GRUB: failed to add custom entry
 

Hi all, first let me introduce myself:
I have rencently installed Fedora on my Samsumg ultrabook, and GRUB did not find my windows partition.
After reading a lot, I tried what is described bellow, but the windows entry still does not appear on my initial GRUB screen.

What I did was to edit the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom to read:
I found the partition to be sda4 via fdisk -l, which gives
/dev/sda4 1902592 109708465 51.4G Microsoft basic data

and found the UUID of the partition via
After this I ran grub2-mkconfig
and saw that the 40_custom entry appears in the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file

The problem is that, after all this work (that looked fine to me), no entry for windows appears on GRUB initial screen (when I turn on my computer)

can someone give me a hint on what is going on?

thanks in advance

Do an online search for 'bootinfoscript', go to the site and read the instructions then download it and run it. Post the output, a results.txt file which will provide detailed information on your drives/partitions and all the boot files, their location and the menuentries.

Well, for my Win7 system, the blkid looks like this:and, modifying the menu entry created by grub2-mkconfig and putting it in /boot/grub2/custom.cfg, like this:works with no problem.

Note that, by placing the menu entry code in /boot/grub2/custom.cfg you don't need to re-run mkconfig to implement your changes. provided you have a 41_custom like this:in your /etc/grub.d directory so that block of code is in your grub.cfg file. (In fact, as you can see, the menu entry (or entries) can be in either ${config_directory} or ${prefix}. On my system, those are, respectively, /boot/grub2 and /boot.

@PTrenholme
Thanks for the reply

I don't know if I fully understood you, but I created the file /boot/grub2/custom.cfg (it didn't exist) and pasted with your code replaced with my UUID and partition, such as

After this I restarted, but still, no entry appears on the intial grub screen..

What else can I do?

@yancek
thanks for the reply man! I ran that script and the result was:


can you help with this info?

cheers!

You do have an entry for windows for sda4 in the grub.cfg file so I don't know why you don't see it. You also have an EFI partition and I don't use UEFI and don't know if that might be part of the problem.

getting rid of the ")" should fix the problem

Hey colorpurple, thanks for the corrections, but I fixed that and still don't see the entry when booting :(

Anyone could give me something new to try?

You show it correct in post 4, but not in the bootinfo script in post 5. Where did you edit the entry. According to this http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloaders/grub2.html grub-mkconfig has to be rerun on efi for changes to custom file to take place.

I ran bootinfo script before correcting as you said, so that is why the mistake is there

I did run "grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg" all the times I changed stuff.

thanks for answering, though

What is in /boot/efi? Should be a directory in there for Fedora with possibly a grub directory within it. If so try copying and/or run grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/fedora/grub2/grub.cfg see if that fixes the problem

this might help http://www.ambitious-vision.net/en/f...8-uefi-how-to/

From what you posted from the bootinfoscript output, it looks like your grub.cfg file includes the code to load the custom.cfg file. (It's the last few lines of the grub.cfg file listed in your post.) The only thing that could cause it to fail to load is if you placed in the /boot/grub, and your grub.cfg file is in some other place. (I looked at the logic a little more closely, and noted that it only looks in ${prefix} if ${config_directory} is not defined.)

Have you tried going into the GRUB2 command mode (Push the <ESC> key when the first menu is entered, and then a C. [The 'C' is from memory, so check the instructions at the bottom of your screen after the escape.]) and using the configfile <actual path>/custom.cfg command to see if the your custom.cfg file works?

(Oh, before you do that, after you get the grub> prompt, the set command will show you all the currently set values.)

Aside: The above "trick" is one way to have boot menus for, e.g., bootable USB devices that you seldom want to actually boot and not have your "everyday" menu cluttered with those entries. (A better way, of course, is to have those boot options as submenu entries in the custom.cfg file.)

<edit>
Well, I thought to try this when I booted this morning, and :redface: I had a "few" errors:

1. The "escape" is not needed: Just type a "c" when the menu is displayed. (The instructions are at the bottom of the menu page.)
2. When I ran the set, I found that, on my system, ${root} setting. It's not /boot: it's just /, prefix is /boot/grub2, and config_directory is not defined.

With that, a simple configfile $prefix/custom.cfg displayed (just) my custom menu entry.

But, in your case, you've found that your prefix value is /boot/efi/EFI/fedora/, so either move the custom.cfg file there, or run it "by hand" as I describe above to see it it will work.
</edit>

hey guys,
so I checked the URL sent by colorpurple, and tried their version of /etc/grub.d/40_custom, which now shows the entry in Grub screen, but it fails to load. Now my custom entry is:

and it gives the error
but now I think it is just a matter of finding the correct boot image for windows.

Also,
Only now did I realize that my BIOS has the "secure boot" option disabled.
and it always gives a "Booting in insecure mode" message before entering GRUB

Still could use some help, if you guys don't mind

thanks for everything.

I just realize that only
works, and not
as I was doing...

That is why nothing appeared in the initial boot list.

Still, I can't load Windows because of the errors I got

Also, I noted the fedora instalation removed what was there in the EFI partition, and the current one has nothing about windows.

:redface: See my edit to post 13, above.

Well, at least now the entries are appearing, and it narrowed down to these two (each with it's own error)
which gives the error
and also
which gives the error
I think we are getting closer to the solution now :)

what is on /dev/sda7 and /dev/sda6

sda6 has the label "SAMSUNG_REC" which I believe is related to my laptop recovery options.

In any case, it does seems to be bootable.. the files in it are:



whe I tried to mound sda7 ir said:

I learned a lot in this thread and now my ideas are more organized, so I will post another cleaner topic with the actual problem, so people don't have to read again all the mistakes I've done.
I checked and it doesn't seem to be against any rule of the forum, so, hope it is okay.