Dual Boot/GRUB Issues [SOLVED]

Questions about Grub, UEFI,the liveCD and the installer
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zacharias_1440

Dual Boot/GRUB Issues [SOLVED]

Post by zacharias_1440 »

Hey guys, so I recently installed Mint16 cinnamon with a live usb. I tested it out and seemed to work just fine, so I proceeded to use Gparted to partiion my hard drive so I could dual boot alongside windows7, and created the partitions appropriately during the install. The installation seemed to go just fine with no issues.

Everything was cool until I rebooted my laptop, and instead of being met with the GRUB menu, I was met with a GRUB terminal-like screen. Because of this, I am unable to boot into either my windows partition or my linux partition. Not knowing entirely what to do (as I'm pretty green to linux), I've been looking all over the forums and google for a solution.

Now, I've tried booting directly from the GRUB using the proper commands (or at least from what I've found) and it's giving me an error, saying it doesn't recognize the commands.
I've also looked around at how to install/reinstall/configure the GRUB so that I could hopefully get the GRUB menu. I'm trying to accomplish this while running mint16 off of my live usb.
I've been beating my head over this for quite some time now, trying to figure it out on my own, but at this point I really could use some help.

If there's a way I can fix the GRUB using the live usb that would be awesome, as I figure this would be a good chance for me to get my hands dirty and dive head first into linux. I've seen a few suggestions on the forums such as using rescatux or creating a grub2 disk and installing it that way, but again I would prefer the former, if at all possible.

Thanks in advance to everyone who is so helpful in these forums.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Fornhamfred
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Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by Fornhamfred »

There is this how-to on the community website.

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/245
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

Unfortunately I have tried this and it didn't change anything.

Following this guide gives me this in the terminal:

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda
grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of /cow.
Installation finished. No error reported.
mint@mint ~ $ 
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tdockery97
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Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by tdockery97 »

That's exactly the readout it gave me when I last reinstalled Grub. Have you tried rebooting yet? Even with that error it still worked for me.
Mint Cinnamon 20.1
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

Yeah nothing changed in the grub upon rebooting, so I don't know what's going on with that.
este.el.paz
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Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by este.el.paz »

zacharias_1440 wrote:Hey guys, so I recently installed Mint16 cinnamon with a live usb. I tested it out and seemed to work just fine, so I proceeded to use Gparted to partiion my hard drive so I could dual boot alongside windows7, and created the partitions appropriately during the install. The installation seemed to go just fine with no issues.

Everything was cool until I rebooted my laptop, and instead of being met with the GRUB menu, I was met with a GRUB terminal-like screen. Because of this, I am unable to boot into either my windows partition or my linux partition.
@zacharias:

It's possible you are making this more complicated than it needs to be . . . although it does seem that the 16 installation process is a bit more finicky than in the past. Without trying to figure out if your "GRUB terminal-like screen" is a TTY log in window, or some glitch in the GRUB boot window . . . in your partition scheme, did you create a smallish, 10MB or so, partition for "bios_grub"? If not, run the install again and add that place for the GRUB stuff to actually be installed . . . . Seems like lately it's easier to just let the installer pick everything it needs to do than to use GParted to do it . . . . And, if doing it "manually" then you need to "flag" the "/" partition . . . I believe it is . . . .

e.e.p.
MacPro '12 multiboot various linux OSs with some aging OSX's . . . .
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

@este.el.paz

When you ask about the "bios_grub" partition do you mean a partition for /boot? If so, then yes. If not, then that may be where I went wrong. I also believe that I did flag the "/" partition as well, if I remember correctly.

Will running the install again and choosing to essentially "overwrite" the pre-existing linux partitions for the new install work smoothly? Just want to make sure as I have never done so.

Thank you for your response, I feel like I definitely am making this much more complicated than it needs to be lol
este.el.paz
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Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by este.el.paz »

zacharias_1440 wrote:@este.el.paz

When you ask about the "bios_grub" partition do you mean a partition for /boot? If so, then yes. If not, then that may be where I went wrong. I also believe that I did flag the "/" partition as well, if I remember correctly.

Will running the install again and choosing to essentially "overwrite" the pre-existing linux partitions for the new install work smoothly? Just want to make sure as I have never done so.

Thank you for your response, I feel like I definitely am making this much more complicated than it needs to be lol
@zacharias:

Well, on the "/boot" thingie . . . I've done so many different installs that some of the details evade me; but, if you can check in GParted from your liveusb . . . look and see if your install gave you a partition that is showing up . . . labeled as "bios_grub"? If it's there and you can see some data there, and you can see that the install has files installed in the filesystem, then maybe before you try another install, you might try to download and burn a "Supergrub2" disk . . . and see if you can boot the install using Supergrub2 . . . .

The other thing is, after the install, did you shut the computer down, OR, did you try to reboot without shutting it down? Sometimes it seems that the GRUB thing doesn't work until you cold boot the computer.

Lastly, to your question, right, if you run the installer again it will overwrite or will delete what is there in the installation process--no worries there. If you do it manually I think you have to re-flag the home partition, it won't just "know" it . . . and probably have to re-label the GRUB partition. But, depending on whether you have windows installed already, but, if you are feeling brave . . . I ****think**** the "Install next to" option on the installer it ****should**** set it up so that you can dual boot . . . without damaging what you have already there???????? I can't guarantee that from experience, but . . . it's supposed to "be easier" to install linux with a windows system, than it is with Apple . . . which is what I've been doing.

e.e.p.
MacPro '12 multiboot various linux OSs with some aging OSX's . . . .
gold_finger

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by gold_finger »

@zacharias_1440,

Entirely likely that you won't need to re-install.

