No Boot Menu After Installing Ubuntu with Windows 7

I've installed Ubuntu to dual boot on 3 computers running Windows 7. On every one of them I've had to do a boot repair in order to get the Linux grub working correctly. I also had to fix the loader on Windows 7 using a Windows 7 install disk, and telling it to repair Win 7 on 2 of the installations. Windows repaired the boot issue both times.

To fix a corrupted Windows 7 boot you simply boot with any Windows 7 boot disk, then select repair when given the choice. Windows will find the problem and fix the boot issue.

To fix a nonexistent grub boot menu you need to boot from an Ubuntu live CD and follow these instructions to reinstall the Grub menu:

It should look like this:

You need to boot your computer using Ubuntu Live CD or Live USB to repair the grub. Choose "Try Ubuntu."

Once you are finished booting open a terminal, then run the following commands one by one to install a program called "Boot Repair."

To add boot-repair to the repository, enter:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
To Update your repository, enter:
$ sudo apt-get update
To install boot-repair, enter:
$ sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair

When the installation is complete run "Boot Repair" on terminal by typing the following command:
$ boot-repair

NOTE: You don't have to update Boot Repair.

It will scan the System for few seconds and will show you the option "Recommended Repair" Click on  "Recommended Repair" to start repairing the grub.


Once it's done you click on "OK" to restart you system and you should have a Grub as pictured above.

What bothers me about Windows 8

I'm hearing all of these rumors about Windows 8 being like the Windows phone, built to work with panes and and be more like a tablet. When I use my iPod touch I don't worry about getting maleware at all because I get software from Apple's on source. My iPod works as I expect it to work. My Android phone, same thing. My Laptop running Ubuntu, same thing, I don't deal with malware on them. But any of my Windows based computers constantly get malware even with Virus software running all the time. I have to periodically run Superantispyware to ensure that they will run properly.

So here comes Windows 8 trying to act like all of the other things devices that I have that aren't plagued with malware issues. Malware and panes seems like a nightmare waiting to happen. I simply don't understand why Microsoft can't deal with these problems. Anyway that's my 2 cents worth.

Ubuntu Linux Has Become My Operating System of Choice

I just have to say that I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 on my Gateway 6961 and I'm loving it. I'm using it to do most of my writing using LibreOffice, I'm reading my Kindle books on it through the Chrome browser, and doing all of my social media stuff with it.

I set up an older Laptop with it also so my son could use it in his bedroom for school work, and I don't have to mess with it. I figure if he screws it up I will just download the latest disk and redo his installation, but I haven't had to, it just keep running fine.

It seems like I'm constantly having to clean out Malware out of my Windows computers running in the house. It amazes me that you can have virus protection on one of these machines, and you still end up with with a crap load of Malware. I have to clean it out with Malwarebytes, or my personal favorite Superantispyware. Well I just don't have this problem with my Linux machine.

If you have a computer that has a messed up Windows installation, and you're about to donate it to Goodwill, you really should download a copy of Ubuntu and install it first. You might find that out don't need to get rid of your computer, or that it could be a useful second computer. Most of the computer I use I received after someone else gave up on them.

There is a lot of free software for Linux, and software you can buy also. No, you won't be able to use the latest game that runs on Windows, but there are a lot of games you can play. But let's face it, most of what we use computers for today revolves around the web and Ubuntu Linux has that covered. If you aren't sure about it, then download the CD image file, burn it, and boot from the live CD to give it a try. It will only cost you a little time and it's fun to play with.

Compiz Config Setting Manager for Ubuntu

After installing Ubuntu 11.10 I found that the side bar in Unity was pretty handy but it was driving me crazy because it always kept popping in and out when I was using programs. I couldn't find a way of changing the setting so it would just stay put and have programs running to the right side of it. After doing some research I found a settings manager that you need to install to be able to change the program bar setting called Compiz Config Setting Manager.

Copy paste the following command into Terminal to install

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

After installing Compiz I then had control over how the program bar behaves as well as many many other things that my desktop does. Where I needed to change this particular setting was in the Ubuntu Unity Plugin. On the sceen you will see a setting for Hide Screen set it to Never. That's it, your all set.

 A word of warning be careful when unclicking boxes at the main screen. I ended up with my bar disappearing, I had to boot in Ubuntu 2D mode, and then boot back in Ubuntu to clear things up. I would suggest only changing things that you know will give you the outcome you are looking for. Going to the Compiz website is a good place to start if you want to know more about this program. 

