[ SOLVED ] How do I remove lines from GRUB that no longer work?

[firenice03]

Thanks very much! Drive now looks like this and Grub update removed erroneous lines: https://imgur.com/mlrIoLo.png

You're Welcome! @Von Kirkus
  good to hear

[Von Kirkus]

Thanks very much! Drive now looks like this and Grub update removed erroneous lines: https://imgur.com/mlrIoLo.png

[firenice03]

Do update grub once your all done...
Looking, not sure what grub part sda5 is.. maybe leave for a minute, its tiny...
Sda6 is a windows part, fat32 maybe something added?
Make sure its not a recovery or such.

But yes think that's it...


All the removed will become unallocated, the current can be extended...

[Von Kirkus]

In Gparted the drive looks like this: https://imgur.com/GFhcnoO.png  I put the cursor on small partition 5 as it has a tag as Grub2core.img, so I was not sure if I should mess with that? In Gparted I will select the partition and go to Partition>Delete for each partition to remove 4 through 7 one at the time. Then I should have 4 partitions with 1 and 4 being locked and then some unallocated space that I would be able to resize the existing partitions into? Do I need to run the Update Grub after each partition removed?

[firenice03]

@Von Kirkus I would update grub without the backup connected - hence why the sdb showed up and if there are boot partitions on it it most likely will add..

Assuming the partitions are as follows...

Code: [Select]

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk                  USED FOR ?? ??
├─sda1   8:1    0   259M  0 part /boot/efi        Win/LL Boot Part
├─sda2   8:2    0  75.3G  0 part                  ?? - Win ??
├─sda3   8:3    0  19.6G  0 part                  ?? - Win ??
├─sda4   8:4    0    26G  0 part                  LL4.8 root not working
├─sda5   8:5    0     1M  0 part                  small part - ??
├─sda6   8:6    0   513M  0 part                  small part - ??
├─sda7   8:7    0  10.8G  0 part                  LL5.x root not working
└─sda8   8:8    0  91.2G  0 part /                LL5.x Root WORKING

It looks like you had windows, LL4.x and LL5.x all installed at one/sometime.. Were these installed to the new disk (SSD) or copied from the old?
I would say both sda4 and sda7 could be deleted/removed - these are none working partitions...
Perhaps LL4 worked at one time, maybe was pooched during an attempted install, perhaps same with sda7 or realized it was too small for needs... none the less they no longer work and are not needed (you'll re-coop the space)

sda1/2/3 I assume are all Windows... Boot/C:/Recovery-Image partitions... I would leave these as is..
You have both Win and LL booting from sda1 - this is ok... .... .....

sda5/6 - are small, not sure exactly sure why created perhaps these are the 2 you tried create?? where during install sda7/8 where created....

So and I don't think its too big an issue... But you can typically only have 4 primary partitions per disk..
Having 8, I'm assuming 4 are extended partitions - like I say I don't think it'll be a big deal but....


Overall... sda4/5/6/7 should be able to be removed/recovered...
**Check to ensure there is not any data or files that are needed on these partitions (thou sounds like you have back ups )
Once you have confirmed no data and disks are as I mentioned and not in or for use; Windows etc... You should be able to clean/remove those partitions.
**Do this with out the backup connected


Then run grub update and reboot.. you should be left with Ubuntu (LL5.x)  -- Advanced   -- and Windows

[Von Kirkus]

@firenice03
ok, some history, I upgraded my HD to an SSD cloning the disk. Then I created 2 partitions on it. One is the old Windows boot partition and then I have a Back-Up partition. When it's connected it is the "b" drive.

I ran the same commands with the portable drive connected which used to be the old disk in this machine. I partitioned it to leave the Windows OS in it's own partition and use the other for partition for back up. I assume if it's connected and grub is updated it sees that Windows boot sector on the old drive and points to it? I updated yesterday without it connected and after a Windows Update and grub update it no longer points to sdb1, which is what I want. It boots from the  SSD sda1
Output with portable drive connected:
Welcome to Linux Lite 5.0 von
 
Monday 14 December 2020, 07:25:14
Memory Usage: 926/7847MB (11.80%)
Disk Usage: 35/90GB (42%)
Support - https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/ (Right click, Open Link)
 
 von  ~  df -hT
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs  3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     785M  3.0M  782M   1% /run
/dev/sda8      ext4       90G   35G   50G  42% /
tmpfs          tmpfs     3.9G   36M  3.8G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     3.9G     0  3.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1      vfat      259M   61M  198M  24% /boot/efi
tmpfs          tmpfs     785M   16K  785M   1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sdb4      fuseblk   411G  6.0G  405G   2% /media/von/Back_Up
/dev/sdb3      fuseblk    56G   54G  1.8G  97% /media/von/OldBoot_HDD
 von  ~  lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   259M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0  75.3G  0 part
├─sda3   8:3    0  19.6G  0 part
├─sda4   8:4    0    26G  0 part
├─sda5   8:5    0     1M  0 part
├─sda6   8:6    0   513M  0 part
├─sda7   8:7    0  10.8G  0 part
└─sda8   8:8    0  91.2G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   0 465.8G  0 disk
├─sdb1   8:17   0   259M  0 part
├─sdb2   8:18   0    16M  0 part
├─sdb3   8:19   0  55.1G  0 part /media/von/OldBoot_HDD
└─sdb4   8:20   0 410.4G  0 part /media/von/Back_Up
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom 
 von  ~ 

