The MBR contains the partition table and initial boot code the bios loads, which is one part of grub. That part loads the grub core, which can be a file in /boot/grub, but since files tend to move around and that would break the MBR's ability to find it ( since it is so small, the location of the file has to be hard coded into the MBR ), it is instead preferred to embed the core image in the sectors between the MBR and the first partition, so it won't move around or be replaced by accident.
A /boot partition simply contains everything in the /boot directory, which includes the kernels and /boot/grub, which contains grub's config file and modules that the core loads. Creating a new partition with gparted should make it start at sector 2048, are you sure you deleted it and recreated it ( not just format it )? Maybe you used an ancient version of gparted? 32 sectors is not enough space for the grub core image, which these days needs something like 60-70. It should work the other way though, so if you got the key to boot in another machine, then it is probably fine. Can you try holding down shift when booting to see if you get the grub menu? -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1245147 Title: Ubuntu 13.10 does not boot from USB stick 3.0 To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub2/+bug/1245147/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
