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On a DELL Dimension 9150, I've been trying to install 11.10 from a Live USB. Ubuntu runs fine from the Live USB. On the first install, it failed at the last step, 'unable to write bootloader' to the selected partition, please select another partition.

There were 2 SATA HDs in RAID and in case that was causing the installer some problems, I disabled RAID and disconnected one of the SATA drives (as well as disabling that SATA channel in BIOS).

Went back to the start of the installation, and everything seemed to go smoothly. Got to the reboot point, and removed the install media as instructed.

But when it rebooted, it gives this 'no boot device available' error when it tries to boot from the hard drive.

Any suggestions, please?

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  • Is the iso you used corrupt? Try using the built-in utility that comes up when you first boot.
    – bntser
    Feb 26, 2012 at 13:13
  • Do you mean boot from the Live USB again and run a utility? thx
    – Eoin
    Feb 26, 2012 at 13:30
  • I think the ISO is fine, since I could run Ubuntu from the Live USB. The only utility I see in the menu when I boot from the USB is 'test memory'. Did you mean something else?
    – Eoin
    Feb 26, 2012 at 13:32
  • Well - this might be fixing itself. I ran the BIOS disk check utility on the HD, it passed, and then next time it booted up into Ubuntu. Running updates now, and then will see if it reboots normally. Hopefully this is the end of it!
    – Eoin
    Feb 26, 2012 at 14:40
  • When I boot a live CD there is a check whether the cd is valid or not. Maybe it isn't there on a usb.
    – bntser
    Feb 27, 2012 at 3:16

1 Answer 1

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No better time than now to learn all of the power of Grub.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2

Specifically, this section: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2#Command_Line_and_Rescue_Mode

It will at least let you see what Grub sees.

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  • Thanks, I'll read up on that. The original problem seems to have mysteriously resolved itself somehow for now.
    – Eoin
    Feb 26, 2012 at 19:22

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