Fresh Installation of LMDE Problems {Solved}

[Alexzee]

I've tried to install LMDE6 on my friend William's 64-bit custom built desktop using a DVD + R.

For the first time running the installer and allowing it to partition the 500 WD HDD. This is /dev/sdb.
When the installation finished the installer prompted to remove the installation media and press Enter.

It hung and stayed on the "please remove the installation media and press enter" screen.
Upon reboot all we had was:

grub rescue>

Second time trying to install, but before starting the installer, I had my friend run: fdisk -l to see all the partition's on his Linux box.
All of the partitions are there however; the partition that the installer created did not have a boot flag.

So we selected manual partitioning and created a 2 GB swap, a 30 GB root partition, managed and selected a boot flag. The installer recommended a 30GB allocation for the root partition. For the /home partition we allocated the remaining space and told the installer to install the boot loader to /dev/sdb. I/we gave the /home partition a mount point as well.

Upon reboot, same thing with the grub rescue> prompt.

Now my friends machine has the LMDE6 Live DVD + R in place and I'm using that to install Grub but that's not working and gives an error.
I /we ran:

sudo grub-install /dev/sdb

The Live DVD using the terminal returns:

error: failed to get canonical path of `overlay`

See the attached screenshot I took with my tablet.

Please advise as to how I can fix this so my friends system will boot with the LMDE6 partitions in place.

Thanks,
Alex

 

[KGIII]

What's on sda1?

 

[Alexzee]

What's on sda1?

* Linux Mint 20.2 is on sda.

 

[kc1di]

Go to Linux mint 20.2 and run update grub see if it finds LMDE install.

 

[Brickwizard]

Depending on the age of the DVD drive, if its pre-2016 I will always use a DVD -r never has a failure

 

[Alexzee]

Go to Linux mint 20.2 and run update grub see if it finds LMDE install.

Grub doesn't exist. In other words,... when his machine boots It's a black screen with "grub rescue". Without the Live LMDE6 DVD in place, in the CDROM drive, we get the 'grub rescue' prompt.

How about if I try my Live USB of LMDE6 and just have him go into his BIOS and change it from DVD to USB?

OR> use the Linux Mint 20.2 Live DVD and try to install Grub that way?

 

[osprey]

Sounds like grub needs to be re-installed. Usually this is done from a live disk. Perhaps the dvd used for installation can provide this. Basically, one mounts the filesystem, chroots into it, and re-installs grub. Since this looks like an i386 system, this old video describes the process with the commands:

. The presenter creates the usb live system first, but if the installation dvd creates a live environment, that is sufficient.

 

[KGIII]

Basically, one mounts the filesystem, chroots into it, and re-installs grub.

This is why I asked what was on sda1. I'd try the above and aim that GRUB install at sda. This reasoning comes from my limited experience with multi-boot and GRUB seemingly being happiest when it's on the first disk.

As an aside:

an i386 system

I didn't even notice this.

(That doesn't change the above.)

 

[Alexzee]

Is there another way to do this without using Ubuntu? It's always been problematic for me.

 

[osprey]

Can I use the Linux Mint 20.2 Live DVD to reinstall Grub?

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[bob466]

I don't dual boot and the installer creates one partition on the Drive (500GB)...so I must be doing something right.

I do have one VM at the moment but have never had Grub problems...must look in to repairing Grub from the live session just in case.

 

[Alexzee]

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He checked. Sadly he no longer has the LM 20.2 Live DVD.

The funny thing is I used the exact same Live USB of LMDE6 on my desktop and laptop and I did not end up with an all black screen with white letters saying grub rescue>

 

[Alexzee]

I don't dual boot and the installer creates one partition on the Drive (500GB)...so I must be doing something right.

I do have one VM at the moment but have never had Grub problems...must look in to repairing Grub from the live session just in case.

I tried boot repair from the live session and it won't accept "mint" or "linux" or "live" to allow us to run that either.
Never seen this happen before. Very bizarre.

 

[bob466]

I tried boot repair from the live session and it won't accept "mint" or "linux" or "live" to allow us to run that either.
Never seen this happen before. Very bizarre.

Here are a few links that may help...
https://www.ubuntupit.com/how-to-repair-the-grub-bootloader-using-a-ubuntu-live-usb-drive/
https://www.fosslinux.com/4477/how-to-repair-the-grub-bootloader-using-a-ubuntu-live-usb-drive.htm
https://www.maketecheasier.com/restore-grub-2-as-the-main-bootloader/

In one link it says the best way to damage the Grub bootloader is to dual boot with windoze...who would have guessed that

anyway hope this helps.

 

[Alexzee]

I tried following the tutorial here that Bob linked.

How to Restore Grub Bootloader in Linux

GNU GRUB is the most popular bootloader binary for multiboot setups. Learn how you can restore Grub even from an unbootable system.

www.maketecheasier.com

I used the Debian Live USB to reinstall Grub and follow along with the tutorial.

Running the boot info. script confirmed that Grub was installed to all 3 HDD on my friends desktop.

 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    in partition 112 for .
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    in partition 108 for .
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    in partition 92 for .

Before I closed gparted we gave the LMDE6 the boot flag because it did not have one on the ext4 partition.

After shutting down the desktop and waiting a minute he pulled the LIVE Debian USB and rebooted.

Right back to :

grub rescue>

If the 500 GB WD HDD is set in the BIOS to be the first device that's to be booted is this why we have grub rescue?

Should all 3 ext4 partitions have a boot flag?

I'll look in the BIOS first to see what drive has the main boot.

My friend now is thinking that he should delete those LMDE6 partitions.

How do I select boot repair on the LIVE Debian USB?
I didn't see recovery mode--
Is it in the first Menu?

 

[bob466]

Maybe it's a HDD problem...try an SSD of the same size and install Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.2...if it works then you know.

 

[Alexzee]

Running the boot information script confirmed that grub was installed to all 3 drives so I knew I wasn't going crazy.

=> Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    in partition 112 for .
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    in partition 108 for .
 => Grub2 (v1.99) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc and looks at sector 1 of
    the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
    in partition 92 for .

*It dawned on me to check the boot order in the BIOS.

The 500 GB WD HDD that LMDE6 was installed on was switched to the second boot order and it was orginally /dev/sdc. While using the installer launching g-parted showed that the WD drive was changed to /dev/sda!

*Somehow, and I'm not entirely sure how, the boot priority order in the BIOS for each HDD got switched around!*

Upon placing the San Disk /dev/sda/ with LM 20.2 first in the BIOS boot menu and then the WD /dev/sdb LMDE6 listed secondly, then, lastly selecting the Hitachi with the Kubuntu installation, and saving the changes and rebooting Grub appeared!

My friends desktop now boots and he is at the moments tweaking the themes to his liking.

This is all the more reason to write 2 articles over on my Linux Blog for Re-installing Grub and other helpful things I learned along the way.

Does anyone have any idea how the drives got switched around in the BIOS?

 

[Condobloke]

You weren't holding your tongue right..?...

 

[Alexzee]

You weren't holding your tongue right..?...

LOL!
This was not a nice place to be as this was my best mate's desktop!

Are you running LMDE6?

 

[Condobloke]

Yes, I have it on a separate SSD

Just like using Linux mint 21.2.....with a few minor differences...still quite reliable.

The only snag I have encountered is it does not like to play nice with dual monitors (yet)