SEO

I installed Ubuntu linux on the second hard drive of a Windows machine
to make it dual boot. Windows was running on the entire system before,
and all drives are IDE. Ubuntu is supposed to have installed the grub
boot loader [on the Master Boot Record, I believe]. But when I reboot
my machine after the installation, it hangs with a grub message of
error 21 without being able to boot either OS. I gather that this is
because grub cannot see one or more of the partitions on the computer.

In my Bios, here is how the hard drive settings look:

SATA Primary drive: off
SATA secondary drive: off
Primary Master drive: Hard drive
Primary Slave drive: off
Secondary Master drive: CD ROM
Secondary Slave drive: off
IDE drive: UMDA

I believe that the second hard disk (the one on which Ubuntu is
installed) is being called UMDA, which is why grub is having a problem.
I have no idea why the second drive doesn't show up as Primary or
Secondary slave drive on BIOS.

Someone, please throw some light..

-sd

On Mon, 06 Nov 2006 13:34:00 -0800, sd wrote:

> I installed Ubuntu linux on the second hard drive of a Windows machine
> to make it dual boot. Windows was running on the entire system before,
> and all drives are IDE. Ubuntu is supposed to have installed the grub
> boot loader [on the Master Boot Record, I believe]. But when I reboot
> my machine after the installation, it hangs with a grub message of
> error 21 without being able to boot either OS. I gather that this is
> because grub cannot see one or more of the partitions on the computer.
>
> In my Bios, here is how the hard drive settings look:
>
> SATA Primary drive: off
> SATA secondary drive: off
> Primary Master drive: Hard drive
> Primary Slave drive: off
> Secondary Master drive: CD ROM
> Secondary Slave drive: off
> IDE drive: UMDA
>
> I believe that the second hard disk (the one on which Ubuntu is
> installed) is being called UMDA, which is why grub is having a problem.
> I have no idea why the second drive doesn't show up as Primary or
> Secondary slave drive on BIOS.
>
> Someone, please throw some light..
>
> -sd
>
grub can be thought of as a separate mini OS. Its purpose is to act as the
loader for other OSs. It uses its own nomenclature for drives and
partitions which is unique to itself.

Are you sure the BIOS isn't telling you that IDE drives are using _UDMA_,
not UMDA. UDMA is ultra DMA.

Question 1: Did you modify your BIOS settings after you installed Ubuntu?

You may be up against a bit of project to get your system working again.
You may need to do some homework now, if you omitted this step
previously. It is important not to panic, though.

--
Douglas Mayne

> grub can be thought of as a separate mini OS. Its purpose is to act as the
> loader for other OSs. It uses its own nomenclature for drives and
> partitions which is unique to itself.
>
> Are you sure the BIOS isn't telling you that IDE drives are using _UDMA_,
> not UMDA. UDMA is ultra DMA.
>
> Question 1: Did you modify your BIOS settings after you installed Ubuntu?
>
> You may be up against a bit of project to get your system working again.
> You may need to do some homework now, if you omitted this step
> previously. It is important not to panic, though.
>

Oops.. the second IDE drive shows up on BIOS as UDMA [you're right -
it's not UMDA - I must have had too much coffee when I wrote last].

When I saw that the primary slave was off, I turned it on on BIOS. It
didn't do any magic. So I turned it back off. So the BIOS setting is
exactly as it was before I installed ubuntu.

Please advise on what homework needs to be done. I can't wait to get my
system back up.

-sd

sd wrote:

>> grub can be thought of as a separate mini OS. Its purpose is to act as
>> the loader for other OSs. It uses its own nomenclature for drives and
>> partitions which is unique to itself.
>>
>> Are you sure the BIOS isn't telling you that IDE drives are using _UDMA_,
>> not UMDA. UDMA is ultra DMA.
>>
>> Question 1: Did you modify your BIOS settings after you installed Ubuntu?
>>
>> You may be up against a bit of project to get your system working again.
>> You may need to do some homework now, if you omitted this step
>> previously. It is important not to panic, though.
>>
>
> Oops.. the second IDE drive shows up on BIOS as UDMA [you're right -
> it's not UMDA - I must have had too much coffee when I wrote last].
>
> When I saw that the primary slave was off, I turned it on on BIOS. It
> didn't do any magic. So I turned it back off. So the BIOS setting is
> exactly as it was before I installed ubuntu.
>
> Please advise on what homework needs to be done. I can't wait to get my
> system back up.
>
> -sd

I give up: where is the second hard drive connected? On the same ribbon
cable as the other HD? On some other ribbon cable, perhaps plugged into
a UDMA controller in a PCI slot? Can't tell from over here. Help me.

Roby

On Tue, 07 Nov 2006 11:02:56 -0800, sd wrote:

>> grub can be thought of as a separate mini OS. Its purpose is to act as the
>> loader for other OSs. It uses its own nomenclature for drives and
>> partitions which is unique to itself.
>>
>> Are you sure the BIOS isn't telling you that IDE drives are using _UDMA_,
>> not UMDA. UDMA is ultra DMA.
>>
>> Question 1: Did you modify your BIOS settings after you installed Ubuntu?
>>
>> You may be up against a bit of project to get your system working again.
>> You may need to do some homework now, if you omitted this step
>> previously. It is important not to panic, though.
>>
>
> Oops.. the second IDE drive shows up on BIOS as UDMA [you're right -
> it's not UMDA - I must have had too much coffee when I wrote last].

What makes you think that the UDMA setting refers to the second hard
drive, rather than the first, or both? We need details. None of us can see
your machine; only you can. We need to know what you see, if we are to
help.

>
> When I saw that the primary slave was off, I turned it on on BIOS. It
> didn't do any magic. So I turned it back off. So the BIOS setting is
> exactly as it was before I installed ubuntu.
>
> Please advise on what homework needs to be done. I can't wait to get my
> system back up.
>
> -sd

For homework, a good start is here;

http://tinyurl.com/fx7q6

For help, it would be nice if you could tell us exactly where you
installed Ubuntu, as in which partition on your second hard drive. Did you
make a /boot partition, swap partition, separate /home partition? Do you
know exactly which ide controller your second hard drive is connected to?
Are your drives jumpered master/slave, or cable select? Your Ubuntu CD is a
live Linux CD, which you can use to mount your / partition, and copy/post
your /boot/grub/menu.lst. Do so. Along with the answers to the above
mentioned questions, we might be able to spot where the problem is. Also,
as root, enter the command;

fdisk -l (that's a small L, not a number)

Post the results, along with your /boot/grub/menu.lst. I don't have a
Ubuntu CD, but it should have the Pan newsreader on it, so you can
copy/paste into it, so that we can see the exact results.

--
imotgm
"Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a
month or two, but never lost."