• grub-update not adding other linux

    From Karen@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 12 10:39:23 2022
    I had a PC with Kubuntu 20.04 then added a second drive and installed
    Almalinux on it. Then did the grub update from Alma and it added Ubuntu
    to boot menu. So boot back into Ubuntu and tried to do the reciprocal
    deed. But grub-update did not add Alma linux.
    Both fdisk and lsblk see the other disk drive from Ubuntu, but grub
    updater apparently does not digest it.

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  • From stepore@21:1/5 to Karen on Sat Jun 11 23:22:55 2022
    On 6/11/22 19:39, Karen wrote:
    I had a PC with Kubuntu 20.04 then added a second drive and installed Almalinux on it. Then did the grub update from Alma and it added Ubuntu
    to boot menu. So boot back into Ubuntu and tried to do the reciprocal
    deed. But grub-update did not add Alma linux.

    Is the PC using MBR or GPT?
    Did you install Alma's grub to a separate disk/partition or to the MBR?
    Do you really have 2 Grub's installed to separate partitions?

    Most times you only have one grub installed. So maybe it's your Alma's
    grub that's installed and controlling your boot loading. So when you
    boot to Ubuntu, the grub-update does see Alma but you don't see your
    Ubuntu's grub when you reboot because you're seeing only Alma's grub.

    You'd need to chain load your grub's if you really want to use both. Or
    maybe os-prober is disabled in your ubuntu's grub. Not positive because
    you weren't really clear about where/how you installed either grub.

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to stepore on Sun Jun 12 07:59:24 2022
    On 6/12/2022 2:22 AM, stepore wrote:
    On 6/11/22 19:39, Karen wrote:
    I had a PC with Kubuntu 20.04 then added a second drive and installed
    Almalinux on it. Then did the grub update from Alma and it added Ubuntu
    to boot menu. So boot back into Ubuntu and tried to do the reciprocal
    deed. But grub-update did not add Alma linux.

    Is the PC using MBR or GPT?
    Did you install Alma's grub to a separate disk/partition or to the MBR?
    Do you really have 2 Grub's installed to separate partitions?

    Most times you only have one grub installed. So maybe it's your Alma's grub that's installed and controlling your boot loading. So when you boot to Ubuntu,
    the grub-update does see Alma but you don't see your Ubuntu's grub when you reboot because you're seeing only Alma's grub.

    You'd need to chain load your grub's if you really want to use both. Or maybe os-prober is disabled in your ubuntu's grub. Not positive because you weren't really clear about where/how you installed either grub.

    Poor os-prober.

    Kicked around like a football.

    I'm working on Gentoo right now, and can't get any of the
    other Linux on the disk to get picked up either. There's
    a cryptic message about "mounts", as if mounting the alternate
    OSes would help, but that did not help at all.

    So now I'm trapped inside Gentoo :-) Cool beanz.

    There was a time when all you had to do, was install
    the package for os-prober, to get it to work. But not
    any more. Now they're laying spike belts in the road
    and so on.

    Maybe I need my copy of BootMagic from the year 2000.

    *******

    "One workaround (for now) is to add

    GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

    to the file

    /etc/default/grub
    "

    sudo gedit /etc/default/grub # or similar

    But on Gentoo, that directive was just ignored.

    If you can't find os-prober, in the old days it was

    sudo apt install os-prober

    which at the time was only a 23KB file.

    Paul

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  • From Andrei Z.@21:1/5 to Paul on Sun Jun 12 16:41:39 2022
    Paul wrote:
    On 6/12/2022 2:22 AM, stepore wrote:
    On 6/11/22 19:39, Karen wrote:
    I had a PC with Kubuntu 20.04 then added a second drive and installed
    Almalinux on it. Then did the grub update from Alma and it added Ubuntu
    to boot menu. So boot back into Ubuntu and tried to do the reciprocal
    deed. But grub-update did not add Alma linux.

    Is the PC using MBR or GPT?
    Did you install Alma's grub to a separate disk/partition or to the MBR?
    Do you really have 2 Grub's installed to separate partitions?

    Most times you only have one grub installed. So maybe it's your Alma's
    grub that's installed and controlling your boot loading. So when you
    boot to Ubuntu, the grub-update does see Alma but you don't see your
    Ubuntu's grub when you reboot because you're seeing only Alma's grub.

