topic title: Grub is broken after initial install
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#1

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$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev             10M     0   10M   0% /dev
tmpfs           800M  744K  799M   1% /run
/dev/sda4        46G  2.7G   41G   7% /
tmpfs           5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs           4.6G     0  4.6G   0% /run/shm
/dev/sdb5       1.5T  285M  1.4T   1% /home
/dev/sdc1       2.8T  895G  1.9T  33% /media/3 TB
/dev/sda6        10G  4.3G  5.2G  46% /media/2a92bdf5-c3bb-4a16-a054-30cadb290ed
Just ignore the sdc (I only have 2 hard drives)

During install I 100% did choose to install the grub to mbr of sda

During boot If press F12 and if I choose PO: sda than that works and I am able to boot into antiX

I then tried booting again from the LIVE usb stick and running"reapir grub" tool form the control centre and chose ROOT = sda4 and install grub to sda1 but it did not fix the problem.

I suppose I could go into my BIOS and tell it to boot from PO:sda but that does not seem to me to be the proper solution. I also have to dual boot into Windows10 for my job.

So i dont like to fart around with the bios too much because if I get locked out of Windows10 partition I will be in SERIOUS SERIOUS trouble, maybe even get fired from my job

Sorry for the noob questions, I am actually MCSA and have been using linux as my main OS 80% of the time. But I feel like a dummy now because I cant figure this out. And the fonts on this forum are so tiny.

EDIT: I took a picture with my android to show the error of grub but when I connect my android via USB now it wont mount and I see nothing in the /media folder for my android.

Sigh. This file manager that antix comes with is definatley not going to work for me. I dont even know what the name of it is because I cant even see an"about" screen in the menu. This is even worse than pcmanFM

Im sorry for my mood. I am really getting angry to tell you the truth. I work 50 hours per week and its my only day off and I have squandered the whole day and my efforts have fallen"well short" of a functional desktop workstation.

I thought I knew enough to use a more"elite" distro like this one.. I just hope I dont have to go back to Ubuntu and be"babied" and breast-fed

(edit: see my other post about not being able to install Nautilus)
Posts: 1,308
BitJam
Joined: 31 Aug 2009
#2
Brad562 wrote:During install I 100% did choose to install the grub to mbr of sda

During boot If press F12 and if I choose PO: sda than that works and I am able to boot into antiX
This means Grub did its job. Grub doesn't reach in and change your BIOS settings.
I suppose I could go into my BIOS and tell it to boot from PO:sda but that does not seem to me to be the proper solution. I also have to dual boot into Windows10 for my job.
It's up to you. Make the default in BIOS the one you want to boot into most of the time and then use F12 to boot into the other one. I think grub should add a entry for Windows into the Grub menu. If it does not then this is something you could add. Maybe it depends on details you haven't divulged such as whether you are booting via UEFI or BIOS/MBR. It is unclear to me how Grub could have done a better job. If you don't want your BIOS settings messed with then it is much better that you adjust them yourself rather than rely on Grub to do it for you.
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#3
Thank you for your fast response. I am using UEFI

Please dont tell me I have to go into fstab and start farting around and editing it manually.

I mean if thats the case than i am definately"off to a bad start" with this distro.

I apologize for my mood. I am really frustrated. I have alot going wrong in my personal life.
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#4
Situation is worse than I feared. There is no windows listed AT ALL in the grub menu.

I have Xubuntu installed also in another partition (as an emergency backup OS)

I think I will try reinstalling the Xubuntu and hopefully it will fix the grub

Here is my output so far:

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$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 240 GB, 240054796800 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 29185 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
/dev/sda1               1           3       24066   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2               3       14539   116760420   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3           14539       14597      465885   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda4           14597       20676    48829567   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda6           20676       22014    10747485   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 6 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5           27241       29186    15623212   82  Linux Swap / Solaris 
Warning: Partition 5 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/sdb: 2000 GB, 2000396321280 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 243201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System 
/dev/sdb1   *          77         115      921312   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb2             115         132      136552   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb3             132       48872   391504050   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sdb5           48872      243202  1560955725   83  Linux 
Warning: Partition 5 does not end on cylinder boundary.

