[Boot-Repair] Graphical tool to repair the PC boot in one click

[TheChristianHippie]

Attempted to reinstall ubuntu in a dual-boot Win 8/Ubuntu 64bit machine (see this thread:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...7#post12605087 ) and now WINDOWS IS GONE. Apparently this option:

Erase Ubuntu-Secure-Remix 12.10 30nov2012 and reinstall
Warning** This will delete all your Ubuntu-Secure-Remix 12.10 30nov2012 programs,documents,photos,music, and any other files.

Actually means that NOT ONLY "Ubuntu-Secure-Remix 12.10 30nov2012 programs,documents,photos,music, and any other files" will be erased and Ubuntu reinstalled BUT THE WHOLE HDD will be reformatted, you will lose all your partitions and data, and then Ubuntu will be installed!

It kinda needs to say that.

I NEVER used Windows on this brand new computer, but I'm sure someone out there may have a pretty established Windows partition that they need for some reason and keep important files on and this option in Ubuntu-Remix IS NOT CLEAR about what it will do! Where do I go to suggest a wording change on this? I'm glad oldfred helped me back up all my kubuntu data..... but Windows is gone, and everything I might have had with it if I had been a windows-only user before trying Ubuntu. I hate to think of other people misunderstanding that option as I did!

[sudodus]

Attempted to reinstall ubuntu in a dual-boot Win 8/Ubuntu 64bit machine (see this thread:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...7#post12605087 ) and now WINDOWS IS GONE ... NOT ONLY "Ubuntu-Secure-Remix 12.10 30nov2012 programs,documents,photos,music, and any other files" will be erased and Ubuntu reinstalled BUT THE WHOLE HDD will be reformatted

Thanks for warning us

[sudodus]

Thanks for fixing the links, oldfred

This dual boot system seems to work properly now. I'll go on with it for a while until I decide if I want to go back to a standard bios system, and if I want Windows 7 or 8 alongside Ubuntu. I made some screenshots when I verified, that the time is correct after switching between the operating systems. The windows wallpaper looks nice, but in the long run 'Under my brother's ashtree' is nicer to my eyes and mind.

This saga doesn't stop there. Windows 8 and UEFI feels like quagmire. I think this happened after an update of Windows: The default boot option was hi-jacked, so it was Windows only. The grub menu could only be accessed by pressing F12 during boot. The standard one-click fix (Recommended Repair) with Yann's boot-repair script did not help. But when I ran 'Other Options' with 'Repair Windows boot files' ticked, I hi-jacked it back, so now I can enjoy a direct boot to Ubuntu again and select Windows in the grub menu.

Is this to be expected, that Windows will change the boot options to its favour without asking? Or can I change some option in Windows or the boot setup menus to avoid it?

I'm lucky enough to have Windows 8 optical media (two DVD disks), so I can 'downgrade' to non-uefi (csm) booting, but I thought it would be nice to have a system with UEFI to learn and get used to it.

[oldfred]

@sudodus
That sounds like Windows goes into UEFI and changes boot order. Somewhat like it installing its boot loader to the MBR.
You can now modify some UEFI settings using the efibootmgr, so that is what must be occurring.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UE...ing#UEFI_Shell
EFI/boot/bootx64.efi.efi" ---> Brings up 'EFI shell environment' with command prompt.
Launch EFI Shell from File System Device
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...ace#UEFI_Shell
http://software.intel.com/en-us/arti...and-scripting/

http://askubuntu.com/questions/63610...bios-boot-menu
http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr

Or it may be more like setting boot flag.

usage: efibootmgr [options]
-a | --active sets bootnum active
-A | --inactive sets bootnum inactive
-b | --bootnum XXXX modify BootXXXX (hex)
-B | --delete-bootnum delete bootnum (hex)

[fonnae]

Hello, I have a Windows 8 computer that I installed Ubuntu 12.10 on. My computer goes straight to windows on boot. The only way for me to get to Ubuntu is to hold F9 during startup. Then, I can choose Ubuntu, and then I get the grub menu.

I've tried doing boot-repair with the recommended settings. It finishes without error but does not correct the problem.

This has been going on for some time. I'm pretty sure that when I first installed ubuntu, grub functioned fine in the beginning but I did something with boot-repair *I think* when trying to change the order of items in the grub listed. (I wanted windows to be first on the list.) Ever since, grub has not appeared.

