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prizm02

Member

Registered: 2022-09-03

Posts: 5  

GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Latest upgrade broke Grub.

error:symbol 'grub_disk-native-sectors-not-found'

grub rescue>

I know the steps are on the web,  Not sure about doing this.

It is a BIOS install.   I'm posting from a live usb devuan.

I mounted boot partition to  remove grub-efi-amd64 and reinstall grub-pc and get this

Setting up grub-pc (2.04-20) ...
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: failed to get canonical path of `overlay'.
dpkg: error processing package grub-pc (--configure):
 installed grub-pc package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 grub-pc
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

nex step ?

Last edited by prizm02 (2022-09-11 10:27:57)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

You need to chroot into the system with the API filesystems mounted for that to work.

Either use Rescue Mode to obtain a shell in the installed system or run these commands from the live environment:

apt update
apt install arch-install-scripts
mount /dev/sdXY /mnt
mount /dev/sdXZ /mnt/boot
arch-chroot /mnt

Replace X, Y & Z with the drive letter and partition numbers for the root (/) and /boot partitions, respectively.

From a shell in the installed system run these commands to fix things:

dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

I presume you're running testing/unstable? You really should mention the version in the OP.

EDIT: and please replace the thread title with something useful (eg, "GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt"). This is actually a common problem at the moment:

https://archlinux.org/news/grub-bootloa … ibilities/

If you had bothered to search before posting you would probably have found the solution more quickly.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2022-09-11 09:06:55)

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Hold on, I missed this:

I mounted boot partition to  remove grub-efi-amd64 and reinstall grub-pc

Why was grub-efi-amd64 installed?

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

fsmithred

Administrator

Registered: 2016-11-25

Posts: 2,486  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

The amd64 live isos have grub-efi-amd64 installed and the grub-pc deb package available inside the iso for bios boots. If the iso is booted in uefi mode, it installs grub-efi. If the iso is booted in bios mode, the installer will install grub-pc. If you boot in bios mode and chroot the installed system, you need to install the grub-pc package before running grub-install. It's in the root of the filesystem. So run dpkg -i /grub-pc*.deb before running grub-install.

If the iso is booted in bios mode and the disk has gpt partition table, the installer will warn you that you need a special partition for grub, at least 1mb with no filesystem and with flag bios_grub (in gparted) or ef03 (in gdisk).

Edit: Just after hitting Submit, I saw that the first message says this happened after an upgrade. Now I'm not sure if my answer if relevant.

prizm02

Member

Registered: 2022-09-03

Posts: 5  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Install is Chimaera stable,  the update  stopped at a screen that asked where and how to install the new grub. I  selected sda1.  I thought the motherboard settings were wrong.

Is Recovery mode the same as Rescue mode .

Last edited by prizm02 (2022-09-11 10:40:13)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Is Recovery mode the same as Rescue mode .

No.

I provided the link for a reason. Please read it.

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

prizm02

Member

Registered: 2022-09-03

Posts: 5  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

The following string will be used as Linux parameters for the default   │
  │ menu entry but not for the recovery mode.                               │
  │                                                                         │
  │ Linux default command line:                                             │
  │                                       

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg_

following fsmithread

dpkg: error processing package grub-pc (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for man-db (2.9.4-2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 grub-pc

The live usb has Failsafe but no Rescue Boot Option.

Last edited by prizm02 (2022-09-11 11:55:01)

Marjorie

Member

From: Teignmouth, UK

Registered: 2019-06-09

Posts: 221  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Just for clarification, is this a general problem with the latest upgrade of grub?

I've just been updating my legacy-bios Chimaera installation (using synaptic).
There are lots of upgrades available today, including one to grub-pc, from 2.04-20 to 2:06-3~deb11u1.
I've installed all the other upgrades.
Is this safe to install the grub upgrade or will it just give me a grub rescue> prompt and a headache?

Last edited by Marjorie (2022-09-11 11:38:29)

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,171  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Chimaera: Just tried the update on my laptop: Yes, the grub update will cause headaches. Acer Aspire 5 A515-44, efi only, encrypted LVM with unencrypted root. The installation worked on second try (had to enable rw for the efivarfs), creates a new debian entry in the efi, on reboot the grub rescue shell comes up with "symbol grub_disk_native_sectors not found".

When I use F12 to select my original entry devuan4 the laptop boots. Then I removed the debian, and now I am getting the error also on my devuan4.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2019-03-24

Posts: 3,125  

Website

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

The live usb has Failsafe but no Rescue Boot Option.

Then use arch-chroot from the live environment, as I suggested in my first post.

Are you even reading replies?

is this a general problem with the latest upgrade of grub?

Yes. Details on the Arch News item to which I linked. It's been all over the Arch forums recently.

Debian's 11.5 point release has an upgraded GRUB version, which is highly unusual. I'm not sure if that also has the problem.

I don't use GRUB myself...

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Brianna Ghey — Rest In Power

rolfie

Member

Registered: 2017-11-25

Posts: 1,171  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

Got my laptop fixed again. Booted the installer stick into rescue mode, chrooted into the encrypted system. To get that working I needed to load some Realtek firmware for wired network access. Took me a while to figure out that the stick I first used wasn't FAT formatted. The installer didn't like that. 

# grub-install --bootloader-id=devuan4 --no-uefi-secure-boot
# update-grub

That fixed it for me.

Edith

Note to the public: in general probably a simple

# grub-install 
# update-grub

will do the job.

Last edited by rolfie (2022-09-11 17:21:59)

prizm02

Member

Registered: 2022-09-03

Posts: 5  

Re: GRUB update lands at 'grub rescue>' prompt

I got fed up and reinstalled.

Thanks for all replies.