Yet again Grub issues, can't find my MX xfce [Solved]

[argonaut459]

Hi
I'm pretty damn annoyed.
Thought give the kde thing a try.

Installed, rebooted and the xfce install is nowhere to be found.

Update grub
Didn't do anything as I still can't start the xfce.

Why is it always so hard? Can't it just work, or what did I do this time wrong?

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System:    Kernel: 6.0.0-6mx-amd64 [6.0.12-1~mx21+1] x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-6.0.0-6mx-amd64 
           root=UUID=<filter> ro rootflags=subvol=@ quiet splash 
           Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.20.5 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM 
           Distro: MX-21.3_KDE_x64 Wildflower January 15  2023 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: MSI model: Z97A GAMING 6 (MS-7917) v: 2.0 serial: <filter> 
           UEFI: American Megatrends v: 10.2 date: 08/11/2015 
CPU:       Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-4690K bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Haswell family: 6 
           model-id: 3C (60) stepping: 3 microcode: 28 cache: L2: 6 MiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 27998 
           Speed: 1600 MHz min/max: 800/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1020 2: 1100 3: 900 4: 1206 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations 
           Type: retbleed status: Not affected 
           Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, STIBP: disabled, 
           RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected 
           Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: NVIDIA GM204 [GeForce GTX 970] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nouveau v: kernel 
           bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:13c2 class-ID: 0300 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.14 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: modesetting 
           unloaded: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0 screens: 1 
           Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.0x11.2") 
           s-diag: 582mm (22.9") 
           Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 92 size: 531x298mm (20.9x11.7") 
           diag: 609mm (24") 
           OpenGL: renderer: NV124 v: 4.3 Mesa 22.0.5 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 9 Series Family HD Audio vendor: Micro-Star MSI driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:8ca0 class-ID: 0403 
           Device-2: NVIDIA GM204 High Definition Audio vendor: eVga.com. driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus-ID: 02:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0fbb class-ID: 0403 
           Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k6.0.0-6mx-amd64 running: yes 
           Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 14.2 running: yes 
Network:   Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros Killer E220x Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Micro-Star MSI 
           driver: alx v: kernel port: d000 bus-ID: 04:00.0 chip-ID: 1969:e091 class-ID: 0200 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 7.18 GiB (0.3%) 
           SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required. 
           ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ACA200 size: 1.82 TiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 
           serial: <filter> rev: ABB0 scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 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: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: 453.71 GiB size: 453.71 GiB (100.00%) used: 7.18 GiB (1.6%) fs: btrfs 
           dev: /dev/sdb4 maj-min: 8:20 
           ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 100 MiB size: 98.4 MiB (98.42%) used: 562 KiB (0.6%) fs: vfat 
           dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 
           ID-3: /home raw-size: 453.71 GiB size: 453.71 GiB (100.00%) used: 7.18 GiB (1.6%) 
           fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sdb4 maj-min: 8:20 
Swap:      Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default) 
           ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 24 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
           dev: /dev/sdb2 maj-min: 8:18 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 29.8 C mobo: 27.8 C gpu: nouveau temp: 53.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A gpu: nouveau fan: 0 
Repos:     Packages: note: see --pkg apt: 2296 lib: 1284 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://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bullseye main non-free
           2: deb http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/mxlinux/packages/mx/repo/ bullseye ahs
Info:      Processes: 218 Uptime: 6m wakeups: 1 Memory: 15.58 GiB used: 1.4 GiB (9.0%) 
           Init: SysVinit v: 2.96 runlevel: 5 default: 5 tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A 
           alt: 10 Client: shell wrapper v: 5.1.4-release inxi: 3.3.06 
Boot Mode: UEFI

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$ sudo update-grub
[sudo] Passwort für punisher: 
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /boot/grub/themes/mx_linux/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.0.0-6mx-amd64
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.0.0-6mx-amd64
Found mtest-64.efi image: /@/boot/uefi-mt/mtest-64.efi
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

[fehlix]

Hi
I'm pretty damn annoyed.
Thought give the kde thing a try.

Installed, rebooted and the xfce install is nowhere to be found.

Update grub
Didn't do anything as I still can't start the xfce.

Why is it always so hard? Can't it just work, or what did I do this time wrong?

