When I was trying to install Backtrack and Ubuntu (either Karmic or Lucid) on one machine I encountered several problems. Although installation went perfect, after reboot I wasn’t able to boot into previously installed Ubuntu. Here is the solution:
- Install Ubuntu. Reboot and check whether installation went good.
- Boot with Backtrack 4 and install it (run install.sh from desktop or type ubiquity in console).
- Now when you reboot you should get an error 15. This probably happens because Ubuntu installed grub 2 and Backtrack’s grub 1.5 is not compatible with its ancestor.
- Boot with your Ubuntu Live CD.
- Enter terminal and type:
sudo blkid // this will show partition table, check
// on which partition your Ubuntu is (f.e sda1).
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt // mount partition with ubuntu
sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda --recheck
- Reboot, remove CD, now you should straight to your previously installed Ubuntu.
- Enter terminal and type:
sudo update-grub
This will update grub so now you will be able to boot either Backtrack or Ubuntu without any problems. I’m using Ubuntu 9.10, Backtrack 4 Final and Windows XP Pro – triple boot. However problem I tried to solve may also occur when installing Ubuntu 10.04 with Backtrack or Ubuntu with Windows. One of the systems modifies grub or erasures it with its own version that may be incompatible with the second.
I’m going to try this on lucid and will report back.
I’m crossing my fingers, I’ve been trying to get this to work for a while.
In my case I had Ubuntu already installed and Backtrack’s installation screwed grub bootloader. For me this solution worked, however there is also a hard way to solve it by installing Backtrack first and than Ubuntu.
Super-Duper site! I am loving it!! Will come back again – taking your feeds too now, Thanks.
i love you i thought i screwed up bad for days searching the internet learing about grub and mistakes i could of made and nothing.for days stuck with backtrack4 on a 8GB partition crying beacause I could not do anything,i tried to get to my ubuntu patition by reading grub2 wiki’s FOR DAYS!! maybe a week and now this quick guide and everything is fine within ten minutes
you are a GAD
thanks alot
Awesome! The process is complete. How do you launch backtrack? does it require the live cd to launch everytime?
I take that back, dual boot ubuntu / bt4 is working! woohoo!!! Thanks so much for helping dual boot the newest Ubuntu 10.04 and the newest Backtrack 4. I followed your steps to the letter and dual boot ubuntu and backtrack are now working flawlessly.
…Aaaahh, the best of both worlds!!!
Now is time for another attempt to get the Broadcom bcm4312 rev 01 working again (using this process by “chenxiaolong” seemed to work http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1266620&page=76)…
…hopefully this time it my dvd drive won’t be so loud and noisy. Any ideas what could be causing that the laptop dvd drive noise?
Thanks so much!
your process is correct, although you take the long way around things. if you just click the “Advanced” option at the very last step when installing backtrack 4, you can uncheck the box that says “install boot loader,” and reboot straight into ubuntu, then update grub. no need to re-install grub if you just don’t write over it with backtrack. saves a couple steps, but generally the same process. nice tut other than that.
one more note….if you want to access your ubuntu partition from backtrack, make sure you format it in ext3, not ext4. if you format ubuntu in ext4, you can read your backtrack ext3 partition from inside ubuntu, but cannot read your ubuntu ext4 partition from inside backtrack. personally it doesn’t matter to me, but it might to some who would like to get at their ubuntu partition while using bt4….just a side note i thought might help.
tanks a lot, you are great iwas saved by you
Hey! NICE TUTORIAL! I was wondering if this would work if I already have Ubuntu 10.10 installed on a portable drive. I would like to install Backtrack 4 RC2 installed as dual boot. Is this possible? Thank You.
I really have no idea whether it is possible. If you get it working let us know
Thank you so much! I spent 3 days trying to do this…