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**whatthefunk** · Apr 03, 2016, 10:16 PM

Do you get an error message at the prompt?

**NickStone** · Apr 03, 2016, 11:37 PM

What you need to do is to go back in to the grub.cfg file and undo what you did before. Then you will need to reconfigure grub. I am not sure how to do it at the grub rescue prompt but if you boot up using a live cd you should be able to get access to the root on the hard disk and edit the file that way.

Who told you to comment the line containing splash in grub?

**jlittle** · Apr 03, 2016, 11:46 PM

Originally posted by Shabakthanai View Post

Using my laptop, I then downloaded Grub 2 rescue disk and made a usb iso. When I attempted to boot to the usb, it returned to the grub rescue prompt.

This indicates that you haven't successfully booted from the USB, the computer has just tried to boot from your main disc as usual. When you start the machine, you may have to press some key at the right time to get a boot menu from the BIOS. On mine it is F12. On some computers, one must change a boot order setting in the firmware (the "BIOS") so that the USB comes first.

As to why you've got the rescue prompt in the first place, I've no idea. It means grub can't find most of itself. It often happens when discs or partitions get moved around. When you say "I then updated and upgraded my system", do you mean:

an APT update and upgrade (possibly through muon or synaptic), as might be done regularly
update-grub, as in "sudo update-grub",
a Kubuntu upgrade, as in "sudo do-release-upgrade"?

**kubicle** · Apr 04, 2016, 12:31 AM

Originally posted by NickStone View Post

Who told you to comment the line containing splash in grub?

He probably means me: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...--configure+-a
That fix should not break grub.

@Shabakthanai
You should be able to boot manually from grub_rescue, so you can try fixing grub, there are steps here if you have another machine you can read the instructions from while at the rescue prompt. The page describes how to boot from grub command line and the grub rescue prompt (which is the one you need), but you might need the "ls" commands in the grub command line section if you need to find your linux installation root partition (if it's not on the first partition of the first device, /dev/sda1 or (hd0,1) in grub notation).
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorial...ub-2-on-linux/
(You can ask for more instructions if you don't understand a step or if you get any errors)

There are also other methods to fix grub, like https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair (but I'd first try the manual method of booting and repairing)

**Shabakthanai** · Apr 04, 2016, 07:17 AM

error: no such device: 98e5a288-89df-4b9-a6f0-11d9et336618

I don't know what that is.

Originally posted by whatthefunk View Post

Do you get an error message at the prompt?

**Shabakthanai** · Apr 04, 2016, 07:19 AM

It told me to uncomment the line that contained 'splash'. The computer will not boot to a live CD or USB, in my case.

Originally posted by NickStone View Post

What you need to do is to go back in to the grub.cfg file and undo what you did before. Then you will need to reconfigure grub. I am not sure how to do it at the grub rescue prompt but if you boot up using a live cd you should be able to get access to the root on the hard disk and edit the file that way.

Who told you to comment the line containing splash in grub?

**Shabakthanai** · Apr 04, 2016, 07:34 AM

grub rescue>ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1) (hd1,msdos5) (hd2) (hd2,msdos5) (hd2,msdos1) (hd3) (hd3,smdos6) (hd3, mddos5) (hd3,msdos1) (hd4) (hd4,msdos5) (hd4,msdos1) (hd5) (hd5,msdos1)
grub rescue> _

I have 2 SSD's that contain the Operating systems. In this case Kubuntu 14.04LTS64bit and Kubuntu 15.10 64bit. I do not know how to identify them among the many represented. I don't understand why I have any msdos entries, it has been several installations since I had any Microsoft Operating Systems in my computer.

My BIOS is UEFI, and has the ability to use mouse functions. At the moment, the mouse is dead in the BIOS.

I can't believe I am in one of these situations again. The problems I am trying to solve before this snaffu are things that should not have been a problem in the first place, with my equipment. So how I can get to a frozen grub rescue page with no entry into my computer using a live USB or Grub repair disk just doesn't make sense. I am so frustrated.

