administration
Options include editing VGA resolution, colors of the grub boot menu, etc.

An aside: I was able to keep my old /home partition (I specified 
mounting it but not formatting it during installation) and, after 
installation of the upgraded version of Ubuntu, every thing worked fine 
(well, at least so far) - bookmarks, etc., stayed for Firefox; mail 
boxes, address books, etc., for T-bird. (Just to forestall any critics: 
of course I backed up /home before partitioning, etc.)

Of course - be careful: it is really easy to complicate one's life when 
editing menu.lst, etc. - but if you are reading this - you are probably 
already over the top and do re-installs as a form of entertainment.

-- 
Roger W. Broseus - Linux User
    Email: RogerB@bronord.com
    Web Site: www.bronord.com




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