Am stuck. I have 3 HD’s, one big one for data. A smaller one (250GB) for a spare system. A larger one (500GB) for my main OS. Two days ago I went onto the backup system to check it was working since hadn’t opened in more than a year. It is Debian because my computer programmer son uses it so I thought why not, it doesn’t need to update much so good for a backup. But on updating after a year, the var file was too small to accept the update for some reason so I couldn’t update. So I decided to have Manjaro be the backup and managed to install it by erasing that 250 GB (sda) disk and putting in a btrfs system. Now I think I made a small mistake: I told it to use the sda for booting whereas my main OS is on sdc. Anyway, I installed and then on rebooting it goes to the sdc boot screen which used to show the Debian just fine, and then still did and didn’t see the new system. So by a process of elimination learned to go into the boot menu, hit C and then it would bypass all the grups and go to the new system on sda.
Then I compounded the error. I installed (side by side) a new Nobara OS based on Fedora because the reviewer said it took care of so many installation problems etc. and I thought maybe the grub thing would repair itself magically with a second install. That went fine - and I must say their graphics after doing the Nvidia scripts are decidedly better than what I usually see in Manjaro with the nvidia installed so that is interesting I guess - but the same problem with booting up: it goes to the origina boot-up screen, still showing Debian, but now an EMERGENCY problem:
Now I cannot boot up the old system. No matter how many fallback images or saved snapshots. Except one time it worked and Timeshift prompted me to do a restore which I did after which I’ve never got back into my main Manjaro OS. At one point I did a restore from the new Manjaro so now the boot up screen has changed to include both Manjaros but not the Nobara, but they don’t work, I have to go out of those screens and then hit C or exit or whatever and I get there in the end to the new systems, a screen offers me either NObara or Manjaro on the sda drive and here I am.
I tried the chroot things from searching for solutions but none of them work. OR: I am unable to follow the instructions with lots of strange letters as examples that I guess I don’t know what they mean.
I would like to be able to restore my main OS and will happily delete everything on the new drive to start over but I cannot figure out how to do it, and cannot access my main OS.
[sudo] password for ash:
Model: ATA CT240BX500SSD1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 240GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 115GB 115GB primary btrfs
3 115GB 116GB 1074MB primary ext4 boot
4 116GB 231GB 114GB primary btrfs
2 231GB 240GB 9449MB primary linux-swap(v1) swap
Model: ATA ST2000LM015-2E81 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 1064GB 1064GB ext4 2TBData
2 1064GB 2000GB 936GB ext4 STBBU1
Model: ATA SAMSUNG MZMTE512 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 9437kB 8389kB
4 9437kB 316MB 306MB fat32 boot, esp
2 316MB 8704MB 8389MB linux-swap(v1) swap
3 8704MB 512GB 503GB btrfs
I notice that the partition table on sda - where I am now on the new backup OS Manjaro Gnome - is MSDOS, whereas the partition table in sdc (my main OS = Manjaro Gnome) is gpt which is what I wanted for this new OS on the smaller 240 GB HD (sda). Maybe that has nothing to do with it. Anyway…
If I cannot mix MBR and GPT disks, does this mean I need to erase all the new installations and start over? Why did the installer install a btrfs system on non GPT disk?
But mainly: how can I go and rescue my system on the sdc disk? Yes, it’s Manjaro and nothing else, with all the Timeshift backups sitting there but I cannot use them apparently.
This is over my pay grade. But thank you. I am going to scrub this new hard-drive and not install anything else. Then I will not be able to use any OS at all except on a flash drive. Hopefully there is a way to restore my main system via Timeshare or repairing the grub menu or some such but first I will get rid of this new hard drive and both OS’s on it - which work, but are seemingly part of the problem with my main OS that I can no longer acess via the grub menu. The menu displays, but all options I choose do not boot up any more.
I deleted the new OS’s in the backup SSD which is now empty and GPT.
But the bootup menu for my default OS, which still comes up every time, still yields no joy. None of the options results in a bootup. So now I am on a live iso unable to access my installed OS and not yet knowing how to repair the grub file - or whatever it is - so that it can boot up again properly.
sudo manjaro-chroot -a sdc ✔
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
==> ERROR: No Linux partitions detected!
~ sudo manjaro-chroot -a sdc4 255 ✘ 6s
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
==> ERROR: No Linux partitions detected!
sudo manjaro-chroot -a 255 ✘ 6s
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
==> ERROR: No Linux partitions detected!
I tried that first, also before I came to forum. Unable to use chroot.
Very frustrating. All those timeshift images are there. But cannot use them. I think I’m going to give up soon trying to back up OS’s or trying to configure themes I like etc. since every time there is a crisis, I can’t do anything except re-install all over again. Also frustrating because entire system was working great for so long that I never even booted into my backup OS but when I tried to install a new one yesterday, I lost the original one on a different HD. It’s still there, but I cannot use it.
I think I’ll be deleting it soon and starting all over with a fresh OS but none of the themes etc. I like and much too complicated to try to reconstitute it.
And was checking out the installation menu and if I want to re-install it, it will not only erase everything but also not give me the option to use a Swap file, it will erase that too for some reason. The whole installation business is a pain and so dangerous for other OS’s etc. Very frustrating!!!
ok i see from sdc :
1 1049kB 9437kB 8389kB this is a bios-grub (8Mo) partition
==> reboot on USB MBR ( active CSM only)
==> put on sdc1 flag bios-grub ( boot & esp will be removed from 4 , as you cant get full UEFI and disks )
with Gparted & flag options
then
==> recheck return