Ubuntu partition not bootable

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michaelmalak
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:37 pm

Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by michaelmalak »

I have successfully installed Ubuntu (12.04 32-bit Desktop) on other systems that have BIBM, but am having trouble installing 13.04 64-bit Desktop now. BIBM version is 1.19. I've been using BING/BIBM for six years.

I have followed all the steps at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=279 precisely. But after Ubuntu is done installing and it reboots, I get to the BIBM menu, try to boot Ubuntu, and BIBM reports "The partition is not bootable".

In Partition Work, the properties for the Ubuntu boot partition have "Bootable" checked (but greyed out) and in Additional Information says "Bootable: No. The location of this Partition will prevent some operating systems from booting from it."

I even tried sliding my pre-existing Windows partition down and sticking the Ubuntu partitions (small: 35GB root and 5GB swap) at the top just under the 100MB "System Reserved" partition, but that didn't help.

I also tried booting the Ubuntu DVD into Live DVD mode and then executing "sudo grub-install /dev/sda1 --force", but the response was "Path /boot/grub is not readable by GRUB on boot. Installation is impossible. Aborting."

FYI, my sudo fdisk -l is:
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 206848 71886846 35840000 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 71886848 82126847 5120000 82 Linux swap / Solaris

My MBR when booting into Ubuntu is:
Name C H S FS C H S LBA Sectors
Ubuntu Active 12 223 20 83h 1023 254 63 206848 71680000
Ubuntu Swap 1023 191 6 82h 1023 254 63 71886848 10240000

And the full EMBR Partition list:
System Reserved Partition 100 MiB HPFS/NTFS
Ubuntu Partition 35000 MiB Linux Native
Ubuntu Swap Partition 5000 MiB Linux Swap/Solaris
MBR 1 Partition 280000 MiB HPFS/NTFS
------- Partition 142280 MiB Free Space
BootIt EMBRM Partition 5 MiB BootIt EMBRM
WinBackup1 Partition 18000 MiB HPFS/NTFS
WinBackup2 Partition 8000 MiB HPFS/NTFS

Just one hard drive in system: a 512GB SSD. I'm not able to try earlier versions of Ubuntu because the motherboard is too new (no built-in drivers for video and Ethernet until Ubuntu 13.04).
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

michaelmalak wrote:
> I have successfully installed Ubuntu (12.04 32-bit Desktop) on other
> systems that have BIBM, but am having trouble installing 13.04 64-bit
> Desktop now. BIBM version is 1.19. I've been using BING/BIBM for six
> years.
>
> I have followed all the steps at
> http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=279 precisely. But
> after Ubuntu is done installing and it reboots, I get to the BIBM menu, try
> to boot Ubuntu, and BIBM reports "The partition is not bootable".
>
> In Partition Work, the properties for the Ubuntu boot partition have
> "Bootable" checked (but greyed out) and in Additional Information
> says "Bootable: No. The location of this Partition will prevent some
> operating systems from booting from it."
>
> I even tried sliding my pre-existing Windows partition down and sticking
> the Ubuntu partitions (small: 35GB root and 5GB swap) at the top just under
> the 100MB "System Reserved" partition, but that didn't help.
>
> I also tried booting the Ubuntu DVD into Live DVD mode and then executing
> "sudo grub-install /dev/sda1 --force", but the response was
> "Path /boot/grub is not readable by GRUB on boot. Installation is
> impossible. Aborting."
>
> FYI, my sudo fdisk -l is:
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 * 206848 71886846 35840000 83 Linux
> /dev/sda2 71886848 82126847 5120000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
>
> My MBR when booting into Ubuntu is:
> Name C H S FS C H S LBA
> Sectors
> Ubuntu Active 12 223 20 83h 1023 254 63 206848 71680000
> Ubuntu Swap 1023 191 6 82h 1023 254 63 71886848 10240000
>
> And the full EMBR Partition list:
> System Reserved Partition 100 MiB HPFS/NTFS
> Ubuntu Partition 35000 MiB Linux Native
> Ubuntu Swap Partition 5000 MiB Linux Swap/Solaris
> MBR 1 Partition 280000 MiB HPFS/NTFS
> ------- Partition 142280 MiB Free Space
> BootIt EMBRM Partition 5 MiB BootIt EMBRM
> WinBackup1 Partition 18000 MiB HPFS/NTFS
> WinBackup2 Partition 8000 MiB HPFS/NTFS
>
> Just one hard drive in system: a 512GB SSD. I'm not able to try earlier
> versions of Ubuntu because the motherboard is too new (no built-in drivers
> for video and Ethernet until Ubuntu 13.04).

