Why am I not prompt to boot into ubuntu ?

I have a 512GB SSD that has my windows 7 OS on it and all the files and such. I then have a 750GB HDD with movies and music and such. I partitioned the HDD to install ubuntu on. I install Ubuntu on the partition but when I reboot my computer I am not prompt to boot into Ubuntu. I checked the partition to make sure that it did install and it shows Ubuntu being on the partition.

I don't mind not being bothered every time I boot up to pick what OS I want. But when I actually do want to boot into Ubuntu, I don't know how.

 

Basically, you're set to boot from the main SSD which is your Windows drive.

Check how to access the boot menu for your laptop and then select the Linux partition from the boot menu when you want to boot into Linux.

 

Such as hitting esc at the init screen, or selecting the secondary disk from the bios boot-order menu, that sort of thing.

A better alternative might be to install rEFInd on your ..presumably primary gpt-partitioned disk. And then let refind detect available OSes, and have them displayed in a neat graphical menu. See guide down there on the right ~\

 

When I look in my boot order I don't see my HDD.

 

Here is my boot menu. I was wrong, my HDD does show. But when I boot to it, its does the same thing as booting to my SSD.

 

It's a bit difficult to guess (correctly) what's happened. But it's likely that the linux install has attempted to add a boot-entry to your efi-boot on the first disk. And that you're lacking a legacy boot/boot partition follow-up on the beginning of the second disk. I.e., what they've expected is that you will boot from the first disk, and then access the partition setup on the second.

Or, you've installed a legacy boot setup on the second disk, but the bios requires efi boots.

Or.. possibly (this happens on some lenovos) - the bios will only boot a specific entry in the efi boot partition marked "MS Windows", or something like that (see workaround at the rEFInd homepage if that is the case).

If that's not what happened, and you're actually running only legacy boots - then you simply don't have a boot partition on the second disk. That's usually an option hidden a little bit in most linux installs, since you could break your system if you do this carelessly.

But usually, you should be able to boot the linux install from an efi shell. Then create a boot on the second disk (including an install, etc). And then boot that second disk directly from the bios boot menu (or via an efi shell such as refind from the first disk).

What linux spin did you install, by the way? ..And what kind of laptop do you have?

 

does ubuntu come packaged with its own bootloader? it doesn't appear clear to me that a bootloader's even been setup yet. we also don't know if OP's machine has BIOS or UEFI. i suspect BIOS, MBR partitions, and a need for grub.

 

It is ubuntu I installed. I have a sager NP9390 laptop running windows 7.

 

googled my own question of course. your ubuntu install has grub packaged. you need to read this article if you didn't or simply don't remember setting up grub, i.e. your bootloader.

it'll also help if you answer nipsen as to what release you installed.

 

love holistic debugging.

..anyone know if it's possible to add a new mbr+stage2 on the second disk, and then just boot it from the bios menu? ..I kind of thought it was. Something like "add bootloader to mbr", and choosing hda instead of sda? Is that option there... or will that conflict with something or be invisible if there's an mbr on the first disk?

 

yes, that'll be fine so long as OP chooses to boot from the second disk at POST. i boot linux from a USB external enclosure (not a removable USB drive), but it's essentially the same thing. if i do nothing at POST, machine boots into windows on the first disk. if i choose to boot from the second disk, i can get to linux via grub. i.e. grub exists solely as my linux bootloader. i actually don't even get the option to boot into the first disk from grub as the result of a sloppy partition job when i installed the W8 consumer preview. i simply restart and boot from the first disk if i need to get to windows.

 

*nods* thanks.

So what you'd want to do during the ubuntu install, is to go into the "advanced" options during the partition setup. And select "create bootloader in mbr" for the second disk. (I.e., the first disk is probably "sda". And the second, or the first hard-drive is "hda").

/boot partition and so on is optional, but probably useful to have.

 

these are both inevitably SATA drives. follow nipsen's advice above, OP, but your primary drive (SSD) should be "sda" and your storage drive (HDD) should be "sdb." if you have two partitions set up on the storage drive (HDD), you may even see a breakdown of "sdb1" and "sdb2." regardless, you want to set the bootloader up on '/dev/sdb.'

(and i know the drive naming convention follows IDE versus SCSI, but explaining why the SCSI convention has been modified to include SATA is beyond the scope of this thread. plus i don't actually know. )

 

Oh, right. Because only ide/udma controllers map to that driver now. And Sata disks are lumped together with scsi devices on the kernel level. ..probably made sense at the time, or something.

By the way - if this wasn't obvious (...which it probably isn't), the naming convention comes from ordering the disks as they are attached on the controller's driver. On the kernel level, the hardware ids for each disk are translated to the sd/hd ids. So that if you have an ssd, it's usually sda. Sdb is the second physical disk on the controller. Sdc might be the next flash-drive you mount. And so on.

Sda1 will typically be the first primary partition on the first disk. But with gpt, it doesn't really make sense to specifically use that as a way to identify the partition. And in linux, you use aliases instead, for partitions that are declared on beforehand. /boot could be similar to c: in windows. / (or root) could be d:, /home could be e:, things like that.

But since the partition setup is not just assigned in a linear order at boot, it will be consistent when you add devices in the middle, or change references later.

It all makes.. complete sense, I'm sure of it.