Grub Installation issues [Solved]

[shenkun]

Hello,
I installed the new MXLinux 19.4 AHS XFCE edition on my dell inspiron 3567. Before this I have been using Mx 19.2 and 19.3 for quite some time. I installed it without any errors but while booting i ran into,

error: grub_disk_get_size: Not found
Grub Rescue >

I still managed to boot into my MxLinux installation from BIOS and it loads grub there but it shoots the above error when trying to boot it normally. My laptop is UEFI with secure boot disabled and GPT partition. I tried reinstalling grub from MX Boot repair package but no luck.
I hope somebody could help me :(

[shenkun]

Further I tried running sudo grub-install and sudo update-grub.. I am pasting the output below.

shen@wolf:~
$ sudo grub-install
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: EFI variables are not supported on this system..
Installation finished. No error reported.

shen@wolf:~
$ sudo update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /boot/grub/themes/linen/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-5mx-amd64
Found mtest-64.efi image: /boot/uefi-mt/mtest-64.efi
Found Windows Boot Manager on /dev/sda2@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

[JayM]

As you're able to boot into MX Linux some way please run Quick System Info and post your system information whenever asking for help as per the forum rules. Just run it then right-click paste in a reply, don't copy/paste. Instructions are here if you need them. Thanks.

(BTW if you were already running MX-19.3 there was no need to reinstall 19.4, your system would have been upgraded to the latest version via the normal updates.)

[shenkun]

I am able to boot into MXlinux from the BIOS menu only which is obviously not the correct way.
I was on 19.3 but in between I jumped onto Manjaro for a day also I installed the AHS variant of 19.4 instead of normal variant.

I am pasting the output from Quick System Info.

Code: Select all

System:    Host: <filter> Kernel: 5.10.0-5mx-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet splash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.2 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19.4_ahs_x64 patito feo March 31  2021 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Inspiron 15-3567 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 9 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0FGN4M v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 2.1.2 date: 11/09/2017 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 1.5 Wh condition: 1.5/41.4 Wh (4%) volts: 16.5/14.8 
           model: LGC-LGC2.80 DELL 991XP6B type: Li-poly serial: <filter> status: Unknown 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-6006U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake 
           family: 6 model-id: 4E (78) stepping: 3 microcode: D6 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 15999 
           Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 400/2000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 500 3: 500 4: 500 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: conditional, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:1916 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 520 (SKL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.3.4 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d70 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.10.0-5mx-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Dell 
           driver: ath10k_pci v: kernel port: f040 bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 168c:0042 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet vendor: Dell driver: r8169 
           v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 02:00.0 chip ID: 10ec:8136 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb bus ID: 1-8:4 chip ID: 0cf3:e009 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 5.89 GiB (0.6%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Toshiba model: MQ01ABD100 size: 931.51 GiB block size: 
           physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> 
           rev: 3D scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 29.30 GiB size: 28.71 GiB (98.00%) used: 5.69 GiB (19.8%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda6 
           ID-2: /home raw size: 66.41 GiB size: 64.86 GiB (97.68%) used: 147.2 MiB (0.2%) 
           fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 4.30 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda8 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0 C mobo: 45.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           2: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ buster ahs
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 201 Uptime: 31m Memory: 3.71 GiB used: 827.5 MiB (21.8%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: quick-system-in 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[junoluna]

you have to run the grub repair tools from the live usb rather than the installed system

is that what you did?

[JayM]

When you boot from the live USB, do you see a row of function key (F-key) submenus along the bottom of its boot menu screen?

[asqwerth]

Maybe you installed over your old MX install but the bootloader order in the ESP still has the grub of your older install in position 1?

what does the

Code: Select all

efibootmgr

command show?

[shenkun]

Thanks @junoluna for pointing out a noob like me. I was trying to repair it from my main system.. but just now I did it from the live boot and it worked.

[Huckleberry Finn]

Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: EFI variables are not supported on this system..
...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-5mx-amd64

Maybe this was also related to this issue (with 5.10 kernel)

[shenkun]

Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: EFI variables are not supported on this system..
...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.10.0-5mx-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.10.0-5mx-amd64

Maybe this was also related to this issue (with 5.10 kernel)

I thought so too initially.