Disk /dev/sdc: 3000 GB, 3000516341760 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 45599 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 4096 = 65802240 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System

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$ sudo blkid
/dev/sda2: UUID="462CA67B2CA665A1" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="e0459adc-c125-48fd-9467-05a72eb53ff1"
/dev/sda3: UUID="A28AF30C8AF2DC2B" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="ba04b66d-ef2e-4dc7-9b0c-92bd06628e6f"
/dev/sda4: LABEL="rootantiX-16" UUID="cad4d67d-fcbb-4cc9-8ec0-8e0553e257b9" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="84d67ec7-23e9-4377-a9a1-8ca2c56b3a36"
/dev/sda5: UUID="30f93cd1-675e-4612-bd75-9ce0a3149586" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="dd8a7f80-d9a7-4d1d-9364-fa50f966cf95"
/dev/sda6: UUID="2a92bdf5-c3bb-4a16-a054-30cadb290ed4" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="691f34bb-3abe-49e1-b851-c15b42b90ca2"
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="ESP" UUID="903E-2FD4" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="6c4088ac-ccec-4bf6-92de-a037305a6e89"
/dev/sdb3: LABEL="Acer" UUID="92AE78EDAE78CB6D" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="014c29d5-4960-4f8f-a9d7-079bd21bf5db"
/dev/sdb5: LABEL="homeantiX" UUID="0243907c-c744-4d14-99cc-98d3bdb85eb6" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="a4df0922-35a3-4b63-9c83-3a6438a7b14b"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="3 TB" UUID="65B04EDC03D2B5F2" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda1: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="c542406a-96d0-4dbe-8585-1fcb6f460ba6"
/dev/sdb2: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="5040342d-6a7d-44b7-be76-f3d9b45dc97b"
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#5
Actually I am going to boot up with the Ubuntu live CD and try to run the boot-repair gui from that first, maybe I will get lucky and not have to do the entire installation
Posts: 325
male
Joined: 04 Nov 2011
#6
Brad562 wrote:

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$ sudo fdisk -l
...
/dev/sdb1   *          77         115      921312   83  Linux 
...
$ sudo blkid
...
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="ESP" UUID="903E-2FD4" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="6c4088ac-ccec-4bf6-92de-a037305a6e89"

__{{emoticon}}__ __{{emoticon}}__

Try it with times

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parted -l
Last edited by male on 12 Aug 2017, 19:35, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#7
Hi Male,

Im not really sure what that stuff means
Posts: 148
figosdev
Joined: 29 Jun 2017
#8
i havent tried the boot repair utility in ubuntu. if you can get it to boot to any distro from the hard drive (in other words, if you can fix it partially) then the next time it updates grub might fix the whole thing. thats what update-grub is supposed to do.

the problem is if update-grub causes the problem, or that update-grub doesnt always work running from live cd. (dvd/usb.) once you can boot into say, antix-- the next grub update will probably find windows, fix grub, etc. the trick of course, is getting it to boot in the first place.

how did it go with ubuntu? did you try that option yet?
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#9
I booted into Ubuntu and installed package boot-repair

I ran that utility but it seemed to hang about 80% thru (not completely frozen but it would say"Rewriting GRUB loader now....." and I let that run for an hour and when I came back it was still on the same screen. So I just closed the window and rebooted.

After that it was REALLY messed up, i could not even boot into windows after that. The Grub was completely mangled at this point.

I then booted in with the AntX live CD and ran the grub repair tool from that one. i didnt expect that to do any good but decided to reboot just in case.

Great News! The GRUB was properly mapped now including an entry for Windows. I was ready to celebrate and kick back with a Pina Colada.

But when I booted into AntiX I had no network coonectivity! I tried disabling ufw..... but nothing. Checked the settings in wicD and nothing had changed. I also could not connect via WiFi (I almost always leave WiFi disabled on my desktop because I am ethernet cable connected.

I didnt even bother to create a post about that because realized it would be faster to just reinstall AntiX than to try to figure it out. And yes I did boot into Xubuntu (2nd partition) and Windows 10 and the internet was working like normal. So definitely a software issue.

And after reinstalling Anti-X the following things went wrong:

It broke GRUb again so that I am only able to login by pressing F12 at the bios and then selecting PO: whatever its called, basically the first hard drive

and that maps me to the AntiX grub screen but now there is no Windows entry and no Xubuntu entry

Also even though I told it during install not to overwrite my home partition and just to mount it as its own....... It did not do so. It made its own /home inside of the /root (Explicitly against my orders)

Fortunately it did not overwrite the other /home. But anyways at this point I had"had enough".

I feel like I did when I installed Arch linux and was banging my head again and again.

I am realizing that I am not"the target audience" for this app. I wanted lightweight on resources but I do not even have an icon in the system tray for the lan connection. Im just not experienced enough to set this up without having to search out tutorials and forum posts even for the littlest things.

I like to just press the flying windows key and start typing"Fi" and be able to choose Firefox. So although I dont like the Gnome bloat I am really accustomed to the interface and I like the system tools.

So I re-installed Ubuntu-Gnome and am installing Anti-X on the secondary partition to goof around with but at this point I have to get a stable workstation up and running so just reverting to Ubuntu which only needs a couple of tweeks to get it going.

