After successfully installing 3 OS partitions on a multi-boot laptop with the 4th OS destroyed the GRUB multi-boot menu

ok that looks good so might as well put a birds eye view of possible approaches to your situation.

the one i would like to continue with ,since it won't do anything in terms of change at this point to your system is give grub a "holding hand" and tell it what to do. if that works you will then have booted up into one of your OS's. At that point it may be a re-install of grub and grub-update, from the booted OS.

So we could guess it ,if i did it would be :

grub > ls (hd0,gpt6)/

//the 0 is a zero not a letter, that should be antix

but why not make it a bit of fun learning . next stage will be
grub > ls (hd0,gpt9)/

grub > ls (hd0,gpt11)/




then each of above might bring up a few directories eg boot

so with above type > ls (hd0,gpt11)/boot/



we are looking for vmlinuz , initrd.gz once we find likely candidates we will use them to tell grub

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another way is that you boot up from a live os and use that as a tool to re-install/ update grub on your PC

I will be catching ZZZ's by time you come back
 
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OK, captain. I did your little command at the Grub prompt. The screenshot is attached. Let me know what you think I should do. Thanks.
 

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I posted before I read your Post #41. So now I did those commands. The screenshot is attached. Thanks!
 

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I'm on deck, Len, just catching up on what you and Andy have been working through, he's a good man.

Actually, I am nearly 63, you are 70 and Andy in between, we could start a Seniors club.

Back soon.
 
OK Len, at #11 on page 1, you included a shot from GParted, which showed

  • antiX being on /dev/sda6 and one of
  • Sparky or Sparky Game Over on /dev/sda11 and /dev/sda9
I want to identify these, so from that

grub>

prompt, can you type and enter each of the following and report back to us?

Code:
cat (hd0,6)/etc/issue

cat (hd0,11)/etc/issue

cat (hd0,9)/etc/issue

Mine for Sparky shows as

Code:
SparkyLinux 6 \n \l

Wizard
 
wizard, the screenshot is attached. Take a look and let me know what to do.

sda9 and sda11 both contain an installation of SparkyLinux Game Over. I really wanted one of them to be plain old Sparky, but somehow it didn't turn out that way.

Thanks!
 

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You're doing fine. :)

For purposes of this exercise, I would advocate using /dev/sda11's Sparky Game Over to head up the troops, and we can work the others out later, using similar methods.

So from that grub prompt again, we'll issue a few commands using the root partition, /dev/sda11, and also the linux kernel and what is called an initrd image (all involved with any startup).

We'll be introducing you to tab completion, which is a function useful for typing both in our Terminals, and in shells such as this screen you see with the grub prompt, is.

The form for the kernel we are using is a zipped version of it, hence a zip at the end.

The lines you type and enter, one at a time, will be similar to this but the numbers that complete the zipped kernel and the initrd image will be yours rather then mine, provided by the tab-complete.

I'll list them and then explain a little

Code:
set root=(hd0,11)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-3-amd64 root=/dev/sda11
initrd /boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-3-amd64
boot

Now if you remember those pix you posted on page one, one showed the linux kernel as perhaps

5.6dot-something

That is the version you will use for both the kernel and the initrd image when you type those 4 lines.

You can get yours by typing as far as

vmlinuz

in Line 2 and then pressing the Tab key, it will autocomplete, or show you options to choose from.

The same with the 3rd line once you get to

initrd

press Tab and it will complete. The numbers must match on the kernel and the initrd image.

In the 2nd line, there is a space between

-amd64

and

root=

so be sure you get the spaces right, if tab-complete does not provide a space.

With the 4th line

boot

pressing enter on that should boot you into your computer, to the login screen of the Sparky on /dev/sda11 and hence to the desktop. If it does not work, don't panic, we won't have spoiled our chances, and have another option with the Sparky USB stick.

If you get to the Desktop of Sparky, this is a temporary fix, which we can make permanent.