You didn't necessarily do anything wrong - but maybe something missing...
You may consider to tell something about the other install.
This could be a possible clue:

Code: Select all

lsblk -f

Perhaps indicate what partition is Xfce installed on.

[argonaut459]

Thank you for the shadow of a doubt, but I did mess something up, i'm pretty sure.

Running live usb - from a ventoy stick.
And as I had this issue earlier - though different.

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lsblk -f
NAME       FSTYPE   FSVER LABEL      UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
loop0      squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /live/linux
sda                                                                                      
├─sda1     vfat     FAT32 EFI System 3616-8F68                                           
├─sda2     swap     1     swap       e8c81ca5-fd29-406a-a2c7-cc31daf4f878                [SWAP]
├─sda3     btrfs          XFCE       7a86bd5b-d3a6-45ae-9a0d-45b813ee884f                
└─sda4     btrfs          KDE        0d027b95-242b-48ba-ba87-826a479cdaae                
sdb                                                                                      
├─sdb1     ntfs           Programme  3C1C039A1C034DF8                                    
├─sdb2     ntfs           Daten      8E141E9F141E89FB                                    
└─sdb3     ntfs           Downloads  BEBA1F77BA1F2C01                                    
sdc                                                                                      
├─sdc1     exfat    1.0   Ventoy     4E21-0000                                           
│ └─ventoy                                                                      0   100% /live/boot-
└─sdc2     vfat     FAT16 VTOYEFI    133B-CFB9                                           
sr0                           

from the other trhead were I had fu** up.

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lsblk -fs
NAME    FSTYPE   FSVER LABEL      UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
loop0   squashfs 4.0                                                         0   100% /live/linux
sda1    vfat     FAT32 EFI System 3616-8F68                                           
└─sda                                                                                 
sda2    swap     1     swap       e8c81ca5-fd29-406a-a2c7-cc31daf4f878                [SWAP]
└─sda                                                                                 
sda3    btrfs          XFCE       7a86bd5b-d3a6-45ae-9a0d-45b813ee884f                
└─sda                                                                                 
sda4    btrfs          KDE        0d027b95-242b-48ba-ba87-826a479cdaae                
└─sda                                                                                 
sdb1    ntfs           Programme  3C1C039A1C034DF8                                    
└─sdb                                                                                 
sdb2    ntfs           Daten      8E141E9F141E89FB                                    
└─sdb                                                                                 
sdb3    ntfs           Downloads  BEBA1F77BA1F2C01                                    
└─sdb                                                                                 
sdc2    vfat     FAT16 VTOYEFI    133B-CFB9                                           
└─sdc                                                                                 
sr0                                                                                   
ventoy                                                                       0   100% /live/boot-dev
└─sdc1  exfat    1.0   Ventoy     4E21-0000                                           
  └─sdc

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sudo parted --list
Model: ATA CT1000MX500SSD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB   fat32           ESP   boot, esp
 2      106MB   25,9GB  25,8GB  linux-swap(v1)  swap
 3      25,9GB  513GB   487GB   btrfs           XFCE
 4      513GB   1000GB  487GB   btrfs           KDE


Model: ATA TOSHIBA DT01ACA2 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size   Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  667GB   667GB  primary  ntfs
 2      667GB   1334GB  667GB  primary  ntfs
 3      1334GB  2000GB  667GB  primary  ntfs


Model: Verbatim STORE N GO (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 62,2GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  61,0GB  61,0GB  primary               boot
 2      61,0GB  61,1GB  33,6MB  primary  fat16        esp


Model: Linux device-mapper (linear) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/ventoy: 2192MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 2      623kB  4891kB  4268kB  primary               esp

and a pic of gparted

What did I do:
I have XFCE installed as btrfs with ??sub-partitions?? of root and home.
Worked very fine and the automated timeshift saves for backups during updates seemd to work perfect.

Decided to give KDE a go, as I heard nice things about it.
Installed in the same manor as the XFCE,
format - btrfs
- sub partitions root and home

selected ESP (the right most toggle on the install screen) on the SSD as place for grub, as I did with XFCE.
after first boot I realized that the XFCE option was nowhere to be selected.

What I do wrong everytime I try to install 2 or more OS's ??