    You'd need to chain load your grub's if you really want to use both.
    Or maybe os-prober is disabled in your ubuntu's grub. Not positive
    because you weren't really clear about where/how you installed either
    grub.

    Poor os-prober.

    Kicked around like a football.

    I'm working on Gentoo right now, and can't get any of the
    other Linux on the disk to get picked up either. There's
    a cryptic message about "mounts", as if mounting the alternate
    OSes would help, but that did not help at all.

    So now I'm trapped inside Gentoo :-) Cool beanz.

    There was a time when all you had to do, was install
    the package for os-prober, to get it to work. But not
    any more. Now they're laying spike belts in the road
    and so on.

    Maybe I need my copy of BootMagic from the year 2000.

    *******

       "One workaround (for now) is to add

           GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

       to the file

           /etc/default/grub
       "

    sudo gedit /etc/default/grub         # or similar

    But on Gentoo, that directive was just ignored.

    If you can't find os-prober, in the old days it was

       sudo apt install os-prober

    which at the time was only a 23KB file.

       Paul

    GNU GRUB - New in 2.06: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/NEWS?h=grub-2.06

    * Disable the os-prober by default.

    Ubuntu 22.04 Release Notes https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/24668

    <quote>

    UEFI and BIOS boot

    Other operating systems are not displayed in the boot menu anymore,
    unless Ubuntu has been installed alongside another operating system.
    Once all other operating systems are removed from the machine, detection
    of other operating systems is disabled, and to re-enable if after
    installing another OS, you will have to delete /boot/grub/grub.cfg and immediately run update-grub again.

    <unquote>

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Andrei Z. on Sun Jun 12 14:34:21 2022
    On 6/12/2022 9:41 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:


    GNU GRUB - New in 2.06: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/NEWS?h=grub-2.06

    * Disable the os-prober by default.

    Ubuntu 22.04 Release Notes https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/24668

    <quote>

    UEFI and BIOS boot

    Other operating systems are not displayed in the boot menu anymore, unless Ubuntu has been installed alongside another operating system. Once all other operating systems are removed from the machine, detection of other operating systems is disabled,
    and to re-enable if after installing another OS, you will have to delete /boot/grub/grub.cfg and immediately run update-grub again.

    <unquote>

    Before trying Gentoo, I had:

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR | Swap | Ubuntu | LinuxMint | Zorin | +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

    Boot Menu shows:

    Zorin
    Ubuntu
    LinuxMint

    Deleted Zorin (as Firefox source of V75 delivered as source archive
    and Firefox deb of V101 delivered, mismatch of goods). Ubuntu
    only delivered Firefox as Snap. LinuxMint deal with Mozilla
    means no source archive matching delivered Firefox V101.

    Installed Gentoo (no boot partition, just using /boot on /)

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR | Swap | Ubuntu | LinuxMint | Gentoo | +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

    Boot Menu shows:

    Gentoo # And no other Linux OSes are picked up

    Even with /etc/fstab entries causing Ubuntu and LinuxMint
    partitions to be mounted while Gentoo is running, no difference
    in symptoms. Using GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
    did nothing. There's a spike belt, a barricade of some sort,
    still in there... And you know the staff who do these
    things, snicker like Beavis and Butthead while doing
    breakage like this.

    The thing is, even if you "fix" it manually, every time a
    kernel gets patched, GRUB will get updated again and
    whatever you did will get broken. That's why this matters.
    It's not fixing it I care about. It's the user-abrasive
    automation that will fuck it all up again, that I care about!

    Paul

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Bobbie Sellers@21:1/5 to Paul on Sun Jun 12 12:57:08 2022
    On 6/12/22 11:34, Paul wrote:
    On 6/12/2022 9:41 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:


    GNU GRUB - New in 2.06:
    https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/NEWS?h=grub-2.06

    * Disable the os-prober by default.

    Ubuntu 22.04 Release Notes
    https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/24668

    <quote>

    UEFI and BIOS boot

    Other operating systems are not displayed in the boot menu anymore,
    unless Ubuntu has been installed alongside another operating system.
    Once all other operating systems are removed from the machine,
    detection of other operating systems is disabled, and to re-enable if
    after installing another OS, you will have to delete
    /boot/grub/grub.cfg and immediately run update-grub again.

