Ubuntu Budgie not in Grub

#1

I have two drives on my notebook: a HD with Windows on it and a SSD with Ubuntu Budgie.

Dual boot was working perfectly until I came up with the idea to install Zorin OS on the Hard Drive. Since Zorin and Budgie are both Ubuntu-based, I reckoned I would end up with the three OS-choices in the Grub menu.

Unfortunately, this was not the case and I have now only two options in my Grub menu: Zorin and Windows, which are both on the HD. And Ubuntu Budgie is gone from Grub.

What would be the easiest way to get Budgie back? Do I have to run the installer again, and if so, is there anything else I can mess up during setup?

#2

Are you certain that you hadn’t overwritten Ubuntu during installation of Zorin?
My best guess would be to run sudo update-grub or maybe checking your boot folder in root to make sure you have the kernel that you need in there.

#3

I am positive that I haven’t overwritten the partition, since the file system is still on the SSD. Update grub didn’t work, since Zorin is on the HD, and Budgie on the SSD.

#4

@fossfreedom , @Coeur-Noir , any take on this guys? :slight_smile:

#5

You could try updating grub from the terminal . I have no experience with a triple boot, but do use the grub customizer on my dual boot. sudo update grub

#6

I have tried this. But to no avail. I guess it is because I am not the partition.

#7

Being that you are working from Zorin rather than Ubuntu you might have to ask on their forums. Boot repair solutions from Ubuntu Forums or Ask Ubuntu may be applicable , but I can’t be sure. There is Ubuntu Debian based sub forum @ UF.

#8

Any UEFI involved ? Or is your bios in legacy-boot/non-uefi mode ?

What’s the output of

lsblk -fe7 -o +size

( you need a large enough window for the terminal, before issuing that command )

I noticed latest « *buntu » installers always create a boot partition even if not really needed.

Have you tried any boot-info / boot-repair ? Just try to report a boot-info before trying any boot-repair.

When installing Zorin, did you manually chose discs and partitions, and set the boot utility on the correct disc ?

Or maybe your bios boot sequence looks for the HDD first ? Do you see grub at start or windows boot loader ?

I know, many questions…

#9

@Coeur-Noir Hi, sorry for the late answer. And thanks for offering your professional help and insights .

(Un)fortunately, and as usual, my impatience got the best of me and I went ahead already the day before yesterday and installed a fresh version of linux.

I’ve got a hold of a relatively new (?)version of Arch called Hefftor Linux, available here. Its main desktop is XFCE, but they also offer a Budgie desktop that I haven’t found the time to check out. The first impressions, though, are terrific. Very polished, smooth and slick. The distro is also very rich in configuration options, that I didn’t know XFCE even had.

For some time I have been wanting to try a linux different from Ubuntu and been interested in Arch, so the problems with my installation offered a good opportunity to try something new.

I hope the people here in this forum are not too mad at me for a little bit of unfaithfulness, but I believe trying out new thing offers insights into what other developer teams are up to and how distros design their products. And I will definitely check out the Budgie desktop. :slight_smile:

Is this team here also involved in Budgie for other distros?

#10

Our efforts are mainly directed towards UB develpments and areas of the budgie-desktop that we proposed to upstream Solus. So yes - our efforts benefits other distros that package budgie.

1 Like
#11

Are all Budgie desktops identical, or do developers of other distros make changes?

#12

I’m doubtful all distro’s will have the same exact version - it depends on the distro what version and what additional patches they have on-top of a version.

So it could be a distro will strictly stick the the upstream version. So if you want a fix you have to wait for upstream to release a new version.

For UB - we have a version + patches - and that will change during the cycle. At release we deem “stable” - but we still add “stablility and critical” patches during that release lifetime. I don’t know how other distros manage things but I get the impression Arch is a “version only” based system + a patch to make it work against the next GNOME release.

#13

Arch based Manjaro Budgie is very close to Solus except for theming, and package management.

#14

I’m using both Ubuntu and Manjaro and both Gnome and Budgie (on both distros). So I’m switching between these 4 different setups all the time. I’m also launching wayland once in a while, so that makes 6 (only with Gnome).

My main concern with Budgie on Manjaro is that the Pixel Saver applet is not updated to work like the guys here do it. It’s not maintained either here but at least it’s shipped and it works on UB. But in Manjaro it’s really ugly. I’m using Unite on Gnome, and I was using Unity before. So this has been part of my workflow for 10 years, so if I don’t have it I feel limited.

Now, regarding the issue at hand. It’s sad that @ruwe got impatient. One of the greatest things about Linux is that you can almost always recover an install. Via recovery/fallback, chroot, or via a handy tool that would have gotten all your root partitions (and Windows) to boot.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Make a bootable USB out of it, boot on the USB, and the boot repair thingie just starts automatically when reaching the DE. I played a lot with dual boot (Ubuntu/Manjaro) in the last year on 3 different computers and it has gotten me out of desperate Grub situations several times.
There’s also update-grub, update-initramfs, make-grubconfig and mkinitcpio that can help you rebuild a lost/broken/missing-another-distro-image grub, depending on your distro.

Also, I bought a new laptop lately. And I’m just venting here, but I just copied the partition from the previous 2.5" SATA SSD to the new M.2 NVMe SSD and booted as if there was never a computer change. No new install needed. It might not be the cleanest but it just works. And if it didn’t, I knew boot repair was the backup plan.

That’s how amazing Linux is. You can easily avoid to reinstall most of the time. I might still have an install that went through 3 computers and 3 different drives and it runs as if it was freshly installed.

Grub is touchy, because distros work differently, but there’s always a way.
Even on EFI bootable Live USB, depending on the distro, sometimes, you just copy the content to the drive, and sometimes you need to burn the ISO. IT’s a matter of trial and errors, but eventually you don’t lose or mess anything.

#15

Joe Collins (Ezzy Linux) advised me against doing a Dual Boot, not even on separate Drives… at least not with Windows10. Hope this wasn’t your main PC or only PC. I would suggest buying an old laptop on E-Bay ($100-$200) for testing other Distros. As for me… I’m sticking to Budgie. It seems to work just fine… and it looks great too.