Mint Install Broke Ubuntu

[Ritho]

I decided to install Linux Mint 10 as a dual boot, next to Ubuntu, and Windows XP. After installing Mint, whenever I try to boot into Ubuntu, it only loads the recovery console. If I drop to the command line I can login and start x server just fine and access all my files. (although not everything works quite right)

I tried purging grub and reinstalling it, and that did not help. I checked all the disks and partitions for errors and nothing was found amiss.

Ubuntu is installed on a separate drive from Mint, and I can't understand what Mint could have done to cause this problem.

Any ideas? I am fresh out.

[Jojoyee]

I've Linux Mint 10 and Ubuntu 10.10 installed in its own partition, as well as XP and Win7. They all sit in their own partitions happily without breaking on the same hard disk.

While installing either Mint or Ubuntu, I always opt for advanced installation, meaning I point to a separate partition I created for it to install.

If your Mint is running well, you might want to boot into Mint and give StartUp-Manager a try. It basically is used to change default boot options, but will also perform pre-config tasks, searching bootloaders to OSes, etc. Make some changes and let it do post-config tasks.

Might work if Ubuntu's bootloader is in good shape.

[Ritho]

I used the advanced installation, and installed in an existing separate partition. (There was an older Ubuntu partion there which I deleted, reformated and then installed Mint to)

I already used several tools to reconfigure or fix grub, but I will also give Startup-Manager a try.

It almost seems to me that something happened to Plymouth, causing Ubuntu to crash and defaulting to the console. It does not seem like there is any way to "reinstall" Plymouth if it gets broken some how.

[wdhpr]

I take it Plymouth is the default boot loader for Mint 10? I read something about it being integrated with new editions of Ubuntu 9.10 and beyond.

I found this article about Plymouth It talks about conficts with ATI and Nvidia video cards. It points to a possible solution here

I already used several tools to reconfigure or fix grub, but I will also give Startup-Manager a try.

Just curious did you try a live cd to check and if necessary edit your boot record?

[Ritho]

If your Mint is running well, you might want to boot into Mint and give StartUp-Manager a try. It basically is used to change default boot options, but will also perform pre-config tasks, searching bootloaders to OSes, etc. Make some changes and let it do post-config task

Tried Startup-Manager. Didn't help.

I take it Plymouth is the default boot loader for Mint 10? I read something about it being integrated with new editions of Ubuntu 9.10 and beyond.

It is just a fancy bootsplash utility as far as I know.

I found this article about Plymouth It talks about conficts with ATI and Nvidia video cards. It points to a possible solution here

Yes there is that problem, but it is just a visual thing. It looks a bit ugly, but does not affect the boot procedure.

[wdhpr]

Quote:
I found this article about Plymouth It talks about conficts with ATI and Nvidia video cards. It points to a possible solution here

Yes there is that problem, but it is just a visual thing. It looks a bit ugly, but does not affect the boot procedure.

From article about PlymouthI'm using an Nvidia card with the proprietary drivers. Initially plymouth didn't work and it would fall back to the text based boot screen. I came across a script that fixed it and let me select the resolution just barely today and it seems to work great.

Sounded like your problem. Sorry I haven't had this problem with Ubuntu YET!

Good Luck

[Jeff91]

First off - plymouth has nothing to do with the system booting correctly or not. It is just the boot splash manager. I know you where just trying to help, but please remember no response is better than bad information

Now, can you run

sudo update-grub

under Mint and see if that resolves the issue? If that does not work then please post the contents of your /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.

Also what verision of Ubuntu is installed?

~Jeff

[Ritho]

First off, Wdhpr, was only makeing his comment about Plymouth because I had already mentioned that I thought something had happened with it. (Second comment down) The main reason I was thinking this is because that is one of the first messages that is thrown up when I try to boot. "Plymouth main process (381) killed by TERM"

Now, can you run
Code:

Updating grub is the first thing I tried. My old grub was still intact on the second hard disk, so I also tried booting from that drive alone with the same results. Then I tried updating grub on that drive, but that also had no affect. I ran a error check on all the drives, nothing was found. I ran a check for broken files, and updated, which fixed nothing.

I will post my grub.cfg in the next comment.

[wdhpr]

Hello ~jeff

First off - plymouth has nothing to do with the system booting correctly or not. It is just the boot splash manager.

I was trying to help by pointing to other discussions I have read on linuxquestions.org and ubuntu forums. There was a discussion about how a few people had a similar errors. while they were booting, it would fall back to the the text based boot screen.
Sounded like something associated with the boot process.

Again thanks for your expertise.

[Ritho]

Contents of grub.cfg

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
set have_grubenv=true
load_env
fi
set default="0"
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
}

function recordfail {
set recordfail=1
if [ -n "${have_grubenv}" ]; then if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then save_env recordfail; fi; fi
}

function load_video {
insmod vbe
insmod vga
}

insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
if loadfont /usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2 ; then
set gfxmode=640x480
load_video
insmod gfxterm
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
set locale_dir=($root)/boot/grub/locale
set lang=en
insmod gettext
if [ "${recordfail}" = 1 ]; then
set timeout=-1
else
set timeout=60
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray
### END /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme ###
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
insmod png
if background_image /boot/grub/linuxmint.png ; then
set color_normal=white/black
set color_highlight=white/light-gray
else
set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=white/light-gray
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Linux Mint 10, 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (/dev/sda6)' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968 ro vga=769 quiet splash nomodeset video=uvesafb:mode_option=1680x1050-24,mtrr=3,scroll=ywrap
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
menuentry 'Linux Mint 10, 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (/dev/sda6) -- recovery mode' --class linuxmint --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
echo 'Loading Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968 ro single vga=769
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###
### END /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin
}
menuentry "Memory test (memtest86+, serial console 115200)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd0,msdos6)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 7eaf604b-864f-427f-993c-dbcc02490968
linux16 /boot/memtest86+.bin console=ttyS0,115200n8
}
### END /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+ ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
menuentry "Microsoft Windows XP Professional (on /dev/sda1)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
set root='(hd0,msdos1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 18d0cbd8d0cbb9f0
drivemap -s (hd0) ${root}
chainloader +1
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-24-generic-pae (on /dev/sdb4)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,msdos4)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic-pae root=UUID=874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941 ro 1 440 quiet 480 quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic-pae
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-24-generic-pae (recovery mode) (on /dev/sdb4)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,msdos4)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-24-generic-pae root=UUID=874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941 ro single 1 440 quiet 480
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-24-generic-pae
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic-pae (on /dev/sdb4)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,msdos4)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic-pae root=UUID=874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941 ro 1 440 quiet 480 quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic-pae
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-23-generic-pae (recovery mode) (on /dev/sdb4)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,msdos4)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-23-generic-pae root=UUID=874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941 ro single 1 440 quiet 480
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-23-generic-pae
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (on /dev/sdb4)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,msdos4)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941 ro 1 440 quiet 480 quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
menuentry "Ubuntu, with Linux 2.6.35-22-generic-pae (recovery mode) (on /dev/sdb4)" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,msdos4)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941
linux /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.35-22-generic-pae root=UUID=874d2f21-c6aa-4fa8-9746-edf9f933c941 ro single 1 440 quiet 480
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.35-22-generic-pae
}
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###