If you made a /boot partition, then the code you used to re-install grub is wrong. That code applies if you didn't have a separate partition for /boot.

To be sure what's going on, boot-up with your live DVD/USB, open GParted and take a screenshot of the window showing your drive partitions. If GParted is not included on the live Mint, install it first:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install gparted
Use the "PrtScn" key to take screenshot, then rename the file to something without spaces and special characters (the forum interface won't accept the default filename when you try to upload it).

Also, using the terminal, enter the following two commands and copy/paste the full output of them here for us to look as (they also show the partitioning of the drive):

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -l

Code: Select all

sudo parted -l
(Note: those are both ending in lowercase "L's", not number 1.)
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

este.el.paz wrote:
@zacharias:

Well, on the "/boot" thingie . . . I've done so many different installs that some of the details evade me; but, if you can check in GParted from your liveusb . . . look and see if your install gave you a partition that is showing up . . . labeled as "bios_grub"? If it's there and you can see some data there, and you can see that the install has files installed in the filesystem, then maybe before you try another install, you might try to download and burn a "Supergrub2" disk . . . and see if you can boot the install using Supergrub2 . . . .

The other thing is, after the install, did you shut the computer down, OR, did you try to reboot without shutting it down? Sometimes it seems that the GRUB thing doesn't work until you cold boot the computer.

Lastly, to your question, right, if you run the installer again it will overwrite or will delete what is there in the installation process--no worries there. If you do it manually I think you have to re-flag the home partition, it won't just "know" it . . . and probably have to re-label the GRUB partition. But, depending on whether you have windows installed already, but, if you are feeling brave . . . I ****think**** the "Install next to" option on the installer it ****should**** set it up so that you can dual boot . . . without damaging what you have already there???????? I can't guarantee that from experience, but . . . it's supposed to "be easier" to install linux with a windows system, than it is with Apple . . . which is what I've been doing.

e.e.p.
Looking at Gparted from my live usb, I do not see any partition explicitly labeled as "bios_grub", but I do see my "/", "/boot", and "/home" partitions that I created during the install (not to mention the swap partition). Not sure if that helps any.

After I finished the install I did shut down the computer, and did so again quite a few times after trying to reinstall and update the GRUB.

Right, okay thanks a ton for your insight. I just asked a buddy of mine about this issue and he said he might have an idea that could help, otherwise I will resort to burning a Supergrub 2 disc and seeing where that takes me. If all else fails I will attempt to just reinstall everything and go from there.

I will keep you posted on any progress or lack thereof.
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

Okay, so my buddy offered an interesting method that he said had worked for him in a similar situation, and seemingly, it worked for me as well.

I was skeptical about this, as it explicitly states that this method works for ubuntu distros only, but it seemed to have given me a solution regardless:

First, I went to https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair in order to get the boot repair installed while running off of my live usb, installing it off of the terminal as directed.
Once installed, I used the recommended repair option which walked me through a few steps and gave code to input into the terminal. This took quite some time (to allow the program to fix the issues), but it finished and said it did so successfully.

This is where I thought things were a bit hairy. I reboot my laptop (with the live USB removed), and the GRUB MENU appears...but it's showing to boot into an Ubuntu distro...strange, but it boots into Mint no problems (at which point i about crapped my pants in delight)
I then proceeded to reinstall the GRUB in my Mint distro via the methods mentioned above, reboot my computer, and BOOM. The GRUB menu appears as it should, showing my LinuxMint and Windows7 options.

I have booted into both OS's and they are both running smooth as silk. (again...almost crapped pants in delight)


In rectrospect, I don't know how "appropriate" this method was, but it seemed to give me a viable solution.
Any advice as to if this will give me problems down the road is greatly appreciated, otherwise I'm going to dub this problem as solved.
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

@gold_finger

As I mentioned in the reply above, I SEEM to have fixed my problem, and am currently running Mint off of my hard drive.


The output is interesting to me as per sudo parted -l, I see that there are no flags on sda5 (which I created as my "/" partition), on sda6 (my "/boot" partition), or on sda8 (my "/home" partition). Would this be reason for concern?
Last edited by zacharias_1440 on Sun Mar 09, 2014 7:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
gold_finger

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by gold_finger »

zacharias_1440 wrote:In rectrospect, I don't know how "appropriate" this method was, but it seemed to give me a viable solution.
Any advice as to if this will give me problems down the road is greatly appreciated, otherwise I'm going to dub this problem as solved.
That is a perfectly appropriate way to fix things. I almost recommended that on my first post, but decided to ask for output instead just in case there was something peculiar going on with the partitions. Boot-Repair disc works with Mint because it is based on Ubuntu. Most things that work in Ubuntu work for Mint as well.

Don't worry about the "boot" flag. Your system is working now -- you're good to go.
zacharias_1440

Re: Dual Boot/GRUB Issues

Post by zacharias_1440 »

gold_finger wrote:
That is a perfectly appropriate way to fix things. I almost recommended that on my first post, but decided to ask for output instead just in case there was something peculiar going on with the partitions. Boot-Repair disc works with Mint because it is based on Ubuntu. Most things that work in Ubuntu work for Mint as well.

Don't worry about the "boot" flag. Your system is working now -- you're good to go.
Awesome, thank you so much for your help and clarification.

Thanks to everyone else who replied too; this forum is awesome and it seems as though everyone on here is incredibly eager to help. Definitely helps encourage me to spend more time on here while becoming a more competent linux user.
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