[SOLVED] Broken Grub on Neon install.

[phonic-otg]

HI all, recently I built a new PC. Everything inside initially was new (installed 2 old HDD after) and started with Kubuntu16.04LTS but had graphics issues and crashes.
After some searching here and elsewhere I had no luck in correcting the Graphics issue and was about to reinstall when I saw a few members here are using Neon and there is a Forum section for it so I decided to give it a whirl.

Install from usb was easy and really quick. Then on the first initial boot I got the Grub rescue screen with a message that grub cannot locate ?386 something something .normal.
Looking up a fix someone said that the boot files were split and neon used both Neon and Ubuntu folders for grub which confused grub.
Jriddle posted that this issue was fixed with new images on Mon 8th Aug (I downloaded my neon on Tues 9th Aug so don't know whats going on there). I used boot repair but it could not rectify the issue. There was also a suggestion to download and use super_grub2_disk_hybrid2.02s9.iso (fantastic). I did that and it allowed me to boot but it has no repair function.

Once in, Neon is functioning really well. Unfortunately in order to boot I need to use the external grub2 disk. I am reading the manual for grub and taking some time to absorb.

Please help.

THE SOLVE HAPPENS AT THIS POST.

[vinnywright]

once in neon you can reinstall grub ,,,,I dont have time to enplane right now .

just research reinstalling grub from running system

VINNY

[phonic-otg]

Will give it a wwhirl.

phonic@nova-fractal:~$ sudo grub-install
grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory.

This was the output.

Also found this here Which I've yet to try.

I used the Boot Repair CD and it generated THIS report.
It also reported

The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. Please change it to EFI mode. Please use Boot-Repair-Disk-64bit which contains an EFI compatible version of this software. ((use it from live-USB, not from DVD))

.
(Looks like I may need to visit the UEFI threads too.)
Alas try as I might with different downloads of iso file and different USBs it (boot-repair) just wont start on USB, the bios sees it though.
I can still use the super grub usb iso to boot to log in until I resolve grub.

[oshunluvr]

You don't have to use EFI unless you're dual booting with Windows. If you're using EFI, you need an EFI partition to install it to. If you want to use GRUB without EFI, you need a special GRUB partition if you're also using GPT partitioning. More info is needed before anyone can help.

[phonic-otg]

Thanks oshunluvr,
Not going to be using windows on this build, it's on my laptop with Kubuntu 16.04 to use with only one program.
Currently looking through this might help>>>https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...281#post403281
I thought I'd posted the the reports/outputs oh well I'll fetch the var logs and search for EE's.
It would appear the installer for neon did not create the extra grub partition (if its truly needed as I've not used one in the past) all but one HDD is GTP ext4 and the one thats ntsf is only a storage drive. As grub rescue stated the i386.normal file can't be found. Yet super_grub2.iso finds and offers me the choice of the two different neon kernel image (30 & 32) releases (regular access and root access) with an option for the efi image also.
I seem to need to find the .normal file and put it where grub can find it.
Each step produces a new hurdle for me to read/learn to overcome .

[SpecialEd]

This may be relevant: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=383399

[phonic-otg]

This may be relevant: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=383399

I went and read it, again, as I had read it earlier, it lead to here https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=309&t=137368
which also then lead here https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?...361816#p361816 and here https://www.facebook.com/groups/9318...35926279826364 .

The issue is the same as mine but the file structures of their Neon is different to mine, as in the /boot/efi/EFI/ folder, theirs has a Neon & Ubuntu folder where as mine does not it has just the Ubuntu folder. The files that were in the neon folder on their system are now in the Parent boot folder on mine (I wonder if this is the image change Jonathan Riddell mentioned was now on the repos/servers on the 8/8/17.) I really hope it just a matter of moving a few files to their correct places.

Thomas Pfeiffer 2017-08-12 16:28:20 UTC

I had the same issue.
In my case the issue was that EFI looked for grub.cfg in the EFI/ubuntu folder but it is in the EFI/neon folder.
Jonathan told me that there is a patch which should copy the file from /neon to /ubuntu but apparently that did not work.
Copying the file manually solved the problem for me.

I think I need to tell grub where everything is I'm still learning how to.

Any way, Special Ed Thanks for the look-in.

Oh BTW this is the end part of the boot-repair log.

=================== Suggested repair
The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of sda1, using the following options: sdc1/boot/efi,
Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s backup-and-rename-efi-files rename-ms-efi

=================== Blockers in case of suggested repair
The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. Please change it to EFI mode. Please use Boot-Repair-Disk-64bit (www.sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd) which contains an EFI-compatible version of this software. ((use it from live-USB, not from DVD))

=================== Advice in case of suggested repair
The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. You may want to retry after changing it to EFI mode.
Alternatively, you may want to retry after deactivating the [Separate /boot/efi partition:] option.
Do you want to continue?

=================== Final advice in case of suggested repair
Please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sdc1/efi/.../grub*.efi file!

The boot of your PC is in Legacy mode. You may want to retry after changing it to EFI mode.

=================== User settings
The settings chosen by the user will not act on the boot.

As I had stated earlier in this thread I've tried many times to make an Live-USB for boot-repair with the iso file. Its just not happening for me.
The sdc drive is my old win drive used as a media storage drive. I thought it was reformatted, must have an old files structure from win to be detected (oh goodie another issue for ron.)

[phonic-otg]

You don't have to use EFI unless you're dual booting with Windows. If you're using EFI, you need an EFI partition to install it to. If you want to use GRUB without EFI, you need a special GRUB partition if you're also using GPT partitioning. More info is needed before anyone can help.

