[wellylug] Ubuntu boot issue

Jonathan Harker jon at jon.geek.nz
Thu Feb 8 17:07:56 NZDT 2007


Steve Macdonald wrote:
> 
> 
> */Jonathan Harker <jon at jon.geek.nz>/* wrote:
> 
>     Steve Macdonald wrote:
>     > I have Ubuntu dual booting on a laptop but all of a sudden on start up
>     > get this on start up
> 
>     > Now it boots into its windows installation fine, and if I reinstall
>     > Ubuntu it still comes up with this message. It was previously
>     booting fine.
> 
>     What does your partition table look like?
> 
>     You should be able to fix the boot sector MBR using fdisk or gparted if
>     you boot from your Ubuntu cd.
> 
> 
> From what I have read I need to edit the 6th line of the fstab file to
> read "0" not "1" which will prevent it checking the Fat32 partition
> which is the partition causing the errors.
> 
> When I boot into the live cd and click on gparted it just freezes, I can
> edit the fstab file if I can find it but on the live cd it does not
> allow me to view the hda4 which is where the fstab file is stored.
> 
> Sorry about my lack of correct terminology and the fact I dont have the
> patience to constantly search the correct way of fixing it (I have been
> searching on the ubuntu forums)
> 
> How do I view hda4 as obviously the drive is not mounted on the live cd?

to do that, you need to mount it. Open a command console and go

sudo mkdir /hda4

sudo mount -t auto /dev/hda4 /hda4

Now your installed root partition is in /hda4. You should then be able
to edit /hda4/etc/fstab

sudo gedit /hda4/etc/fstab

Daniel's right - it might pay to get Ubuntu to not check the fat
partition, but you should try fixing it with Windows tools if you are
more familiar with them (right click - Properties on the corresponding
drive icon in My Computer, in there somewhere). The worst case is that
Windows nukes your MBR and you have to redo the grub boot loader from
the live CD, but that is straightforward enough.

J




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