Here is my boot-info. http://paste.ubuntu.com/5617489/

Thanks in advance for your help. I love Ubuntu and would be really happy to have this resolved.

[oldfred]

It looks like you originally installed Ubuntu in BIOS mode. But it now is in UEFI mode.

If you go into UEFI and select ubuntu to boot does it not boot, that needs to be the default. Or with one time boot key your f9, but that is a one time change?

Because HP puts all sorts of repair efi files in the efi partition, Boot-Repair does add a lot of entries into the grub boot menu. But you should be able to then boot Windows from grub menu.

[fonnae]

Oldfred,

Not sure what you mean by:

If you go into UEFI and select ubuntu to boot does it not boot, that needs to be the default. Or with one time boot key your f9, but that is a one time change?

When I press F9 it takes me to a boot menu => Then I choose Ubuntu => Then I get to grub => Then I can choose Ubuntu or Windows and both work fine.

I would like to always be taken to grub without having to press F9. How can I do this?

Here is my boot-info. http://paste.ubuntu.com/5617489/

[oldfred]

UEFI/BIOS controls default start up. Similar to BIOS in selecting which hard drive, or making DVD first in boot order. With UEFI entries in the efi partition are all choices and can be changed on which is first or default.

Can press your key not f9 to get into UEFI and from there change default.

I think from grub you can use this also.

menuentry 'System setup' $menuentry_id_option 'uefi-firmware' { fwsetup }

[sudodus]

Oldfred,

Not sure what you mean by:



When I press F9 it takes me to a boot menu => Then I choose Ubuntu => Then I get to grub => Then I can choose Ubuntu or Windows and both work fine.

I would like to always be taken to grub without having to press F9. How can I do this?

Here is my boot-info. http://paste.ubuntu.com/5617489/

I'm also a newbie with UEFI, but the following method with YannUbuntu's boot-repair script solved a similar problem for me:

'Other Options' with 'Repair Windows boot files' ticked

This saga doesn't stop there. Windows 8 and UEFI feels like quagmire. I think this happened after an update of Windows: The default boot option was hi-jacked, so it was Windows only. The grub menu could only be accessed by pressing F12 during boot. The standard one-click fix (Recommended Repair) with Yann's boot-repair script did not help. But when I ran 'Other Options' with 'Repair Windows boot files' ticked, I hi-jacked it back, so now I can enjoy a direct boot to Ubuntu again and select Windows in the grub menu.

Is this to be expected, that Windows will change the boot options to its favour without asking? Or can I change some option in Windows or the boot setup menus to avoid it?

I'm lucky enough to have Windows 8 optical media (two DVD disks), so I can 'downgrade' to non-uefi (csm) booting, but I thought it would be nice to have a system with UEFI to learn and get used to it.

[sudodus]

I'm hoping this is the right thread for this. I am attempting to install ubuntu 13.04 on my desktop system. Here's the skinny on my setup. I was originally running 11.04 on an 80 gb. After constantly running out of space I bought a 1 tb and installed 11.04 on it as well. I then ran off of it since it was considerably faster than the 80 gb hdd. However, at some point, something happened to grub. So, I simply reverted to booting from the 80 gb drive and then mounting the 1 tb whenever I wanted access to my media.

I recently purchased a 2 tb external drive to provide backup. Now I want to relegate the 80 gb hdd to the dustbin. I made a live usb with 13.04 but after trying to repair grub on the 1 tb drive, I can't get anything to boot from the usb. At the bios menu I select the appropriate choices to ensure that the usb is first in the boot order. But, as the system verifies the data pool, it goes to the grub prompt. This is on the 80 gb drive which was running fine. I can't even get past the grub prompt if I remove the live usb. The 1 tb drive goes to the grub rescue prompt.

I am at a complete loss. Yes, I need to repair the PC boot. But, I can't even get to a place where I can do that!

Thanks for your help on this.

I guess you have a fairly old system, but I'm not sure. Please post the specs, at least cpu, ram, graphics card/chip and it will be easier to give good advice

Can you boot from the live usb, if you disconnect the hard disk drives?

Is it a persistent live usb drive?

Is there any hotkey to give you a temporary boot menu (to select, which drive to boot from)?

Do you have another computer, where you can create a new live usb drive, or check the hard disk drives for errors?