How to restore GRUB boot menu?

[ScottyK]

I have a Vostro 5370 that I dual boot Windows 10 and Kubuntu. I had to send the laptop back to Dell for repairs and I just got it back. All of my data is still there, but I've noticed that the grub boot menu is gone. The laptop boots straight to windows. Looking at the partitions, the three Linux partitions are still there.

How do I go about reinstalling the boot loaded so I can have the dual boot option again?

[claydoh]

As Windows 10 is using EFI, it is possible that Windows has simply set itself to be the first boot OS in your laptop's firmware, like Kubuntu did when you installed it.
Try looking at that, and see if you can set the Kubuntu drive to be the first choice. This may be all you have to do.
See if Kubuntu shows up in your laptop's specific f-key boot menu (probably f12), and see if it boots from there. If so, you can go into your bios and set it to be the main boot selection.

If not, then it will take some steps to fix, but it is fixable.

[ScottyK]

I booted into BIOS, and saw that the windows boot manager is the only one listed. The Kubuntu option that was there is now gone. <br>

[claydoh]

Using the Recommended repair option with Boot-Repair should recreate the missing boot entry

https://linuxhint.com/ubuntu_boot_repair_tutorial/

Basically you need to boot a live usb, add the ppa, install boot-repair, then run the recommended repair option.

[ScottyK]

Thanks for the info! My project this afternoon...

[oshunluvr]

Can't you just do grub-install from the LiveUSB with GRUB-EFI?

[claydoh]

Can't you just do grub-install from the LiveUSB with GRUB-EFI?

Yes, this is more or less what the boot-repair tool does, if that is what is needed.

[Qqmike]

Can't you just do grub-install from the LiveUSB with GRUB-EFI?

Claydoh: Yes, this is more or less what the boot-repair tool does, if that is what is needed.

Yeah, if you go with Claydoh's push, you then don't have to worry about using chroot -- BootRepair should handle all that for you. Unless you are real comfortable using chroot ... I have a how-to on that around here for grub-install, trick being what to bind & etc.

[ScottyK]

Ok, got the dual boot option back up, Booted into the Kubuntu side, and after displaying the kubuntu icon, it suddenly dumped me to (initramfs) prompt. Is this a broken install? There isn't much on the kubuntu side, and it's 19.10. Should I just nuke it and start over?

[claydoh]

and it's 19.10

That might have been helpful to know though not necessarily a reason for the initramfs problem.
19.10 is ded and gone, the repos shuttered and archived. Not sure if the boot-repair tool needed access to these in order to do its thing, or not. But that would depend on that live usb you were using.

Nuke and pave I say, in this situation.

[ScottyK]

Ha, I wasn't thinking of the different versions until you mentioned it! Nuke and reinstall in progress