GRUB broken on newly updated MX-21

[pbear]

Too many cooks spoil the broth, so I'm not going to make any specific suggestions. Instead, I'll limit myself to a few comments which hopefully will be helpful.

1. fstab confirms the system was installed in BIOS mode, as there's no line mounting the EFI partition. As for why you have an EFI partition, well, you're the only one who was there.

2. You can get system information in a live session by running inxi -Fxxxrza in Terminal.

3. Once you fix the mess, take a look at Timeshift (already installed). If you'd had a Timeshift snapshot before the update which caused all this, you would have been back in business in less than ten minutes.

[fehlix]

This line in debconf-show grub-pc

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* grub-pc/install_devices: /dev/disk/by-id/ata-CT1000MX500SSD1_2043E4BD4AA0-part1

indicates reason of the original boot error after grub upgrade, as it points to the partition boot sector,
which will not be used when re-booting in BIOS/MBR boot mode.
So the old grub-loader from MBR was loaded and caused the GRUB error.
The system seems to be able to boot in both either UEFI and BIOS-boot mode,
also you seem to have now installed GRUB in both BIOS and UEFI mode.
What I would now try: Do boot from LiveUSB and
at the Live GRUB menu (you may need to select "Switch to GRUB..." when booting in BIOS mode)
select Boot Rescue menus. Now try either of both to find "Grub boot loader" and/or "GRUB menu"
At least it would show whether the system is still bootable with some help of the LiveUSB.
Also, when booted into installed do post "QSI" "Quick System Info" report.

[theprofa325]

OK, from Live Grub menu, choose enter GRUB option. Selected Find GRUB bootloader.
Result is :

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searching for GRUB bootloader ...
found GRUB bootloader at (hd0,1): MX-Live-usb
found GRUB bootloader at (hd1,1) : boot

Then going back to main GRUB menu and searching for GRUB menu, result is:

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searching for GRUB menus ...
found GRUB menu on (hd0,1)  :  MX-Live-usb
found GRUB menu on (hd0,2)  :  MX-UEFI
found GRUB menu on (hd1.1)  :  boot

So it looks as if I should be able to boot from hd1.1, assuming the version of GRUB that's installed can find all the files it needs to run.

HOWEVER, when I reboot from USB and go back to the main menu invoked by "Switch to GRUB bootloader", then Boot Rescue Menus, then GRUB Bootloader,
it finds bootloader as above. I hit return to escape from the results screen, and am presented with a 4-choice screen:

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===>GRUB Bootloader<===
GRUB loader @ (hd0,1)  MX-live-usb
GRUB loader @ (hd1,1) boot
<=== Back to main menu (or press >>ESC<<)

When I select (hd1,1), which I assume boots from that choice, I get no joy, just the grub> prompt. Something is wrong with the installed GRUB.
Thanks for further assistance.

BTW thanks to pbear for suggesting Timeshift, I will definitely look into this for all my systems.

[fehlix]

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===>GRUB Bootloader<===
GRUB loader @ (hd0,1)  MX-live-usb
GRUB loader @ (hd1,1) boot
<=== Back to main menu (or press >>ESC<<)

When I select (hd1,1), which I assume boots from that choice, I get no joy, just the grub> prompt. Something is wrong with the installed GRUB.

Try, the other one select from "GRUB menus", i.e. not from found "GRUB loader" list, the difference it will load the menu using the GRUB from the LiveUSB, not the installed one.

[pbear]

And please post your system information: inxi -Fxxxrza

[theprofa325]

OK, fehlix and pbear.

I tried the "grub menus" selection from "boot rescue" at initial GRUB screen when booting from USB. Both the "/boot" entry and the "EFI" entry fail silently and return to the initial GRUB screen.

Results from inxi -Fxxxrza follow:

