Re-Installing Grub & The Grub Rescue Prompt

[Alexzee]

Today's article covers what to do if your bootloader gets hosed or needs to be re-installed.

Rescue Grub & Reinstalling Grub

It's happened to the best of us. You reboot your computer after a fresh Linux installation and all you've got is the grub rescue> prompt. You may have accidentally deleted the wrong partition or maybe an update/upgrade changed the boot order but you just aren't sure what went wrong.In this...

writerforlinux.wixsite.com

 

[Alexzee]

I added additional information to the article to help myself and others.

 

[bob466]

I have never had this problem maybe because I don't dual boot. So on my spare SSD running Mint Cinnamon 21.1 I tried to "fix" Grub.

On my SSD I have only two partitions...sda1 and sda2...two being the Linux filesystem. I tried a number of "fixes" from the net and youtube but none worked like here...https://www.linux.org/threads/fresh-installation-of-lmde-problems-solved.47873/
Of cause all were tried with the live session...then KG suggested a tool which did work but the problem was...it kept booting to this screen...which I couldn't get rid of.

This is not the actual screen but looked like it. I fixed this screen problem by putting back a good image with Foxclone...the importance of having a backup.

 

[Alexzee]

The funny thing is over the last 5-7 years I've had Linux Mint 19, 20, & 21 in control on the nvme which has always been the top entry in the Grub Menu. Debian 10. 11 and now 12 as the second distro in the Grub Menu and Slackware as the third distro in the menu.

Regardless of minor or major 'updates to grub' or 'kernel updates' the distribution's in the Grub Menu never switched on me.
Since installing LMDE6 on the nvme the menu entries in Grub have flip flopped 3 times.

I'm not sure if this is a systemd issue or a Grub issue but this is unusual behavior any way you slice it or dice it.

How long ago @bob466 did this happen that it kept booting to that screen that you couldn't get rid of?

 

[bob466]

How long ago @bob466 did this happen that it kept booting to that screen that you couldn't get rid of?

I always like to know how to fix problems before they occur and I like to use the live session.

Two weeks ago I tried to repair Grub that wasn't broken...I tried everything as I said but the only thing to "work" was this...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair I installed it on the live session. Re-Booted and got the above screen...hit the first highlight and it went straight to the Login screen then the desktop.

However when I Re-Booted I got the screen again and every time I Re-Booted after that.

But because I always try these things on a spare SSD...no harm done. I just Re-Image the Drive with a backup saved image...so in a way I've solved this...well sort off.

 

[Alexzee]

I always like to know how to fix problems before they occur and I like to use the live session.

Two weeks ago I tried to repair Grub that wasn't broken...I tried everything as I said but the only thing to "work" was this...
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair I installed it on the live session. Re-Booted and got the above screen...hit the first highlight and it went straight to the Login screen then the desktop.

However when I Re-Booted I got the screen again and every time I Re-Booted after that.

But because I always try these things on a spare SSD...no harm done. I just Re-Image the Drive with a backup saved image...so in a way I've solved this...well sort off.

Roger that!
Thanks for the link to Boot Repair.

 

[Alexzee]

I'm looking into booting the kernel w/o a bootloader.

Booting the Linux Kernel without a bootloader - TecPorto

www.tecporto.pt

More research of course and if I have complete success I'll be writing an article for it.