dual boot issue

[atanere]

nvme1n1 259:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─nvme1n1p1 259:1 0 94M 0 part
├─nvme1n1p2 259:2 0 93.1G 0 part /mnt/6e6c4507-7bc0-4e22-95bb-2a6799bda688
├─nvme1n1p3 259:3 0 15M 0 part [SWAP]
└─nvme1n1p4 259:4 0 838.3G 0 part /mnt/81c74b42-8b66-40e9-9996-89982dbdb6cf
nvme0n1 259:5 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:6 0 94M 0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:7 0 14M 0 part [SWAP]
├─nvme0n1p3 259:8 0 93.1G 0 part /
└─nvme0n1p4 259:9 0 838.3G 0 part /home

nvme0 is working, nvme1 does not. And I see why now. So, how can I get /boot/efi put back on nvme1n1p1?

You're exactly right. You need /boot/efi on nvme1n1p1. It is a 94M partition, just like the other drive. And the boot files are quite likely still in place.

I would probably physically remove nvme0... the working drive. Then see if the other boots on its own, or if you can select it from the BIOS Boot Menu. If you can't, you can boot on a live Linux Mint 21.2 flash drive and install grub back to your nvme1 and everything then should be back to normal. Or you might run Gparted from the live flash drive and use it to set nvme1n1p1 as your ESP... that may also make it boot normally again.

If you do remove the working drive, the remaining drive may be called nvme0 afterwards, and no longer nvme1. You need to check. This will probably make a difference if you install grub from a live usb.

@wizardfromoz can probably tell you how to run both Mint and Ubuntu together. He'll probably be along before too long now that I've rung his bell.

 

[Alexzee]

Thanks, I tried update-grub and boot-repair both.
I've been digging into this and, as I understand it, here's what's happened. When I installed Mint on the second drive, it took control of grub. When that happened, it deleted whatever makes the first drive boot. So boot-repair doesn't "see" an OS on drive one.
At this point, as I have work piling up that I can't get done until drive 1 is up and running, I'm ready to just reformat drive 2 and wait until later and try again. The only thing stopping me is I need to find out how to make sure that drive 1 will boot after I erase everything on drive 2. A big concern as that is where grub is currently residing.

Sounds like your second drive controls the boot process. Anyway.....

The beauty of it all is you can go into the BIOS and set which drive you want to have the boot.
Might be different in a laptop?

For example I have 3 drives on my Asus Tuf Gaming Desktop.
1. A Samsung 970 Evo Nvme with Mint installed. That drive has the control over the whole desktop as far as Grub is concerned.
2. A 1 TB HDD with Debian 11 installed.
3. A 500 GB WD HDD with Slackware 15 installed.

When Slackware get's a new kernel I have to boot into Mint and run "sudo update-grub" otherwise Slackware will not boot.
This is how I know it's Grub controlling the triple boot from the Samsung 970 Evo Nvme.

 

[Sky071111]

Running lsblk returned this

dan@jeep:~$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
nvme1n1 259:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─nvme1n1p1 259:1 0 94M 0 part
├─nvme1n1p2 259:2 0 93.1G 0 part /mnt/6e6c4507-7bc0-4e22-95bb-2a6799bda688
├─nvme1n1p3 259:3 0 15M 0 part [SWAP]
└─nvme1n1p4 259:4 0 838.3G 0 part /mnt/81c74b42-8b66-40e9-9996-89982dbdb6cf
nvme0n1 259:5 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:6 0 94M 0 part /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2 259:7 0 14M 0 part [SWAP]
├─nvme0n1p3 259:8 0 93.1G 0 part /
└─nvme0n1p4 259:9 0 838.3G 0 part /home

nvme0 is working, nvme1 does not. And I see why now. So, how can I get /boot/efi put back on nvme1n1p1?
I really hate bothering folks with my problems but I am stumped here. I do have a timeshift snapshot for this on a usb stick as well as a backup .tar file on a stick but I think reinstalling and trying a snapshot restore is not going to work.

Hard drive error?

 

[Danbor]

I've tried changing the boot priority in the BIOS with no luck. It's a little confusing as both drives are Samsung. So the list choices are Samsung, or, Samsung. 3 options for each priority, Samsung, Samsung and disabled. I've moved them both but when I exit, it always says I made no changes. Sooooo I don't know.
Oh, it's a tower. The motherboard I bought when I started the build had two M2 slots and I pulled the first SSD out of an HP office pro that had a fried motherboard, bought the second when I decided to add another drive.
I'm going to try disabling one in bios and see what happens.

 

[Danbor]

Ok then. I was able to disable the second drive, ( the one that works ), But, when I booted, again, loaded a terminal prompt. Which I can log into but I can't get the desktop environment to load.
Someone told me to run "startx" and see if that worked. It didn't, but it did produce a long error list and generate a log file called "Xorg.0. log.
If it would help. I can attach said log file here. I certainly can't make any sense out of it.