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demo@mx1:~
$ inxi -Fxxxrza
System:    Kernel: 5.10.0-18-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/antiX/vmlinuz quiet splasht nosplash 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.24 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 7 
           dm: LightDM 1.26.0 Distro: MX-21.2.1_x64 Wildflower September 18  2022 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Dell product: OptiPlex 9020 v: 01 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 6 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0PC5F7 v: A03 serial: <filter> BIOS: Dell v: A07 date: 04/25/2014 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325 serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
           Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K330 serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-4770 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Haswell 
           family: 6 model-id: 3C (60) stepping: 3 microcode: 17 cache: L2: 8 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54276 
           Speed: 3393 MHz min/max: 800/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3393 2: 3392 3: 3392 
           4: 3392 5: 3393 6: 3394 7: 3393 8: 3402 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT vulnerable 
           Type: mds 
           status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT vulnerable 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 
           mitigation: Retpolines, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort 
           status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT vulnerable 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GK106 [GeForce GTX 645 OEM] driver: nouveau v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:11c4 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: 
           loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1680x1050 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 444x277mm (17.5x10.9") 
           s-diag: 523mm (20.6") 
           Monitor-1: DP-1 res: 1680x1050 hz: 60 dpi: 90 size: 473x296mm (18.6x11.7") 
           diag: 558mm (22") 
           OpenGL: renderer: NVE6 v: 4.3 Mesa 20.3.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 8 Series/C220 Series High Definition Audio vendor: Dell 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:8c20 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GK106 HDMI Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 01:00.1 
           chip-ID: 10de:0e0b class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.0-18-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Intel Ethernet I217-LM vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f040 
           bus-ID: 00:19.0 chip-ID: 8086:153a class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 1.88 TiB used: 1.74 GiB (0.1%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Crucial model: CT1000MX500SSD1 size: 931.51 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: SSD 
           serial: <filter> rev: 033 scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Western Digital model: WD10EARS-00Y5B1 
           size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s type: N/A 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0A80 scheme: MBR 
           ID-3: /dev/sdh maj-min: 8:112 type: USB model: USB DISK 3.0 size: 57.77 GiB 
           block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: <filter> rev: PMAP 
           scheme: MBR 
           SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure? 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 21.81 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: nouveau temp: 46.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 2220 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 1952 lib: 979 flatpak: 0 
           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 bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bullseye-security main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxrepo.com/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
Info:      Processes: 251 Uptime: 1m wakeups: 5 Memory: 7.71 GiB used: 940.8 MiB (11.9%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A 
           alt: 10 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.06 
demo@mx1:~

Thanks, folks.

[pbear]

The big surprise, as far as I'm concerned, is that inxi reports the firmware is classic BIOS (see end of Machine stanza). Based on the purchase date (you said 2014), I was expecting UEFI (legacy), also known as BIOS compatibility mode. OTOH, classic BIOS is consistent with your MBR partition tables, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. At a guess, this was old stock (OEMs switched to UEFI in 2012) or a refurbished machine.

[Antediluvian]

The big surprise, as far as I'm concerned, is that inxi reports the firmware is classic BIOS (see end of Machine stanza). Based on the purchase date (you said 2014), I was expecting UEFI (legacy), also known as BIOS compatibility mode. OTOH, classic BIOS is consistent with your MBR partition tables, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. At a guess, this was old stock (OEMs switched to UEFI in 2012) or a refurbished machine.

Since I am a perpetual computer beginner I may be missing the point, but ...

I have a Dell Optiplex 7010 and a 7020, which were introduced a year before (2012) and a year after (2014) the OP's 9020 (2013), respectively. The firmware of each of these three models is UEFI capable.

In the QSI Machine stanza the statement of BIOS or UEFI just refers to whatever boot procedure is used. It doesn't indicate what the computer is capable of. For example, on my 7010 I have MX18 installed in BIOS/MBR. The Machine stanza of the QSI says BIOS. If I insert a live USB running MX21 that boots in UEFI, then the Machine stanza says UEFI.

By the way, the OP's QSI indicates his firmware is pretty old, specifically Dell v: A07 date: 04/25/2014. The current firmware is v: A25: 07/19/2019 and designated "critical".

[theprofa325]

Thanks for these comments. I took the date from the Dell "date of manufacture" marked on the machine. The need for a firmware update is another complication- AFAIK you need a working OS for that, possibly only windoze. But I'd like to get it running again before risking the firmware update. The machine came from IT surplus at my university (apparently a quad core A7 with 8 GB RAM is no longer sufficient to run M$WORD and EXCEL) so anything is possible.

Seems to me at this point that there might be a problem with the installed grub menu, since fehlix's suggestion to boot using the GRUB code on the USB and the menu on the installed system did not work.

[fehlix]

OK, fehlix and pbear.

I tried the "grub menus" selection from "boot rescue" at initial GRUB screen when booting from USB. Both the "/boot" entry and the "EFI" entry fail silently and return to the initial GRUB screen.

That's the relevant entry

"found GRUB menu on (hd1.1) : boot"

and indicates something with the generated GRUB menu, b/c it failed to load.
When you selected the grub loader using this entry:

"GRUB loader @ (hd1,1) boot"

it would also finally try to load the GRUB menu, and fails also.
Perhaps do post the content of the grub.cfg file:
Boot into LiveUSB ,
open Thunar filemanager and Click-mount on boot partition /dev/sda1
and within directory /grub
open /grub/grub.cfg
with text-editor.
Post content here between code-tags.
Next steps depending on the content found.