Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Ubuntu 12.04 Boot Loader / Grub Upgrade and repair

Ubuntu 12.04 Boot Loader / Grub Upgrade Woes PDF Print E-mail
Written by Josh B   
Monday, 30 April 2012 09:08
Tags: ubuntu
As you can't fail to notice, Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin is now released. Well, you could fail to notice if you aren't using Ubuntu, but then I would be wondering why you are reading this...
Anyhow, when upgrading a computer at work, I ran into the following problem on reboot. Rebooting brought up the familiar Grub screen. However, selecting the newly installed Ubuntu came back with:
error: no such partition.
This indicates that grub thinks that the partition does not exist. It is not a very useful or welcome error message. The first step is:

DON'T PANIC....!!!!

Yes, you can recover your data from this. Just follow these steps...

If you have a spare computer that still boots, these steps are easiest:

  1. Download SuperGrubDisk from http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/
  2. Burn the iso file to a CD. Now boot from that CD.
  3. Run through the different methods to try and boot. When upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 I had to do "Detect any GRUB2 installation".
  4. When Ubuntu boots, install boot-repair:
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair
    boot-repair
  5. Follow the Recommended Repair option. Press "Advanced" to check what it will do.
  6. Now reboot and (fingers, toes, etc crossed) you will be able to use Grub.

If you just have the Ubuntu Live CD try these steps:

  1. Boot from Live CD
  2. Open a terminal from the Live CD, and run the following commands:
    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair
    sudo apt-get update
    sudo apt-get install -y boot-repair
    boot-repair
  3. Follow the Recommended Repair option. Press "Advanced" to check what it will do.
  4. The stressful bit. Now reboot and you will be able to use Grub.
You did backup before the upgrade...? Yep, of course you did. You'll remember to do it next time, right...?
Last Updated on Wednesday, 02 May 2012 08:31

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