 

[Danbor]

I am wondering, is it possible to use a timeshift snapshot and backup .tar file made on the defective drive on the one that works?
Same computer, same make and size drive, both installs made with the same install stick?
If so, I can do the restore, get caught up on the ever growing list of work I can't get to, then install, with advice this time, a second Mint OS to experiment with.

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day Dan

is it possible to use a timeshift snapshot and backup .tar file made on the defective drive on the one that works?

No, unfortunately. If you had Timeshift installed on the Ubuntu and had a working snapshot, you could then make use of that from Mint, but I do not expect that is the case, is it?

Q1. Or is it?

I do have a timeshift snapshot for this on a usb stick as well as a backup .tar file on a stick but I think reinstalling and trying a snapshot restore is not going to work.

Is that for the Mint or for the Ubuntu?

If it is for the Ubuntu, then yes, you could get the Mint running again, then plug in the USB stick with the snapshot, run Timeshift and restore Ubuntu.

Q2. Mint version - is it Cinnamon, Xfce or MATE?

Q3. When you installed Mint, did it generate a Grub Menu that looked something like

Linux Mint
Advanced Options Linux Mint
Ubuntu
Advanced Options Ubuntu

or else, how did it look?

If the work piling up is in that .tar on a stick, I would be inclined to get the Mint running first, restore the .tar to it and get your work done, and we can draw breath and work on the rest.

I have other ideas, but see how you go with those 3 questions first.

Cheers

Chris

 

[Danbor]

G'day Dan



No, unfortunately. If you had Timeshift installed on the Ubuntu and had a working snapshot, you could then make use of that from Mint, but I do not expect that is the case, is it?

Q1. Or is it?



Is that for the Mint or for the Ubuntu?

If it is for the Ubuntu, then yes, you could get the Mint running again, then plug in the USB stick with the snapshot, run Timeshift and restore Ubuntu.

Q2. Mint version - is it Cinnamon, Xfce or MATE?

Q3. When you installed Mint, did it generate a Grub Menu that looked something like

Linux Mint
Advanced Options Linux Mint
Ubuntu
Advanced Options Ubuntu

or else, how did it look?

If the work piling up is in that .tar on a stick, I would be inclined to get the Mint running first, restore the .tar to it and get your work done, and we can draw breath and work on the rest.

I have other ideas, but see how you go with those 3 questions first.

Cheers

Chris

I have Mint Cinnamon on both drives.
The drive that still boots, I'll call it drive 2, Is Mint Cinnamon, that was installed over Ubuntu, the drive was reformatted during that install.
The drive that can't boot, drive 1, has Mint Cinnamon installed. On that drive is a Virtual Box with an Ubuntu machine installed. Ubuntu was never the main OS on that drive, just in the VB. This is where the Timeshift snapshot come from.
The grub menu is, roughly -

Mint Victoria
Advanced options for Victoria
Earlier kernel for same
Advanced options for earlier kernel
Mint Victoria on drive 2
Advanced options for same
Earlier kernel for Mint Victoria
Advanced options for same
EUFI settings

Ubuntu is not listed in the grub menu.
Late last night I realized that I can mount the home partition of drive 1 from drive 2 and Get some tasks done while I try to get this sorted. I just need to remember to unmount it before shut down.

 

[Alexzee]

Ok then. I was able to disable the second drive, ( the one that works ), But, when I booted, again, loaded a terminal prompt. Which I can log into but I can't get the desktop environment to load.
Someone told me to run "startx" and see if that worked. It didn't, but it did produce a long error list and generate a log file called "Xorg.0. log.
If it would help. I can attach said log file here. I certainly can't make any sense out of it.

Sound like the DE may be misconfigured, crashed or no longer in place.

Post the Xorg.log when you can.

Sicnce you have tow disks that are both Samsung you can find them by looking in /dev/disks/.
There you'll see that they are identifiable by-id, by-uuid etc.
HTH

 

[Danbor]

Here is the Xorg log. Mind you, this was created while booted into the drive that works. I tried it from the command line on the one that's hose, but it didn't work. I had to change it from .log to .txt to attach it here.

 

[Danbor]

It's struck me that now that I know that can access the defective system and transfer files, My best course of action might be to save the important files I need to a usb stick and reformat the entire machine.
I thought that might be more work than fixing the problem. I was wrong. Luckily, Both of my other machines contain copies of all the "personal stuff", pictures, videos, documents, etc. so there's npt that much fewer files to put on the stick.
I wish I could mark this problem solved but unless anyone else has an idea to share I'll move on tomorrow.
Anyone know where I can find a good,relevantly recent, tutorial on the most bullet proof way to set up a dual boot system with two drives, each installed with Mint Cinnamon? Or some good reference sources?

 

[Alexzee]

Here is the Xorg log. Mind you, this was created while booted into the drive that works. I tried it from the command line on the one that's hose, but it didn't work. I had to change it from .log to .txt to attach it here.

