Newbie Ubuntu Partition questions

I installed Ubuntu on a new partition on my new Asus G1s yesterday, and have some questions about the newly created partitions during Ubuntu installation.

I used Acronis Disk Director Suite in Vista to create my C: Vista OS & D: Data like so prior to Ubuntu installation like so:

[-R-][---------------------------C------------------------][--------D------]

R = Vista Recovery partition, Primary & Hidden, 8GB FAT32 LBA
C = Vista OS, Primary, 90GB NTFS
D = Data, Logical, 52GB NFTS

Then I installed Ubuntu using the built in partition manager in Ubuntu LiveCD; I opted to use the Guided option to decrease the Vista OS partition and install Ubuntu on the freed space. I didn't use the Manual option becoz I wasn't sure what settings to use for Linux OS.

This is what I got from Acronis when I booted into my Vista:

[-R-][-------------C------------][U1][--------E-------][U2][--------D------]

U1 = Unallocated space, 597MB
U2 = Unallocated space, 1.26GB
C = Vista OS, Primary, 60GB NTFS
E = Ubuntu OS, Primary, 28.17GB Ext3

During bootup, Ubuntu also created a bootloader screen with 5 options:

1-Ubuntu 7.10
2-Ubuntu 7.10 (recovery mode)
3-Ubuntu 7.10 memtest86+
Other operating systems:
4-Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
5-Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)

From options 4 & 5, they were listed as identical but I figured out that option 5 is my normal Vista bootup option. However, I have no idea what option 4 is because when the wallpaper is loading up with a lower resolution, a huge sign: ERROR with "Can not open file C:\RECOVERY.DAT" appears.

So here are my questions:

1. What are are those unallocated spaces created by Ubuntu for?

2. Are they necessary? If not, can I merge them with my Ubuntu OS / Data drive?

3. Option 4 for my bootloader seems to be for Vista safemode, and appears to be corrupted by Ubuntu installation. Is there a way to restore it?

4. Is there a way to bring back the Vista bootloading options when I hit F5/Del key? (it's the one that allows you to boot Vista under safemode, or minimal drivers, or commande prompt, or etc) Doesn't seem to work anymore when I hit F5 or Del key upon bootup.

5. If question 4 is Yes, is there a way to use Vista bootloader screen instead and incorporate Ubuntu option to it as well?

6. If one decides to keep the Ubuntu bootloader screen, how does one edit what options are there?

I apologize if it seems confusing, just don't know how Ubuntu & partitioning works differently from Vista.

Thanks!

 

I would just go into vista disk management (right click computer) and expand the Vista OS partition to take up that unallocated space. Ubuntu apparently set up some logical volumes in that one partition marked as ext3. Go into Gparted in Ubuntu and tell us how Ubuntu itself is set up with logical volumes.

Someone else can probably tell you how to edit your Grub menu to remove that Vista entry that give you an error....don't know why that's been created. Download Startup Manager for Ubuntu through Synaptic, there is an option to limit one kernel per OS I think, not sure if that will correct it though, or just applies to linux I mean.

 

i think the unallocated space is just a sort of gap in the hard drive that linux creates instead of having the two OS's right beside each other. But i may be wrong because those are quite large spaces to be used for that.

now, about the boot loader... Im guessing the 4th option is vista's recovery partition and i doubt that GRUB is able to boot straight into that, thats why you get the error.

theZoid has a good idea about the startup manager, that is probably the easier way but if you want to use the command line you can edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst file by typing in:

Code:

sudo nano /boot/grub/menu.lst

then just scroll down until you get to the part that will look something like:

Code:

title           Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root            (hd0,6)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=9b2be2e7-64b9-4092-b922-44b715ed852c ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title           Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd0,6)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=9b2be2e7-64b9-4092-b922-44b715ed852c ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

title                Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
root         (hd0,6)
kernel               /boot/memtest86+.bin
quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
title                Other operating systems:
root


# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title           Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root            (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader     +1

then you can just comment out the parts that you dont want by putting a # at the start of the line. mine looks like this after i commented out memtest and the divider (i use #** for comments so i know what i commented out and what was commented out before my edits):