Creating a WiFi Hotspot with your Ubuntu 11.10 Laptop

I have a Gateway MX6961 that I use as a WIFi hotspot, so my iPod touch can access the Internet when I only have a wired network available. It's really very simple to set up, here are the instructions:

1. Click on the connection icon in the upper right of your screen. It's probably your left most icon.
2. Click on Create New Wireless Network.
3. Give the Network a name.
4. Select a Wireless security
1. Note: Internal Laptop cards have different specifications and you may have to test different settings until it works. The built in card on the Gateway I have hooked up fine with my iPod using Wep 40.
5. Enter a security password.
6. Click on create.

On my iPod Touch, I then went into settings and found the new Network. I selected it, I entered the password, and I was connected.

If your new Network doesn't work at first then change the Wireless security type until it does. You can also just delete the new network and try again.

Adventures in Linux land

I have a Gateway MX6961 laptop with Windows XP installed, and I decided once again to play with Linux installations; this time it was Fedora 15. I had tried Fedora a few years back and found it to really not be very user friendly, but I wanted to give the latest version a try. I followed the installation instructions, and found that I didn't have space set up for it on my hard drive. So I looked for a free partitioning program and found MiniTool Partion Wizard for Windows. This program worked great for setting up partitions but in some instances requires the system to re-boot.

Now that I had a partition free, the Fedora installer easily installed alongside Windows XP. The boot loader was a bit different than I'm used to because it only gave me a couple of seconds to load Windows before Fedora took over. Fedora seemed to be running fine at first, and I was having fun playing with it until I decided to do updates. I got an error every time I tried to update software, and then it started locking up when I tried to shut down.

“Well screw this.” I thought to myself, and I decided to get it off of my hard drive. Getting rid of it is easy, I could just delete the partition, but if you don't do it correctly you risk screwing everything up! The proper way to do it would be to first restore your Windows Boot loader. The process is different depending on which version of Windows that you are running, and most of the times requires a Windows installation disk to perform the operation. Do a Google search for “restore windows boot loader” and add whichever version of Windows you have to the search. After replacing the Windows boot loader I could have then removed the partition with MiniTool Partition Wizard. But that's not what I did.

I decided to remove the partitions that were created for Fedora, and then I was going to restore the Windows boot loader. Doing it in that order really just hosed the hard drive. MiniTool Partition Wizard required a re-boot, and when I deleted the partition that Fedora was on I really hosed up my Windows XP installation, it was still there but I really couldn't use it. I booted from an XP CD and tried to do a repair but Windows declared that I didn't have a hard drive installed.

At this point I decided I would check out the latest version of Ubuntu Linux 11.04. Ubuntu had always worked well for me when I had explored earlier versions and I knew that it would easily install and un-install using Windows. I downloaded the CD image on another computer, burned it to disk, and booted it to the computer that was messed up. I was pleasantly surprised using the live CD.

I tried for a while to see if I could recover Windows XP and dual boot with not much luck, then I decided I should just install Ubuntu on my laptop and run it Linux only, and that's what I did. I'm writing this article using free LibreOffice, and enjoying the experience. Ubuntu is much easier to use than Fedora for the average user, and there is a large selection of free software at your disposal. I was even able to simply add my HP LaserJet 1000 that is connected on an XP machine on the network with no problems at all. I couldn't use the LJ1000 printer with my Win7 machine because there are no drivers.

Even though I have a 64 bit dual processor machine I still used the recommended 32 bit version of Ubuntu. The 64 bit version may be a tiny bit faster, but I wouldn't be able to detect it. The reason I used the 32 bit version was because of compatibility issues with the 64 bit version. Some programs may even run faster in the 32 bit version because most programs have been optimized for 32 bit. The 64 bit system will allow you to run more memory, I have 4GB of memory installed and the 32bit version is only seeing 3GB. I'm only using about 512MB of memory with several programs running so it's really no big deal for me, but if you are using a lot of memory then you may want to opt for the 64bit version.

If you really want to run Linux on a machine that you have sitting around, then I would recommend the latest version of Ubuntu. Unity shell interface for the GNOME desktop environment developed by Canonical Ltd is the default desktop, and is very slick. But you can also get installations with just about any desktop environment that you like. Other distributions include XFCE, and KDE desktop environments, as well as others. You may want to download different CDs and play with them before you do an install.

Dan