Can't boot after kernel updates

[xenogere]

I admit I've had a plethora of problems since upgrading to 14.04 from 13.10. For example, my wi-fi connection now fails regularly and requires a reboot to fix. And my laptop can no longer suspend on its own (always reporting a 'Power Manager: Not authorized' error). Or having i8kmon fail to control the laptop fan, instead having it spin up then slow down, spin up then slow down, and spin up then slow down, all while the CPU and HD temperatures continue to rise. But I'm OK with this litany of problems simply because I can work around them.

Only now I can't boot without manual intervention.

This morning I was prompted to install several upgrades:

gettext:i386 (0.18.3.1-1ubuntu2, 0.18.3.1-1ubuntu3)
libgettextpo0:i386 (0.18.3.1-1ubuntu2, 0.18.3.1-1ubuntu3)
linux-image-extra-3.13.0-24-generic:i386 (3.13.0-24.46, 3.13.0-24.47)
libgettextpo-dev:i386 (0.18.3.1-1ubuntu2, 0.18.3.1-1ubuntu3)
openssl:i386 (1.0.1f-1ubuntu2, 1.0.1f-1ubuntu2.1)
linux-libc-dev:i386 (3.13.0-24.46, 3.13.0-24.47)
linux-headers-3.13.0-24:i386 (3.13.0-24.46, 3.13.0-24.47)
gettext-base:i386 (0.18.3.1-1ubuntu2, 0.18.3.1-1ubuntu3)
libasprintf-dev:i386 (0.18.3.1-1ubuntu2, 0.18.3.1-1ubuntu3)
libasprintf0c2:i386 (0.18.3.1-1ubuntu2, 0.18.3.1-1ubuntu3)
linux-headers-3.13.0-24-generic:i386 (3.13.0-24.46, 3.13.0-24.47)
linux-image-3.13.0-24-generic:i386 (3.13.0-24.46, 3.13.0-24.47)
libssl1.0.0:i386 (1.0.1f-1ubuntu2, 1.0.1f-1ubuntu2.1)

So I installed these updates. I was then told I needed to reboot. So I did. And now GRUB fails to boot Xubuntu. I get dropped to a grub> prompt.

Here's what I've tried.


sudo update-grub

That resulted in a new menu entry pointing to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which also fails to boot. And the other menu entries now fail to boot.

When at the grub> prompt:


set root=hd0,msdos5
set prefix=(hd0,msdos5)/boot/grub
configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg

That resulted in a return to the grub> prompt.

So when at the grub> prompt again:


set root=hd0,msdos5
set prefix=(hd0,msdos5)/boot/grub
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-24-generic root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-24-generic
boot

Immediately after entering the initrd command, I get this: "error: attempt to write outside of disk 'hd0'." Despite that, I can boot into Xubuntu with the boot command.

Attempting to use any of the grub menu options results in a crash where all sorts of lights start flashing and I have to hard-reboot the computer.

Obviously I'm not a technical idiot, though I'm not a Linux guru either. I'll admit that. Though I'll stress that I know what I'm doing.

So, where does this leave me? Having to manually boot the computer each time it restarts. The other 14.04 issues I've had are easy to work around. This one, however, irks me beyond my tolerance.

Any suggestions, recommendations or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!