Code:

title           Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic
root            (hd0,6)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=9b2be2e7-64b9-4092-b922-44b715ed852c ro quiet splash
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic
quiet

title           Ubuntu 7.10, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic (recovery mode)
root            (hd0,6)
kernel          /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-14-generic root=UUID=9b2be2e7-64b9-4092-b922-44b715ed852c ro single
initrd          /boot/initrd.img-2.6.22-14-generic

#**title                Ubuntu 7.10, memtest86+
#**root         (hd0,6)
#**kernel               /boot/memtest86+.bin
#**quiet

### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian
# ones.
#**title                Other operating systems:
#**root

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title           Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root            (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader     +1

 

"4. Is there a way to bring back the Vista bootloading options when I hit F5/Del key? (it's the one that allows you to boot Vista under safemode, or minimal drivers, or commande prompt, or etc) Doesn't seem to work anymore when I hit F5 or Del key upon bootup."

Are you sure about this? F8 has always started Windows Safe Mode, and still does with Vista on my Acer lappy.

Did you burn Recovery DVD's and do they work? It looks to me like the combination of Acronis and Ubuntu has created somewhat of a mess. I'd be tempted to start over.

I'm not absolutely sure about this, but I believe that most manufacturers do the same thing: once you've burned a copy of the recovery partition to DVD, the recovery partition becomes inaccessible and can be deleted.

Questions #1 & #2: Not sure why the unallocated sections exist, but they're not necessary. Partitions can bump right up against each other.
#3: I like Fittersman's response...just comment out those lines in menu.lst and they won't come up in GRUB screen.
#4 & #5: I don't understand the F5+Del key combo that you describe - wonder if this is an Asus thing? We'd need to know if F5+Del invokes a BIOS function or a Windows function. I think you're better off with the GRUB bootloader. vista doesn't like to share.
#6: There are all kinds of options to GRUB bootloader - best to stick with the two or three basic tweaks. You can change the amount of time it waits before moving on to the default OS, and you can change the default OS.

I'm guessing that Windows can't open D: cause it's not where it was.
If you haven't burned the Recovery discs yet you need to.
With my Acer, I burned the discs, destroyed all partitions and reformatted the entire drive to NTFS using GParted LiveCD, reinstalled using the recovery DVD's. Instead of a hodge-podge of 4 primary partitions I ended up with one Windows partition. It was a simple matter to shove that partition over and install Ubuntu.
Another guy I know used GParted LiveCD to destroy all partitions, then created an NTFS partition on part of the drive. His Recovery DVD's installed to just the NTFS partition and Windows worked fine. That was a neat trick.

 

Thanks guys for the replies.

After reading in various posts and playing around with settings & the bootloaders, I discovered:

1. The additional unallocated partitions created by Ubuntu does not contain any vital data. I redistributed the free space using Acronis Disk Director in Vista and rebooted into Ubuntu with no problems.

2. I learnt about Ubuntu's GRUB & Vista bootloaders and how each one overwrites in the MBR depending on which OS you install last. I installed Ubuntu after Vista, and hence I got GRUB as my main bootloader, and I don't really like it compared to Vista's.

3. Thanks to Fittersman and also this link, I managed to tidy up my GRUB bootloader to which I want to boot up first:

http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux_vista_installed_first

4. I learnt from this link on how to restore Vista bootloader using EasyBCD freeware and make it the main one, and preserve Ubuntu by installing GRUB in the Ubuntu partition insted of the MBR (you still need GRUB to run Ubuntu):

http://apcmag.com/5045/how_to_dual_boot_vista_with_linux

5. I ultimately used those links to set my bootup sequence as so:

a) start ---> Vista bootloader ---> default option 1 ---> Vista
b) start ---> Vista bootloader ---> select option 2 ----> GRUB bootloader (which contains Ubuntu & Vista options)

6. I don't recall if I hit F2 / F5 / F8 / Del to invoke the multiple Vista startup options, but reinstalling the Vista bootloader has now allowed those options in the bootloader screen; so I don't have to remember which key to hit in the future.

7. If anyone feels they want to pin this thread, feel free.

 

Oh and I forgot to mention what a brilliant tool the EasyBCD is; it allows you to customize settings on your Vista bootloader, so no issues conflicting with GRUB.

 

thanks sweel, I might add all that can be done without using Acronis too. I going to grab a download of EasyBCD although I don't think I'll ever use it