Thank you for the assistance. Something is awfully wrong with the version of Grub included with Anti-X. I installed PeppermintOS 8 before antiX and the grub was perfectly normal with that one.
Posts: 148
figosdev
Joined: 29 Jun 2017
#10
i dont think a problem with grub is"targeting a particular audience" at all. no one has deliberately misconfigured grub to give you this much trouble, to make antix more"leet" or anything.

no one is"expected" to use grub in whatever way gets around this. this is just a problem with grub (if your description of what happened is accurate.)

in the past, ubuntu has also had troubles like this with video, for example. its not because ubuntu is intended as an"expert distro." that said... antix (like ubuntu) is a little more up-to-date than debian stable. and as with any distro that is, could be a little more likely to run into a problem like this.
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#11
Yes, It is true that the grub problem is capable of being resolved (albeit with a heavy hand of manual intervention and reconfiguring). Its just the aggregate of so many obstacles that really frustrated me.

And after I finally got the grub resolved and booted into AntiX to find that the network connectivity had broken (and i cant figure out how grub being re-written would have ANYTHING to do with the network connection).

That was really the final straw for me. It made me question whether this distro is stable. I can see for those with a firm grasp of the command line and of editing config files in vim maybe

Im not saying anything wrong with anti-X I think it is ME that is the problem. The fact that I am not"the target audience" for this. Like the way that a group of Mormons is not the target audience for a Quentin Tarantino movie.

The thing with the grub problems is that its one thing if it is writing grub to the wrong place where the BIOS cant see it, but in this case not just that (which is easy to fix) but it is even leaving out to add Windows and Xubuntu to the list.

Its a pity because the distro is good, but the installer is flawed. As i said earlier not just the grub problems but I selected DURING THE INSTALL WIZARD to have it mount the /home partition from sdb5 (or whatever) and not to create a new /home partition but it disobeyed me.

Now thats a pretty big problem
Posts: 39
Brad562
Joined: 11 Aug 2017
#12
Hopefully it is constructive criticism for the devs to take alook at (the issues i encountered with the installer wizard). It a pity because when the system is working it works like a charm.

I will keep it as my secondary linux and if I can work thru the issues i would be happy to make it my daily driver

So this is not a"Bye Bye Linux, going back to Windows" post. I am not trying to be one of those guys installing a distro on the VM and then writing a YouTube review and complaining.

But lets be honest, this distro is for computer experts. Nothing wrong with that but this is not"newbie-friendly" and thats the bottom line.
Posts: 2,238
dolphin_oracle
Joined: 16 Dec 2007
#13
Looking thru this thread, I saw this line:
During install I 100% did choose to install the grub to mbr of sda
and
Thank you for your fast response. I am using UEFI
When running a UEFI system, you insall grub to the"ESP" partition. The mbr being what legacy bios uses. Now, as you saw, when you selected the boot drive, it booted fine.

I think this video may be of help to you. It covers some UEFI/bios gotchas to look for.
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=cLFUZ6LtqiE"
linktext was:"https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=cLFUZ6LtqiE"
====================================


There is also the case that you may not be aware...whatever distro you installed last, if you install grub, takes over as the grub bootloader. generally an"update-grub" will find the other distros installed on your machine, including windows.

Why you lost network functions I have no idea, but I remain skeptical of using a ubuntu disc to repair anything on a debian system.

but before your next attempt, make sure you understand your system's UEFI/bios boot settings. I think these may be what bit you in the beginning.

and remember, distros like ubuntu tend to hide what's going on...and distros like antiX tend to show you exactly what's going on...even if you don't quite understand it. Can it be tricky...yes. But once you know...you know.

Good luck in your linux adventures!
Posts: 604
thriftee
Joined: 27 Feb 2009
#14
I'm testing a solution for EFI boot messed up to try to fix my Win/10 Dell I7 7559.

I had tried to install EFI boot, but that failed, so I installed to MBR and since then the EFI boot has been gone.

I can boot it to Windows by taking the F12 boot options and going in that way, but it currently is booting I think from MBR. I really don't understand what the purpose of EFI is, to be honest.

So far I've downloaded and tried:
Disk Boot Repair
Gparted live
systemrescuecd
ubuntu 17.04

So far, none could boot

Trying:
Backbox

Might try:
Knoppix 7.7.1
Kali
Last edited by thriftee on 14 Aug 2017, 01:33, edited 1 time in total.
Posts: 4,164
rokytnji
Joined: 20 Feb 2009
#15
Errr. What version of AntiX?

Hard Shutdown causes file system corruption by the way. Might explain your network being fubar.

But then. I don't know. I am not college educated or a Linux expert user.

Just a GED scooter tramp with a laptop. That works OK. No matter what I install or do

If using 17.2. I am not hip if the grub repair tool is viable yet in the testing release. Since I am not running testing.