I think I found the problem reading through your Xorg.log.
Your fonts, dpi and etc... have been deleted from it's path.
This would explain why your DE is not loading.

  41.188] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" does not exist.
[    41.188]     Entry deleted from font path.
[    41.188] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/" does not exist.
[    41.189]     Entry deleted from font path.
[    41.189] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi" does not exist.
[    41.189]     Entry deleted from font path.

(EE) Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section.
[    41.260] (II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
[    41.260] (EE) Device(s) detected, but none match those in the config file.

Looks like the xorg.conf (configuration file) that was created and is associated with your ATI Radeon GPU is misconfigured and or faulty because it does not match the config file.

A kernel update fixed it for this man at the unix stackexchange website.
He also installed the module for his GPU since it wasn't loading.

RX6600 - Screen 0 deleted because of no matching config section

I unwrapped a RX 6600 like an hour ago. I swapped it in for my RX 580. It works fine in Windows. When I boot Manjaro, no GUI starts, I just get /dev/sdb2 clean, 1203401/6184940 files, 17781462/2471...

unix.stackexchange.com

 

[Alexzee]

It's struck me that now that I know that can access the defective system and transfer files, My best course of action might be to save the important files I need to a usb stick and reformat the entire machine.
I thought that might be more work than fixing the problem. I was wrong. Luckily, Both of my other machines contain copies of all the "personal stuff", pictures, videos, documents, etc. so there's npt that much fewer files to put on the stick.
I wish I could mark this problem solved but unless anyone else has an idea to share I'll move on tomorrow.
Anyone know where I can find a good,relevantly recent, tutorial on the most bullet proof way to set up a dual boot system with two drives, each installed with Mint Cinnamon? Or some good reference sources?

If nothing else you can boot into a Live version of Linux Mint and drag an drop your files and etc...to a external drive.

Another thought, I would ( if both drives are identical) rename one of the drives: using G-parted.
Here's the tutorial for that:

How to Rename a Hard Drive With GParted in Ubuntu

The Ubuntu operating system provides a modern desktop environment for the applications, devices and drives your business needs for normal operation. Keeping your data organized in various partitions and drives helps you separate the numerous facets of your business. Ubuntu's file manager...

smallbusiness.chron.com

Make sure you select the correct drive during your install.

Dual boot Ubuntu and Linux Mint | Dual booting two Linux distros​

If you can't boot into your fresh install, don't panic.
*Simply boot into the distro that does boot and open the terminal and run:

sudo update-grub

Then reboot and select the fresh install.

You may not want to install the exact same Linux os on those drives. Just my 2cents:-
If it were my system I would not do this.

Good luck-
Alex

 

[Danbor]

Thinking about dual booting Cinnamon and LMDE6. We'll see. Ubuntu was good, but I couldn't get the file manager to display an "old style" directory tree. That deal with the icons of folders just rubs me wrong.
I like the suggestion about renaming the drives but I have a question. The tutorial you referenced tells how to rename a partition, but not how to rename an entire drive. Thoughts?

 

[Brickwizard]

Thinking about dual booting Cinnamon and LMDE6

Cinnamon is a desktop and although originally built by the Mint team [and is the de-fault for both Mint Ubuntu base and Mint LMDE] is available in several other distributions

 

[Danbor]

Cinnamon is a desktop and although originally built by the Mint team [and is the de-fault for both Mint Ubuntu base and Mint LMDE] is available in several other distributions

I like the Mint Cinnamon desktop and I'd like to stick with something familiar while keeping it easy to tell which OS I'm booting. Mint cinnamon and Mint cinnamon dual boot got a little confusing at times. ;D

 

[Danbor]

Does anyone know of a good tutorial on dual booting two Linux distros, each on a separate Drive? Concerned about conflicts with two grub menus.

 

[Brickwizard]

I have 2 distros on this machine on separate drives [one NVMe and one HDD], and have done so for a L O N G time, the only problem I have ever encountered is when I run some updates to the Distro on the HDD it sometimes alters the grub and makes itself primary boot, so I have to change it back again

 

[Danbor]

I have 2 distros on this machine on separate drives [one NVMe and one HDD], and have done so for a L O N G time, the only problem I have ever encountered is when I run some updates to the Distro on the HDD it sometimes alters the grub and makes itself primary boot, so I have to change it back again

Good to know. Before I initiate the process, can you tell me exactly how to make that change if/when that happens?
I'm afraid that over the years dealing with different command line interfaces my brain has trouble keeping track of differing commands and syntaxes. I'm not that practiced with Linux yet to be sure of what I'm doing.

 

[Brickwizard]

I usually do it the Lazy way and change the boot order in the Bios, I suppose the correct way would be to boot the NVMe using the short boot menu and running grub repair, just remember whichever distribution you install last will always take boot priority unless you reconfigure it