I followed these bread crumbs and found a step in the right direction. Thanks.

[phonic-otg]

once in neon you can reinstall grub ,,,,I dont have time to enplane right now .

just research reinstalling grub from running system

VINNY

Thanks, I followed the advice to create a boot partition for grub via Konsole provided by oshunluver with success.
I then went to install grub as you suggested and got

phonic@nova-fractal:~$ sudo grub-install /dev/sda1
grub-install: error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist. Please specify --target or --directory

Realising I'd forgotten to format the new boot partition I then went to format the new boot partition with KDE partition manager, but it was not there a quick install and it was up and running. Strangely I noticed that the neon konsole doesn't like loading some part of it as it spits out this

phonic@nova-fractal:~$ partitionmanager
org.kde.kdesu: Daemon not safe (not sgid), not using it.

Any way in partition manager I can select the partition but not format it as only Delete, Shred and properties are available to use. Yet can change all the other partitions on that and the other drives.
Next is off to see what I can see on doing that. I did read online what to format it to but not yet how.
Chow for now.

[phonic-otg]

I managed to find out how to format the boot partition from Terminal. With mkfs.
Yet I worry at the output suggestion

phonic@nova-fractal:~$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for phonic:
mke2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
/dev/sda1 alignment is offset by 3072 bytes.
This may result in very poor performance, (re)-partitioning suggested.

Filesystem too small for a journal
Creating filesystem with 1004 1k blocks and 128 inodes

Allocating group tables: done
Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

[oshunluvr]

You may need to wipe /dev/sda1 and start over I believe. It does need to be and probably shouldn't be formatted as you won't be mounting it or storing files on it. GRUB will use the"ef02" partition in it's raw state.

The problem with your grub-install command - why it didn't work - is it's formatted incorrectly. You told it to install GRUB to your partition, not to your disk. You can't directly boot to a partition. What you should have used was:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

This installs grub to the drive. GRUB will find and use the BIOS boot partition all by itself. It's possible that the formatting didn't hurt anything and GRUB will just over-write the data so just try to correctly install GRUB first. If you get errors again, it may be related to the EXT4 formatting. I will include a comment about this on my post re. this topic.

[phonic-otg]

sorry doubled up

[phonic-otg]

Thank you.
I retried the grub install on just /dev/sda and got the same error

error: /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc/modinfo.sh doesn't exist.

I'm looking for a solution to that now. bbs.
OK, so went to reinstall grub which started promising stating

The following additional packages will be installed:
libc6-i386

I'm happy as this appears to be the file it needs so I say Y/y to install and get

Get:1 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 libc6-i386 amd64 2.23-0ubuntu9 [2,333 kB]
Media change: please insert the disc labeled
'neon userlts _Xenial_ - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20170809-00:38'
in the drive '/media/cdrom/' and press [Enter]

Only having the USB I quickly(ish) burn the iso to DVD. When I insert the disk and press enter the same message keeps asking for the specified disk. A quick check and the labels are different the newly burnt disk is

neon user lts 20170809-00:40

whilst apt-get is asking for neon userlts _Xenial_ - Build amd64 LIVE Binary 20170809-00:38
I look for the live binary iso but cannot find it. I'm recalling the Neon crew do update them daily so unless there is an archive with it in that I might have access to download to burn that particular release or a different way to reinstall grub I may have to reinstall Neon with USB or DVD I have as they are made with the same iso.
***Memory flash**** I know what happened there in putting the boot repair iso to usb I did overwrite the initial live usb of Neon and I had gotten a fresh iso to replace it so hence the mish mash of labels as Neon crew had already updated.

[Qqmike]

Note & Warning: You might want to read but disregard my post! Just quickly glanced through this thread and attachments before turning in tonight. Sure seems like there is a mixing of GRUB legacy and EFI going on, or some confusion therewith. That, in addition to the special Neon issues and GRUB. Seems to me you need to specify exactly what kind of installation you are doing: GPT with GRUB2 and no UEFI (and the GRUB Boot partition and 64-bit but NOT UEFI Kubuntu)? Or, GPT with GRUB2-EFI, and its ESP (EFI System Partition), and UEFI installation of 64-bit Kubuntu. For example, without any Neon, and with standard 64-bit Kubuntu, you would perform a UEFI installation of Kubuntu using something like this:
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post379977
See the section: Installing the operating system in UEFI mode.
But, again, as I said, I don't know about Neon and GRUB, have never used Neon but I read that its GRUB may behave differently.
With UEFI, /usr/lib/grub will contain stuff like: x86_64-efi[-signed]; whereas with GRUB Legacy, you have something like /usr/lib/grub-pc or /usr/lib/grub/i386-pc (and you would then talk about that i386 stuff). With GRUB Legacy, you might write, sudo grub-install /dev/sdX[Y]; with GRUB for UEFI, you omit the /dev/sdX[Y] because GRUB for UEFI will ignore it anyway and it will simply look for your ESP. And so on. To recap my main conceptual point here: Seems there is confusion about or a mixture of what kind of Kubuntu installation you got going on:
a regular, Legacy installation?
or a UEFI installation.

[phonic-otg]

Seems there is confusion about or a mixture of what kind of Kubuntu installation you got going on:
a regular, Legacy installation?
or a UEFI installation.

Yeah I really gave no thought to what kind being used on install of KDE Neon.
I assumed that if I'm being told there is no i386.normal by the system then it is in Legacy. No?