-I recently upgraded my 11.10 install to 12.04 LTS and got the above error message upon reboot after a GNU GRUB version ubuntu3 display showing Ubuntu 3.2.0-23-generic pae and other kernels or memory tests to choose from.

The upgrade had to be done by CD because the Update Manager did not show the 12.04 upgrade option. After selecting the default install option of upgrading 11.10 to 12.04, I was presented with a screen saying that I had not specified a swap partition. Upon selection the 'back' key, I was taken to a partition page which listed two current partitions (only Ubuntu 11.10 had been installed - no Windoz): an ext4 partition plus a small 1.8GB partition. I double clicked the small partition and selected it as the swap partition even though I wondered at the time why this even came up.

I can see the two user folders under home from the file manager screen while runnning 12.04 from the CD but if I try to access either one an error message is displayed saying I do not have permission while I get a loading message in the lower right corner of the window that does not go away.

I have two questions:

1. Can I access the user folders prior to recovery via the Terminal? If so, how?

2. How do I fix the GRUB issue?