I installed Ubuntu 14 in a partition of my computer having Linux Mint 17 installed. Then I uninstalled Ubuntu and the grub dissapeared and I couldn't use anything, so I reinstalled Ubuntu and the grub returned. The point is that I have the Ubuntu's grub and I want to change it to the Linux Mint grub. How I can do it?
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The simplest way to fix it is probably with the GRUB boot repair disk. If you uninstall and reinstall various Linux distros, sooner or later you will need it again. Download the iso: sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home and burn it to a CD. You can boot from it when GRUB gets hosed. It takes a fresh look at the bootable drives, then you click Recommended Repair, and creates a correct configuration.– fixer1234Jan 26, 2015 at 7:00
1 Answer
OK, the reason why you're having this problem is because you're installing Ubuntu's GRUB to the hard drive itself /dev/sda for example. This overwrites whatever bootloader is already installed (in this case Linux Mints bootloader). Trouble is you already deleted Mints bootloader by installing Ubuntu after it and selecting GRUB to be installed to /dev/sda instead of Ubuntus root partition, for example /dev/sda4. If you had installed Ubuntus GRUB to its own root partition during installation (/dev/sda4), Mints GRUB which resides in the hard drive itself would be intact and you would be able to boot into Linux Mint and do sudo update-grub, and Mints GRUB would pick up Ubuntu installation allowing you to boot it up (using Mints bootloader). You can install X different distros like this, but just make sure not to install their GRUB to the drive itself (don't select /dev/sda for GRUB install during the install wizard setup). Let me know if you have any other questions. To change boot loader install location (partition instead of drive), change the "Device for boot loader installation" option in the Ubuntu installer, see image bellow:
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Can you add a sentence or two to explain what to specify so that GRUB is not installed on the drive, itself (where does it go, instead)? Thanks. Jan 27, 2015 at 15:49
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@fixer1234 Have a look at this image down below. It's a screen cap from Ubuntu installer (at least I think the current one looks like this, I haven't used Ubuntu in quite some time). Notice the "Device for boot loader installation option". i.stack.imgur.com/qbbAF.png I'll include this image to the original post for better visibility Jan 27, 2015 at 19:16
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So the key is to specify the root partition (sda5 in this case), rather than the drive (sda)? And that won't alter any GRUB configuration on another partition where you might have a different OS? How does that work, then? Does each successive GRUB installation include boot options for all of the other pre-existing boots or do you need to select the one you want from the BIOS boot device selector? Jan 27, 2015 at 19:36
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@fixer1234 Yes, but note that I also said that you have to boot into the main OS installation, the one whose boot loader is actually installed to /dev/sda/ and run sudo update-grub to have the boot loader of the main OS installation detect newly installed system (in this example Ubuntu). Next time that you reboot there will be additional options for newly detected system (Ubuntu on /dev/sda5) which you can select. You use GRUB of the main installation. When you want to get rid of newly installed system, just delete its partition /dev/sda5 (along with its GRUB). Does it make sense? Jan 27, 2015 at 19:46
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So if you have Windows and add say Ubuntu, Ubuntu installs Grub on sda and handles those two. Then you add Mint on say sda5, install GRUB there, boot Ubuntu, and update the "main" GRUB? Following this process, say you select Mint from the main Grub boot menu. That doesn't load the Mint GRUB boot menu for a second round of menu selection; it's smart enough to directly boot Mint? Jan 27, 2015 at 20:02