There is s a good primer on grub2 in the ubuntuforums:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275

If you install a fresh version of Ubuntu starting with 9.10 you will get
grub2. If you do an upgrade it will keep legacy grub (not convert it to
grub2). I had thought that you did an upgrade because you mentioned 8.04.
Sorry for any delay in resolving your problem. It appears that you did quite
well on your own which is the best kind of learning.