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Before jumping to the problems, I think I should give some context since this situation is a bit specific and I'm not sure if any of the following details are important or not.

Context

Previously, I had Windows and Ubuntu installed on the same HDD, both working without problems. However, to boot into ubuntu I had to click ESCAPE immediately after turning on the computer, then choose "boot device options" (note this is a different menu from the BIOS see here), then choose an option there called "Ubuntu", and at that point finally grub showed up, so I would just select Ubuntu again and everything worked normally from there. If I didn't press any key during boot though, the computer would just boot to Windows as if it were the only operating system installed, instead of opening grub menu.

Recently, I bought an SSD and changed my HDD to a caddy. Clean-installed windows on the SSD and erased the old windows from the HDD but kept Ubuntu there. That didn't seem to cause any problems since it worked just like before, by using the F9 boot menu.

tl;dr: 2 disks, Windows on SSD, Ubuntu on HDD (caddy), grub only appeared through HP boot options menu, but overall worked

Problem 1 - after upgrade, now grub boots to console

Yesterday, I decided to update my ubuntu 12 to ubuntu 16. I chose the option "remove ubuntu 12 and install ubuntu 16", or something similar. After the upgrade, whenever I choose Ubuntu in the F9 boot menu, grub will launch in console mode.

I followed the instructions in here, as you can see in this photo I took: enter image description here

But right after pressing enter it falls in another console, with an error. I tried fsck as they suggest but then another error shows up: "The superblock or the partition table is likely to be corrupt". After rebooting everything is still the same.

enter image description here

Problem 2 - can't run boot-repair with live usb

I've tried installing and running boot-repair from a pen, but it gets stuck with the following message:

enter image description here

Even after disabling fast boot on windows this message keeps appearing and doesn't fix grub.

Here is the boot info script: http://pastebin.com/1pEDasrG

Ran out of ideas and need some help to solve this, thanks.

EDIT 1:

lsblk -o name,mountpoint,label,size,fstype output: http://pastebin.com/BdXRxs64

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ lsblk -o name,mountpoint,label,size,fstype
NAME   MOUNTPOINT LABEL             SIZE FSTYPE
sdb                               596.2G 
├─sdb4                            575.3G ntfs
├─sdb2                              100M vfat
├─sdb7                             11.6G ext4
├─sdb5                              803M ntfs
├─sdb3                               16M 
├─sdb1            Recovery          450M ntfs
├─sdb8 [SWAP]                       7.9G swap
└─sdb6                                1M ext4
loop0  /rofs                        1.4G squashfs
sdc                                 7.2G 
└─sdc1 /cdrom     UBUNTU 16_0       7.2G vfat
sda                               232.9G 
├─sda2                            231.6G ntfs
├─sda3                              803M ntfs
└─sda1            System Reserved   500M ntfs

parted -l output: http://pastebin.com/pFDE86TA

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Samsung SSD 850 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size   Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  525MB  524MB  primary  ntfs         boot
 2      525MB   249GB  249GB  primary  ntfs
 3      249GB   250GB  842MB  primary  ntfs         diag


Model: ATA Hitachi HTS54756 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 640GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  473MB  472MB   ntfs            Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      473MB   578MB  105MB   fat32           EFI system partition          boot, esp
 3      578MB   595MB  16.8MB                  Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      595MB   618GB  618GB   ntfs            Basic data partition          msftdata
 5      618GB   619GB  842MB   ntfs                                          hidden, diag
 6      619GB   619GB  1049kB  ext4                                          bios_grub
 7      619GB   632GB  12.5GB  ext4
 8      632GB   640GB  8481MB  linux-swap(v1)


