Adding Ubuntu Studio to existing Hack on a separate HDD.

[vanmanradio]

Hi Folks,


I'm having issues with the installation of my third OS. I have had Windows and OS X running stable for many months now, and I use the Chimera bootloader to choose my OS at startup. Now I have recently installed another spare HDD to try out Ubuntu Studio as part of a Uni project.


The problem I am having is getting Ubuntu to be one of the options in my bootloader. I have tried installing using the standard method, by unplugging my other HDD's and installing Ubuntu in the standard fashion on the new HDD. This works fine until I hook up my other HDD's and set the boot priority back to Chimera bootloader - Ubuntu is not listed as an option. I am still able to boot it manually from the BIOS though.


I have tried installing by manually creating two partitions; a swap area partition and the main partition, which is then set to ( / ). I believe this is meant to stop the Grub being set on the MBR, which is the root* of my problems. However, when I do this, Ubuntu doesn't boot from it's HDD at all, even with the others unplugged or manually from the BIOS. It just asks for boot media.

I followed RehabMan's guide found here: http://racerrehabman.wordpress.com/ to no avail. At part H.16. the terminal command tells me there is no such disk, but I don't know if this step is vital as I am not using a single, partitioned disk for all OS's, and I assume Ubuntu Studio is slightly different in operation to standard Ubuntu.


I think that is all the info for now. If I've missed some vital info out, fire questions my way and I will answer them as soon as I can. If anyone can help me get a triple boot going, I will be eternally grateful.


System: - Gigabyte z77n wifi - Intel Ivy Bridge i5 - 8GB DDR3 1600Mhz - GTX 660ti - 500GB WD HDD (OS X 10.8.5) - 500GB WD HDD (Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64) - 128GB WD HDD (This is for Ubuntu Studio 13.10 x64) - Chimera 1.2.2 Bootloader

*puns of steel.

 

[Going Bald]

Hi Folks,


I'm having issues with the installation of my third OS. I have had Windows and OS X running stable for many months now, and I use the Chimera bootloader to choose my OS at startup. Now I have recently installed another spare HDD to try out Ubuntu Studio as part of a Uni project.


The problem I am having is getting Ubuntu to be one of the options in my bootloader. I have tried installing using the standard method, by unplugging my other HDD's and installing Ubuntu in the standard fashion on the new HDD. This works fine until I hook up my other HDD's and set the boot priority back to Chimera bootloader - Ubuntu is not listed as an option. I am still able to boot it manually from the BIOS though.

This is because you are accepting the default installation of Grub2 to the HDD MBR by leaving the "Erase and Install" box checked on the installation screen. Chimera can't see Grub2 there.
You must select "Something Else" at the initial installation screen, then select the root / partition to install Grub2 during your partition set up of the drive.

 

[vanmanradio]

Thanks for the reply, but that was just the first time I tried. Maybe the third paragraph doesn't make it clear, but I also have tried the method you mention. When installing with "something else" I made a swap and an ext4 partition, set the ext4 partition to ( / ), is this correct? After doing it this way, the OS will not boot at all, even with all other bootable drives unhooked.

 

[Going Bald]

Thanks for the reply, but that was just the first time I tried. Maybe the third paragraph doesn't make it clear, but I also have tried the method you mention. When installing with "something else" I made a swap and an ext4 partition, set the ext4 partition to ( / ), is this correct? After doing it this way, the OS will not boot at all, even with all other bootable drives unhooked.

See section 3 @ http://www.tonymacx86.com/snow-leop...multibooting-novice-updated-3-12-see-log.html

This is basic procedure for installing any Linux flavor - you don't have to have all the partitions I created, but the root partition and the swap partitions are required.

 

[vanmanradio]

Okay so today I thought it might have been a previous Grub2 install messing things up, so I booted up a live CD and purged all instances of Grub. Now I have totally wiped the Ubuntu HDD and unhooked the OSX and Win7 ones. When I follow the instructions, I create the following partitions:

/dev/sda1 - 8GB swap partition
/dev/sda2 - 10GB, ext4 /home partition
/dev/sda3 - 20GB ext4 /usr partition
/dev/sda4 - The rest of the space, formatted ext4, I set to ( / ), then select that partition as "Device for bootloader installation".

It gives me the old:

"The partition table format in use on your disks normally requires you to create a separate partition for boot loader code. This partition should be marked for use as an "EFI boot partition" and should be at least 35MB in size. Note that this is not the same as a partition mounted on /boot.

If you do not go back to the partitioning menu and correct this error, boot loader installation may fail later, although it may still be possible to install the boot loader to a partition."

But I go ahead anyway and click continue. After installation I remove the DVD when prompted and the machine boots back up. I then get a black screen with this:

"Reboot and select proper boot device
or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key_"

It seems to me like that warning was right and the bootloader did not install properly.

So I try again, this time I follow the same steps, but I add another 100MB partition set to, as well as the ones mentioned previously. When I set "Device for boot loader installation", I assume it should still be the ( / ) partition. I click continue and no message pops up.

After this I get:

"GNU grub version 2.00-19ubuntu2.1


Minimal BASH-like line editing is supported. For the first word, TAB lists possible command completions. Anywhere else TAB lists possible device or file completions.
​

grub> _"

Now I am totally confused. Hair pulling-out imminent. Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

P.S. I quickly formatted the disk again, purged grub again, then installed by making just the Swap partition, and another partition as ext4 set to ( / ) and as device for bootloader installation.
This gives me no warning, but after install and reboot I get a black screen with a flashing " _ ".

 

[Going Bald]

I have never installed Ubuntu Studio - evidently they did something different in the installer there, or you might have downloaded the UEFI version that requires you to install it EFI.
Suggestion to try:
select Something Else at install screen and create a /boot partition of 50Mb, a swap partition equal in size to the maximum amount of RAM supported on your board (in case you max it out sometime) and a root / partition.
Install Grub2 on the /boot partition.

 

[vanmanradio]

As far as I know, Ubuntu studio is identical to standard Ubuntu, the only difference being that it has a less smooth-looking (and therefore less resource-hungry) GUI. It also installs a lot of programs for Audio, video and photography that don't come with standard Ubuntu.

Thank you again for your reply. I will try as you have suggested. If that doesn't work then I shall look into the UEFI/EFI stuff. I know my Mobo is a dual UEFI, but I don't know enough about all that stuff to understand how that effects what I am trying to do.

 

[vanmanradio]

Okay so it's taken me a long time, but it seems the issue all along was Ubuntu Studio, It was not installing Grub correctly to the root partition. Using a standard flavour of Ubuntu (13.10) I was able to finally get triple boot woking perfectly. It took a few attempts though, as I think Studio had left some weirdness on the HDD.