[SOLVED] Booting issue on LinuxMint 19

Alok Rai · 09-01-2021, 12:39 AM

The booting routine on my Linux Mint 19 XFCE installation hangs before it gets to the login screen. I tried to it repair it myself using Boot-repair - unsuccessfully. I managed to generate two paste-bin sequences which I will give here. I believe experienced users can make sense of them, and solve my problem, so that I don't have to reinstall the operating system all over again.

Here are the two sequences:

/p/K62XDNPQcH/

/p/T3DnDDKm3x/

Thanks,

Alok Rai

yancek · 09-01-2021, 07:54 AM

You need to post the entire link you got from boot repair.

Alok Rai · 09-01-2021, 11:56 PM

Thanks, yancek - is this what you meant?

http://paste.ubuntu.com//p/K62XDNPQcH/

http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/T3DnDDKm3x/

Hope this makes some sense.

yancek · 09-02-2021, 07:11 AM

Going to either link you posted shows a message indicating one needs to be logged in to view it. Never seen that from boot repair before??

Alok Rai · 09-03-2021, 02:23 AM

My first encounter with Boot Repair! However, here is a copy-paste of the output one sees after logging in:

boot-repair-4ppa130 [20210901_0511]

============================= Boot Repair Summary ==============================

Error: Invalid partition table - recursive partition on /dev/sdb.

Recommended repair: ____________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility will reinstall the grub2 of
sda1 into the MBRs of all disks (except live-disks and removable disks without OS).
Additional repair will be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s

==> Reinstall the GRUB of sda1 into MBRs of all disks (except live-disks and removable disks without OS)

========================= Reinstall the grub2 of sda1 ==========================

grub-install --version
grub-install (GRUB) 2.02-2ubuntu8.23

==> Reinstall the GRUB of sda1 into the MBR of sda

grub-install /dev/sda
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.

chroot /mnt/boot-sav/sda1 update-grub
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/50_linuxmint.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-106-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-106-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-20-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
File descriptor 63 (pipe:[62783]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 25173: /bin/sh

Unhide GRUB boot menu in sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg

Boot successfully repaired.

You can now reboot your computer.

Please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sda (ATA ST9320325AS) disk!
This will install the [pastebinit] packages. Do you want to continue?
E: The repository 'cdrom://Linux Mint 19 _Tara_ - Release i386 20180626 bionic Release' does not have a Release file.
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
debconf: (TERM is not set, so the dialog frontend is not usable.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Readline
debconf: (This frontend requires a controlling tty.)
debconf: falling back to frontend: Teletype
dpkg-preconfigure: unable to re-open stdin:

============================ Boot Info After Repair ============================

=> Grub2 (v2.00) is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks at sector 1 of
the same hard drive for core.img. core.img is at this location and looks
for (,msdos1)/boot/grub. It also embeds following components:

modules
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
fshelp ext2 part_msdos biosdisk
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Linux Mint 19
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /etc/default/grub
/boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img

sdc1: __________________________________________________________________________

File system: ntfs
Boot sector type: Windows 7/2008: NTFS
Boot sector info: No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
Operating System:
Boot files:

sdb: ___________________________________________________________________________

File system: iso9660
Boot sector type: Unknown
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg

================================ 1 OS detected =================================

OS#1: Linux Mint 19 Tara (19) on sda1

============================ Architecture/Host Info ============================

CPU architecture: 32-bit
Live-session OS is LinuxMint 32-bit (Linux Mint 19 Tara, tara, i686)

===================================== UEFI =====================================

This live-session is not in EFI-mode.
This session has been detected as 'live' because /proc/cmdline contains (boot=casper)
This session has been detected as 'live' because df -Th / contains overlay

============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

sda : notGPT, no-BIOSboot, has-noESP, not-usb, not-mmc, has-os, 2048 sectors * 512 bytes
sdc : notGPT, no-BIOSboot, has-noESP, usb-disk, not-mmc, no-os, 2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

sda1 : is-os, 32, apt-get, grub-pc , grub2, grub-install, grubenv-ok, update-grub, farbios
sdc1 : no-os, 32, nopakmgr, no-docgrub, nogrub, nogrubinstall, no-grubenv, noupdategrub, not-far