[Von Kirkus]

Here's my output:

Welcome to Linux Lite 5.0 von
 
Monday 14 December 2020, 06:42:31
Memory Usage: 866/7847MB (11.04%)
Disk Usage: 35/90GB (42%)
Support - https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/ (Right click, Open Link)
 
 von  ~  df -hT
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs  3.8G     0  3.8G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     785M  2.9M  782M   1% /run
/dev/sda8      ext4       90G   35G   50G  42% /
tmpfs          tmpfs     3.9G   55M  3.8G   2% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     5.0M  4.0K  5.0M   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs     3.9G     0  3.9G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1      vfat      259M   61M  198M  24% /boot/efi
tmpfs          tmpfs     785M   16K  785M   1% /run/user/1000
 von  ~  lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk
├─sda1   8:1    0   259M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0  75.3G  0 part
├─sda3   8:3    0  19.6G  0 part
├─sda4   8:4    0    26G  0 part
├─sda5   8:5    0     1M  0 part
├─sda6   8:6    0   513M  0 part
├─sda7   8:7    0  10.8G  0 part
└─sda8   8:8    0  91.2G  0 part /
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom 
 von  ~ 

Code: [Select]

After I made the original post I updated Windows and ran the grub update again and it now looks like this:
*Ubuntu                                                         When selected boots into Linux 5.0 updated normally
  Advanced options for Ubuntu                          Opens options normally
  Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda1)            Tries to boot Windows, but ends at blue Windows error boot recovery options screen
  Linux Lite 4.8 (18.04) (on /dev/sda4)              Goes to logon screen, but won't open, just keeps returning to logon screen after P/W
  Advanced options for Linux Lite 4.8 (18.04) (on /dev/sda4)     Same as above on all options
  Linux Lite 5.0 (20.04) (on /dev/sda7)              Goes to logon screen, but won't open, just keeps returning to logon screen after P/W
  Advanced options for Linux Lite 5.0 (20.04) (on /dev/sda7)     Same as above on all options
  UEFI Firmware Settings                                     Opens BIOS settings normally

The Windows boot manager on sdb1 which was the active one was deleted and now it boots off sda1. I only have one drive, but several partitions, sda7 and sda4 won't load beyond the password screen, it just bootloops back for the password. Ubuntu is now on sda8 which loads LL5-Version-
Kernel      : Linux 5.4.0-58-generic (x86_64)
Version      : #64-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 9 08:16:25 UTC 2020
C Library      : GNU C Library / (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.31-0ubuntu9.1) 2.31
Distribution      : Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
-Current Session-
Computer Name      : von-Satellite-C55-B
User Name      : von (Von)
Language      : en_US.UTF-8 (en_US)
Home Directory      : /home/von
-Misc-
Uptime      : 23 minutes
Load Average      : 0.77, 0.76, 0.68
Available entropy in /dev/random      : 3362 bits (healthy)

[firenice03]

@Von Kirkus   
hhhmmm from the working LL5.x desktop have you tried...

Code: [Select]

sudo update-grub

then reboot...

The grub command - will look for any installed OS's..
IF you have and the below is still what you get...

There are a few things...
Looks like you have 2 disks.. /sda and /sdb
  You can safely remove /sda4 as this is where LL4.8 resides/used to - you could have installed LL5 here...
This can be done from UI tools such as gparted.. (Unless you prefer commands.. such as fdisk)
*make sure you are deleting/removing the correct disk... (should you have a typo here)
removing /sda4 will remove the 4.8 and Advanced options    * Will need to update grub afterwards

As for Windows = /sda1 and /sdb1 I would not yet delete either partition just yet..
Curious if you have 2 disks and if you had multiple versions? or a typo??

Also, I assume Windows was UEFI as is LL5.x, was LL4.8 the same? ?

May not hurt to post a screenshot of GRUB and another of gparted or similar commands...

Code: [Select]

df -hT
lsblk

Screenshots can be added via https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/introductions/forum-posting-guidelines/

[Von Kirkus]

After getting Linux 5.0 to update successfully my GRUB menu looks like this, but only the first 2 lines and last 2 lines run the machine.
I don't want to break my system while I am trying to learn Linux. I still need Windows to run some of my applications, but my older laptop certainly runs Linux much faster and works great for the virtual classes I'm doing right now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

*Ubuntu                                                         When selected boots into Linux 5.0 updated normally
  Advanced options for Ubuntu                          Opens options normally
  Windows Boot Manager (on /dev/sda1)            Tries to boot Windows, but ends at blue Windows error boot recovery options screen
  Linux Lite 4.8 (18.04) (on /dev/sda4)              Goes to logon screen, but won't open, just keeps returning to logon screen after P/W
  Advanced options for Linux Lite 4.8 (18.04) (on /dev/sda4)     Same as above on all options
  Linux Lite 5.0 (20.04) (on /dev/sda7)              Goes to logon screen, but won't open, just keeps returning to logon screen after P/W
  Advanced options for Linux Lite 5.0 (20.04) (on /dev/sda7)     Same as above on all options
  Windows Boot Manager  (on  /dev/sbd1)            Boots Windows normally
  UEFI Firmware Settings                                     Opens BIOS settings normally