No Boot Loader

[MarkG]

I shut my machine down then restarted it 10 minutes later and all I get is "No Boot Loader" message on the screen.

I tried to update grub, use MX boot repair and also tried Grub2 tools.

Nothing repairs or installs or enables the disk to boot.

Using GRUB2 to find the install on the drive allows booting in to the system which is how I was able to use the MX Boot Repair, however its not repairing the GRUB boot loader issue, neither is using the terminal method or Super GRUB2 tools.

All the files are there and accessible, its just the disk can't boot. I even tried an old trick I used once when I had a similar issue with a windows drive that failed, as in cloning to a blank drive then repairing it, didn't work.

I installed a newer version of MX and it has problems too, this is installed on a different drive, the MX Simple installer keeps on reporting that I am offline when I am not and when I am, nothing installs and errors report dependency issues.

A little help would be gratefully received.

I prefer the older version as its fully functional and I have everything I need installed on it.

[j2mcgreg]

We need your computer’s complete profile before we can proceed, so you need to post the output from the QSI utility. The Quick System Info (QSI) utility is located in MX Tools and its output is automatically formatted for use here in the forum. Run the QSI utility, click “Copy for Forum” at the bottom and then just paste it here in your thread.
Forum Rules

[Charlie Brown]

If you're able to boot with an MX Live usb: Try all one by one:

• "Boot from HDD"

Or:

• "Switch to Grub bootloader" (This may not be required on a Uefi system) => "Boot Rescue Menus"
  
  ... Then:
  
  
  • "Grub bootloader"
  and/or
  • "Grub Menus"

... At least to indirectly boot. In case of success, you can (and please) post the QSI as mentioned above.

[MarkG]

This is while booted into the newer version of MX

Code: Select all

System:    Host: mark Kernel: 4.19.0-5-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: MX-18.3_x64 Continuum May 26  2019 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: Acer product: Aspire E3-111 v: V1.05 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: Acer model: Roxy v: Type2 - A01 Board Version serial: <filter> UEFI: Insyde 
           v: 1.05 date: 04/11/2014 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Celeron N2830 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Silvermont 
           rev: 8 L2 cache: 1024 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 8663 
           Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 500/2416 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 505 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1366x768~60Hz, 1280x1024~75Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Bay Trail v: 4.2 Mesa 18.2.6 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series High Definition Audio 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-5-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter vendor: Foxconn 
           driver: ath9k v: kernel port: 2000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           IF: wlan0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
           vendor: Acer Incorporated ALI driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 1000 bus ID: 03:00.0 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: usb0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 931.52 GiB used: 7.52 GiB (0.8%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST500LT012-1DG142 size: 465.76 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: JMicron model: Tech size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 455.21 GiB used: 7.52 GiB (1.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sdb3 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb http://iso.mxrepo.com/antix/stretch stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mxlinux.mirrors.uk2.net/packages/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 184 Uptime: 41m Memory: 3.74 GiB used: 1.39 GiB (37.2%) Init: SysVinit 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 inxi: 3.0.33 

[MarkG]

If you're able to boot with an MX Live usb: Try all one by one:

• "Boot from HDD"

Or:

• "Switch to Grub bootloader" (This may not be required on a Uefi system) => "Boot Rescue Menus"
  
  ... Then:
  
  
  • "Grub bootloader"
  and/or
  • "Grub Menus"

... At least to indirectly boot. In case of success, you can (and please) post the QSI as mentioned above.

Already tried and while I can boot via the rescue method, it doesn't persist. It was how I was able to run the MX Boot Repair that doesn't repair the issue, which is why I am now here.

[Charlie Brown]

... while booted into the newer version of MX ...

MX-18.3

[Charlie Brown]

It doesn't show any ESP (EFI) partitions ...

Meanwhile, that it doesn't persist is normal.

[MarkG]

It doesn't show any ESP (EFI) partitions ....

So how can Super Grub 2, MX Live CD boot rescue see the partitions and GParted for that matter?

All I Want is my old system up and running because there are lots of files and links I use.

[baldyeti]

Since you said in your initial post that you managed to boot the system you want to rescue, please post the output of the QSI from that version, and perhaps also the output of the following two commands:

Code: Select all

sudo fdisk -lu

Code: Select all

sudo lsblk --fs

If said system is older than MX18/stretch which you posted, this is a long unsupported MX and debian version.
Which does not mean its boot-loader cannot be fixed, but 1st give us more information.

[j2mcgreg]

@MarkG wrote:

This is while booted into the newer version of MX

If MX 18.3 is the newer version and you have a problem with an even earlier version, there isn't much we can help you with. MX 18 reached its end of life on June 5, 2020. See here:
https://endoflife.date/mxlinux

The best advice I can give you is to replace the Seagate HDD with an SSD and then install MX 23 onto the SSD. Then once that's done, mount the Seagate HDD into a dock and copy over your files.