Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

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ohaya
Posts: 229
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by ohaya »

Hi,

I recently got a new 500GB drive for my Toshiba laptop, and have been using BING to copy the partitions over from the original 250GB drive to the new drive.

I had an earlier thread about the configuration here:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/ucf/vi ... ?f=8&t=293

I've been able to copy two of my Windows partitions over to the 500GB drive, and they boot ok, but I also had two Linux partitions, a Fedora partition and an Ubuntu partition (the Fedora partition appears as 10001 MB in Partition Work, and the Ubuntu partition appears as 10000 MB), so I copied those two partitions to the new drive, and then setup boot edit entries for each of them.

The copied Fedora partition booted fine, but the Ubuntu wouldn't. When I try to boot to that, I just get a black screen with a blinking cursor in the upper-left of the display.

I've tried to re-copy the Ubuntu partition several times, but get the same problem each time.

The only thing strange, other than the fact that the Ubuntu partition doesn't boot, is that if I go to the Direct Boot menu, where it displays the partitions, all of the partitions say "Partition" in one column, except for the Ubuntu partition, which says "Partition-0".

Does anyone know what might be causing this problem?

Thanks,
Jim
ohaya
Posts: 229
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by ohaya »

Hi,

I just found this:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=244991

which I think might explain why the copied Fedora partition booted ok, while the copied Ubuntu partition doesn't (blinking cursor), but I'm not quite sure how to fix the problem, especially since I've already laid down the other partitions on the new 500GB drive :(...

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jim
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

I would first make sure that you have the BING boot item set up the same way on the new drive as you did on the old drive - primarily that the root partition is in the same partition slot in MBR details in both cases.

If that doesn't resolve it, I'd suggest using this KB article as a guide to reinstalling the Grub2 boot loader. It references BootIt BM, but the steps would be the same for BING: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408

Note that the above KB article assumes Grub2, which has been used since Ubuntu 9.10. If your Ubuntu is older than that, then it would be using Grub legacy, and so this KB article would apply: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=232
ohaya
Posts: 229
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by ohaya »

TeraByte Support(TP) wrote:I would first make sure that you have the BING boot item set up the same way on the new drive as you did on the old drive - primarily that the root partition is in the same partition slot in MBR details in both cases.

If that doesn't resolve it, I'd suggest using this KB article as a guide to reinstalling the Grub2 boot loader. It references BootIt BM, but the steps would be the same for BING: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408

Note that the above KB article assumes Grub2, which has been used since Ubuntu 9.10. If your Ubuntu is older than that, then it would be using Grub legacy, and so this KB article would apply: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=232

Hi Tom,

There is only one partition in the boot item, just the 10000MB Ubuntu partition, and it's in the 1st slot in HD0 in the boot item, which is the same as in the original drive configuration. Also, BTW, I have BING enabled for NOT limit partitions.

The thing is, I don't remember which version of Ubuntu or Grub (or Grub2) was on there.

I was able to boot the Fedora partition, and mount the Ubuntu partition in there, just so I could look around the fstab on the Ubuntu mount, and I also tweaked out the UUID stuff in the fstab. Still wouldn't boot though.

I started to look at the Grub configuration.

It has a grub.conf, rather than a grub.cfg. Does that tell me/you anything about the Grub vs. Grub2?

Also, any idea why this Ubuntu partition is showing up as "Partition-0" (vs. just "Partition" in the Direct Boot menu? As I said, all other partitions are showing up as just "Partition" in DB menu.

Pls advise.

Jim
ohaya
Posts: 229
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by ohaya »

ohaya wrote:
TeraByte Support(TP) wrote:I would first make sure that you have the BING boot item set up the same way on the new drive as you did on the old drive - primarily that the root partition is in the same partition slot in MBR details in both cases.

If that doesn't resolve it, I'd suggest using this KB article as a guide to reinstalling the Grub2 boot loader. It references BootIt BM, but the steps would be the same for BING: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408

Note that the above KB article assumes Grub2, which has been used since Ubuntu 9.10. If your Ubuntu is older than that, then it would be using Grub legacy, and so this KB article would apply: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=232

Hi Tom,

There is only one partition in the boot item, just the 10000MB Ubuntu partition, and it's in the 1st slot in HD0 in the boot item, which is the same as in the original drive configuration. Also, BTW, I have BING enabled for NOT limit partitions.

The thing is, I don't remember which version of Ubuntu or Grub (or Grub2) was on there.

