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

[greenewbie]

@greenewbie: the procedure is detailed here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info

YannBuntu

The URL for my BootInfo summary is:

http://paste2.org/p/2526480

I've just looked at it and my goodness it looks complicated! I don't understand why there are so many partitions on it. All I (thought I) did was to create just one partition for Ubuntu, leaving the other for XP (which had been installed already, as the ONLY OS). What did I do wrong?!

Thanks in advance for any help!

[oldfred]

@greenewbie
It looks like you may have tried to install Ubuntu several times and it created swap partitions each time. Only sda6 is shown as swap, sda5 looks like an encrypted swap and both sda7 and swap on sda8 seem to have errors.

Boot-Repair can run fsck, but Yann will have to explain details as I have not run it from Boot-Repair.

You can just run e2fsck from terminal on Ubuntu liveCd.

#From liveCD so everything is unmounted,swap off if necessary, change example shown with partition sdb1 to your partition(s)
#e2fsck is used to check the ext2/ext3/ext4 family of file systems. -p trys fixes where response not required
sudo e2fsck -C0 -p -f -v /dev/sda7
#if errors: -y auto answers yes for fixes needing response see man e2fsck
sudo e2fsck -f -y -v /dev/sda7


Your Windows issue may also be that it needs chkdsk from a XP disk.

[YannBuntu]

YannBuntu
Will Boot Repair fix it back into EFI mode?

To know what the Recommended Repair will do, just click the "Create BootInfo" button, and look at the bottom of the log (URL) it creates. For example, in your last log, we can read:

Recommended-Repair
This setting would reinstall the grub-efi of sda3, using the following options:        sda1/boot/efi,
Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s    backup-and-rename-efi-files

So yes it will fix back in EFI mode.


@greenewbie: as OldFred said, you have a broken filesystem. Boot-Repair will automatically try to fix it via fsck. I recommend you don't use Boot-Repair-Disk (which includes an old version of fsck), but Ubuntu-Secure-Disk, or a recent Ubuntu disk in which you will install Boot-Repair (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bo...pair_in_Ubuntu ). Or use the commands provided by OldFred.

[greenewbie]

@greenewbie: as OldFred said, you have a broken filesystem. Boot-Repair will automatically try to fix it via fsck. I recommend you don't use Boot-Repair-Disk (which includes an old version of fsck), but Ubuntu-Secure-Disk, or a recent Ubuntu disk in which you will install Boot-Repair (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Bo...pair_in_Ubuntu ). Or use the commands provided by OldFred.[/QUOTE]

Many thanks YannBuntu and OldFred for your help. Unfortunately I'm totally lost with the manual commands given by OldFred (it's me who's the problem, not OldFred, let's be clear!

So I've tried to follow your advice YannBuntu, but I've encountered problems:

- I tried to make a copy of the Ubuntu secure disk but it's apparently too big to go on a normal CD. The computer I'm using at the moment doesn't burn DVDs. But I can apparently put it on a USB stick?

- I successfully opened a Terminal using 12.04 Live CD (by the way my problem machine is still on 11.10). I entered your first command (checking it several times):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

My terminal reported "command not found"

Just to try it, on entering your second command:
sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair && boot-repair

My terminal read the state information etc but reported on the last line:
E: Unable to locate package boot-repair

Depending on what you recommend now, I may well try to put the secure disk on a USB stick but I've never done that before.....

My head hurts!

[YannBuntu]

I can apparently put it on a USB stick?

Yes. But as you already have a 12.04 liveCD, i recommend you use the commands below:

I successfully opened a Terminal using 12.04 Live CD (by the way my problem machine is still on 11.10). I entered your first command (checking it several times):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair && sudo apt-get update

My terminal reported "command not found"

Strange.
Please boot your liveCD, choose "Try Ubuntu", connect internet, and type theses commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair

Press Enter. Then:

sudo apt-get update

Press Enter. Then:

sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair

Press Enter. Then:

boot-repair

[oldfred]

Yann mentions type, but you can copy & paste and that works much better to avoid typos. Even spaces can be important.

[YannBuntu]

Following this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2089197 , let me detail what the Advanced options --> "Backup and rename EFI file" and "Restore EFI backups" options currently do:

1) the "Backup and rename EFI file" option is enabled by default when the "Separate /boot/efi partition" option is ticked. (which means that Boot-Repair will install grub-efi , not grub-pc)
2) this option will first check that grub-efi has been installed successfully (if not it won't proceed)
3) it will scan all the EFI partitions. In each, it will check the presence/absence of 3 files:
Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Microsoft/Boot/bootx64.efi
Boot/bootx64.efi
4) if one of these files are missing (let's say Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi is missing), it will duplicate the grub efi file (or shim efi file if SecureBoot enabled) to Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi . And, in order to remember that the Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi file is indeed a grub one, it will also create a Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.grb file.
5) if either the Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi or Boot/bootx64.efi is present and is original (there is no Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.grb or Boot/bootx64.efi.grb file), the "Backup and rename EFI file" option will rename the file to *.efi.bkp , and copy the grub efi file instead. Eg, if there is Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi but no Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.grb , it will rename Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi to Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.bkp , then copy the grub efi file to Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.

Why? simply because some UEFI firmwares are hard-coded to boot only to 1 specific location (eg /efi/Boot/bootx64.efi) and do not give any option to boot eg /efi/Ubuntu/grubx64.efi . Examples: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...6#post12366736 and http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=107246

Now, let's detail what the "Restore EFI backups" option does:
- if a *.efi.grb exists, it will delete both the *.efi.grb and the corresponding *.efi files.
- if a *.efi.bkp exists, it will delete the corresponding *.efi file then rename the *.efi.bkp file to *.efi

[inestimabil]

Hello, can anyoane help me, please!
I had a dual boot win7 and backtrack5, and I replaced backtrack with ubuntu 12.1...but I cant boot anymore...Im havint "the grub error" message. So I boot from a usb stick with ubuntu 12.1, I installed boot repair, but at one time, the program is asking me to hit the YES button to remove the old grub...How can i hit the yes button, its impossible...please help!

[YannBuntu]

@inestimabil: The image displayed by Boot-Repair is just an illustration, so it's normal you can't click on it. When you see this window, you need to open a new terminal (eg via the Ctrl+Alt+T keys), then type the commands that are indicated. After typing these commands, a blue window will appear, and you will be able to use the keyboard in it.

[gemini44]

hi yannbuntu and all,
sorry about my bad english,
i have mbpro 7.1 and i installed efi grub loader 64 bit. i m using mint mate 14. i boot and use my laptop normally via nouveau drivers but when i install nvidia proprietary driver, efi boots but finally screen totally turns off.
is it about efi or nvidia drivers? solution???
thanks alot.