ken35
August 4th, 2014, 08:06 PM
Recently I tried to install Mint 17 Mate (based on Ubuntu 14.04) on my trusty old Dell test PC. The OS worked from the CD and the install seemed to go fine. However, when I did the first reboot I only got as far as the grub menu. At that point the machine was totally unresponsive. Not even Ctrl-Alt-Del was recognized. So I then did a clean install of Ubuntu 14.04. Same thing. I have also tried Lubuntu 14.04. It does not work. I have two of these PCs and they have run Ubuntu from 6.something through 12.04 with no issues. I think I tried 13.something on the test one - not sure and I do not recall the results.
I reinstalled grub onto the Ubuntu 14.04 system from the live CD. No improvement.
I installed Fedora 20 Mate along side the non-functional Ubuntu 14.04 install and I can now boot either one! I have observed that Ubuntu 14.04. Lubuntu 14.04 and Mate 17 use GNU GRUB version 2.02~beta2-9 according to the grub menu. Fedora uses grub 2-2.00.25.fc20.i686. Smells like an issue with the Ubuntu version of grub to me.
For my next trick I did a clean install of Ubuntu 14.04. As expected it did not work. I then did an install of Lubuntu along side of the Ubuntu install. Again, both showed on the grub menu but the machine was frozen at that point. Considering that Ubuntu is based on Debian I installed Debian Wheezy alongside the other two operating systems. I can now boot to any of the three. The version of grub used by Debian is GNU GRUB version 1.99-27+deb7u.
I have not yet tried to reinstall grub from the Debian live CD onto a fresh Ubuntu install. I guess I might give that a try but... I have seen similar complaints but they generally involve installing beside *******, on an external drive, with a UEFI machine etc. Nothing as plain and simple as this.
Aside from reporting a bug against the Ubuntu version of grub, is there anything else I can do?
TIA,
Ken
I reinstalled grub onto the Ubuntu 14.04 system from the live CD. No improvement.
I installed Fedora 20 Mate along side the non-functional Ubuntu 14.04 install and I can now boot either one! I have observed that Ubuntu 14.04. Lubuntu 14.04 and Mate 17 use GNU GRUB version 2.02~beta2-9 according to the grub menu. Fedora uses grub 2-2.00.25.fc20.i686. Smells like an issue with the Ubuntu version of grub to me.
For my next trick I did a clean install of Ubuntu 14.04. As expected it did not work. I then did an install of Lubuntu along side of the Ubuntu install. Again, both showed on the grub menu but the machine was frozen at that point. Considering that Ubuntu is based on Debian I installed Debian Wheezy alongside the other two operating systems. I can now boot to any of the three. The version of grub used by Debian is GNU GRUB version 1.99-27+deb7u.
I have not yet tried to reinstall grub from the Debian live CD onto a fresh Ubuntu install. I guess I might give that a try but... I have seen similar complaints but they generally involve installing beside *******, on an external drive, with a UEFI machine etc. Nothing as plain and simple as this.
Aside from reporting a bug against the Ubuntu version of grub, is there anything else I can do?
TIA,
Ken