Grub error "error: file not found"

userzero · 10-27-2015, 12:40 PM

Hi All,

I'd been running Jessie Xfce for a couple of weeks dual booting LMDE. No problems with dual booting or booting period. This weekend, I rebooted and got the error:

"error: file not found
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue> _"

I had not touched grub or moved grub.cfg. I followed online instructions to use grub rescue mode and was unsuccessful.

I reinstalled (no big deal) and installed grub on hda1 as always. Same problem. I then reinstalled and added grub to LMDE hdb1 and it boots fine. I went back into Jessie and ran update-grub. It still boots fine. Problem solved but I still am wondering how this issue could spontaneously present itself? All insight appreciated.

-uid0

Tonus · 10-27-2015, 12:50 PM

What about checking disks integrity?

userzero · 10-27-2015, 01:09 PM

Thanks for the response. Just to try and eliminate that variable, I installed a brand new internal hard drive of the same size and tried a fresh install. The same thing happened before installing on hdb1.

Tonus · 10-27-2015, 01:28 PM

Do you use uuid in your grub configuration?

userzero · 10-27-2015, 01:37 PM

I just used the standard Grub install. I'm not familiar with using uuid so I'm not sure. Certainly not intentionally.

Thanks Again

Tonus · 10-27-2015, 03:01 PM

I've seen several times problems with uuid change with dual booting Linux. Could Google that.

userzero · 10-27-2015, 03:54 PM

Thanks, I'll give that a try.

luvr · 10-28-2015, 04:43 AM

Hmmm... You say you reinstalled, and you installed GRUB on hda1 as always.
What boot loader did you, then, install on you Master Boot Record, hda?

The problem must have been caused by some updates that you recently installed on either of your Linux distributions. Could you perhaps explain how your computer boots up, and what you do to choose which system you wish to run?

aquaboot · 10-28-2015, 11:35 AM

Actually, that was a mistake. I did install on MBR hda. Thanks for catching that.

luvr · 10-28-2015, 12:44 PM

So, to make things clear: You installed Jessie Xfce on your first harddisk, with the GRUB boot loader on hda (i.e., Master Boot Record of first harddisk). You installed LMDE on the second harddisk, with the GRUB boot loader on hdb (i.e., Master Boot Record of second harddisk). Or did I misunderstand you?

I suppose that, when you boot your computer, the GRUB menu, generated by your Jessie Xfce system, gets displayed, right?
Does that menu let you choose between Jessie Xfce and LMDE? And, is that how you select the OS that you want to boot?

When you got the “file not found” error, I guess that happened before you got to see the GRUB menu—in other words, the GRUB menu didn’t even appear, did it?