MX-19: FEEDBACK of latest GRUB 2.04-9~mx19+5 update

[fehlix]

After installing the update I was unable to boot. I got a grub rescue prompt.

I booted a live USB and selected grub from the boot menu, then selected the current bootloader and was up. I ran grub repair which completed successfully, but reboot brought me to grub rescue. Next time I ran grub customizer -- same result.

Even though the fixes seem to work, they don't. Any suggestions?

First question to ask, is UEFI or or legacy/MBR booting?

[arjaybe]

After installing the update I was unable to boot. I got a grub rescue prompt.

I booted a live USB and selected grub from the boot menu, then selected the current bootloader and was up. I ran grub repair which completed successfully, but reboot brought me to grub rescue. Next time I ran grub customizer -- same result.

Even though the fixes seem to work, they don't. Any suggestions?

First question to ask, is UEFI or or legacy/MBR booting?

Legacy. Also, during the grub update I chose to replace a file, but when I checked the differences, it was a blank.

[fehlix]

After installing the update I was unable to boot. I got a grub rescue prompt.

I booted a live USB and selected grub from the boot menu, then selected the current bootloader and was up. I ran grub repair which completed successfully, but reboot brought me to grub rescue. Next time I ran grub customizer -- same result.

Even though the fixes seem to work, they don't. Any suggestions?

First question to ask, is UEFI or or legacy/MBR booting?

Legacy. Also, during the grub update I chose to replace a file, but when I checked the differences, it was a blank.

OK, and you had GRUB customizer installed and used to change the menu.right? OK, I need to check GRUB customizer first ...

[zoli62]

A new version of GRUB (GRUB 2.04-9~mx19+5) is in the MX Test Repo for those willing to test.


If you are going to test, please use the MX Test Repo tab in MX Package Installer (the packages will show as up-gradable there), please do NOT enable the MX Test Repo manually.


Thanks!

I have the test repo enabled, but the grub has not been updated. I use MBR.

[SwampRabbit]

A new version of GRUB (GRUB 2.04-9~mx19+5) is in the MX Test Repo for those willing to test.

If you are going to test, please use the MX Test Repo tab in MX Package Installer (the packages will show as up-gradable there), please do NOT enable the MX Test Repo manually.

Thanks!

I have the test repo enabled, but the grub has not been updated. I use MBR.

That is an old post, I should have edited that first line, but I did post later that this is now a Stable update.
I also updated the first post in the topic. But I apologize for the confusion.

It seems you may have missed the bold sentence above too.

Please disable the MX Test Repo, you should never really have this manually enabled anyway.

After you disable the MX Test Repo, please check for updates using MX Updater in the panel.
If you don't see it still, it may mean that the repository mirror you are using has not sync'd for updates.
It shouldn't take more than a day or two at most.

[fehlix]

After installing the update I was unable to boot. I got a grub rescue prompt.

I booted a live USB and selected grub from the boot menu, then selected the current bootloader and was up. I ran grub repair which completed successfully, but reboot brought me to grub rescue. Next time I ran grub customizer -- same result.

Even though the fixes seem to work, they don't. Any suggestions?

First question to ask, is UEFI or or legacy/MBR booting?

Legacy. Also, during the grub update I chose to replace a file, but when I checked the differences, it was a blank.

OK, not sure why it was not working for you in the way it was intended.
But anyway, here a manual way to get it refreshed.
Frist do boot into the installed system e.g. using LiveUSB -> boot rescue -> grub menu
Within the booted install system open a terminal (as normal user)
First let's clear all grub related stuff from the command line, including grub-customizer:

Code: Select all

sudo apt purge "grub*"

It will remove quite some stuff, don't worry we reinstall again.
Now remove any remainng "debris" including GRUB-customizer changes:

Code: Select all

sudo rm /etc/default/grub*
sudo rm -r /etc/grub.d

Now let's re-install:

Code: Select all

 sudo apt install grub-common grub-efi-amd64-bin grub-efi-ia32-bin grub-pc grub-pc-bin  grub-themes-mx grub2-common   os-prober mx-apps mx-bootrepair mx-installer

( ignore the message : cannot stat '/etc/default/grub_preinst_grub-pc' )
It will mainly ask to select the GRUB Device to install the grub-loader onto, e.g. choose sda or sdb, in doubt choose all.
Now, we reapply MX-theming:

Code: Select all

sudo cp  /usr/local/share/live-files/general-files/etc/default/grub  /etc/default/grub

and get back the menuentry for memtest:

Code: Select all

sudo cp -vi  /usr/local/share/live-files/files/etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+

OK, let's re-generate the grub-menu again:

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub

Now reboot.

[arjaybe]

I got grub-rescue again. Was able to use live USB and grub menu, which found the new grub installation and got me here.

I've been telling it to install to the root directory. Should I try the MBR?

edit: I ran boot repair again and sent grub to the MBR. It works.

[fehlix]

I got grub-rescue again. Was able to use live USB and grub menu, which found the new grub installation and got me here.

I've been telling it to install to the root directory. Should I try the MBR?

edit: I ran boot repair again and sent grub to the MBR. It works.

Yes, legacy GRUB-loader needs to get installed into MBR of the drive in order to boot from that bootloader straight from BIOS. The PBR (Partition Boot Record) of the root-partition is only needed/useful if you want to "chainload" from another bootloader.

[arjaybe]

I must be confused about what I have then, because I've been Installing grub my root partition for ages.

[fehlix]

I must be confused about what I have then, because I've been Installing grub my root partition for ages.

GRUB does not change very often. So you simply had luck, that the exiting embedded grub-bootloader on the MBR was still funtioning. This time we released a newer version, which is binary incompatible to any previous version. The embedded core-loader from the MBR still needs to load some modules from /boot/grub/i386-pc . And this time those newer modules to load failed and you ended up at the grub-prompt.