Originally posted by kubicle View Post

He probably means me: https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...--configure+-a
That fix should not break grub.

@Shabakthanai
You should be able to boot manually from grub_rescue, so you can try fixing grub, there are steps here if you have another machine you can read the instructions from while at the rescue prompt. The page describes how to boot from grub command line and the grub rescue prompt (which is the one you need), but you might need the "ls" commands in the grub command line section if you need to find your linux installation root partition (if it's not on the first partition of the first device, /dev/sda1 or (hd0,1) in grub notation).
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorial...ub-2-on-linux/
(You can ask for more instructions if you don't understand a step or if you get any errors)

There are also other methods to fix grub, like https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair (but I'd first try the manual method of booting and repairing)

**kubicle** · Apr 04, 2016, 08:25 AM

Originally posted by Shabakthanai View Post

grub rescue>ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos1) (hd1) (hd1,msdos5) (hd2) (hd2,msdos5) (hd2,msdos1) (hd3) (hd3,smdos6) (hd3, mddos5) (hd3,msdos1) (hd4) (hd4,msdos5) (hd4,msdos1) (hd5) (hd5,msdos1)
grub rescue> _

I have 2 SSD's that contain the Operating systems.

Are those the *only* drives? Your listing seems to refer to 6 drives in total (hd0-hd5) all with one primary partition (msdos1) and a varying number of logical partitions (msdos5+)

Originally posted by Shabakthanai View Post

In this case Kubuntu 14.04LTS64bit and Kubuntu 15.10 64bit. I do not know how to identify them among the many represented.

As explained in the link, you can search for linux filesystems by listing contents of each partition in the grub rescue prompt using:
ls (hd0,1)/
(this will list the contents of the first partition in the first hard drive)
ls (hd1,1)/
(this will list the contents of the first partition in the second hard drive)
Continue until you find your linux root filesystems, then you can find which linux installation is which (14.04 or 15.10) by using the cat command from the link:
cat (hd0,1)/etc/issue
replacing (hd0,1) with the actual root filesystems you have found in the previous step

Originally posted by Shabakthanai View Post

I don't understand why I have any msdos entries, it has been several installations since I had any Microsoft Operating Systems in my computer.

The "msdos" only refer to partition type, they are not related to Microsoft OS installations

Originally posted by Shabakthanai View Post

My BIOS is UEFI, and has the ability to use mouse functions. At the moment, the mouse is dead in the BIOS.

You said you updated/reset your BIOS, perhaps you need to re-enable mouse support in it?

Originally posted by Shabakthanai View Post

So how I can get to a frozen grub rescue page with no entry into my computer using a live USB or Grub repair disk just doesn't make sense. I am so frustrated.

This can also be caused by updating/resetting your bios. Boot order may have been reset to use hard disk as primary boot device, if you wish to boot cdrom or usb you may need to put these devices first in the boot order. (otherwise your system will always boot from hard drive with grub problems)

**Shabakthanai** · Apr 04, 2016, 02:19 PM

These are the instructions when in grub rescue>:

Booting From grub-rescue>

If you're in the GRUB rescue shell the commands are different, and you have to load the normal.mod andlinux.mod modules:

grub rescue> set prefix=(hd0,1)/boot/grub
grub rescue> set root=(hd0,1)
grub rescue> insmod normal
grub rescue> normal
grub rescue> insmod linux
grub rescue> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1
grub rescue> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic
grub rescue> boot

Tab-completion should start working after you load both modules.

When I attempted "tab-completion" it did not work, so I am unsure what is to follow in those lines.
"insmod normal" command, it returned the following:

error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc /normal.mod

The commands that followed in the instruction failed. When I typed in linux/vmlinuz-3 and tab, the command did not complete.

When I typed in the instructions same as above, everything seemed OK until I typed in the command:
insmod normal - nothing produced results after that.

I currently have 2 ea. TB drives 3 ea. 500GB drives all SATA and 2 SSD's, one is a 128GB SSD the other a 256GB SSD. I do not remember their identity shown in the above drive identification or how to find the identity. Can you advise me more? If so, thanks!

