Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

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mintypinky
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Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by mintypinky »

I just installed Fedora side-by-side with Mint and decided to restore Mint's grub because it looks nicer, but now I cannot access Fedora, since it's not listed in the grub.

I'm using Mint Cinnamon 20.3 and Fedora 36.

Neither update-grub and Grub Customizer can detect Fedora. Is there a way to have it detected or to add it manually?
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kc1di
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by kc1di »

Boot to Mint and go to a terminal and issue this command.

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub


reboot
See if Fedora is there.
Easy tips : https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/ Pjotr's Great Linux projects page.
Linux Mint Installation Guide: http://linuxmint-installation-guide.rea ... en/latest/
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JerryF
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by JerryF »

mintypinky wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 9:03 am I just installed Fedora side-by-side with Mint and decided to restore Mint's grub because it looks nicer, but now I cannot access Fedora, since it's not listed in the grub.

I'm using Mint Cinnamon 20.3 and Fedora 36.

Neither update-grub and Grub Customizer can detect Fedora. Is there a way to have it detected or to add it manually?
If you've used Grub Customizer, then that might be the problem. I had a similar situation where Windows was not being detected after using Grub Customizer.

-1 for Grub Customizer.
mintypinky
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by mintypinky »

kc1di wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 10:35 am Boot to Mint and go to a terminal and issue this command.

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub


reboot
See if Fedora is there.
I've tried that and it didn't work. To reinstall Mint's grub, I had run sudo grub-install <my-disk> and sudo update-grub.
JerryF wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 11:52 am
If you've used Grub Customizer, then that might be the problem. I had a similar situation where Windows was not being detected after using Grub Customizer.

-1 for Grub Customizer.
I never had any problems with Grub Customizer before. Could Grub Customizer have interfered with sudo update-grub?
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kc1di
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by kc1di »

When you install Fedora did you install Fedora's grub?
If so you'll have to go into grub and see if it found Mint if so you can change Fedora's boot order so that Mint will be the first to boot.
Also is this an UEFI system?
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mintypinky
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by mintypinky »

kc1di wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 1:13 pm When you install Fedora did you install Fedora's grub?
If so you'll have to go into grub and see if it found Mint if so you can change Fedora's boot order so that Mint will be the first to boot.
It is an UEFI system. I chose to use Mint's Grub because Fedora's grub has the wrong resolution. I was hoping there was another option.
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Maxwell-J
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by Maxwell-J »

-1 for Grub Customizer.
+1000 :D

and decided to restore Mint's grub

install mint grub again
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kc1di
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by kc1di »

mintypinky wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 6:48 pm
kc1di wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 1:13 pm When you install Fedora did you install Fedora's grub?
If so you'll have to go into grub and see if it found Mint if so you can change Fedora's boot order so that Mint will be the first to boot.
It is an UEFI system. I chose to use Mint's Grub because Fedora's grub has the wrong resolution. I was hoping there was another option.
Well was only asking because usually the last Distro you install is in control of grub , but if you did not install it from Fedora then that would not be the problem.

There are many reasons not to use grub-customizer info found here:
https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.c ... s.html#ID7
Depending upon what grub customizer has done you may need to reinstall.
Easy tips : https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/ Pjotr's Great Linux projects page.
Linux Mint Installation Guide: http://linuxmint-installation-guide.rea ... en/latest/
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by pbear »

mintypinky wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 9:03 am Is there a way to have it detected or to add it manually?
Maybe manually with a custom.cfg or 40_custom file, aka a configfile. That's the solution for booting Arch and Manjaro from Mint's Grub menu. Never heard of its being necessary with Fedora, but lots of things escape my notice. Have you inquired about this at Fedora's forum? They should know whether it's necessary. Anyhoo, I now use the label method, mentioned in the second post (Tips & Options), as it's easier and more intuitive than UUIDs.

FWIW, I doubt Grub Customizer has anything to do with the problem. If you want to remove it to test the question, this tutorial explains how. You can always reinstall GC after making the test.

ETA: Rereading my configfile tutorial, I realize its more complicated than necessary. In retrospect, I tried to cover too many permutations. Anyhoo, your case is simple. First, label the Fedora system partition. I'd use just Fedora (rather than Fedora-36) but that's up to you. Second, create your file. Open Terminal and run: sudo touch /boot/grub/config.cfg. Third, open the file for editing: xed admin:///boot/grub/config.cfg (or you could use nano). Fourth, copy in this text:

Code: Select all

menuentry "Fedora" {
    insmod gpt
    insmod ext4
    search --no-floppy --label --set=root Fedora
    configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
}
menuentry "System shutdown" {
	echo "System shutting down..."
	halt
}
menuentry "System restart" {
	echo "System rebooting..."
	reboot
}
This assumes your hard drive is formatted GPT (for UEFI). If it's formatted MBR (for BIOS), replace gpt with msdos. The second and third entries aren't essential, but they're handy. Fifth, save file and exit xed; ignore squawk about specified location not mounted. That's it. Reboot and you should see those three options added to the boot menu.

If Fedora won't boot from this entry, it might be because its boot file is someplace or something other than /boot/grub/grub.cfg. This is a problem with a btrfs system, for example (the location is /@/boot/grub/grub.cfg). Indeed, as I recall, the same thing causes update-grub to fail, but I might be remembering incorrectly.
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by mintypinky »

I could get the entries to show on Grub, but Fedora really didn't boot when clicking on its entry.

Is there a way to make it to get the right boot file, if that's indeed the problem?
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by pbear »

In Mint, open File Manager and click the Fedora partition. Go to /boot/grub. Is there a file there called grub.cfg?

By the way, to confirm the custom.cfg file works, please test the reboot option.
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by JerryF »

mintypinky wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 12:49 pm ...
I never had any problems with Grub Customizer before. Could Grub Customizer have interfered with sudo update-grub?
It's possible. That was another side effect when I had used Grub Customizer.
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by pbear »

That reminds me. As the custom.cfg file hasn't solved the problem easily, please report the output of sudo os-prober.
mintypinky
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by mintypinky »

pbear wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 10:54 am In Mint, open File Manager and click the Fedora partition. Go to /boot/grub. Is there a file there called grub.cfg?

By the way, to confirm the custom.cfg file works, please test the reboot option.
The custom.cfg didn't work, so I created a 40_custom file instead, and that showed the entries in the grub.
I tested the shutdown option and it worker as intended.

There is a grub.cfg file at /root/boot/grub2, although there is no mention of the word "Fedora".
pbear wrote: Tue May 17, 2022 12:07 pm That reminds me. As the custom.cfg file hasn't solved the problem easily, please report the output of sudo os-prober.

Code: Select all

$ sudo os-prober
  /dev/sda: open failed: No medium found
  /dev/sda: open failed: No medium found
/dev/nvme0n1p1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi:Windows Boot Manager:Windows:efi
pbear
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Re: Cannot see Fedora from Mint's grub

Post by pbear »

You're sure there's no grub.cfg file at /boot/grub? Cuz putting it under /root would be damn strange. No wonder os-prober can't find it. Frankly, that sounds like an installation error on the Fedora side, but I have zero experience with that OS ...

Anyhoo, the logical next step is to conform the last line of the Fedora entry in 40_custom to the full path of Fedora's grub.cfg file. At a guess, from what you wrote, /root/boot/grub2/grub.cfg, but you're the one looking at the file system.

Out of curiosity, when you say the custom.cfg file didn't work, do you mean the entries didn't appear on the Grub menu or that they appeared but didn't work? Also, are you still using Customizer?
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