Model: Kingston DataTraveler 2.0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 7747MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  7747MB  7746MB  primary  fat32        boot, lba
L. D. James
  • 25,036
Mr. Phil
  • 145
  • What model HP? UEFI or BIOS installs for Windows & Ubuntu? You are showing gpt which usually but not always is UEFI. And then you set (hd1,gpt7) but boot from sdb6. Do you have separate /boot partition on sdb6 and main install on sdb7? Configuration is complex enough that you need to use Ubuntu installer and add Boot-Repair. If UEFI be sure to boot in UEFI mode. Post link to report: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Info – oldfred Feb 24 '17 at 20:13
  • @oldfred thanks for your time. It's an HP pavilion dv6 7003-sp. My partitions are the following (http://i.imgur.com/SS38GXG.png), so I assumed they were separated, but I'm just guessing here. I will post the link as you asked, but about being UEFI or BIOS installs I'm actually not sure, how could I find out? – Mr. Phil Feb 24 '17 at 20:17
  • @oldfred I've just added the pastebin to the original question – Mr. Phil Feb 24 '17 at 20:58
  • You either need to reinstall Windows in UEFI mode or convert Ubuntu to BIOS boot. On a gpt drive to get grub to install correctly in BIOS boot mode to sdb, you must have a 1 or 2MB unformatted partition. Create that first. You then can use Boot-Repair booted in BIOS mode to convert, or chroot into system to convert or if you can boot, uninstall grub & reinstall grub manually. You are fully uninstalling grub-efi-amd64 and installing grub-pc for BIOS boot. – oldfred Feb 26 '17 at 15:11

1 Answers1

2

The Boot Repair image is giving the error the partition needs to be unmounted.

Boot to the LiveUSB and preform these following steps.

First ensure the partition isn't mounted:

$ sudo umount /dev/sdb6

Then run the manual fsck:

$ sudo fsck -y /dev/sdb6

Update:

You can manually fix your booting problems by running the steps provided here.

Use these parameters for the steps:

  • /dev/sdX# = /dev/sdb7
  • /dev/sdY# = /dev/sdb6
  • /dev/sdZ = /dev/sdb
L. D. James
  • 25,036
  • For the first command the output is 'not mounted'. For the second command I get the same errors as in the second image (https://imgur.com/FC6gYiw) – Mr. Phil Feb 24 '17 at 21:17
  • Will you run these commands and copy/paste the text to your question: lsblk -o name,mountpoint,label,size,fstype and sudo parted -l – L. D. James Feb 24 '17 at 21:26
  • Sure, I added them at the end of the question – Mr. Phil Feb 24 '17 at 21:45
  • Your sdb was/is an UEFI install on gpt drive. But sda is now the 35 year old BIOS boot on MBR configuration. So system must be UEFI. You can dual boot with different configurations, but only from UEFI menu. Once you start to boot in one mode you cannot switch. Or from grub can only boot systems installed in same boot mode. And with UEFI, grub will only install its boot loader to the ESP - efi system partition on sda, which you do not now have with MBR. Boot-Repair can convert your UEFI boot Ubuntu to BIOS boot if you add a 1 or 2MB unformatted partition with bios_grub flag. – oldfred Feb 24 '17 at 22:09
  • @oldfred Problem is, as I said I can't run boot-repair, so I don't know what to do – Mr. Phil Feb 25 '17 at 14:03
  • Are you trying to run the now old Boot-Repair ISO or the Ubuntu installer which you used to install with? And then add Boot-Repair to Ubuntu installer. – oldfred Feb 25 '17 at 14:11
  • @Mr.Phil Will you add the output of sudo lsblk -o name,mountpoint,label,size,fstype;sudo parted -l to your question? – L. D. James Feb 25 '17 at 14:13
  • I am using the same installer, but selecting 'try Ubuntu' instead of installing. Once booted, I download and install boot repair via console, but when I try to run the recommended fix, the error shows up – Mr. Phil Feb 25 '17 at 14:17
  • @James they're on the original question, 2 pastebins with the outputs – Mr. Phil Feb 25 '17 at 14:17
  • Check at the very end of the question where it says 'Edit 1' – Mr. Phil Feb 25 '17 at 14:17
  • Thanks... I may be misreading the information, but can you answer a couple of questions. Are you able to boot into the Windows that is on that drive? Is your Ubuntu installation 12Gigs only? – L. D. James Feb 25 '17 at 14:34
  • You can resolve your booting issue by manually reinstalling Grub to your /dev/sdb drive. I added an update to the answer for this. Please give an update on the results. While, unlikely. If either of the steps give an error message, please provide the error. – L. D. James Feb 25 '17 at 15:12
  • @L.D.James Did you see my update in the chat? – Mr. Phil Feb 26 '17 at 12:09