POS update Corrupted Windows Drive

[Glen_CA]

I initially installed POS on my second drive, sdb, with WinXP on sda as the boot drive. Everything worked correctly until I wanted to install OfficeLibre.

When I went to update POS in order to install OfficeLibre, there was some error messages when the update was complete. I did not sit at the computer the whole time during the update, my mistake. I did not write the error messages down, but I seem to remember something about the default location of "C:\..." being used in several of the messages where some of the files were installed, which is the WinXP drive.  When I rebooted, neither POS nor WinXP would boot from Grub. Since I have just spent over a week rebuilding my machine, starting with XP, I want to avoid the problem of the update corrupting everything again.

During the update process, is there user input required that I did not do (since not attending the update), that would allow me to choose the correct location for some required files? If so, problem solved.

If not, can someone tell me where the log file would be on sdb that I can send to the POS team so this problem can be addressed in future releases? If desired? Thanks for any help with this minor annoyance. Would really like to use POS as my new distro of choice.

[parnote]

Sorry, but POS? Piece of S***? What is POS?

Around here, we have PCLinuxOS, which is anything but a POS.

If you got messages about something on the "C:\" drive, then you didn't install LibreOffice from PCLinuxOS, since Linux does NOT use such drive designations. Had you used LibreOffice Manager under PCLinuxOS to install LibreOffice from the PCLinuxOS repository, then you would have had a flawless installation of LibreOffice.

Did you attempt to download and install LibreOffice from the LibreOffice website (which would be a no-no, since installing items from outside the repos is discouraged and frowned upon)?

[kjpetrie]

Welcome to the forum.

Most of us like to abbreviate PCLinuxOS to pclos, and that's about as much as I can take.

You need to tell us exactly what you did before we can offer much insight. How exactly did you do the upgrade? How did you attempt to install LibreOffice (OfficeLibre?)?

What error do you see when you attempt to boot?

[djohnston]

I did not write the error messages down, but I seem to remember something about the default location of "C:\..." being used in several of the messages where some of the files were installed, which is the WinXP drive.

No offense to you, Glen, but there is no way that PCLinuxOS would alter your Windows partition during a system upgrade, regardless of what you think you saw. As kjpetrie has indicated, you haven't given enough information to diagnose the problem.

[Glen_CA]

First, Let me clarify, POS should have been PCLinuxOS...

Second, I DID install PCLinuxOS on my computer. During the installation, PCLinuxOS was installed on sdb, i.e. Drive "D"...sda, which is my WindowsXP drive, I would presume would be Drive "C". T hese drives are 500GB. The only partitions are on sdb for home, root, swap, the default locations and sizes as set up during the install for PCLinuxOS.

Third, after install, where everything went very smoothly, I changed the repository to the correct one to be able to install LibreOffice from the PCLinuxOS repositories. LibreOffice was not installed as it called for a Lib dependency.

Fourth, in checking in the PCLinuxOS forums guides or somewhere, the instructions said after an install, the user should update PCLinuxOS and select "all" to bring the installation up to current, which I did. I went to have dinner since the update would take about 45-60 min. When I got back to my computer, there was a message window with several (4-5) messages saying something about "default c:\" being used for installing some of the updates, after the install finished. I then rebooted my computer and could not boot into either PCLinuxOS nor WindowsXP. There was no error listed when selecting either PCLinuxOS or Windows, the computer just rebooted and came back to Grub. I never got to the point of being able to try and install LibreOffice, so LibreOffice is not part of this problem.

Since I did want to help the PCLinuxOS team with any installation problems, I have not touched sdb yet, in order to recover any "log" files, if desired, and I can use the PCLinuxOS live CD to access sdb for that purpose if it would help.

Whether or not anyone believes that PCLinuxOS would NO WAY alter a windows partition does not apply to this situation since my Windows install is on a different drive, i.e. the "C:" drive, not a partition.  So it seems to me that if there is a problem with any installation using a default of "C:" for any reason, I would think the development team would want to know about this potential problem of multiple drive installations. If not, that is fine, I will go ahead and reformat the drive.

[kjpetrie]

The first question I would ask now is did you boot into windows between installing pclos and upgrading it? The reason is, while I can't see upgrading affecting Windows on another drive, I can see a mistake during installation putting it (or part of it) on the wrong drive. If Windows has been damaged, that's the stage at which it's more likely to have happened.

However, let's not jump to conclusions. The only time pclos would refer to a C:\ drive is if wine were running. I wonder whether wine is installed and was one of the applications upgraded. Only wine and applications installed into wine (Windows apps of some kind) would know that terminology. Linux simply does not have a C:\ drive. If wine gave those messages it has nothing to do with your Windows drive and refers to a subdirectory of the hidden .wine directory in your home folder, so that's not something to panic over.

The next thing I'd like to see is the output of the following command issued from a root terminal from the livecd/liveusb:

Code: [Select]


]# fdisk -l
(That's a lower-case L, not a 1 or an I.)

This will give us a better idea of what's actually on your discs now.

[Old-Polack]

First, Let me clarify, POS should have been PCLinuxOS...