    <unquote>

    Before trying Gentoo, I had:

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR |  Swap  |  Ubuntu  |  LinuxMint |  Zorin  | +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

    Boot Menu shows:

        Zorin
        Ubuntu
        LinuxMint

    Deleted Zorin (as Firefox source of V75 delivered as source archive
    and Firefox deb of V101 delivered, mismatch of goods). Ubuntu
    only delivered Firefox as Snap. LinuxMint deal with Mozilla
    means no source archive matching delivered Firefox V101.

    Installed Gentoo (no boot partition, just using /boot on /)

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR |  Swap  |  Ubuntu  |  LinuxMint |  Gentoo | +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

    Boot Menu shows:

       Gentoo     # And no other Linux OSes are picked up

    Even with /etc/fstab entries causing Ubuntu and LinuxMint
    partitions to be mounted while Gentoo is running, no difference
    in symptoms. Using GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
    did nothing. There's a spike belt, a barricade of some sort,
    still in there...  And you know the staff who do these
    things, snicker like Beavis and Butthead while doing
    breakage like this.

    The thing is, even if you "fix" it manually, every time a
    kernel gets patched, GRUB will get updated again and
    whatever you did will get broken. That's why this matters.
    It's not fixing it I care about. It's the user-abrasive
    automation that will fuck it all up again, that I care about!

       Paul



    Many Linux distributions ignore other installed OSes. I used
    to use the multiple partition capability of UEFI to have many partitions
    and installed several distributions to the system and the GRUB lists
    almost always got messed up. I switched to running them under Virtual
    Box and other such emulators could be used.

    bliss - brought to you by the power and ease of PCLinuxOS,
    the Perfect Computer Linux Operating System,
    and a minor case of hypergraphia

    --
    bliss dash SF 4 ever at dslextreme dot com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Andrei Z.@21:1/5 to Paul on Mon Jun 13 07:35:52 2022
    Paul wrote:
    On 6/12/2022 9:41 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:


    GNU GRUB - New in 2.06:
    https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/NEWS?h=grub-2.06

    * Disable the os-prober by default.

    Ubuntu 22.04 Release Notes
    https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/24668

    <quote>

    UEFI and BIOS boot

    Other operating systems are not displayed in the boot menu anymore,
    unless Ubuntu has been installed alongside another operating system.
    Once all other operating systems are removed from the machine,
    detection of other operating systems is disabled, and to re-enable if
    after installing another OS, you will have to delete
    /boot/grub/grub.cfg and immediately run update-grub again.

    <unquote>

    Before trying Gentoo, I had:

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR |  Swap  |  Ubuntu  |  LinuxMint |  Zorin  | +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

    Boot Menu shows:

        Zorin
        Ubuntu
        LinuxMint

    Deleted Zorin (as Firefox source of V75 delivered as source archive
    and Firefox deb of V101 delivered, mismatch of goods). Ubuntu
    only delivered Firefox as Snap. LinuxMint deal with Mozilla
    means no source archive matching delivered Firefox V101.

    Installed Gentoo (no boot partition, just using /boot on /)

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR |  Swap  |  Ubuntu  |  LinuxMint |  Gentoo | +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

    Boot Menu shows:

       Gentoo     # And no other Linux OSes are picked up

    Even with /etc/fstab entries causing Ubuntu and LinuxMint
    partitions to be mounted while Gentoo is running, no difference
    in symptoms. Using GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
    did nothing. There's a spike belt, a barricade of some sort,
    still in there...  And you know the staff who do these
    things, snicker like Beavis and Butthead while doing
    breakage like this.

    The thing is, even if you "fix" it manually, every time a
    kernel gets patched, GRUB will get updated again and
    whatever you did will get broken. That's why this matters.
    It's not fixing it I care about. It's the user-abrasive
    automation that will fuck it all up again, that I care about!

       Paul

    GNU GRUB Manual 2.06 https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html#Simple-configuration

    <quote>
    ‘GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER’

    The grub-mkconfig has a feature to use the external os-prober program to discover other operating systems installed on the same machine and
    generate appropriate menu entries for them. It is disabled by default
    since automatic and silent execution of os-prober, and creating boot
    entries based on that data, is a potential attack vector. Set this
    option to ‘false’ to enable this feature in the grub-mkconfig command. <unquote>

    It looks like they want us to use UEFI boot.

