OS uninstallable

[Bret Busby]

On 30/3/23 21:23, Ian Bruntlett wrote:
> Hi Bret,
> 
> I am not a GRUB 2 expert but I do have some internet links that may be 
> of interest...
> https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/classic-sysadmin-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux <https://www.linuxfoundation.org/blog/blog/classic-sysadmin-how-to-rescue-a-non-booting-grub-2-on-linux>
> 
> The latest GRUB 2 manual can be found here:
> https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html 
> <https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/grub.html>
> 
> And there is a rescue disk intended to fix GRUB problems:
> https://www.supergrubdisk.org/ <https://www.supergrubdisk.org/>
> 
> Please note, I am _not_ a GRUB expert, I just collect useful links...
> 
> HTH,
> 
> 
> Ian
> 
> -- 
> -- ACCU - Professionalism in programming - http://www.accu.org 
> <http://www.accu.org>
> -- My writing - https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/ 
> <https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/>
> -- Free Software page - 
> https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/home/free-software 
> <https://sites.google.com/site/ianbruntlett/home/free-software>
> 
> 

Thank you for the links, Ian.

I worked through the instructions on the first link, and, it went okay, 
until the
grub-install
command, which returned a set of errors, of which, I managed to capture 
a screenshot, which is stored on the desktop.

So, I figured "Okay,so I will have to go through the set of steps to get 
it to boot, each time;

grub> set root=(hd0,1)
grub> linux /vmlinuz root=/dev/sda1
grub> initrd /initrd.img
grub> boot

(as applies to the applicable partitions on this computer)
.

But, when I booted, then, performed a system upgrade (apt full-upgrade) 
then rebooted, the computer merrily booted into Linux, with not having 
found the existing MS Windows installation.

So, because that OS was Linux Mint Mate 21, I updated to 21.1, and rebooted.

That rebooted the same.

Then, because it has an nVIDIA GPU, and, the system analyser thing (the 
thing that shows as a clipboard,in the right hand corner of the panel, 
with a red exclamation mark, when it figures that something needs doing 
to the system, like installing additional drivers or language packs) 
recommended installing the nVIDIA driver, rather than the installed 
nouveau driver, I did that, then, it told me that the system needed to 
be rebooted.

So,I rebooted the computer, from within that application.

Then, upon rebooting, I got the grub menu, so, selected Linux Mint, and 
then, the system broke.

 From what I can make out of the lines of text, the first critical line is
"
[ 3.940637] Kernel panic  - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on 
unknown-block(0.0)
"

and then, about 19 lines of text, ending with

"
[ 3.940972] ---[ end Kernel panic  - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount 
root fs on unknown-block(0.0) ]---
"
..
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
(UTC+0800)
..............