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My first question was answered on how to get the boot menu to appear using Ubuntu 12.04.01. It now does. The second part of the problem is that when Windows XP is selected the screen blanks with a cursor flashing briefly, a message flashed up too fast to read, and returns to the menu. After performing this 20 or so times I have figured out what the message is. It reads "ERROR: no video mode activated". I have tried to enter text in the grub.cfg file as per another post but it did not help. I looked at the menu contents while there and the information there is similar to the grub.cfg file but definately not the same. The menu contents are as follows:

insmod part-msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='{hd0,msdos1}'
search --no floppy --fs -uuid --set=root 01CDA33B881AAD20
--drivemap -s(hd0${root}
chainloader +1

I read a post about getting something called boot-repair but I am unable to find this and the terminal window says there is no such package. I assume it means that it is not installed. I have installed Ubuntu 12.04.01 if that helps.

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  • Could you startup Boot-Repair again (you don't have to use the live-CD version), click on "Create BootInfo summary" and post the link? This might be helpful.
    – phoibos
    Oct 8, 2012 at 20:44

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Try setting a nomodeset option.

On some hardware configurations, you need to set some kernel parameters for ubuntu to boot or work properly. A common one is nomodeset, which is needed for some graphic cards that otherwise boot in to a black screen or corrupted splash, acpi_osi= to fix lcd backlight and other problems, and noapic and nolapic to work around various ACPI BIOS issues.

Note that this option is sometimes needed for nVidia cards when using the default "nouveau" drivers. Installing proprietary nvidia drivers usually makes this option no longer necessary, so it may not be needed to make this option permanent, just for one boot until you installed the nvidia drivers.

Sourced from: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

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    Thanks for your response. I will be perfectly honest with you, I have no idea what to do with your information. I am fairly sure that my motherboard has NVIDIA graphics on it so I will see if Ubuntu knows that it is there. This might improve things. As for the other things such as kernal parameters I do not know what to do with them at this point. Thanks again, Bob
    – Bob D
    Oct 8, 2012 at 17:43
  • Check out the link too. It might help.
    – Praveen Kumar Purushothaman
    Oct 8, 2012 at 17:44
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Boot-Repair is a great easy to use tool that also has a live disc so you can boot from it and repair boot related issues, it can be found at the link below.

Boot-Repair Live Disc

If you want to try it from with in Ubuntu try the following steps.

open a new Terminal, then type:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

Press Enter.

Then type:

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

Press Enter

Resources

Boot-Repair - Ubuntu docs

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  • I followed your instructions and tried boot-repair from within Ubuntu. The first time it seemed to have crashed the OS as the screen froze and nothing could be done so I forced a reboot. The same boot sequence occurred: Windows tries to boot, error flashes, menu returns. I tried boot-repair a second time this time it did not crash but the reboot was the same. I tried it a third time with an option to repair windows checked and it completed with no crash. The reboot is still the same, Windows XP does not boot from the menu item when selected. Will the live disk offer other options? I will try.
    – Bob D
    Oct 8, 2012 at 15:07
  • So here are some results. I downloaded the boot-repair iso and burned it to disk. I booted from it and ran it. No change in booting to Windows XP. I then reboted to the disk again and asked it to repair the mbr. it said it had and I tried to boot to Windows XP again, same result, it tries for a second or two but returns to the boot menu again. I am wondering if it is a problem with Ubuntu grub, or is it a problem with Windows? I think the error message is posted as it returns to the boot menu and notices the graphics was not set or something like that. The graphics error may not be windows.
    – Bob D
    Oct 8, 2012 at 17:39

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