BOOTING FAILS AFTER EDITING GRUB CUSTOMIZER

[flnx]

I am new to Mint 14 cinimon os. I manage to install mint along side of windows XP. I also had run update and added some software appls (editor, browser,scanner,etc. and all appeared well with no other know problems. I then decided to remove from the grub list, some other not needed grub entries which were listed after mint, & windows Xp . I down loaded using Software Mgr. Grub Customizer2 (vers.3) successfully. Since I had used Grub previous vers. on a laptop before with no problems, decided to use it again. I checked around but could't find the user guide/instructions to look over. I ran the new version from terminal mode. I found a couple (not needed) mint entries I saw during booting and deleted them. After saving the config. file, I exited Grub. I then clicked on shut down and re-booted. What was displayed on the screen during the re-boot was "error no such device 535b59db-94d8-4c03-aea6-848a61ca5b71. grub rescue >" .

I have no idea why this happened or how to correct/fix this problem. I have learned some linux operating fundamental instructions on how to get around. But I need help to get out of this boot situation, without wrecking the system. I would appreciate your help and expertise. Thanks up front for your kindness and response. My system is HP presario with 120gb hard drive, Windows XP .and had installed Mint 1.4 Cinimon OS which was working. Jonn

[viking777]

I guess you must have deleted something that was required, I am not surprised you made that mistake given the state of grub-customizer at the moment.

I presume you still have the installation medium for MInt? If so boot from this install 'boot-repair' into the live medium and run it from there. Instructions here:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Grub customizer seems to me to have become more and more unreliable recently, I still have it installed (but only an older version, I downgraded because the recent versions are almost incomprehensible to my eye) even then I don't use it any more. It used to be good, but not now.

[flnx]

Thanks for your speedily reply. That alone is a great gift. I will follow your instructions (although when I attempt to boot up, grub rescue and no such device is all I get) I do have the usb boot for re-installing Mint 14. When I re-install Mint, will I be able to boot windows xp normally the way it was?

[viking777]

When I re-install Mint, will I be able to boot windows xp normally the way it was?

You don't have to reinstall Mint, you haven't deleted it (or XP). All you have to do is to reinstall grub and that is what boot-repair does for you. When you have done that you should be able to boot both again.

[flnx]

Hello again,
I follow your instructions to the "T". All worked well and no problems with boot repair.
I then removed the usb boot stick used, then re-booted my system to Mint. I entered my user name and password. Mint would not log me in. I rechecked my user name and pass word to make sure I entered them correctly (caps not on,etc..). Tried booted many times again but to no avail. I re-booted again and selected Win XP (no pasword needed) and all worked fine.
Therefore how do I select another password for Mint or fix the existing one? Thanks again.

[austin.texas]

How to reset your password

First, you have to reboot into recovery mode.
From the boot menu, select recovery mode, which is usually the second boot option.
After you select recovery mode and wait for all the boot-up processes to finish, you'll be presented with a few options. In this case, you want the Drop to root shell prompt option so press the Down arrow to get to that option, and then press Enter to select it.
The root account is the ultimate administrator and can do anything to the Ubuntu installation (including erase it), so please be careful with what commands you enter in the root terminal.
In recent versions of Ubuntu, the filesystem is mounted as read-only, so you need to enter the follow command to get it to remount as read-write, which will allow you to make changes:
mount -o rw,remount /
To reset the password, type
passwd username
where username is the username you want to reset.
You'll then be prompted for a new password. When you type the password you will get no visual response acknowledging your typing. Just hit Enter when you're done.
Now the password should be reset. Type
exit
to return to the recovery menu.
After you get back to the recovery menu, select resume normal boot, and use Ubuntu as you normally would—only this time, you actually know the password!
Please note that some graphic drivers require a full graphical boot and so will fail when resuming from recovery. Simply perform a standard boot.

