[tlug] supergrub to the rescue!

[Darren Cook <darren@example.com>]

http://supergrub.forjamari.linex.org/

And hope you never need it. What it does is allow you to boot windows
after a ubuntu "user-friendly" install has ******-ed up your dual-boot
system.

You think I'm ranting? No, the rant starts here.

There is a big problem with the Ubuntu 7.10 install process for dual
boot machines: it assumes it is cleverer than you. So instead of asking
what you want to do about grub and boot loaders and your MBR, it assumes
 it knows what you want. But on the last page of the install there is an
advanced button. "Install boot loader" is checked by default. After some
googling I decided this step was risky, so I'd boot Ubuntu from CD, at
least at first. I unchecked that checkbox.

DO NOT UNCHECK THAT CHECKBOX. What unchecking it means is: it will still
install a boot loader, but it will not configure grub! What *that* means
is that when you reboot not only have you lost Windows but you do not
even have Ubuntu in its place. Instead you have a grub commandline
prompt that is as friendly as Windows 95 is secure. That checkbox
desperately needs a lot more explanation than "install boot loader".

Thankfully it appears there was no permanent damage as supergrub's "boot
windows" option worked. Phew. It is the first time in my life I've seen
the Microsoft logo and jumped off my chair with a Yippeeeeee!

I'll have to come back and work out how to fix the mess later. And the
irony is I just posted a rather positive review of Ubuntu only this morning:
  http://darren-reviews.blogspot.com/2007/12/ubuntu-710.html

Darren


-- 
Darren Cook
http://dcook.org/mlsn/ (English-Japanese-German-Chinese free dictionary)
http://dcook.org/work/ (About me and my work)
http://dcook.org/work/charts/  (My flash charting demos)