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Background:

  • Ubuntu 14.04 dual booted with Windows 8.1
  • I was trying to install package libudev1:i386
  • apt-get was throwing a bunch of missing/broken dependencies
  • I tried aptitude install -f libudev1:i386
  • everything was going fine and dandy until aptitude uninstalled something (I'm guessing the video card driver) and desktop, dash, unity, and control bar on terminal and text editor disappeared (Firefox disappeared entirely)
  • aptitude command ran to completion, files installed, desktop and all were still missing
  • I tried ctrl+alt+f1 and tried to install gnome-tweak-tool...no success, tried to exit tty...no success
  • hard shutdown computer to reboot

Current situation:

  • after hard shutdown, Ubuntu no longer shows up on GNU GRUB menu.

Need help:

  • recovering Ubuntu partition. It should still be on my hard drive, but how can I access it and put it back in the GNU GRUB menu?

I know I committed the cardinal sin by doing a hard shutdown in a sensitive state; old habits die hard.

rakrakrakrak
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1 Answers1

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OK, perhaps the easiest thing to do is reinstall Ubuntu without reformatting the main partition. You will need to select "Something Else" in the install options menu. You will then select the partition that served as your root directory and chose it to be your root directory but DO NOT FORMAT IT! This will install Ubuntu on top of your old install, fix the GRUB menu, and will retain all your old files.

Daniel
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  • And under no circumstances pull the plug again!!! – Daniel Jul 16 '15 at 01:30
  • Hi Daniel, thanks for the advice. I will try that as soon as possible. Is there an easier way to recover from the situation I was in? I tried many unity commands to no avail. – rakrakrakrak Jul 16 '15 at 03:33
  • Not really. If I understand correctly, you're not able to use Ubuntu once your in? If so, you need to reinstall. If Ubuntu is functional, then you need to log in and run 'sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg' in Terminal. – Daniel Jul 16 '15 at 15:24
  • But this is the simplest way to recover if you can't get into Ubuntu, and you get the added benefit of being able to upgrade to 15.04 directly. – Daniel Jul 16 '15 at 15:24
  • Hi Daniel, to be a bit more clear I meant in the event that my dash, desktop and unity all disappear again :). I tried many of the solutions (such as downloading or running things in TTY) posted in related questions on askUbuntu without any of them working. – rakrakrakrak Jul 16 '15 at 15:30
  • Soooo, Ubuntu works, but just doesn't show up in GRUB? – Daniel Jul 17 '15 at 17:12
  • If that's the case, use your BIOS boot menu to boot off of the Ubuntu partition, and to run this at the command line: sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg – Daniel Jul 17 '15 at 17:13
  • Hi Daniel, I executed your solution and it worked. In a tangent question related to my predicament, someone figured out that I had deleted my kernel. I tried a couple solutions, but they didn't work because of a proxy. Your solution fixed it overall..thanks – rakrakrakrak Jul 17 '15 at 17:15
  • Ah. No problem! Glad to hear it worked. – Daniel Jul 17 '15 at 17:17