[jlsmith722]

Today or yesterday an update to grub-customizer came in the updates to Nadia and Maya. This has partially broken grub customizer at least for multi-boot systems.
After the update I lost 2 entries from my table, and reloading did not restore them. I was able to restore them from the trash.
However g-c told me that “the changes I made affected the visible entries, please reload.”
After reloading the 2 entries were gone again.
Same thing happened when running grub-customizer from Maya, but worse, 3 partitions were missing.

Restoring the entries from trash fixed the problem.

The updated version was 3.0.4-oubuntu1-ppa~(p or q)

[flnx]

I tried to use the reset as spell out, but I could not get pass the mount -o comand (I use mount -"0" the number and also mount "o" the letter). Each time I just got a print out to reference man 8 mount. I check this out but still was not able to do much better. I even tried to just enter in the shell ls /home and it returned nothing. I tried passwd & my user name but it said username did not exist. I tried the Ctrl +Alt+ F1 for tty but still would not work. Do you have another way to solve this password issue or tell me if I am doing it all wrong or something ? Looking forward to your reply. (by the way, I am using 32 bit Mint which I forgot to mention) thanks.

[flnx]

Latest update.

I just tried the boot mount again. This time I used the #0 with the mount command and also put a space and then included the "/"(which I did not type in before) and this time it ask for the new password. I entered it and then confirmed it again. I exited out back to followed the resume recovery which went good. However, still could not get in with pass word. I then rebooted again, but still could not get in. I tried using just a blank user name and the new password, but still did not work.. FYI

[viking777]

I think you have installed grub onto the usb stick. Running boot-repair with the default options will only reinstall it where it was before. You have to go into the Advanced options>Grub Location and click on the radio button that says "place grub into" If you only have one hard drive then there should only be one choice (probably sda as shown in the boot repair link above second diagram under "Advanced Options") Change that setting then click 'Apply'.

[flnx]

Here is my round up feedback re: installing Mint 14. I continuenly had problems with password acceptance, no matter what I tried to clearup. So, I decided to just install it again.
I did not want to foul up my other window OS. I installed another Mint OS along with the rest of previous OS. I got several installer crashes while installing before I used a different cinnimon OS image. I also used automatic login. I then went back later and use grub2 to remove some of the other remaining Mints from the grub start up list. Of course, I had to use Boot Repair to correct the boot loading errors. On the grub boot list, I saw one Mint 14 listing (with advance options) What does this one do? There are basic set up features that should be part of the initial installation setup needs, like Font display reading size.(should be larger). I also found my picture and document files had been loaded in a ruthless maze. For instance if you select either, the pictures/documents, neihter show up (just empty space). I remembered during installation, a error indicated file loading problems. When I started to search for my pictures/docs files, I saw lots of files listing that did not make sense. What is this Recycler vs the trash can? what is the virtual files like 45 gb, 13gb with entries? The Download files area were unreconizable. Also before I forget, what is wrong with login to LinuxMint site. I can log in with no problems using my ubuntu net-laptop, but I had crazy problems loging in using my Mint desktop, even using different browsers. I have no problems when I log into my other Mint ( login required) OS. I have tried many times to confirm registration entering username/email address and mint site says they do not exist. I then had to re-register again. Now I can log in (shows logout) but can not go to my post, like before no matter how I try, I can't get to the same location for post searching or posting. Also I have tried to use the Backup Tool that came with Mint 14. I followed the directions but when I give it the hard drive and folder to use, it says completed/finished. I then go to the backup location but find nothing has been saved there. I did it again with just designating the hard drive. and it displays done/finish. But I could not find the name of the file where it saved it to the hard drive, nor where it placed it, to verify its contents?? As of today, I'm able to use Mint successfully. Please reply on my questions. Thanks

[flnx]

Just wanted to say, I found out why backup (minibackup) did not work with a designated location and folder. Evidently it only uses a designated device, (i.e. disk, cdrom, usb stick,etc.) I still don't know why it indicated the backup finished when nothing was recorded/found. FYI