Find your way to Terminal (shortcut keys are Ctrl-Alt-t), and there type and enter the following lines

Code:
sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

and reboot.

See how you go.

Wizard
 
Well, I was able to boot into Sparky, but sda11 failed. I used sda9, which was successful.

However, I got some errors when I issued:
sudo grub-install /dev/sda

I went ahead with the sudo update-grub command, in case it would work.

I have attached a screenshot to show you what I got in the command window.

Now I will reboot, and see if it worked, in spite of the grub-install errors.
 

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Nope, didn't work.

This time, when I rebooted and went into the Grub prompt, it was sda9 that failed, and sda11 booted up just fine.

Attached is the output of the sda9 boot attempt.

sda11 booted into Sparky Linux just fine. (I'm working in that arena right now.)

I'm very tired and I have to hit the hay. See you tomorrow. Thanks again!
 

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Len, getting late again, unless you've napped, this for now or tomorrow.

Are you booting under CSM mode?

Should be booting under UEFI

Wiz

EDIT - sorry, missed part of your last Post, so yes, when fresh... you need to be under UEFI in the setup utility.
 
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Glad you picked up ball Chris ; so i'm going to sit back , watch and learn now
 
OK, captain. I did your little command at the Grub prompt. The screenshot is attached. Let me know what you think I should do. Thanks.
you missed the forward slash "/"

it should have been :

ls (hd0,gpt7)/

that would have shown more stuff - but never mind
 
Well, I'm back after a good night's rest.

wizard, actually I am in CSM mode. It is the only mode that works for me, believe it or not. Every time I try to set the BIOS to UEFI boot, my laptop doesn't recognize the USB. In fact, I usually have to go into the BIOS twice, resetting it to UEFI boot, then it fails, and then I have to reset the BIOS back to CSM, and then it recognizes the USB again. Weird. Perhaps it's an old BIOS. But that's the only way I can get it to work.

captain, yes I did indeed miss the forward slash. But I suppose we're OK. If you need me to run it again with the "/", let me know.

I think we have other problems with my BIOS, it not wanting to boot into my USB in UEFI boot mode. Hopefully wizard will have some answers. Perhaps a firmware update to my BIOS is needed?
 
Ventoy release 15 now allows for gpt label on usb but my PC is using uefi bit can still boot from msdos usb. So i'm using uefi but have secure boot off. i have grub on my slackware so wil play with it; i need to check something at the back of my head last time i played with grub prompt i set root to the partition of the esp . I will have a look tomorrow due to another BBQ session
 
Morning all :)

Len do you have any other USB sticks or just the one/s in use?

I have to take my wife to the dentist but will be back in about 2 hours I hope.

Wiz
 
wizard, I have plenty of USB sticks, 5 of them USB 3.0 s with 32 GB of storage. So that's not a problem.

I really wonder about my BIOS setup. It comes up as an issue every time I post to one of these forums.

I'll look forward to any suggestions you make. Thanks again.

captain, I'm looking forward to what you have to say about Ventoy. I'm also thinking I should start another thread, so that it gets entered in the database as a separate issue. But I'll wait until I hear back from you. Thanks to you also, my friend!
 
Regrets on the delays Len, getting late again. Serious work on your tomorrow, I expect, but I believe we are headed up the garden path - my fault for not focusing in the area needing the most attention. And that is the USB stick - UEFI/CSM area.

I will explain as we go along.

Can you provide me with the following?

1. The DE (desktop environment) your Sparky is using, eg MATE or other

2. Take a look at these 2 screenshots from my Sparky and see if you can provided something similar

XTTTd2t.png


and

Vr7gLUJ.png


To provide these two shots, I can help you find them once I know the DE and hence the File Manager.

Cheers

Wiz
 
@wizardfromoz -- took me a while to process -- had no intention of 'stepping on you!'
corderlen_scrn-5_gparted.jpg
 

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