New dual boot setup is missing boot menu

[deaks63]

I recently installed the latest Lubuntu alongside Windows 7, on an old Dell all in one machine.
The install seemed to go fine, but on startup there's no option to select between Windows or Lubuntu and, the system boots into Lubuntu.
I've used 'boot-repair' to generate a summary report and uploaded to https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/2QpCVS2Jcw/

Any help would be appreciated.

[tea for one]

While you are booted into Lubuntu, can you edit your grub configuration as follows:-

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR='Ubuntu'
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT='quiet splash'
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Ctrl O to save & Ctrl X to exit

sudo update-grub

Power off and power on
Any joy?

[tea for one]

Also, Windows 7 reached End of Life in January 2020 and it should not be used for internet activity

[deaks63]

Thanks for that. I now have a boot menu but there's no option for Windows.

Here's the output of sudo update-grub

Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/lubuntu-grub-theme.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /usr/share/grub/themes/lubuntu-grub-theme/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-41-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-41-generic
Found memtest86+x64 image: /boot/memtest86+x64.bin
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Found Windows 7 on /dev/sda1
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

Kind of looks like it would work, but no such luck!

[guiverc]

I'll add this, but I'm unsure if this is your issue or not.. Your description (install alongside I'm assuming) would not be expected to trigger this, but I'll provide it.

In QA (Quality Assurance testing) I encountered an situation where grub wouldn't offer a dual boot though I already had two OSes and it was triggered when you installed into (without format) the first installed system's partition on the disk (as that OS wasn't aware of another OS), so I'll provide the bug report.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/2060624

If this is the issue, just flipping the OS_PROBER flag will fix it... This bug just cases the upstream GRUB default to be used (ie. no scan for other OSes is done) and doesn't use the Ubuntu patches that cause dualboot scans by default.

On my system (dual boot Lubuntu) I have grub showing me my other OS (I'm using oracular currently; it allows me to select my LTS or noble install) and the following check is what I see when looking at my current OS_PROBER state

guiverc@d7050-next:~/uwn/issues/855$   grep OS_PROBER /etc/default/grub 
#GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

I wonder what you have for that line, is it commented out as mine is?

Probably worth a check.

[deaks63]

I've got this, having previously uncommented the line as suggested by tea for one

simon@till2:~$ grep OS_PROBER /etc/default/grub
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

[deaks63]

It doesn't seem to matter whether that line is commented out or not, the output of sudo update-grub is the same!

simon@till2:~$ sudo update-grub
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/lubuntu-grub-theme.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /usr/share/grub/themes/lubuntu-grub-theme/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-41-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-41-generic
Found memtest86+x64 image: /boot/memtest86+x64.bin
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Found Windows 7 on /dev/sda1
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

os-prober still runs and finds Windows 7

[yancek]

Go to your /boot/grub/grub.cfg file and find the menuentry for windows 7 and post it here. Is sda1 your original windows 7 /boot partition?

[oldfred]

Please use code tags for terminal or text output.
If using Quick Reply then [CODE] at the beginning and [/CODE] at the end.
Easy to add with Forum's Go Advanced editor and # icon.
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread....8#post12776168

Did you also change this entry as tea for one suggested?

GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu

And/or, can you hold shift key from BIOS menu until grub would normally appear?

Note, to make Windows repairs on your system, you may have to temporarily reinstall Windows boot loader to MBR.
But Windows uses boot flag, grub does not. But you now have boot flag on Linux partition. Use gparted to moved flag back to sda1.

[deaks63]

@yancek

simon@till2:~$ sudo grep windows /boot/grub/grub.cfg 
menuentry 'Windows 7 (on /dev/sda1)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-CE3A91293A910F97' {
menuentry 'Windows 7 (on /dev/sda2)' --class windows --class os $menuentry_id_option 'osprober-chain-0064928B649282D8' {

@oldfred

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR='Ubuntu'
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT='quiet splash'
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# If your computer has multiple operating systems installed, then you
# probably want to run os-prober. However, if your computer is a host
# for guest OSes installed via LVM or raw disk devices, running
# os-prober can cause damage to those guest OSes as it mounts
# filesystems to look for things.
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

I also applied the boot-repair fix but to no avail.
I'll reboot and hold shift key down now.