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

[oldfred]

Boot-Repair suggests the separate /boot for those with issues. That includes grub & the kernel.
I tend to prefer the smaller / so all system files are together. But I install many systems and share data so what works for me is not always the best for everyone else.

Boot-Repair uses pastebin to post the long results it creates. I do not know details on using pastebin.

I doubt if posting the entire thing helps, especially on the one that works. You want to go back to the one that did not work in the log history.
I look thru dmesg for errors, repeated attempts at loading or mounting something and eventual failure, or very long times between entries.

Some systems need extra boot parameters to work or work well, but I do not know details. You can use e on grub menu and add a boot parameter to try. But best to see if someone had similar issue with same system.

Mostly on video as that is a common issue, but also other boot parameters.How to set NOMODESET and other kernel boot options in grub2 - both liveCD & first boot, but different
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions


Most of this is for older systems.
http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Docum...parameters.txt
noapic nolapic noapci noirqpoll nosmp irqpoll
http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentat...parameters.txt


With 11.04:SandyBridge
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1817374
acpi_osi=linux pci=noacpi
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1900897

[SOLVED] UEFI Boot Problems
quiet splash vt.handoff=7 rootdelay=90 reboot=a,w
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1857639

[RonCam]

I see YannUbuntu has a very popular utility. I just noted this is a 'Variants' forum, so I hope no one minds that I have LinuxMint. Can you help me.

I have system with a motherboard about 5-7 years old with a triple-boot to Windows 2000 Pro, Windows 7 Pro, and LinuxMint 12. The MBR was set up to go to Windows 7 first and from that boot menu, to any of the three operating systems.

A couple of weeks ago the Mint menu selection stopped working, by giving only a black screen that required a hard system reset, to recover.

This has happed in the past when I only knew about EasyBCD. Since it's already installed on the MS operating system, I ran it several times, but unlike before, each time it failed: the Mint menu selection was still 'dead'.

Searching for an alternative utility, I discovered and installed Boot-Repair into Mint, after 'getting into' this operating system with a utility that locates and starts a 'dead' Linux installation, I imagine by bypassing a damaged grub.

Once Mint was running, and Boot-Repair installed from its PPA, I selected the default repair. However, Boot-Repair aborted before going to completion, with this error message, in the command window:

ron@mint12-desktop ~ $ sudo apt-get install -y --force-yes grub-pc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 grub-pc : Depends: grub-gfxpayload-lists but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Then I followed the directions to save a bootinfo summary, should the repair fail. I suspect my MBR is now gone, and am wondering if that was saved somewhere and is waiting be restored, if only I can get the utility to go to completion:
http://paste2.org/p/2822778

Can someone evaluate my bootinfo and advise as to my next step?

[oldfred]

I do not know EasyBCD, but it uses grub4dos to chain load to a grub install in a Partition boot sector or PBR. I see boot script now shows the mbr.bin files. So both the mbr.bin has to point to the correct grub and the grub in the PBR has to be updated when grub is updated in system.

But since you have multiple drives why not install grub to sdb or sdc if they also are internal drives. Then you can boot grub directly?

If you are in your install you should be able to run this to install grub to sdb.

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb

But you may need to do this so on future updates grub reinstalls to correct place.
#to get grub2 to remember where to reinstall on updates:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
#Enter thru first pages,spacebar to choose/unchoose drive, enter to accept, do not choose partitions


#To see what drive grub2 uses to reinstall see this - grub-pc/install_devices:
sudo debconf-show grub-pc
sudo grub-probe -t device /boot/grub

You can get help on EasyBCD here:
http://neosmart.net/blog/
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Linux
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Ubuntu

[RonCam]

... since you have multiple drives why not install grub to sdb or sdc [but only] if they are also internal drives. Then you can boot grub directly?

Sorry that sdb and sdc appeared as internal drives on the summary. Has my neglecting to say otherwise has led you to very kindly explain in detail how to solve the problem -- by using these drives to receive the grub installation?

Please let me know how much of your reply relates to getting grub to work again in its original location, and that would be on sda9. Can I do this with Boot-Repair?

For reference, sda10 is root, sda11 is swap, and sda12 is home. I'm looking at the drives now, in Disk Utility.

You probably have this in your answer, but I'm afraid I'm too much of a 'noob' to see where the directions for installing grub on the external USB drives leaves off, and where the directions for installing it to the internal (sda) drive begins!

Thanks, your patience is appreciated.

