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I have Ubuntu preinstalled in my PC and I have installed Windows 8 afterwards. Now I want to use Ubuntu but don't know how to open it. Please help!

SurvivalMachine
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rohit singh
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1 Answers1

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You might have to give more details on how exactly are you unable to access your ubuntu. One of the problems might be with your grub loader. A grub menu basically lists all the available operating systems installed in your computer. You might have to install a custom grub so that you can get the access to grub menu.

"When you install Windows, Windows assumes it is the only operating system (OS) on the machine, or at least it does not account for Linux. So it replaces GRUB with its own boot loader. What you have to do is replace the Windows boot loader with GRUB. I've seen various instructions for replacing GRUB by mucking around with GRUB commands or some such, but to me the easiest way is to simply chroot into your install and run update-grub. chroot is great because it allows you to work on your actual install, instead of trying to redirect things here and there. It is really clean.

Here's how:

Boot from the live CD or live USB, in "Try Ubuntu" mode.
Determine the partition number of your main partition. GParted (which should already be installed, by default, on the live session) can help you here. I'm going to assume in this answer that it's /dev/sda2, but make sure you use the correct partition number for your system!

Mount your partition:

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt  #Replace sda2 with your partition number

Bind mount some other necessary stuff:

for i in /sys /proc /run /dev; do sudo mount --bind "$i" "/mnt$i"; done

chroot into your Ubuntu install:

sudo chroot /mnt

At this point, you're in your install, not the live session, and running as root. Update grub:

update-grub

If you get errors, go to step 7. (Otherwise, it is optional.)

Depending on your situation, you might have to reinstall grub:

grub-install /dev/sda
update-grub # I'm not sure if this is necessary, but it doesn't hurt.

If everything worked without errors, then you're all set:

exit
sudo reboot

At this point, you should be able to boot normally.

If you cannot boot normally, and didn't do step 7 because there were no error messages, try again with step 7.

Sometimes giving GRUB2 the correct configuration for your partitions is not enough, and you must actually install it (or reinstall it) to the Master Boot Record, which step 7 does. Experience helping users in chat has shown that step 7 is sometimes necessary even when no error messages are shown."

-This ain't my answer.

Dhakal Abbal
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