After selecting Linux Lite in grub menu.... Welcome to emergency mode!

[hughparker1]

I have an old BIOS system DELL VOSTRO 1520 with Multi-boot setup with Windows 10, Debian, Linux Mint and Linux Lite 3.  LL3 is in charge of grub menu and was working fine till today. 

After Anniversary Update for Windows 10, LL3 is still in charge of grub menu and it looks exactly the same, but I can't boot into LL3 although my other distros are all working fine.

When I select Linux Lite from the grub menu, I get the following message....

Code:

Welcome to emergency mode! After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view
system logs. "Systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default or D to
try again to boot into default mode.
Give root password for maintenance
(or press Control-D to continue):

I tried to log in but get message 'sulogin: crypt failed: Invalid argument'

I'm not sure how to proceed from here, tried to google but couldn't find anything that helps. Any advice or guidance would be appreciated.

EDIT:
I found this solution to re-install grub....

https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/insta...d-distros/

Boot computer with live Linux Lite USB # My Linux Lite is on partition sda8

*  When up and running, open a terminal

Code:

$ sudo mount /dev/sda8 /mnt            # Mount the LL root partition on the HDD to the live environment

$ sudo grub-install --boot-directory=/mnt/boot /dev/sda        # Install grub to the MBR of sda drive

$ sudo umount /dev/sda8

reboot but error still remains

[m654321]

Hi Hughparker1,

Yes, I've had this problem sometimes with a either Windows / LL dual boot or a Linux only dual or multiple boot setup, on an MBR disk.
Like you LL sometimes needed to be 'reset' so that it was again 'in charge' of the grub list, though unlike you I didn't have the 'Welcome to emergency mode' message.

Like you I ran the first two lines of code you have shown, but left out the 'umount' line, and that seemed to work.
Maybe Hugh try again, but without unmounting /dev/sda8. Maybe worth a try...

Cheers
Mike

 

[hughparker1]

Hi Hughparker1,

Yes, I've had this problem sometimes with a either Windows / LL dual boot or a Linux only dual or multiple boot setup, on an MBR disk.
Like you LL sometimes needed to be 'reset' so that it was again 'in charge' of the grub list, though unlike you I didn't have the 'Welcome to emergency mode' message.

Like you I ran the first two lines of code you have shown, but left out the 'umount' line, and that seemed to work.
Maybe Hugh try again, but without unmounting /dev/sda8. Maybe worth a try...
Cheers
Mike

Thanks for reply. I tried as you suggested but still same error message.

I noticed the GRUB_TIMEOUT during boot is now 30 seconds while my original timeout was 10 seconds, so although my grub menu looks exactly the same as before the Windows Anniversary Update (all my other OS are listed in the correct order) the system doesn't seem to be using my GRUB_TIMEOUT value from /etc/default/grub

After booting with LL3 Live USB, I checked my grub in my LINUX-LITE partition using command....

Code:

$ sudo nano /media/linux/LINUX-LITE/etc/default/grub

and it shows GRUB_DEFAULT=4 and GRUB_TIMEOUT=10

Code:

GRUB_DEFAULT=4
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -d 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

... but when I boot my laptop it does show GRUB_DEFAULT=4 which is correct, but the GRUB_TIMEOUT is 30 secs which is not the value in my grub. Very strange.

Any advice would be appreciated

[trinidad]

During your anniversary Windows 10 update did you miss any restarts, accidentally have the system boot LL instead of Windows 10?

You mention you have Debian on the disk. Can you boot the Debian system? Grub can be repaired and edited from Debian, and you can also mount the LL volume and make changes.

To avoid this quirk in the future the boot order should have Windows 10 last, and Debian first, and Debian should also be the first system on the disk.

Otherwise try a Rescatux live cd to restore grub for Linux Lite. Easy to use GUI. No terminal work.

TC

[hughparker1]

During your anniversary Windows 10 update did you miss any restarts, accidentally have the system boot LL instead of Windows 10?

No, I didn't miss any restarts, as I always change Windows to be the GRUB_DEFAULT in the grub menu exactly for the reason you mentioned, there are always more restarts with Windows than linux.

You mention you have Debian on the disk. Can you boot the Debian system? Grub can be repaired and edited from Debian, and you can also mount the LL volume and make changes.

Yes I can boot Debian and the other distros.

To avoid this quirk in the future the boot order should have Windows 10 last, and Debian first, and Debian should also be the first system on the disk.

Do you mean install Windows last, after the Linux distros?  I've never done that before, I always thought Windows ignored your other distros so you lost your grub menu.  To restore the grub menu, would I then just boot from a live USB, mount the LL3 partition,  and run the 'sudo grub-install...' same as previous?

....and Debian first, and Debian should also be the first system on the disk.

Funny you should mention that with Debian, I have found that when you install Debian on a multiboot system after other distros have been istalled, is changes the partition numbers for the linux distros to the order they appear on the disk, and I have then had to fix slow boot times by changing the UUID for swap in '/etc/fstab' to fix the problem.

Otherwise try a Rescatux live cd to restore grub for Linux Lite. Easy to use GUI. No terminal work.

I haven't used it before but I will give it a try and remember for future reference.

Thanks trinidad for your feedback on this problem, it is much appreciated.

[trinidad]

Use Debian to check and see if Windows added a partition. You can only have 8.