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How to solve: vesamenu.c32: Not a COM32R image error in Live USB Boot

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Problem:

I was bored with Ubuntu 12.04 beta version and decided to try my hands on Linux Mint (controversially) the most popular Linux distribution. I downloaded the image file and used the default Start Up Disk Creator program in Ubuntu to make a bootable USB disk to install Linux Mint replacing Ubuntu. When I tried booting from USB, I got this message in the boot up:

vesamenu.c32: Not a COM32R image error

It seems frozen then. Entering will do nothing but the same message keeps popping.

Fix:

Here is what you need to do to avoid this problem and boot from the USB. At the boot up when the mentioned message comes, do the following things:

  • Press the Tab key
  • Type Live
  • Press Enter key

Now it should boot normally. Hope it helped you. Don’t hesitate to ask questions if still facing problems. Cheers :)

Source: Linux Mint Forum

Make Windows default OS in dual boot with Ubuntu: The easy Way

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When you install Ubuntu (or any other Linux OS), it makes Ubuntu the default operating system. So if you want to use Windows, you have to select it manually within 10 sec otherwise it boots into Ubuntu directly.

But what if you are not a regular Ubuntu user (Why so?) and use Windows most of the time? It irritates you that you have to wait at each boot to select Windows. If you are facing such problems then you might want to make Windows your default operating system so that it boots into Windows by default. [Read more…]

How to change the default boot order in Grub 2 in Ubuntu 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04

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In this tutorial we will see how to change the default boot order in the Grub 2. Grub 2 is the default boot loader in Ubuntu 9.10, 10.04, 10.10 and 11.04. As the computer starts, GRUB 2 either presents a menu and awaits user input or automatically transfers control to an operating system kernel.

There are two ways to do it. Experienced user can do it by editing the Grub file (located in /etc/default/grub) while I will recommend the beginners to use a GUI tool (Startup Manager) which lets the user select the default operating system or kernel. The tutorial on the Startup Manager can be found here.

Step 1:

Take a look at the boot order in the Grub (when the computer start). Note down the order. Let us assume this is how the boot order arranged:

Linux Kernel 3.0                                                       ——— 0
Linux Kernel 3.0 Recovery Mode                         ——— 1
Previous Kernel Versions                                        ———- 2
Previous Kernel Versions Recovery Mode          ———- 3
Memory Test                                                             ———- 4
Memory Test Recovery                                           ———- 5
Windows 7                                                                 ———- 6

Notice the numbers we assigned to the orders. The numbers represent the position of the particular os/kernel (starting from 0).

Note:

What if you want to make a previous Linux version as your default. The previous Linux Version may consists of all the previous Linux Kernels. Grub 2 provides a nested style sub menu. The previous Linux Versions may seem like this:

Linux Kernel 2.6.39                                                       ——— 0
Linux Kernel 2.6.39 Recovery Mode                         ——— 1
Linux Kernel 2.6.38                                                       ——— 2
Linux Kernel 2.6.38 Recovery Mode                         ——— 3
Linux Kernel 2.6.37                                                       ——— 4
Linux Kernel 2.6.37 Recovery Mode                         ——— 5

Step 2:

Now open the terminal and type the following command:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub &

The content of the this file looks something like this:

# If you change this file, run ‘update-grub’ afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n ‘Simple configuration’

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash pcie_aspm=force”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=””

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD …)
#GRUB_BADRAM=”0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef”

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo’
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640×480

# Uncomment if you don’t want GRUB to pass “root=UUID=xxx” parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=”true”

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE=”480 440 1″

Step 3:

In the previous file notice the line: GRUB_DEFAULT=0

This line can be interpreted as “the default kernel/os is at order number 0” which in this case is Kernel 3.0. All we need to do is to change the line from GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to GRUB_DEFAULT=new_order_number.

For example if we want to make Windows as our default OS, the line will be GRUB_DEFAULT=6. If you want to change the default timeout (wait time before it boots into an OS) of 10 sec you can do that by editing the line GRUB_TIMEOUT=10 to GRUB_TIMEOUT=your_time.

Note:

Remember the previous Linux versions? Talking about the example given in Step 1, if we want Linux Kernel 2.6.37 to be our default we need to change GRUB_DEFAULT=0 to GRUB_DEFAULT=2>4.

Here the previous Linux version is at position 2 and Linux Kernel 2.6.37 is at position 4 inside it.

Step 4:

After changing the grub file, save and close it. Now run the following command:

sudo update-grub

Afterwards, reboot the computer. Enjoy :)

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How to solve: Cannot boot into Windows after installing Ubuntu Linux

By 5 Comments

Problem:

I was installing Ubuntu 10.10 on my old laptop lately in dual boot mode with Windows Vista. I simply could not boot into Windows though I could easily boot into Ubuntu. After going through a number of Ubuntu forum threads, I figured out that it might be a problem with Grub and thus I decided to reinstall Grub. But update-grub did not detect Windows and displayed a message like this:

  ls: cannot access any_path/boot
  Boot: No such file or directory

Reason:

The reason which I found (on SourceForge) is that Grub2 was installed with Windows system partition chosen as the root-directory. This causes the folder /boot/grub to be created on the Windows system partition. Since ntfs partitions are case insensitive this leads to confusions between “/boot” and the already existing folder “/Boot”

Solution:

Boot into your Linux OS and deleted or rename the folder /boot on the Windows system partition. Make sure that your don’t delete the /Boot folder. The /Boot folder contains the file “bcd” which is necessary to boot Windows Vista/7.