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

sda1 : isnotESP, fstab-without-efi, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot
sdc1 : isnotESP, part-has-no-fstab, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

sda1 : not-sepboot, with-boot, fstab-without-boot, not-sep-usr, with--usr, fstab-without-usr, std-grub.d, sda
sdc1 : not-sepboot, no-boot, part-has-no-fstab, not-sep-usr, no---usr, part-has-no-fstab, std-grub.d, sdc

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk sda: 298.1 GiB, 320072933376 bytes, 625142448 sectors
Disk identifier: 0xb0a0c001
Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
sda1 * 2048 625141759 625139712 298.1G 83 Linux
Disk sdb: 14.5 GiB, 15508439040 bytes, 30289920 sectors
Disk identifier: 0x2d6a1c0c
Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
sdb1 * 0 3651583 3651584 1.8G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS
Disk sdc: 29.8 GiB, 32010928128 bytes, 62521344 sectors
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
sdc1 8192 62521343 62513152 29.8G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:320GB:scsi:512:512:msdos:ATA ST9320325AS:;
1:1049kB:320GB:320GB:ext4::boot;
sdb:15.5GB:scsi:512:512:unknown:Sony Storage Media:;
sdc:32.0GB:scsi:512:512:msdos:Multiple Card Reader:;
1:4194kB:32.0GB:32.0GB:ntfs::;

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME FSTYPE UUID PARTUUID LABEL PARTLABEL
sda
└─sda1 ext4 39e1cc49-8350-412c-a456-9871b87d9d63 b0a0c001-01
sdb iso9660 2018-06-26-21-59-43-00 Linux Mint 19 Xfce 32-bit
└─sdb1 iso9660 2018-06-26-21-59-43-00 2d6a1c0c-01 Linux Mint 19 Xfce 32-bit
sdc
└─sdc1 ntfs 08F6E9A4F6E991EC

df (filtered): _________________________________________________________________

Avail Use% Mounted on
sda1 229.8G 16% /mnt/boot-sav/sda1
sdb 0 100% /cdrom
sdc1 29.7G 0% /media/mint/08F6E9A4F6E991EC

Mount options: __________________________________________________________________

sda1 rw,relatime,data=ordered
sdb ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048
sdc1 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,default_permissions,allow_other,blksize=4096

====================== sda1/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

Ubuntu 39e1cc49-8350-412c-a456-9871b87d9d63
Ubuntu, with Linux 4.15.0-106-generic 39e1cc49-8350-412c-a456-9871b87d9d63
Ubuntu, with Linux 4.15.0-20-generic 39e1cc49-8350-412c-a456-9871b87d9d63
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ###

========================== sda1/etc/fstab (filtered) ===========================

# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=39e1cc49-8350-412c-a456-9871b87d9d63 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0

======================= sda1/etc/default/grub (filtered) =======================

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

==================== sda1: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
224.144569397 = 240.673398784 boot/grub/grub.cfg 1
224.550182343 = 241.108922368 boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img 1
269.340106964 = 289.201737728 boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-106-generic 1
224.228790283 = 240.763830272 boot/vmlinuz-4.15.0-20-generic 1
269.340106964 = 289.201737728 vmlinuz 1
224.228790283 = 240.763830272 vmlinuz.old 1
31.945465088 = 34.301181952 boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-106-generic 6
269.882694244 = 289.784336384 boot/initrd.img-4.15.0-20-generic 3
31.945465088 = 34.301181952 initrd.img 6
269.882694244 = 289.784336384 initrd.img.old 3

===================== sda1: ls -l /etc/grub.d/ (filtered) ======================

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12808 Feb 24 2021 10_linux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 11298 Mar 4 2018 20_linux_xen
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12059 Mar 4 2018 30_os-prober
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1418 Mar 4 2018 30_uefi-firmware
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 214 Mar 4 2018 40_custom
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 216 Mar 4 2018 41_custom

====================== sdb/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) =======================

Start Linux Mint 19 Xfce 32-bit
Start Linux Mint 19 Xfce 32-bit (compatibility mode)
OEM install (for manufacturers)
Check the integrity of the medium

==================== sdb: Location of files loaded by Grub =====================

GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
?? = ?? boot/grub/grub.cfg 1