**Qqmike** · Apr 04, 2016, 04:57 PM

I realize you don't need any philosophy at the moment, so I'll hold that. Since you came this far, finish what kubicle said and try,

ls (hdX,Y)
ls (hdX,Y)/

for all reasonable guesses for values X and Y (X= 0, 1, 2 ...), Y = (0,1,2 ...) (although for GRUB2, Y > 0). Just try, what can it hurt?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ub_rescue.3E-1
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...Search_.26_Set

**Shabakthanai** · Apr 04, 2016, 07:49 PM

I feel a bit stupid, which is not unusual for me, however, I am getting less and less abusive of myself in recent times.

I have been alone since starting to learn about computers and have never had a person close to me to talk with or receive help. As a result, most that I have learned has been with the help of on line friends who have had mercy on me. Mostly you guys.

Many times I do not get any response to my questions, which I am sure seem pretty stupid to those who have had personalized help from time to time, but when I don't get any kind of response, I experiment. The result is many many re-installations of Operating Systems continually starting over.

From previous builds, I saved 3 SATA drives that contained backup of movies, email records, and other saved material over the years. A few months ago, I installed the three old SATA drives. The computer recognized at least one of them but I was unable to open or find out how to open the recognized older drive.

For the normal operation of my current computer, I also have a TB SATA hdd @ 6GBs and a TB SATA hdd @ 3GBs and a 128GB SSD which contains the K15.10 64but OS and a 256GB SSD which contains the 14.04LTS 64bit Operating System.

When I executed the 'ls' command on each of the mentioned drives that were provided by the grub rescue> ls command I got either the Error: unknown filesystem or error: invalid file name ''

I was expecting more information, but whatever I have done to screw things up, no new information is provided.

Using a random selection, I will choose one of the drives and show how I entered the command for you to see if I failed to follow instructions properly. Here goes:

"grub rescue> ls (hd0,msdos1)
error: unknown filesystem." .............I did the same instruction with each drive on the list of drives. Each response was error: unknown filesystem or invalid file name.

In my attempt to learn, I have probably re-installed Kubuntu in various versions more than 100 times. Believe me that is an uncounted but conservative estimation.

Recently I had a friend in New Zealand who took compassion on my problems, and I got my first one on one communication with a computer guru. He helped me a lot, but became angry with me after our friendship entered into areas of conversation that upset him. He doesn't care for me much anymore, but I will always be grateful to him for the help he provided when we were communicating. The proverbial politic/religion discussion. Oh well, real differences of opinion can not always be negotiated to a favorable conclusion. I would have had to lie to make peace.

I mention this because this grub rescue> problem is the worst problem I have had with computers; I don't think I can fix the problem, and I can not afford to start over from scratch.

Unless I can somehow get back one of the Operating Systems, or get a usb or DVD recognized so that I can start over, or get the BIOS to start working properly, I will probably have to survive using my old laptop, which is way short of the capabilities of my desktop computer. It is too difficult for me to save the start over money for hardware if that is required.

Should I physically remove the hdd's that I installed but did not yet get functioning? If I remove the SSD's that contain my OS's, will that force the computer to seek other solutions and perhaps recognize a liveDVD or liveUSB? I have looked for but as yet not found a place to reactivate the mouse support within the BIOS. The BIOS does give key-instructions to open the various features, but activating the default BIOS setup has not re-ingaged the mouse support.

This is a very depressing state to be in. Anyone who might have a recommendation will be appreciated.

**Qqmike** · Apr 04, 2016, 09:11 PM

grub rescue> ls (hd0,msdos1)

Improper syntax. Forget msdosx. Use GRUB2 notation (for hard drives and partitions). Like
grub rescue> ls (hd0,1)
grub rescue> ls (hd0,1)/
grub rescue> ls (hd1,1)
grub rescue> ls (hd1,1)/
grub rescue> ls (hd0,2)
grub rescue> ls (hd0,2)/
Exhaust all your hard drives and partitions, see if you recognize some output (like where your Kubuntu is).
If Kubuntu is on (hdx,y), then explore that using
grub rescue> ls (hdx,y)/boot
look for kernels and initrds, try tab completion, it 'should' work, maybe.
etc.
etc.

