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Previously, I had a problem installing Ubuntu on a Windows 7 / Ubuntu 19.04 system. For the most part, that problem has been solved and I can dual boot between the two OS.

I am encountering a problem which I do have a work-around, but I was wondering if anyone can give an explanation to the cause of this problem (and why my "solution" works).

When I start up the computer, I get an error message that says the following:

Attempting boot from hard disk
Error:  No such device:  [UUID of the Ubuntu filesystem]
Error:  Unknown filesystem.
Entering rescue mode...
grub rescue>

I figured out by accident that I can solve this problem by inserting a bootable Boot Repair disk. All I have to do is boot to it and get to its grub message. I don't need to choose "Boot Repair -- Disk session" or perform any kind of repair. Then, I take the USB drive out, restart the computer and the original grub menu appears, showing my Ubuntu and Windows systems. I can choose either one to boot to from here.

I don't quite understand why this works. I haven't done anything with the Boot Repair disk other than start from it. But it does something so that the next time I boot with it, everything works.

(At this point, I could continue to use Boot Repair to attempt to "fix" it, but I worry that it will make it worse. While my current situation is bizarre, there is a way to get my system back each and every time. So, I'm hesitant to try something unless someone can give me a reason why it should work.)

Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated!

Edit:

Here is the boot-repair report. I can't see anything obviously wrong, but I'm not good at understanding the report.

Ray
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  • Probably you have an older instance of grub installed in the MBR of one of your disks. One could only see that if you give us a link to boot-info-summary which you get from boot-repair. Try changing BIOS boot order to the other drive and check if this helps. – mook765 May 31 '19 at 11:50
  • You can have boot repair create report on the internet without making any changes. do that and report the internet link here. – WinEunuuchs2Unix May 31 '19 at 15:06
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix Thank you for the suggestion (mook765, as well)! I've updated my question with a report. I haven't made any changes. – Ray Jun 03 '19 at 04:49
  • Your situation sounds like this one: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1104855/how-to-make-grub-menu-appear-instead-grub-minimal-bash-like-in-booting/1105737#1105737 – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jun 03 '19 at 10:38
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix Unfortunately, that didn't work. I ended up not booting and getting a "No option to boot to". However, while running Boot Repair in legacy mode, I got a warning that "The boot files of [Ubuntu 19.04] are far from the start of the disk.". So, I created a /boot partition at the beginning of the disk, and then re-ran Boot Repair. This still didn't fix my problem. As before, as long as I boot into Boot Repair, my grub menu comes back (i.e., as I described in my original message). So I haven't ruined my system...it's just a strange problem. Thank you for the advice! – Ray Jun 04 '19 at 07:43
  • The line =================== Final advice in case of suggested repair followed by this line Please do not forget to make your BIOS boot on sdb (ATA ST500DM002-1BD14) disk! suggests you need to change your boot sequence to USB first, sdb second and sda last. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jun 04 '19 at 10:47
  • @WinEunuuchs2Unix I've tried that and that didn't work (i.e., there was no change). After rebooting it something like 10 times this morning, I realised that when it works and when it doesn't appears to be "random". At first, I thought it was because I inserted a boot-repair disk in. But now it works even when I don't insert a disk in. I think I need to figure out the pattern...there has to be one as it cannot be random. – Ray Jun 05 '19 at 07:52

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