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =========================

Unknown BootLoader on sdb

00000000 33 ed 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 |3...............|
00000010 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 90 |................|
00000020 33 ed fa 8e d5 bc 00 7c fb fc 66 31 db 66 31 c9 |3......|..f1.f1.|
00000030 66 53 66 51 06 57 8e dd 8e c5 52 be 00 7c bf 00 |fSfQ.W....R..|..|
00000040 06 b9 00 01 f3 a5 ea 4b 06 00 00 52 b4 41 bb aa |.......K...R.A..|
00000050 55 31 c9 30 f6 f9 cd 13 72 16 81 fb 55 aa 75 10 |U1.0....r...U.u.|
00000060 83 e1 01 74 0b 66 c7 06 f3 06 b4 42 eb 15 eb 02 |...t.f.....B....|
00000070 31 c9 5a 51 b4 08 cd 13 5b 0f b6 c6 40 50 83 e1 |1.ZQ....[...@P..|
00000080 3f 51 f7 e1 53 52 50 bb 00 7c b9 04 00 66 a1 b0 |?Q..SRP..|...f..|
00000090 07 e8 44 00 0f 82 80 00 66 40 80 c7 02 e2 f2 66 |..D.....f@.....f|
000000a0 81 3e 40 7c fb c0 78 70 75 09 fa bc ec 7b ea 44 |.>@|..xpu....{.D|
000000b0 7c 00 00 e8 83 00 69 73 6f 6c 69 6e 75 78 2e 62 ||.....isolinux.b|
000000c0 69 6e 20 6d 69 73 73 69 6e 67 20 6f 72 20 63 6f |in missing or co|
000000d0 72 72 75 70 74 2e 0d 0a 66 60 66 31 d2 66 03 06 |rrupt...f`f1.f..|
000000e0 f8 7b 66 13 16 fc 7b 66 52 66 50 06 53 6a 01 6a |.{f...{fRfP.Sj.j|
000000f0 10 89 e6 66 f7 36 e8 7b c0 e4 06 88 e1 88 c5 92 |...f.6.{........|
00000100 f6 36 ee 7b 88 c6 08 e1 41 b8 01 02 8a 16 f2 7b |.6.{....A......{|
00000110 cd 13 8d 64 10 66 61 c3 e8 1e 00 4f 70 65 72 61 |...d.fa....Opera|
00000120 74 69 6e 67 20 73 79 73 74 65 6d 20 6c 6f 61 64 |ting system load|
00000130 20 65 72 72 6f 72 2e 0d 0a 5e ac b4 0e 8a 3e 62 | error...^....>b|
00000140 04 b3 07 cd 10 3c 0a 75 f1 cd 18 f4 eb fd 00 00 |.....<.u........|
00000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001b0 14 02 00 00 00 00 00 00 0c 1c 6a 2d 00 00 80 00 |..........j-....|
000001c0 01 00 17 3f e0 ff 00 00 00 00 00 b8 37 00 00 00 |...?........7...|
000001d0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
*
000001f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa |..............U.|
00000200

=============================== StdErr Messages ================================

File descriptor 63 (pipe:[62783]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 16009: /bin/bash
paste2.org ko (http://paste2.org/)

yancek · 09-03-2021, 07:53 AM

Is this a new install? Did it ever work, meaning were you ever able to boot and login? You have a somewhat older machine using Legacy/CSM boot and boot repair shows Grub code in the MBR and appears to have the proper code in the right place so it probably has nothing to do with booting or Grub.

You might try an online search for "unable to login to linux mint 19 xfce" as I'm not sure what the problem is and don't use either Mint or XFCE.

Alok Rai · 09-03-2021, 08:13 AM

Thanks, yancek. This is an ancient machine - but it was working fine until a few days back. I did a routine update/upgrade, and then this difficulty cropped up.

I see a message there in the output, which suggests that there might be a problem with the hard disk - something about the "integrity of the medium".

I will post an enquiry online - any suggestions where?

And if that doesn't turn up anything, I'll just have to get a new hard disk, and reinstall.

Many thanks.