I was able to boot the Fedora partition, and mount the Ubuntu partition in there, just so I could look around the fstab on the Ubuntu mount, and I also tweaked out the UUID stuff in the fstab. Still wouldn't boot though.

I started to look at the Grub configuration.

It has a grub.conf, rather than a grub.cfg. Does that tell me/you anything about the Grub vs. Grub2?

Also, any idea why this Ubuntu partition is showing up as "Partition-0" (vs. just "Partition" in the Direct Boot menu? As I said, all other partitions are showing up as just "Partition" in DB menu.

Pls advise.

Jim

Hi,

I mispoke. It has grub.cfg, and NOT grub.conf, so it looks like it IS Grub2.

Also, I checked the /etc/issue on the Ubuntu partition, and it says "Ubuntu 11.04".

So, I'll take a look at your suggestion re. Grub2.

Jim
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

The Partition-0 in Direct Boot would just mean that that partition is currently in the first slot in the MBR partition table (slot 0), while the others are not in the MBR.

/boot/grub/grub.cfg would indicate grub2, while /boot/grub/menu.lst would indicate grub legacy.

The grub.conf was most likely on the fedora partition, since they use that filename for menu.lst, with menu.lst being a link to grub.conf
ohaya
Posts: 229
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by ohaya »

TeraByte Support(TP) wrote:The Partition-0 in Direct Boot would just mean that that partition is currently in the first slot in the MBR partition table (slot 0), while the others are not in the MBR.

/boot/grub/grub.cfg would indicate grub2, while /boot/grub/menu.lst would indicate grub legacy.

The grub.conf was most likely on the fedora partition, since they use that filename for menu.lst, with menu.lst being a link to grub.conf

Hi Tom,

I followed the steps in the Grub2 #4 article, and it was PERFECT. Very detailed, with lots of explanations of whys, etc., and potential gotchas. I can now boot the copied Ubuntu partition AND can still boot the copied Fedora 15 partition, plus all of my Windows partitions.

Cool :)!!

[I'm glad that I save copies of the original fstab and grub.cfg on the Ubuntu, cuz I had edited them to try to eliminate the UUID stuff, so I just copied back the originals before doing the procedures in the article.]

Thanks for the explanation about the Direct Boot menu.

I do have one, possibly unanswerable question: The thing that I'm puzzling about is that the original Ubuntu on the original 250GB drive WAS able to boot via BING/boot menu.

Based on the Grub article, I had to re-install Grub2 in the root partition (I only have one for Ubuntu, no /boot) because it wasn't there, and then I could boot Ubuntu (on the new 500GB drive) again.

I'm *assuming* that this probably means that the Grub2 on the original 250GB drive was not in the Ubuntu root partition, but, rather, in the MBR, but I also had BING and EMBR on the original 250GB drive.

Does this mean that Grub2 and BING can both co-exist in the MBR? I thought that that was NOT the case, i.e., either Grub/Grub2 bootloader OR BING in the MBR, but not both?

I don't know if I've explained my question clearly :(... Bottom line is that now, I don't understand how the Ubuntu on the original 250GB drive was even booting?

Jim
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

Ok, glad to hear you got it going.

BING and Grub definitely cannot co-exist in the MBR, so Grub would have to have been installed in the Ubuntu boot sector on the original drive. What can happen when Grub is installed to a partition (rather than to the MBR), is that the physical drive references it uses to find its files in the root partition can become invalid when a partition is moved/copied, and so it won't boot from the new location. It's possible that this wouldn't have happened if one of the newer programs (BIBM, IFD/IFL/IFW) had been used to do the copy, since the Grub2-related code would be newer. I'm not sure about that off hand for this specific case though.
ohaya
Posts: 229
Joined: Fri Jan 06, 2012 11:40 pm

Re: Copied Ubuntu partition won't boot

Post by ohaya »

TeraByte Support(TP) wrote:Ok, glad to hear you got it going.

BING and Grub definitely cannot co-exist in the MBR, so Grub would have to have been installed in the Ubuntu boot sector on the original drive. What can happen when Grub is installed to a partition (rather than to the MBR), is that the physical drive references it uses to find its files in the root partition can become invalid when a partition is moved/copied, and so it won't boot from the new location. It's possible that this wouldn't have happened if one of the newer programs (BIBM, IFD/IFL/IFW) had been used to do the copy, since the Grub2-related code would be newer. I'm not sure about that off hand for this specific case though.

Hi,

Ahh. Ok, that probably what happened. It was why I had tried to edit the fstab and grub.cfg earlier, which I probably just mucked up.

Thanks for your help!!

Jim
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