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Asked: 2011-12-22 08:14:39 +0800 CST

GRUB installation fatal error in Ubuntu 11.10 installation

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I have Windows XP and Windows 7 on my HD and have just installed the Ubuntu 11.10 Desktop on the HD too. I decided to install boot files on a /boot partition and also install GRUB not at the MBR and install EasyBCD as a bootloader manager in Win7. Here are my hard disk partitions:

/dev/sda1 winxp(ntfs)
/dev/sda5 win7(ntfs)
/dev/sda6 my other ntfs partition
/dev/sda7 /boot
/dev/sda8 swap
/dev/sda9 /

I selected /dev/sda7 as device for boot loader installation. I followed steps from this article on setting up dual boot.

But I get a fatal error on installing GRUB at the final step of Ubuntu installation:

Unable to install GRUB in /dev/sda7   
Executing 'grub-install/dev/sda7' failed
This is fatal error

How can I solve it? Should I reinstall Ubuntu or just reinstall GRUB? Is it a bug in Ubuntu 11.10? Can I reinstall GRUB from a knoppix live cd? I don't have an Ubuntu live CD.

grub2

1 Answers

  1. I got the same error message when I accidentally specified a partition (like you did, /dev/sda7) instead of the drive (/dev/sda). The bottom line is that you may have to install GRUB in the MBR of /dev/sda and let GRUB manage the booting of Linux and Windows. The article you referenced mentions this at the bottom.

    To do this:

    sudo grub-install /dev/sda

    I don't think you'll have to update grub, but it can't hurt, since it will simply rebuild grub.cfg and ensure that the Windows OSes are in the GRUB menu.

    sudo update-grub
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