**kubicle** · Apr 04, 2016, 10:37 PM

Qqmike already explained the most important thing, use (hd0,1) notation instead of (hd0,msdos1).

Additional notes:
1.

I currently have 2 ea. TB drives 3 ea. 500GB drives all SATA and 2 SSD's, one is a 128GB SSD the other a 256GB SSD.

That would make seven drives, and grub only sees 6 (are all seven recognized in BIOS?) This could be a problem if one of the drives has failed (and this would explain why grub goes to rescue mode if it can't find the partition where the /boot/grub directory should be...if it is on the drive that isn't recognized)

2. Tab completion will only work once you have loaded and started the normal module as per the instructions (this adds some added functionality to the plain grub rescue mode)...and to do that you need to find out where the rescue prompt can find the modules by listing the contents of the partitions for your linux installation.

3. I'll repeat the command set to boot with a few added details and explanations

Code:

grub rescue> ls (hd0,1)/

# repeat this with different (hdX,Y) values until you find a valid linux installation (until it will list common contents of a linux root directory). Omitting the final "/" will list information of the partition instead of the contents.

Code:

grub rescue> set prefix=(hd0,1)/boot/grub

# use the (hdX,Y) value you found out in the previous step, this will set the prefix for loading modules (tell grub where it can find them)

Code:

grub rescue> set root=(hd0,1)

# again, use the (hdX,Y) value you found out in the previous step, this will set the root filesystem for grub commands

Code:

grub rescue> insmod normal

# load the normal module

Code:

grub rescue> normal

#start the normal grub prompt with added functionality (after this tab completion should work)

Code:

grub rescue> insmod linux

#load the linux module

Code:

grub rescue> linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.13.0-29-generic root=/dev/sda1

# set the kernel and root filesystem for linux, you can use just "linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sdXY" since /vmlinuz is a symlink to the newest kernel, and replace XY with the correct values, ask if unsure (sda1 is the first partition of the first drive, sdc1 is the first partition of the third drive etc.)

Code:

grub rescue> initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.13.0-29-generic

#set the initial ramdisk, again you can use just "initrd /initrd.img" for the latest ramdisk, as this is also a symlink.

Code:

grub rescue> boot

#boot

**Shabakthanai** · Apr 05, 2016, 09:11 PM

Thanks friend for hanging in there. I thried the commands >ls (hd0,0) through ls (hd6,0) with the error: no such partition, and on ls (hd6,0) got the error>hd6 cannot get C/H/S values.''

To compound my problems, I have been going from bed to computer trying to get some rest. forgot to remove my glasses and broke them by rolling on them. Now I can only see with one eye, for a while, so it is increasing the complication. I am not giving up, I just got a little depressed.

I am so fortunate to have this old laptop to keep me connected.

I am going to disconnect the computer for a while to see if maybe it will respond later. I noticed that even though I have the computer on, I plugged my phone in to charge and it did not charge, so I do not have connection at the usb. I am thinking about trying to connect a live DVD to see if there is a ROM connection. I haven't used that in ages.

I will keep an eye out for further ideas. Now I am just interested in re-installing or reconnecting. My desktop PC is pretty important for my quality of life. Thanks so much for continuing, my friend.

Originally posted by Qqmike View Post

I realize you don't need any philosophy at the moment, so I'll hold that. Since you came this far, finish what kubicle said and try,

ls (hdX,Y)
ls (hdX,Y)/

for all reasonable guesses for values X and Y (X= 0, 1, 2 ...), Y = (0,1,2 ...) (although for GRUB2, Y > 0). Just try, what can it hurt?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...ub_rescue.3E-1
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Gr...Search_.26_Set

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