Restore GRUB 2 after Windows installation wipes it out

One of the biggest problems of installing windows after installing ubuntu is that windows wipes out the Grub 2 and makes Ubuntu inaccessible. The solution to it is available everywhere on the internet and some are on mytechspace too. But since there are different methods, it is natural for anyone to get confused. So here I've summarized all the known methods to restore GRUB 2.

Before getting started, I assume you are in this situation. You have just installed some version of Windows, it could be Windows XP or 7 or Vista or anything. Your GRUB (Boot loader) is gone and you have no way to boot Ubuntu. You have a Ubuntu Live/Installation CD but you do not want to install it afresh again. You boot windows and open mytechspace and you follow one of these methods.

Method 1

Step 1: Boot Ubuntu using the Ubuntu Live CD and open Terminal through it.

Step 2: Execute the following command and find out which partition the Linux (Ubuntu is installed)

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo fdisk -lu[/stextbox]

The output of the instruction will be a few columns. Check the row that ends with "Linux". The First column of that respective row gives the partition where your Linux is installed.

In my case it is /dev/sda3

Step 3: Create a directory to mount this partition

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo mkdir  /media/mntlinux[/stextbox]

Step 4: Mount the Linux ( Ubuntu ) partition.

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media/mntlinux[/stextbox]

Step 5: Now Install Grub.

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/mntlinux /dev/sda
[/stextbox]

Method 2

Install Grub-Customizer. This is one of the easiest way of installing GRUB. Just install grub customizer by executing the following in your terminal -

[stextbox id="grey"]sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer
[/stextbox]

If you find any problem with any part of this, please comment here. We will be glad to help.

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Install Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.04

Gnome 3, the new desktop environment that claimed before release that it would revolutionize the desktop environment, is released. Little late to post this but better late than never.

GNOME 3 is good. A very attractive desktop. Some awesome features but all at the same time, didn't click as much as it expected. Even Linux Trovalds moved from Gnome 3 to Xfce and made an official statement that he doesn't like Gnome 3. But to me, GNOME 3 is cool and very attractive to look at. Very sexy. But then, there are drawbacks too. The desktop doesn't hold anything,you can never have any icons on your desktop (which i hate because my desktop is almost always full of icons), no built-in support to tweak the theme (some work-around is possible though), and panel management is quite poor.

The developers team has maintained its ppa repository from the early development version. The same repository now contains the fully finished Gnome 3. If you had problems earlier installing Gnome 3 from this repository, then you can probably try this again because the earlier versions were unstable and possible that it may not have worked before.

To install GNOME 3 on Ubuntu 11.04, execute the following in Terminal.

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

[/stextbox]

Here are some screenshots from my desktop -





GNOME 3 no matter how good it is, it is still kind of incomplete and I would like to stick with GNOME 2.

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Install Ubuntu Tweak on Ubuntu 11.04

Ubuntu Tweak is a charming application that allows you to tweak your Ubuntu easier than any other way. It is an application used to config Ubuntu the easier way so that no one has to worry about running blah blah blah command in the terminal or editing the system files. It provides many useful desktop and system options that the default desktop doesn't provide.

Installation

1. From their website -

Download the .deb package straight away from their website and double click on the file to install it. Their website is ubuntu-tweak.com.

2. By adding the PPA to your repositor -

This is a more recommended way as it is easier to upgrade the version with the new releases.

Step 1: Open your terminal by going to Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal

Step 2: Execute the following instructions in the order

[stextbox id="grey"]

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

[/stextbox]

Once it is installed, you can find Ubuntu Tweak at Applications -> System Tools -> Ubuntu Tweak.

Ubuntu Tweak is a must have if you are a beginner.

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