error: invalid arch independent ELF magic

[Atrytone]

I tried running the boot repair utility again.

Then I tried following the nice instructions here: http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair...buntu-live-cd/

Still getting a grub> prompt instead of a boot menu.

Haven't been able to figure out (yet) which sequence of manual commands I need to boot directly from the grub> prompt.

[oldfred]

Did you do the full install & reinstall. When I went to post commands below I noticed you are missing the link to the initrd.img in root

Normal using the links in root, but script does not show initrd.img:
set prefix=(hd0,5)/boot/grub
set root=(hd0,5)
linux (hd0,5)/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd (hd0,5)/initrd.img
boot

This may work, but if grub was not fullly configured?

set prefix=(hd0,5)/boot/grub
set root=(hd0,5)
linux (hd0,5)boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-21-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd (hd0,5)/boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-21-generic
boot

Another is the older -15 kernel. Change all the -21 to -15 to see if older version still works.

[Atrytone]

All of the variations I try of third line beginning with 'linux' give me the following error:

error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/linux.mod' not found

Will investigate this error with my own google searches, but thought I'd post it here since you've been so helpful

[oldfred]

Your boot script showed grub2 1.99 in MBR. But it is grub2 2.00 that now has all the mod files in another sub-directory i386-pc. Or versions do not match.

So did you reinstall grub with a newer version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu now seems to require you to use the same version for consistency.

Or from Boot-Repair use it to chroot and totally uninstall and reinstall grub2 from inside your install to you have version consistency.

To chroot, you need the same 32bit or 64 bit kernel. Best to use same version.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BasicChroot
drs305 chroot to purge & reinstall grub2
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1581099
kansasnoob- full chroot one line version with &&---- change sda3 to your install
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...2&postcount=10
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1470597

[Atrytone]

The version of Ubuntu I used to make my bootable usb and run the boot-repair was newer than my original Ubuntu install. Is that what you're thinking is causing the problem? I installed a newer version of grub and it's trying to boot to an older version of Ubuntu?

So uninstalling and re-installing grub might help, you seem to be saying. I'll try to do that and I'll sort through your links. Thanks again for the continued help.

[Atrytone]

I went ahead and just reinstalled Ubuntu as I didn't really have anything worth saving in my old install. Thanks again for the help!