This solution worked for me flawlessly. Hope it works for you as well. Feedback, suggestions and questions are welcome. Enjoy :)

Sources: Ubuntu Forums, SourceForge.

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How to mount a windows partition on Linux automatically on each start up

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In Ubuntu (and other LiUbuntunux OS) , the external drives are mounted automatically but the Windows drives (NTFS partitions) are required to be mounted manually in each login. Though this mounting is just a click away, in some situation one requires the other partitions to be mounted automatically in each start up. In this tutorial I’ll try to explain the procedure to mount a Windows partition automatically on each start up. Again, the tutorial is performed on Ubuntu but most of the commands are applicable to other major Linux OS. Please follow these steps:

Step 1.

Check what is the name of the drive/partition you want to automatically mount. The name is like /dev/sda. Check the partition with NTFS format. Check the size and otherthing to select the partition you want to mount. Go to the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and enter this command:

sudo fdisk -l

For me the command output looks like this:

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 13 13417 107667456 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 13418 38914 204798797 f W95 Ext’d (LBA)
/dev/sda5 13418 26165 102398278+ 7 HPFS/NT

Step 2.

Now we need the UUID of the desired drive/partition. The UUID can be obtained by using the following command:

sudo blkid

The command output looks like this:

/dev/sda1: LABEL=”System Reserved” UUID=”E400CABD00CA95C8″ TYPE=”ntfs”
/dev/sda2: UUID=”E61CD55A1CD525F9″ TYPE=”ntfs”
/dev/sda5: UUID=”01CB76F7C2628FB0″ TYPE=”ntfs”
/dev/sda6: UUID=”01CB76F7F289ADE0″ TYPE=”ntfs”
/dev/sda7: UUID=”b9a176e1-d122-4ea7-815b-555063d

Step 3.

Now make a directory in Ubuntu where you want to mount the drive. Lets say you want to mount the Windows drive in root folder. We will create a directory name mount and under that a directory say WindowsDrive. For this use the command:

mkdir /mount/WindowsDrive

Step 4.

The mount information can then be added to fstab file which stores the information about the storage devices. In the terminal enter:

gksu gedit /etc/fstab

The command will open the fstab file. In here, at the end of the file add this line like this:

UUID=insert_the_UUID_here /mount/WindowsDrive ntfs defaults 0 0

Note: Replace the insert_the_UUID_here with UUID you noted from the blkid command. Save and exit. Now, in terminal enter:

sudo mount -a

Troubleshoot:

The following errors may be generated:

1.

“The file system wasn’t safely closed on Windows. Fixing.
fuse: failed to access mountpoint /mnt/win7: No such file or directory”

2.

“Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to store changes into `/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel’, but failed: Failed to create file ‘/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel.CNQ0UV’: No such file or directory”

The reason (in both cases) is that it is looking for the directory specified in the fstab file and cannot find it. Check the path and verify that the directory exists at the specified path. If the directory /root/.local/share doesn’t exist, make it manually.

Hope this article helped you. Suggestions, feedbacks and tiny thanks is always welcomed. Enjoy :)

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How to speed up the Start Up process in Windows7?

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Do you think your computer takes quite a lot time while starting? Once started properly, it works fine but it takes a significant amount of time at the start. The reason  is pretty obvious and most of the people know how to deal with it. If you don’t, then read the complete article.

The reason for the PC start-up being slow relates to the number of applications it loads at the start. You can check how many applications are run at the start-up in the right bottom corner of your screen.   Here is a hint:

How many applications do you see? (There are 6 applications which are loaded everytime I start my PC and these are essentials for me). If you see a lot of unnecessary programs like Nokia Ovi, Java updater, Adobe updater, Google update etc, get rid of them. These are the applications for which you selected yes and ticked next while installing

To get rid of these type RUN in  the search bar of Start. If you don’t know what is that here is a hint again:

Now click on Run and type msconfig. Press enter. Here choose Startup tab.

Here you see the ticked program that loads at the start up. De-select the programs which you think are unnecessary for you. But PAY ATTENTION in doing this as you might disable some application which might turn into disaster . I would suggest following things for safety :

1. Do not disable any application which is in the Command like C:WindowsSystem32. Never touch the applications from Windows folder.

2. Do not disable Microsoft Windows Operating System. I don’t need to tell you why. :)

3. Do not disable your Anti-Virus

4. Better to disable programs that are in C:Program Files. And the programs you know are of no use to be loaded every time at the start up like Adobe updater, java updater, webcam central, Nokia Pc suite etc.

For better PC performance I’ll also suggest to keep your C drive as much free as possible. And apart from that delete your temporary files and clean your registry clean at regular intervals.

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