I screwed up an EFI boot loader [SOLVED]

[JerryF]

Some progress. Thanks for the help, looks, good vibes.

If I try to use kernel 4.10, I get prompted to "skip mounting or mount manually"

For some reason I thought I should try kernel 3.19.

Well, that works. I'm currently updating my packages.

So: questions

1) why isn't kernel 4.10 working.

2) I have lost my ability to dual boot into my uefi windows 8.1 partition. I think I'm receiving a message from grub that file isn't found.

3) I seem to recall that kernel 3.19 is susceptible to that easy hack..what was it called? The cow one. Dirty cow (needed to google it).

4) less of a question than an observation: when performing boot-repair, I saw an advanced option "secure boot" and it was clicked by default. I seem to recall that this should be disabled in the bios for windows uefi boot and so wonder if this might be interfering with my accessing windows.

edit:

Here is my boot-repair pastebin output

1. Because you've installed 17.3, you should stick to the kernel series that is for 17.3. I'm not sure which that is, but I'd go into Update Manager, View menu, Linux kernels. Look for the recommended one (stability or security---your choice).
   
   I have 18.1 and this is what it shows for me:
   Capture_002.jpg
   I chose 4.4.0-72 as my active kernel because it's the recommended one for security and there is no reason for me to upgrade to the 4.8 or 4.10. Plus it's usually more stable to remain in the series for your Mint version.
2. I had the same problem with my UEFI setup on my laptop. I never got it resolved, but that's just my older laptop having an "experimental UEFI" in BIOS settings.
   I take it that Boot Repair got you to boot into Mint 17.3, but that's all it will do---no Windows 8.1?
3. I believe the Dirty Cow vulnerability has been fixed in all kernels.
4. Can't answer. Don't know what that option does.

[briholt]

Everything in your last post is helpful or confirmatory, such that I'm considering making this issue 'solved'. I'll first get my kernel's straight.

I take it that Boot Repair got you to boot into Mint 17.3, but that's all it will do---no Windows 8.1?

Regarding that item about no windows 8.1, yes, I can't seem to get into windows 8.1 dual boot. I'm going to update my kernel, (remove 4.10, too) and then see what that leaves me with.

If I can't get the dual boot win 8.1 to boot, I'll make a new thread.

[briholt]

So, I'm trying to clean up my grub with it's options of kernels. In my grub menu, I have many kernel options. If I just check to see what kernel images exist, it's just 3.19, which according to the package manager is the recommended kernel for my system.

Code: Select all

brian # uname -r
3.19.0-32-generic
Dater brian # dpkg --list | grep linux-image 
ii  linux-image-3.19.0-32-generic               3.19.0-32.37~14.04.1                              amd64        Linux kernel image for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii  linux-image-extra-3.19.0-32-generic         3.19.0-32.37~14.04.1                              amd64        Linux kernel extra modules for version 3.19.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP

But if I update grub:

Code: Select all

brian # sudo update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.10.1-041001-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.10.1-041001-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.19.0-32-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.19.0-32-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-29-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-29-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-25-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.16.0-25-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-116-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-116-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
  No volume groups found
Found Windows Boot Manager on /dev/sda1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

I'm simply trying to clean up my grub menu options so that when booting, grub automatically selects kernel 3.19 (which in this case is the only kernel I want, anyway).

I see if I go to /boot/grub/grub.cfg, I see a whole list of mentions of different kernels.

Any advice how to reconcile and clean this up?

[JerryF]

Everything in your last post is helpful or confirmatory, such that I'm considering making this issue 'solved'. I'll first get my kernel's straight.

Regarding that item about no windows 8.1, yes, I can't seem to get into windows 8.1 dual boot. I'm going to update my kernel, (remove 4.10, too) and then see what that leaves me with.

If I can't get the dual boot win 8.1 to boot, I'll make a new thread.

Boot Repair should have purged and reinstalled the GRUB menu and then inserted Windows 8.1 as a selection.

I know a lot of the members "in the know" here don't recommend using the following program, but it solved my boot and grub problem. It's called Grub Customizer.
https://launchpad.net/~danielrichter200 ... customizer

I had to manually insert Windows 10 into the list. If you have any questions about how to use it, reply to this post, private message me or email me through the forum.