Problems With My Dual Booting System

[I am Bored]

Ok, recently I have installed Ubuntu as a second opporating system, and have been able to easily boot both ubuntu and windows, but at one point i set ubuntu to display a splash screen at startup, however this didn't work right and it actually just made it show 8 copies of the boot up screen on the top of the screen, now this wouldn't be a problem (because it still booted just fine at that point) but it shows a letter as a single color pixel, with every 4th one being blank (no matter what should have been there) and recently it wouldn't start, and when i hit f1(to get it to show me the command line) and hit enter, it will just show single line over and over as if it was an error, now normally this wouldn't be a problem, but of course i can't read what the error is, or if it is even an error, so what i need to do is change ubuntu's startup options from windows (which does boot) does anyone know how i would go about doing this?

[Kafuuka]

[quote name='I am Bored' date='22 May 2010 - 08:57 PM' timestamp='1274554627' post='60209']
Ok, recently I have installed Ubuntu as a second opporating system, and have been able to easily boot both ubuntu and windows, but at one point i set ubuntu to display a splash screen at startup, however this didn't work right and it actually just made it show 8 copies of the boot up screen on the top of the screen, now this wouldn't be a problem (because it still booted just fine at that point) but it shows a letter as a single color pixel, with every 4th one being blank (no matter what should have been there) and recently it wouldn't start, and when i hit f1(to get it to show me the command line) and hit enter, it will just show single line over and over as if it was an error, now normally this wouldn't be a problem, but of course i can't read what the error is, or if it is even an error, so what i need to do is change ubuntu's startup options from windows (which does boot) does anyone know how i would go about doing this?
[/quote]
Err, did you not make any back-up files which you can use to restore your system? And even if you didn't most of the time there exists a previous version with an extra ~ at the end. If you cannot access your linux partition from windows (why would you ever grant windows access to it anyway?) just use a live cd to boot.

Also, I guess the people over at the ubuntu forum would be able to help better than me.

[I am Bored]

actually i can access my linux partition from windows but only though the use of paragon partition manager, and that only allows me to edit partitions, and using the live boot cd wouldn't let me change the settings of the one that is already there, oh and no i don't keep backups, as i have a laptop, and i already have 4 partitions, and ubuntu doesn't like installing on a logical partition...

[Kafuuka]

By access I meant mounting the file system, not changing the partition table... that's as useful as having physical access to your harddisk and throwing it out of the window. Using a live cd should allow you to mount the file system and to read and write files on it (regardless of chmod and owner settings even, unless you encrypted your harddisk, physical access to a computer still compromises security 100%). Linux actually keeps a lot of backups of important files for you, unless you override the default settings. Furthermore a lot of configuration files are automatically generated so even if you loose them the system survives. Yet it is better to look for a back up, manually undo what you did to break it or read the manual pages on how to write a new config file.

Alternatively you could try to log in remotely, although the options for that aren't standard and they require that booting succeeds fairly well.. and you need a second computer and internet etc... live cd should be less demanding imo.

[I am Bored]

well the remote login won't work because it doesn't even finish starting up, and i could probably get access to that data only have to open up easus data recovery, at least i think it supports linux partition types.... it might not.... then again i could just use an external file explorer, that would do it... does the hiren boot cd's live xp have support for linux partitions? as that i have access to.... part of my problem is i gave the dvd i installed from back to the person who i got to burn it for me, and i won't be able to get it back until monday.... i broke it friday afternoon XD right after i gave it back to him i already re-installed the entire ubuntu system once already because i didn't select a swap partition and i couldn't get it to let me uninstall a package which was supposed to "dynamicly" generate the swap file, and that it did, however it also tries to reserve 32gb of space to dynamicly create it   and that made it impossible for me to reset the package because i am too impatient it only has a 60 gb partition that it's installed to, and a 10gb swap file which used to be vista's pageing file, that is before it desided it wanted to use 2 gb on the main partition, oh well, well at least i had that 10gb partition at the very edge of the disk so it writes very fast, and that is required, as i only have 756 mb of ram that is usable, for the other 256 mb is stolen by the built in graphics.....

[lightsage]

[quote]Dynamic disk & Linux file system compatible.[/quote] from: http://www.easeus.com/

Do your own googling

Something you could also try:

I'm not sure what your internet speed is (and what your looking at the forum from)

[url="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix-mirrors/index-en.html"]Knoppix[/url] is a distro I find usefull for recovering and it's only 700 MB

(I've used it to recover data from a corrupted xp installation)

[Rendril]

I think you can edit your boot.lnx from windows. Make a backup of it before you do.

[Kafuuka]

As for filesize, the ubuntu live cd is only 700 mb as well, although knoppix might take less time to boot and you only need a command line version of linux anyway, so you should be able to find something a lot smaller than that. I haven't got a clue as to why you would try using a windows install cd to solve a linux problem... who knows maybe there still are distro's that fit unto a floppy and can mount your filesystem. Which did you use? ext3?

Also, next time you install linux and plan to do experiments on it without backing up configuration files, you might want to put your home directory on a different disk.

[I am Bored]

i used ext2 because i'm not sure if paragon supports ext3.... think it does though.... oh well.... and if i realy wanted a small version of linux i would just use Damn Small Linux, because it's 130 mb.