lost grub menu after update

[bcroll]

I had ubuntu 12.04; linux Bohdi; Backtrack; Windows 7 and Freedos all on different partitions and had no problem with the grub menu presenting all the OS's .The last install was backtrack so the grub menu i take it was from that. The problem is i was in ubuntu 12.04 when update manager suggested 200 odd updates which i let it do then when i rebooted there was no menu but i could still guess the order of OS's and get into them.I then thought i would install mint 14 thinking it would replace the menu however it hasn't done so and is not the default OS on booting like all the other installs done.Any suggestions please ?

[wayne128]

I then thought i would install mint 14 thinking it would replace the menu however it hasn't done so and is not the default OS on booting like all the other installs done.Any suggestions please ?

What you can do is, choose what default OS you want first.
Then pick up its Live DVD, boot and run live, on terminal, use
sudo os-prober to find out the list of OSes,
get the number /dev/sdaX from your list that indicate your default OS choice,
follow by two commands

sudo mount /dev/sdaX /mnt , replace X with your actual number

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

[bcroll]

i done as you say but when using grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/dev/sda5 i got no install_device named so i repeated the cmd and added /mnt/dev/sda at the end and got 'cannot stat mnt/dev/sda' so tried same cmd but used sda5 and got '/mnt/dev/sda5 is not a block device. i also tried sdb6 and sdb8 where the other two systems are and got cannot stat sdb6 and same with 8. Any further suggestions please

[JyDy]

i done as you say but when using grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/dev/sda5 i got no install_device named so i repeated the cmd and added /mnt/dev/sda at the end and got 'cannot stat mnt/dev/sda' so tried same cmd but used sda5 and got '/mnt/dev/sda5 is not a block device. i also tried sdb6 and sdb8 where the other two systems are and got cannot stat sdb6 and same with 8. Any further suggestions please

I think you need a space after /mnt - also, I don't think you need the partition number, 5 ... just sda

[mintybits]

wayne128 wrote:

Code: Select all

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sda

If you want to use "--boot-directory" you need

Code: Select all

sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sda

[bcroll]

I solved it by going into the bios settings and as i have two hard drives i changed the priority to the other one upon rebooting hey presto the grub menu was there with mint 14 as default (last OS installed). Don't know how it happened but somehow the upgrade changed my bios settings!! Thanks for your suggestions.