Second, I DID install PCLinuxOS on my computer. During the installation, PCLinuxOS was installed on sdb, i.e. Drive "D"...sda, which is my WindowsXP drive, I would presume would be Drive "C". T hese drives are 500GB. The only partitions are on sdb for home, root, swap, the default locations and sizes as set up during the install for PCLinuxOS.

Third, after install, where everything went very smoothly, I changed the repository to the correct one to be able to install LibreOffice from the PCLinuxOS repositories. LibreOffice was not installed as it called for a Lib dependency.

Fourth, in checking in the PCLinuxOS forums guides or somewhere, the instructions said after an install, the user should update PCLinuxOS and select "all" to bring the installation up to current, which I did. I went to have dinner since the update would take about 45-60 min. When I got back to my computer, there was a message window with several (4-5) messages saying something about "default c:\" being used for installing some of the updates, after the install finished. I then rebooted my computer and could not boot into either PCLinuxOS nor WindowsXP. There was no error listed when selecting either PCLinuxOS or Windows, the computer just rebooted and came back to Grub. I never got to the point of being able to try and install LibreOffice, so LibreOffice is not part of this problem.

Since I did want to help the PCLinuxOS team with any installation problems, I have not touched sdb yet, in order to recover any "log" files, if desired, and I can use the PCLinuxOS live CD to access sdb for that purpose if it would help.

Whether or not anyone believes that PCLinuxOS would NO WAY alter a windows partition does not apply to this situation since my Windows install is on a different drive, i.e. the "C:" drive, not a partition.  So it seems to me that if there is a problem with any installation using a default of "C:" for any reason, I would think the development team would want to know about this potential problem of multiple drive installations. If not, that is fine, I will go ahead and reformat the drive.

1. There is no problem beyond user error on your part.

2. There is no reason to change your repo mirror to install LibreOffice, that's done with the LibreOffice Manager; PC --> Office --> LibreOffice Manager.

3. Your Windows installation may be on a different drive, but it's still on a partition.

4. The procedure for upgrading is clicking the following, in Synaptic, in this order; Reload --> Mark All Upgrades --> Apply then again Apply in the confirmation window. This is to be done on first boot, immediately after logging in as your normal user for the first time, before any other procedure, and should also be done before installing any additional applications. Any future application installations should only be done after first doing the upgrade procedure, before selecting the specific application/s to be installed.

5. Actually it doesn't matter what you believe happened, the upgrade procedure only affects packages installed in the / partition of your PCLinuxOS installation. No Windows partition on any hard drive is ever touched. No partition from any other Linux installation is ever touched.

6. Linux, any brand, doesn't recognize the C:\ designation in any form. That's a Windows designation. All Linux hard drives take the designation /dev/sda, /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, etc. Partition designations take the form /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sdb1, /dev/sdb2, etc. C:\ is a different language, and Linux doesn't speak that language.

7. There is no problem for the PCLinuxOS development team to address, as there are literally thousands of dual boot Windows - PCLinuxOS installations that are upgraded every day and what you describe simply does not happen.

If you wish to have Windows on a separate hard drive from your Linux installation, the correct procedure is to make the drive that is to receive the Linux installation the boot drive, in BIOS, then boot to the liveCD, install Linux, then install grub to the MBR of the same drive as the Linux installation. Grub will write a stanza to boot Windows from the second drive during the installation process, and a Windows option will appear in the boot menu. The Windows drive will remain intact, and totally untouched. Done this way, if the Linux drive fails, and is completely removed from the computer, the Windows drive will still boot in its normal fashion.

If you wish help with trying to fix whatever you've broken, first you need to provide accurate information, not tell us a story about what you think happened. The first thing we need is the specs for your machine, then the exact name of the .iso image you used to do the installation. You will undoubtedly be asked for other information, and if you don't know how to provide what is asked for, we will give instructions as to how to get it. If you don't know why a specific question is asked, answer it anyway. The person asking does know. If you want to learn why the question was asked, provide the asked for information, and ask your question in the same reply.

[CaptainSarcastic]

I then rebooted my computer and could not boot into either PCLinuxOS nor WindowsXP. There was no error listed when selecting either PCLinuxOS or Windows, the computer just rebooted and came back to Grub. I never got to the point of being able to try and install LibreOffice, so LibreOffice is not part of this problem.

Have you changed the drive order in BIOS?  What you are describing sounds to me like GRUB has the naming of the drives off, which I've seen happen under various circumstances.

You could try reversing the boot order in the BIOS from what it is currently, as one workaround.  You could physically swap the cables between the drives as another.

During the install process you should have had to choose a drive that you installed GRUB to.  If you installed it to the same drive that you installed PCLOS on, but it is second in the drive order in the BIOS, GRUB might have thought it was sda1 but the BIOS is returning it as sda2, resulting in the problems you are seeing.

Assuming that you did install GRUB to the second drive, and that Windows is on the first, untouched, then you should be able to use the one-time boot menu to select that drive and boot to Windows, which would verify that your Windows partition is indeed untouched.

If you installed GRUB to the Windows drive then it might a slightly different situation.

Another thing you can try is to manually change the GRUB entry you are booting into - the syntax isn't coming to mind off-hand, but it should be another way of booting one of the OS you have installed and confirming this is a GRUB issue, not a problem with either OS install.

[Glen_CA]

Thanks to all who answered for the clarifying answers. I have learned a lot and will rework the install.