[oldfred]

I do not know how to fix EasyBCD. But if you install grub2 to sdb or sdc then you can boot Ubuntu directly. EasyBCD may then be able to use the install in the MBR as that is a lot more reliable than an install to a partition.

Once you have booted then you may be able to force grub into a partition, but it does not like to install there.
Boot-Repair may also let you force grub to a partition.

My standard instructions say not to install to a partition, but in your case you may want to.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
#Enter thru first pages,spacebar to choose/unchoose drive, enter to accept, do not choose partitions

[YannBuntu]

Hello

ron@mint12-desktop ~ $ sudo apt-get install -y --force-yes grub-pc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 grub-pc : Depends: grub-gfxpayload-lists but it is not installable
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

I guess you followed the previous commands given by B-R (dpkg, and install -f), but they gave no error?
If yes, then your easiest way to fix your broken packages/dependencies is to use an Ubuntu disk this way: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuReinstallation

[RonCam]

I do not know how to fix EasyBCD.

Sorry I confused the thread by mentioning the name of EasyBCD. I would expect everyone here to be experts on Boot-Repair, but not EasyBCD!

... if you install grub2 to sdb or sdc then you can boot Ubuntu directly. EasyBCD may then be able to use the install in the MBR as that is a lot more reliable than an install to a partition.

Thanks for your patience in explaining that again. I think it's what you said the first time, but I thought I must be misunderstanding ... since I didn't know it would work, to have /swap, /root and /home on an internal drive, and the corresponding /boot, with grub, on an external USB drive (as are /sdb and /sdc).

Boot-Repair may also let you force grub to a partition.

May I guess, this would be done somewhere in the Advanced Configuration?

sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

#Enter thru first pages,spacebar to choose/unchoose drive, enter to accept, do not choose partitions

The part about not choosing a partition is interesting, because I thought I saw a progress message while Boot-Repair was running to the effect it was trying to install grub into sda10. But sda9 is /boot -- sda10 is /root. Unfortunately these progress messages so far as I know are not saved for future reference.

Would I not want to force grub into /boot, should it 'try' to go elsewhere? At any rate, this is what I recall about the 'old' grub.
I see 'the boss' is recommending an different approach, bypassing Boot-Repair altogether. Perhaps I should try this next? Anyway, I am learning a lot ...

[RonCam]

I guess you followed the previous commands given by B-R (dpkg, and install -f), but they gave no error?

So far as I can recall, yes. I followed the prompts as to what to put into the command line, and cut and pasted to avoid errors. Things didn't abort until the end, with the posted text.

If yes, then your easiest way to fix your broken packages/dependencies is to use an Ubuntu disk this way: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuReinstallation

OK will go ahead, and in my case, would it be best to do what's described there with my LinuxMint 12 disc? Will follow that link, next, and get back if this doesn't work out.

In the time since writing my request for help, I have tried twice more with Boot-Repair: once the same installation inside LinuxMint, and the second time, the Debian boot disc with the utility pre-installed. Now it's a little different: I don't get to go so far, and make command line entries, finishing up with an abortive stop in the command box.

Now after I click the button, and the scanning completes, there is immediately a message telling me to create a 'bis' and forward it, followed by a smooth program termination when the button is clicked.

The following are from the utility (1) as installed (in Mint) and (2) as run from the live Debian disc:

http://paste2.org/p/2825935
http://paste2.org/p/2825952

I thought these might show something of interest, to YannBuntu. By the way (I saw the post on SourceForge from someone with problems) the Debian disc is booting fine, even though with some distros i need the parameter radeon.modeset=0, to avoid a black screen. I have one of the Radeon/AMD graphics cards that's prone to do this.

[oldfred]

I guess I did not realize all your other drivers were external. But that is not critical to having grub in the external to boot with if need be. You just could not use an external drive with EasyBCD as then it may not be there.

I do not have any external drives, but several flash drives. I actually do a full install of grub (not Ubuntu) to every flash drive and manually create a grub.cfg which can boot multiple installs on any of my internal drive.
But you can still have a grub install on an external pointing to an install on the internal and just directly boot that in an emergency.

If installing grub to a PBR, it really does not matter whether it is /boot or / (root), just never to a NTFS partition.

[amg11901]

I need some help. My windows just dont boot, Ive tried everything. After doing a recommended boot repair fix, the only information that I have is

http://paste.ubuntu.com/1606937/

Any help is welcome.

Adrian