    Booting a UEFI machine normally - Debian Wiki https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#Booting_a_UEFI_machine_normally

    "Regular UEFI boot has several lists of possible boot entries, stored in
    UEFI config variables (normally in NVRAM), and boot order config
    variables stored alongside them. It allows for many different boot
    options, and a properly-defined fallback order. In many cases, you can
    even list and choose which OS / boot loader to use from the system boot
    menu (similar to the boot device menu implemented in many BIOSes). Unfortunately, a lot of PC UEFI implementations have got this wrong and
    so don't work properly."

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  • From Paul@21:1/5 to Bobbie Sellers on Mon Jun 13 09:14:05 2022
    On 6/12/2022 3:57 PM, Bobbie Sellers wrote:
    On 6/12/22 11:34, Paul wrote:
    On 6/12/2022 9:41 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:


    GNU GRUB - New in 2.06:
    https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.git/tree/NEWS?h=grub-2.06

    * Disable the os-prober by default.

    Ubuntu 22.04 Release Notes
    https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/jammy-jellyfish-release-notes/24668

    <quote>

    UEFI and BIOS boot

    Other operating systems are not displayed in the boot menu anymore, unless Ubuntu has been installed alongside another operating system. Once all other operating systems are removed from the machine, detection of other operating systems is disabled,
    and to re-enable if after installing another OS, you will have to delete /boot/grub/grub.cfg and immediately run update-grub again.

    <unquote>

    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+
    | MBR |  Swap  |  Ubuntu  |  LinuxMint |  Gentoo |
    +-----+--------+----------+------------+---------+

        Many Linux distributions ignore other installed OSes.  I used
    to use the multiple partition capability of UEFI to have many partitions
    and installed several distributions to the system and the GRUB lists
    almost always got messed up.  I switched to running them under Virtual
    Box and other such emulators could be used.

    bliss - brought to you by the power and ease of PCLinuxOS,
      the Perfect Computer Linux Operating  System,
        and a minor case of hypergraphia

    I got it working again.

    I used an old Boot Repair (Lubuntu-based) disc to
    re-make the menu for my hard drive.

    After that, I edited /etc/default/grub (Under Ubuntu)
    so that I could get os-prober to run.

    The os-prober is a bunch of scripts smeared around
    the place, plus "grub-mounter" which is a large
    executable that is part of the process. On one
    occasion in the past, I only had to move one file
    (/bin/os-prober) from one OS to another, to get
    multi-OS detection working. It's always possible
    the rest of the "script fleet" was already there,
    and only os-prober was missing. But it looks complicated
    enough now, you would not consider bodging all the
    bits of it by hand.

    In any case, once os-prober is re-enabled, the boot
    order is different than it used to be, with the memtest
    up too high in the menu.

    [Picture]

    https://i.postimg.cc/1XvCyPTy/Ubuntu-OS-Prober.gif

    Ubuntu seemed to be booting slower than before, and
    it was scanning for BTRFS and MDADM setups. But that was
    actually the BLKID of the swap partition having been changed
    by something I used, and that required editing /etc/fstab
    and doing this as well.

    open /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
    replace RESUME=UUID=xxx with RESUME=[the correct swap blkid!]
    issue sudo update-initramfs -u
    reboot your system

    The boot time is back to normal on the Ubuntu partition.

    Paul

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  • From Bit Twister@21:1/5 to Paul on Mon Jun 13 08:32:03 2022
    On Mon, 13 Jun 2022 09:14:05 -0400, Paul wrote:

    Ubuntu seemed to be booting slower than before, and
    it was scanning for BTRFS and MDADM setups. But that was
    actually the BLKID of the swap partition having been changed
    by something I used, and that required editing /etc/fstab
    and doing this as well.

    open /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
    replace RESUME=UUID=xxx with RESUME=[the correct swap blkid!]
    issue sudo update-initramfs -u
    reboot your system


    Yep, anytime you use a shared swap partition across different installs
    you will find that the swap UUID changes because the installer formats
    the swap partition. You either reset the original swap UUID or
    like me, use a partition label. Example:

    $ grep swap /etc/fstab
    PARTLABEL=swap swap swap defaults,nofail 0 0

    Since I do not use resume I do not have to modify grub's grub.cfg

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