Grub Menu Issues After Installing Mint alongside Ubuntu in an Encrypted Partition

What I would like to know is why there is any mention of a /etc/grub.d/10_linux.cfg file.

tom@victim:~$ ls /etc/grub.d
00_header  05_debian_theme  10_linux  20_linux_xen  30_os-prober  30_uefi-firmware  40_custom  41_custom  README

As far as I know there should not be any *.cfg files in that directory. Those listed for my admittedly Debian Sid install are all scripts for different things. They are used when you run update-grub to generate your /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.

10_linux, for example is the script responcible for the generation of the menu entry for the OS that you are working in. 30_os-prober generates all other menu entries which is hinted at in the name.

The idea of a totally screwed install is a very good one. Grub certainly is or is from some alternative universe.

You need to be using a separate /boot as you are because your grub files obviously can't be incrypted and be of much use. Why on earth would install another OS and allow it to install its grub on the mbr? There is little chance of it working whereas not installing it on the mbr would leave the Ubuntu grub intact on the mbr and fully capable of generating a menu entry for your new install when you boot back into it.

I really wish people would think, just a bit about encryption before they start screwing with an encrypted system.

Hope fully you can use the command given by syg00 to good effect. If so don't add any more installs until you have a lot better understanding of encryption and what it actually means and the mechanisms by which it can be read for those little things like booting your system.

Your best bet would be to get back in your system, back it up unencrypted and reinstall Ubuntu with no incryption.

Create a data partition and encrypt that. See if you can learn about using it before you put vital data in it and loose it for good. And study up on grub too.

And the installation process for Linux and, importantly, why you are given that choice in all decent installers of where you want grub installed.

If you have security sensitive data you should consider more pedestrian solutions like an external drive and a safe.

You need to be using a separate /boot as you are because your grub files obviously can't be incrypted and be of much use. Why on earth would install another OS and allow it to install its grub on the mbr? There is little chance of it working whereas not installing it on the mbr would leave the Ubuntu grub intact on the mbr and fully capable of generating a menu entry for your new install when you boot back into it.

I also think this is the problem. Installing the Mint Grub to its partition and then booting the old Ubuntu and doing an update-grub should have worked. I don't use separate boot partitions but my understanding has always been they are not encrypted.

What I would like to know is why there is any mention of a /etc/grub.d/10_linux.cfg file.

On Mint 17, there is a grub.d directory in the /etc directory as well as in the /etc/default and in the /etc/default/grub.d directory there is a 50_linuxmint.cfg file. I don't have the 10_linux.cfg the OP shows. The 50_linuxmint.cfg file sets the GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Ubuntu". The file basically contains comments about why this is used as apparently naming it other than Ubuntu is problematic for EFI install. I don't know what the linux.cfg file is used for or if it bears on the topic at all.

It Worked!!! I got my old menu back and when I selected Ubuntu it got me back in!! First thing is back up everything now! After that a new install to get things back to where they ought to be.

Thank you so very much everyone for your diligent support!! This was so much help. The command that worked was the latter: configfile (hd0,msdos1)/grub/grub.cfg

Again, you guys are the greatest!! Thanks for helping

I will have to look into these *.cfg files in /etc/grub.d. This must be some distro patch work. This doesn't sound like a good idea to me.

I just rechecked my Sid grub.d directory and there is no such file there. I will see if there is a grub version in the experimental repo that carries that.

The idea of naming the OS for purposes of booting to uefi I find a bit doubtful but it may be used for the secure boot mechanism. In either case the place for that would not be in that file but in /etc/grub.d/00_header and even there there is no sense in the .cfg suffix at all.

This sounds like the kind of silliness found in that alternate universe being developed by Canonical to me. Some of the things they do and encourage in the file system are simply beyond the pale. I believe it is basesd on what looks cool to devs that smoke whatever they smoke there.

The command that worked was the latter: configfile (hd0,msdos1)/grub/grub.cfg

Which is your old Ubuntu boot partition.

I will have to look into these *.cfg files in /etc/grub.d.

That's not where they are. They are in /etc/default/grub.d, at least on the Mint 17 version I have although I don't have the same file the OP has. There is also a /etc/grub.d directory with the standard scripts. Probably something specific to Mint. I checked Ubuntu 14 and it does not have those files or the second grub.d directory.

Ah, that makes a bit more sense but not much more. Would certainly work a lot better from there. Would be read at a somewhat more appropriate time in the process of generating the actual /boot/grub/grub.cfg file.

Sid has no /etc/default/grub.d. /etc/default/grub. I would assume that if you were to add another grub related directory to the /default directory it would go in that /etc/default/grub but who knows.

I will have to see what this goofiness is about.

Yancek, yes, that is my old Ubuntu boot partition. Now after being able to boot my old Ubuntu I found a file that I had saved to one of my thumb drives with the instructions, first of all that I used to encrypt the partition, and subsequently how to then install Ubuntu with LVM, and how to manually open the encrypted partition (with the password of course) and mount the lv partitions. Here is the link to the thread that I followed to perform the above-mentioned installation:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1205372

For your info: for that installation I used two partitions: 1) /boot on sda1 and 2) sda6 encrypted with LUKS. Inside of that LUKS encrypted container of the complete sda6 partition I used the LVM to create lvswap, lvroot, lvhome and for some reason that I can't quite remember now lvdata (which seems to be empty).

In case it makes any difference to you I started out several years ago using grub and later I don't think it was a choice of mine, ie. the newer Ubuntu versions obligated me to convert over to Grub2 I believe it is. This newer grub poduced a number of scripts. I am sure you are all familiar with that.

I know precious little about programming but I believe the "grub.d came from the newer version of Grub.

Thank you so much for your help. I have learned a lot from all of this.