help!can't boot into ubuntu 8.10

[himadri_sm]

i had an 80gb hdd with two partitions- a 15gb partition with win xp sp2 & a 3ogb data partition & the rest free space..i installed ubuntu 8.10 in the free space with 4608mb for swap 8092mb for / & the rest for /home..the installation completed successfully & the system restarted..i went into bios to change my 1st boot device to hdd..but after that my system directly booted into windows without presenting any OS selection screen..in windows disk management the three linux partitions show up as unknown partitions..no please tell me how i can boot into ubuntu?
thank you.

[Vishal Patil]

did you really install ubuntu?? if yes then you havent installed the bootloader grub.
windows doesn't recognize linux partitions.

[himadri_sm]

initially i had opensuse 11.0 installed..then i wanted to try ubuntu so i installed it on top of open suse without changing any of the partitions initially created by suse..after the installation of ubuntu the system restarted & i got the error loading grub. error 22..i couldn't boot into either ubuntu or xp..so i ran the ubuntu live cd & used gparted to delete the linux partitions..after this i restarted the pc but this time i got the error loading grub..error 15..so finally i used windows recovery console & used fixmbr to fix the boot record..so finally i only had win xp installed & i was able to boot into xp..then yesterday i decided to install ubuntu again..i installed it on the free space i mentioned earlier..but upon restarting,the system boots into xp directly without presenting any os selection menu.what should i do now?

[Cool G5]

Do as I say :

1) Boot into xp & format the partition on which you have installed Linux.

2) Reboot. If Xp loads then fine, skip this step. If you get an error and xp fails to boot then insert the windows xp cd & boot via it. Go to recovery console by pressing R. Type 'fixmbr'(without quotes) and exit the cmd prompt.

3) Upon restart, you will be able to boot into Xp. Now reinstall Ubuntu 8.10 & you will get your system to dual boot.

[himadri_sm]

Originally Posted by Cool G5

Do as I say :

1) Boot into xp & format the partition on which you have installed Linux.

2) Reboot. If Xp loads then fine, skip this step. If you get an error and xp fails to boot then insert the windows xp cd & boot via it. Go to recovery console by pressing R. Type 'fixmbr'(without quotes) and exit the cmd prompt.

3) Upon restart, you will be able to boot into Xp. Now reinstall Ubuntu 8.10 & you will get your system to dual boot.

thank you for the suggestions...but it didn't work..but i found the cause of the problem..at the last step before installation(step 7),there is an advanced tab..i clicked on it & there is an install boot loader option. it was checked but the hdd selected was wrong..i have another hdd connected- a 360gb sata that is only for data backup..from the dropdown menu i selected the 80gb hdd & then installed ubuntu..now i finally have the os selection menu & can boot into ubuntu.
this thread can now be closed

[vamsi360]

Originally Posted by Cool G5

Do as I say :

1) Boot into xp & format the partition on which you have installed Linux.

2) Reboot. If Xp loads then fine, skip this step. If you get an error and xp fails to boot then insert the windows xp cd & boot via it. Go to recovery console by pressing R. Type 'fixmbr'(without quotes) and exit the cmd prompt.

3) Upon restart, you will be able to boot into Xp. Now reinstall Ubuntu 8.10 & you will get your system to dual boot.

Why to format for just bootloader problem,use VistaBootPro www.vistabootpro.org
and add the linux to xp's bootloader