The key piece of information is the "Bootable: No" message in partition Properties, which indicates that Grub did not get installed to the partition. For Grub to get installed to a partition, you would have to ensure that you selected the correct partition to install it to (step 19), and for that to work, you would also have to ensure that the correct partitions were loaded in the MBR before you started the install (step 5).

Also, what file system did you choose when you set up the root partition during the install (steps 11 - 15)? If you chose BTRFS, I would suggest trying ext3 or ext4 instead. BTRFS does not support having Grub installed to it.
michaelmalak
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:37 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by michaelmalak »

Yes, I ensured during the Ubuntu install that I selected /dev/sda1 to install GRUB to.

Yes, I conscientiously fake-booted into Ubuntu each time before booting from the Ubuntu DVD -- and even manually confirmed each time that the MBR was properly populated with just the Ubuntu partitions via "View MBR" in the BIBM Partition manager.

I used ext4 for the main (root "/") Ubuntu partition and "swap" for the Ubuntu swap partition.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

I usually have to manually install GRUB after installing Linux. Most of the time it just doesn't install for me, even though the correct settings are picked. I haven't installed 13.04 yet, but you may be running into a similar problem.
michaelmalak
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:37 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by michaelmalak »

How do you recommend I install Grub manually?

As I wrote in my original post:

I also tried booting the Ubuntu DVD into Live DVD mode and then executing "sudo grub-install /dev/sda1 --force", but the response was "Path /boot/grub is not readable by GRUB on boot. Installation is impossible. Aborting."
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

Have you gone through the steps in this KB article? http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408
DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by DrTeeth »

On Mon, 8 Jul 2013 11:19:23 PDT, just as I was about to take a herb,
TeraByte Support(PP) disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>I usually have to manually install GRUB after installing Linux.

I can honestly say that I have never had to over 10s of Linux
installs. Go figure .
--

Cheers,

DrT

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

michaelmalak wrote:
> How do you recommend I install Grub manually?
>
> As I wrote in my original post:
>
> I also tried booting the Ubuntu DVD into Live DVD mode and then executing
> "sudo grub-install /dev/sda1 --force", but the response was
> "Path /boot/grub is not readable by GRUB on boot. Installation is
> impossible. Aborting."

FWIW, the 13.04 Ubuntu installer is able to install Grub during test installs here using the same partition layout.

Not sure what the issue is, but to do the manual install of grub2 based on that KB article, you may need the grub boot disk from Ubuntu 13.04, which I'm linking to here: http://tpdirect.homeip.net:1082/grub-rescue-cdrom.iso

You can just burn the ISO to CD/DVD and use that, or you can also 'dd' the ISO to a UFD like this: dd if=grub-rescue-cdrom.iso of=/dev/sdx (where /dev/sdx is the UFD device). Once booted to the menu, press <c> to get to the grub prompt
michaelmalak
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:37 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by michaelmalak »

Thank you for your help -- I am able to use BIBM now to boot into Ubuntu (as well as Windows 7).

I did have some trouble with grub-install following the instructions on http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408

I was getting the error "source_dir doesn't exist" but I Googled that error in relation to Ubuntu and found something that works:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1069178
sudo apt-get install --reinstall grub-pc

That command actually opened up a character-based GUI that allowed me to select the partition to install grub onto.
TeraByte Support(TP)
Posts: 305
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 4:22 pm

Re: Ubuntu partition not bootable

Post by TeraByte Support(TP) »

michaelmalak wrote:
> Thank you for your help -- I am able to use BIBM now to boot into Ubuntu
> (as well as Windows 7).
>
> I did have some trouble with grub-install following the instructions on
> http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=408
>
> I was getting the error "source_dir doesn't exist" but I Googled
> that error in relation to Ubuntu and found something that works:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1069178
> sudo apt-get install --reinstall grub-pc
>
> That command actually opened up a character-based GUI that allowed me to
> select the partition to install grub onto.

Glad you got it going, and thanks for the information.

That package you had to reinstall is probably why grub didn't get installed to the partition to begin with. The grub packages must not get properly installed by the Ubuntu installer (under some conditions anyway).
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