Grub2 problem - can only boot to 2 of 3 OS's

[jim]

On 5/29/20 11:28 AM, Liam Proven wrote:
> On Fri, 29 May 2020 at 16:31, jim <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> I haven't done this in a while and did not think it would cause any
>> problems.
> 
> 
> Out of order disks partitions are a bad thing, but probably not fatal.
> Not ideal, though.
> 
>> I'm not sure the installation "asked me", but when I partitioned I chose
>> /. Frankly I was sort of on autopilot, I made the choices I remember
>> making other times.
> 
> That is a _very_ bad mindset when you're trying to set up
> triple-boot... but I think you may have worked that out by now.
> 
> As Colin said, I think you should confine your experiments to VMs for
> an easier life.

As I mentioned to Colin in another reply, it is not an experiment, it is 
a strategy. Without getting into the debate of which is better upgrade 
or fresh install, I have been installing the new version along side of 
the old one and then slowly getting the new one setup while still being 
productive in the old one. Long ago I had a problem similar to this 
one, I'm not sure exactly how it was resolved, but I think in that case 
the grub-update solved the problem.

>> I tried this from both sda1 - Ubuntu 18.4 and sda3 - Mint18.3 and got
>> this result both times:
> 
> Oh dear gods, don't do it for ALL of them! :-o
> 
> As I said: leave your main, primary OS in control of the MBR. You have
> not said which that is. If there isn't an obvious candidate, then pick
> one and stick to it.

I'm not sure what you mean by "main, primary OS". Since Ubuntu16.04 did 
not work well for me I have been spending most of my time in Mint18.3, 
but I don't think that is what you mean. I don't reboot often but as I 
recall I had to cursor down to Mint18.3, so I guess grub was on 
Ubuntu18.04 (upgraded from 16.04).

> Then put the _others_ in their respective root partitions.
> 
> FFS don't try to put _all_ of them in their root partitions or nothing
> will be in control and it might not boot.

Really not my intention, one did not work so I tried the other.

>> This error puzzles me because using the Disks utility all of them are
>> reported as Ext4(Version 1.0).
> 
> Ext4 is the latest version of ext3 which is the latest version of
> ext2. Don't worry about it.
> 
> Use --force to over-ride the error. But ONLY in the non-main OSes. *DO
> NOT DO THIS FOR ALL OF THEM!*
> 
>> Doing this still donsn't work. I can see where it says it detects
>> Mint18.3 but it never shows up in the grub menu. My goal is to boot to
>> Mint18.3 that is my main OS, the move to Mint19.3 was to be gradual as I
>> moved stuff over to it.
> 
> Why not just upgrade 18.3 to 19.3?
> 
> Seems much easier. Then you can remove the separate 19.3 install.

See my reasoning above.

> Mint 20 will be coming soon... Each major release is based on the
> then-current Ubuntu LTS. Mint 19.x is based on Ubuntu 18.04. Mint 20
> will be based on Ubuntu 20.04 .
> 

I'm in no hurry to adopt the latest releases. Mint19.x had something 
that was not in Mint18.3 and I couldn't find an easy way to get it.

two more questions:

1) In searching for a solution I see Boot-repair recommended. Have you 
used it and is it a good option?

2) Right now Mint19.3 means nothing to me. Would removing it solve my 
problem or maybe create more?

Thanks for your help

Jim