What is most important for me now:
Get XFCE backup and running as before, so I can do my work as we're near end of month. Don't care about KDE or that partition, need the XFCE running as before again.

[j2mcgreg]

A couple of observations:
-- Ventoy can be hit and miss with MX. Better options to set up the USB drive are Rufus on Windows or MX's own Live USB Maker.
-- With whatever write utility you choose, you should configure it to use GPT partitioning when writing the ISO to the USB drive. Do so
and the ESP partition will be preselected as the location for Grub.

[argonaut459]

I never had any success on creating a bootable USB stick with Rufus. However, these times were about as win 7 got introduced, IIRC.
Ventoy is working fine so far. Slap the iso on it, boot it, install it. Use the rest of the space for other things that might get handy.
Like the time the WiFi wasn't working on the laptop.

For the other part, got no idea what you're referring to, and so far everything works with it, whether being windows, old pc, new PC.

I think it's rather a issue with myself and what I select during installation, as the wizard is probably not set up to recommend what to do if you got multiple OS's
Or the descriptions are in a way I don't get it
Which again is rather an issue of myself than anything

[fehlix]

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lsblk -f
├─sda3     btrfs          XFCE       7a86bd5b-d3a6-45ae-9a0d-45b813ee884f                
└─sda4     btrfs          KDE        0d027b95-242b-48ba-ba87-826a479cdaae                

GRUB generates the grub.cfg menu with help of os-prober helper-tool.
And os-prober seems still have issues with btrfs and especially
with btrfs installs where @root is on a subvolume of "/."
Not sure whether next bookworm get a fixed os-prober, i wouldn't be surprised if not.
A "workaround" is mentioned within this debianbugreport
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=983107

What is most important for me now:
Get XFCE backup and running as before, so I can do my work as we're near end of month. Don't care about KDE or that partition, need the XFCE running as before again.

Simplest way to fix maybe this:

Copy the top menu entry from /boot/grub/grub.cfg from the @XFCE installation
into a new text file /boot/grub/custom.cfg on the @KDE installation

[argonaut459]

Simplest way to fix maybe this:

Copy the top menu entry from /boot/grub/grub.cfg from the @XFCE installation
into a new text file /boot/grub/custom.cfg on the @KDE installation

I'm in KDE right now. Used dolphin to navigate to xfce partition.
Found the file
But that's a pretty long file.
How do I know what you mean by top menu entry??

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if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
  menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
  menuentry_id_option=""
fi

export menuentry_id_option

or rather that one? But where to end?

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### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
function gfxmode {
	set gfxpayload="${1}"
}
set linux_gfx_mode=
export linux_gfx_mode
menuentry 'MX 21.2.1 Wildflower' --class mx --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-7a86bd5b-d3a6-45ae-9a0d-45b813ee884f' {
	load_video
	insmod gzio
	if [ x$grub_platform = xxen ]; then insmod xzio; insmod lzopio; fi
	insmod part_gpt
	insmod btrfs

Let me guess, it ends here. Though thats about half the cfg file:

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		echo	'Loading Linux 5.18.0-4mx-amd64 ...'
		linux	/@/boot/vmlinuz-5.18.0-4mx-amd64 root=UUID=7a86bd5b-d3a6-45ae-9a0d-45b813ee884f ro rootflags=subvol=@  quiet splash init=/lib/systemd/systemd
		echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
		initrd	/@/boot/initrd.img-5.18.0-4mx-amd64
	}
}

### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

[fehlix]

Simplest way to fix maybe this:

Copy the top menu entry from /boot/grub/grub.cfg from the @XFCE installation
into a new text file /boot/grub/custom.cfg on the @KDE installation

I'm in KDE right now. Used dolphin to navigate to xfce partition.
Found the file
But that's a pretty long file.
How do I know what you mean by top menu entry??

It starts with a line "menuentry"
and
ends with a line with one closing curly bracket "}"

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menuentry "MX ..."  ... {
....
....

}

[argonaut459]

If I see correct, that should be all that is to copy, as it ends with the {

just these 2 lines?

and where to copy them into the KDE file?

[fehlix]

If I see correct, that should be all that is to copy, as it ends with the {

just these 2 lines?

The editor may of folded the lines.
If still no clear post the lines here.

and where to copy them into the KDE file?

maybe read my 2nd post again.