Solved Enabling os-prober in Modicia O.S. (Debian based)

[Alexzee]

Hi Mates-

I hope your weekend is going well.

I'm preparing to install Modicia O.S. (Debian Stable based) but before I do I need help and clarification on a few things. There are a few questions I've got.

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Once installed Modicia has to be booted twice before it can be used and many other things I just don't have time to explain.

On this triple booted Asus Tuf Gaming desktop I would usually just boot into Linux Mint, update Grub and my Debian Trixie and Slackware installations would be seen and show in the Grub Menu.

My thinking is that I will need to edit the /etc/default/grub config and change the string:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

OR> should it be:

GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true  ?

The Debian WiKi says that it should be set to the first string above that I put in code tags.

Grub - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org

Is this correct thinking?

Also, I have Linux Mint 22.3 ready to boot Live on a thumb drive should this install go belly up.
I'm not well versed with Recovery Mode:-

How would I use LM Live to recover if need be? Use chroot?
That is without over riding the Mocicia install and having to perform fresh install of Mint.

In the code below you'll see the Samsung M2 drive where Linux Mint is currently installed. That's the drive I'll be installing Modicia O.S.to:-
The 1 TB ST31000524NS (/dev/sda) is my Debian Trixe install. The 500 GB WD (/dev/sdb) is my Slackware installation.

root@slackware:~# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 232.89 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 250GB        
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: F53F3D88-B9DC-451D-90A2-4E5E36E630FC

Device           Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1    2048      4095      2048     1M BIOS boot
/dev/nvme0n1p2    4096   1054719   1050624   513M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p3 1054720 488396799 487342080 232.4G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: ST31000524NS 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x06de6078

Device     Boot      Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *          2048 1917688126 1917686079 914.4G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       1917688127 1953525167   35837041  17.1G 82 Linux swap


Disk /dev/sdb: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD5000AZLX-0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x58a3da76

Device     Boot   Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *       2048   1026047   1024000   500M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sdb2       1026048   5220351   4194304     2G 82 Linux swap
/dev/sdb3       5220352 976773167 971552816 463.3G 83 Linux

I'm checking myself with you guys before I wreck myself and my rig.

Thanks in advance
Alex

 

[CaffeineAddict]

os prober should be disabled by default but to enable it you set GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Not sure why though, GRUB should pick up other OS's during install.

 

[Alexzee]

os prober should be disabled by default but to enable it you set GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

Not sure why though, GRUB should pick up other OS's during install.

Thanks for the confirmation.
Any thoughts/details on going through 'Recovery Mode" in your experience of using it from the Grub Menu?

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Any thoughts/details on going through 'Recovery Mode" in your experience of using it from the Grub Menu?

I dealt with recovery a few times but my problem was something else, I had to mount encrypted drive and resize it.

Corruption wary and how to fix specific problem wary too, but as long as you have live USB you can boot it and for instance reinstall grub and edit any config on offline system you want, but how to, it depends.

 

[Alexzee]

I dealt with recovery a few times but my problem was something else, I had to mount encrypted drive and resize it.

Corruption wary and how to fix specific problem wary too, but as long as you have live USB you can boot it and for instance reinstall grub and edit any config on offline system you want, but how to, it depends.

Valuable info. much obliged:-

Why the string argument ends in =false doesn't make sense to me....as you said: "not sure why though".
One would think it should end in =true.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Why the string argument ends in =false doesn't make sense to me....as you said: "not sure why though".
One would think it should end in =true.

the config says "DISABLE" therefore it means toggling the false statement.
false && false is true
false && true is false

if it would say ENABLE then it's the opposite:
true && false is false
true && true is true

boolean logic

 

[Alexzee]

the config says "DISABLE" therefore it means toggling the false statement.
false && false is true
false && true is false

if it would say ENABLE then it's the opposite:
true && false is false
true && true is true

boolean logic

Got it-

 

[Alexzee]

Zero issues with Grub after the first reboot of the new installation.
The Modicia developers had the string enabled by default.

A quick edit with root privileges to the /etc/default/grub config entailed this:

GRUB_GFXMODE=1024x768

In other words, the string didn't exist so I had to add it to the config file.

Upon reboot I could see all 3 of my Linux distro's in the Grub Menu.

 

[Alexzee]

 

[Alexzee]

Might be able to boot into Modicia today.
Still cleaning up the mess that the contractors made for me.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Any thoughts/details on going through 'Recovery Mode" in your experience of using it from the Grub Menu?

btw. here's an example on how you'd recover a soft bricked linux.

Suppose something is wrong with the GPU driver and graphical session doesn't start.
The system has graphical.target unit set as default, and because of this you can't boot, system is stuck on boot during init and there's nothing you can do other than shut down.

Running "recovery" entry from grub won't help to avoid stuck boot in this case. (I know because had this problem, OS is bricked)

The easiest method for recovery is to add systemd.unit=multi-user.target to kernel cmd line when grub starts (press e, edit and F10).
It will start system in text mode, log-in and you're in, at this point you can do what ever you want to fix a problem since the system is booted, except there's no UI and no web browser.

 

[Alexzee]

btw. here's an example on how you'd recover a soft bricked linux.

Suppose something is wrong with the GPU driver and graphical session doesn't start.
The system has graphical.target unit set as default, and because of this you can't boot, system is stuck on boot during init and there's nothing you can do other than shut down.

Running "recovery" entry from grub won't help to avoid stuck boot in this case. (I know because had this problem, OS is bricked)

The easiest method for recovery is to add systemd.unit=multi-user.target to kernel cmd line when grub starts (press e, edit and F10).
It will start system in text mode, log-in and you're in, at this point you can do what ever you want to fix a problem since the system is booted, except there's no UI and no web browser.

Sorry for the delay.
Thanks for the fix by editing the kernel cmd line.