Rickkkk · 09-03-2021, 08:20 AM

Hi Alok Rai,

To add to Yancek's comments:

Your grub configuration seems to have found an installed Ubuntu system on sda1, not Mint.
There is also a second physical volume (sdc), formatted with an NTFS file system.
sdb seems to be a CD (hence the ISO9660 file system).

I would also ask if this system has booted properly recently, and under which operating system ? I realize you are looking for an alternative other than reinstalling, but, unless you have data to preserve, perhaps a clean wipe of the disk and clean install of Mint is a more direct solution.

Cheers,

Rick

yancek · 09-03-2021, 04:04 PM

You could try doing a filesystem check on the Mint partition (sda1) using the fsck command. Thousands of tutorials online so just do an online search for filesystem check on Linux.

Linux Mint has its own forums so that might be a starting place and just a google search with the parameters I suggested in my last post. .

mrmazda · 09-03-2021, 10:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rickkkk

[*]Your grub configuration seems to have found an installed Ubuntu system on sda1, not Mint.

To be clear to Arch, PCLinux & Slackware users, LinuxMint is yet another *buntu derivative:

Code:

# inxi -Sy
System:
  Host: ab250 Kernel: 5.4.0-74-generic x86_64 bits: 64 Console: tty pts/0
  Distro: Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia
# dpkg -l | grep grub
ii  grub-common	2.02-2ubuntu8.23	amd64	GRand Unified Bootloader (common files)
# cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list
# Do not edit this file manually, use Software Sources instead.

deb http://packages.linuxmint.com tricia main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ bionic partner

Alok Rai · 09-03-2021, 11:31 PM

Thanks, all. I take your point, Rick. My hard disk appears to be messed up. It might be simplest if I were to salvage what I can, and simply format the hard disk - in preparation for a fresh install of the current LinuxMint version. And if that doesn't work, I'll have to get a new hard disk. But the way this is escalating, I might be getting a new computer soon!

Thank you, people - once again.

Alok Rai

Rickkkk · 09-04-2021, 05:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrmazda

To be clear to Arch, PCLinux & Slackware users, LinuxMint is yet another *buntu derivative:...

Check. Thanks mrmazda.

To Alok Rai : given the above point made by mrmazda, your disk may not be quite as "messed up" as I originally thought. Although I know that Mint is an Ubuntu / Debian derivative, I didn't realize that GRUB would list it outright as Ubuntu in grub.cfg . It may still be simpler to reinstall, but other options may still exist. I encourage you to consider suggestions made by other members here as well.

Hope it all works out as simply as possible !

Rick

valeoak · 09-04-2021, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alok Rai

in preparation for a fresh install of the current LinuxMint version.

Hi Alok,

It appears that your CPU's architecture is i386. Unfortunately, as Ubuntu has abandoned 32-bit CPU support, the last mainline (i.e., Ubuntu-derived) version of Linux Mint to support i386 is 19. Linux Mint 20 has x64 support only.

You can use the latest version of LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition), but that only supports their flagship Cinnamon desktop out of the box. You might like to try straight Debian or the Debian-derived MX Linux, both of which have XFCE editions.

yancek · 09-04-2021, 08:33 AM

Your drive may be bad and you may need to eventually replace it but I would certainly try running a filesystem check on the Mint partition first. The site at the link below explains it and the various options. Not really complicated.

https://www.tecmint.com/fsck-repair-...rors-in-linux/

In your initial post, you indicate your system "hangs before it gets to the login screen". What do you see? Are there any type of messages on screen? Is it just a black screen?

Did you do an online search or go to the Linux Mint forums to see if you could find similar problems. In my opinion, LQ is a lot better forum than Linux Mint but the Mint forums will be specific to Mint problems.

Quote:

I didn't realize that GRUB would list it outright as Ubuntu in grub.cfg .

I noticed that some years ago when I first installed Lubuntu. A number of Ubuntu derivatives do this and have been doing it for yeats although I don't know why. Another thing Ubuntu derivatives (including Mint) did when UEFI initially appeared was to create an 'ubuntu' directory in the EFI partition. Usually this wasn't a problem until a user tried to dual boot with Ubuntu and some of its major derivatives which created an 'ubuntu' directory and that overwrote the initial ubuntu directory. I think this has changed for most of the ubuntus.