Live CD To Fix / Restore Grub (And Grub2) Or Force Filesystem Check: Rescatux

There are many ways Grub can get broken: installing Windows, messing around with Grub configuration files or just a faulty update. Luckily, there are also quite a few ways to restore Grub. Such a tool is Rescatux, an really easy to use Live CD that fixes the Grub in seconds.

Rescatux is a tool to recover Grub / Grub 2 that comes with a GUI so it's less "scary" for those of you who do not like the command line and can restore Grub to the MBR or update the Grub configuration with just a few clicks. Further more, the latest Rescatux version (released a few days ago) comes with an option to force a filesystem check which can help recover Grub or Grub2 when Grub cannot read the filesystem because of inconsistencies. It can Restore Grub to the MBR for most Linux distributions, however the update Grub option only works with Debian-based Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Linux Mint and so on).

To use Rescatux, simply burn it onto a CD or create a bootable USB stick, then boot the Live CD/USB and the Grub recovery window will automatically pop-up:

Then chose "grub-install" to restore the Grub and finally run "update-grub", then restart your computer:

If for some reason Rescatux doesn't work, you can try to do this manually: How To Recover GRUB2 [Linux]

Rescatux is supposed to work with both Grub (legacy) and Grub2, however please note that I've only tested it with Grub2 (it worked just fine for me - I broke the Grub for a virtual machine and then used Rescatux to fix it).

Download Rescatux (a single ISO for both 32bit and 64bit - 595 mb)


See also: Grub Customizer (can also fix Grub2)

[via Tux Planet.fr]

How To Boot An ISO With GRUB2 (The Easy Way!)

If you want to try out a new Linux distro, be it the latest Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal daily ISO or any other (I've only tested it with Ubuntu though!) and don't want to burn a CD each time you want to try a new daily build (and you don't have an USB memory stick around), you can use a cool GRUB 2 feature that lets you boot a live CD ISO directly from your hard disk. You can also use this method to boot varous utilities such as Super Grub Disk, SystemRescueCD, Parted Magic and so on.

Usually, setting up GRUB 2 to boot an ISO can be quite a difficult process (well, not that difficult but for some reason it always failed for me) but you can do this with just a few clicks thanks to Unetbootin. This info is actually available on the Unetbootin website but I somehow missed it - until now (thanks to Usemos Linux).

I've recorded a video showing the Unetbootin Grub2 menu entry and then booting the latest Ubuntu 11.04 daily ISO using this method, however the video is very bad in quality (my cam sucks) so I didn't embed it into this post, but you can watch it @ YouTube if you want.

Install Unetbootin and set everything up for booting an ISO using Grub2

Warning: remember, when messing with Grub (or any application that modifies it), there are things that might go wrong so use this at your own risk and if you know how to fix it in case things go wrong.

1. Install Unetbootin:

In Ubuntu, simply run the following command to install it:

sudo apt-get install unetbootin

If you're not using Ubuntu and Unetbootin is not in your distro official repositories, download it from HERE.

Important: like Scirocco points out in a comment, there are issues with some Unetbootin versions which not only fail to work when trying to boot an ISO from the hard disk, but will also fail when you try to create a bootable USB. I've used Unetbootin 494 from GetDeb and everything worked fine so I suggest you use the same version. So if you're getting an error like this: "disk image not found. need to load kernel first", it's because of the Unetbootin version you're using.

2. Using Unetbootin to create a new Grub2 entry to boot the ISO:

In Unetbootin, select the "Diskimage" option, then browse for an ISO and under "Type" select "Hard Disk" and leave "/" for the "Drive", then click OK:

Once Unetbootin finishes, restart your computer and select "Unetbootin" in the GRUB2 menu. If the Grub2 menu doesn't show up, press and hold the SHIFT key.

Because Unetbootin extracts the ISO, you'll have to run it again when you want to boot a new ISO, even if it has the same name and is placed in the same location as the old one.

Removing the ISO from GRUB2 menu

The next time you'll launch Unetbootin, it will ask you the following: "Unetbootin is currently installed. Remove the existing version?" - this isn't about removing Unetbootin but about removing the Grub2 menu entry for Unetbootin (and the ISO). Select "OK" and the ISO will be removed from the menu.

Update: if using Unetbootin doesn't work for you, you can try the manual instructions Dan Sonny Radu posted in a comment below - it's not as easy as using Unetbootin though.

Update 2: reader payet07 mentioned in a comment below that this works with Burg too. "But with some themes (i.e gnome) no icons appears. You just have to change for another theme at boot (i.e ubuntu2) to see see it right". However, he used the manual method for settings this up.

Many thanks to Usemos Linux for the heads up!

Grub Customizer 2.0 Can Change The Default Grub2 Boot Entry, Menu Colors, Background Image And Lots More

With the release of version 2.0, Grub Customizer becomes the most complete GRUB 2 graphical configuration tool.

Grub Customizer - a new graphical GRUB 2 and BURG settings manager -, 2.0 has been released today with a lot of enhancements: you can now select the default boot entry, change the menu visibility and timeout, set kernel parameters, disable recovery entries and change screen resolution (GFX_MODE) - all by using Grub Customizer.

(Grub Customizer 2.0 - Appearance preferences)

Besides the above new features, Grub Customizer 2.0 also brings some GRUB 2 only specific settings (they don't work for BURG) like changing the menu colors or background image. Please note that these appearance options worked for me in Ubuntu 10.04 but did not work in Ubuntu 10.10 - however this might happen because I've messed a lot with the GRUB 2 configuration (including running the script for fixing the Plymouth).

(GRUB 2 with new colors)

Install Grub Customizer in Ubuntu:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Once installed, you can find it under Applications > System Tools > Grub Customizer.

For other Linux distributions: download Grub Customizer @ Launchpad (you'll have to get it through BZR).

For a similar BURG only tool, see Burg Manager.

BURG Manager 1.0 Released With Option To Boot ISO From BURG, New Themes, More

Burg Manager is an application to easily install Burg (along with the default Burg themes and a Burg emulator) and change most of the Burg settings such as the timeout, download and install new themes, remove Burg and restore Grub 2, set the default operating system and many advanced options.

Burg Manager 1.0 has been released today, the major highlights of this release being an option to add an ISO to the BURG menu (and thus boot an ISO - however this doesn't seem to work right now -> see the comments), an option to restore BURG into MBR after a Kernel upgrade and an option to remove old kernels and its menu entries.

Other changes in BURG Manager 1.0 include new themes, option to reset all settings to their default values, a live updated and notificator and bug fixes. Unfortunately the GUI remains a bit unpolished and is almost unusable on a netbook.

(New themes in BURG Manager 1.0)

Download Burg Manager 1.0

To be able to install Burg Manager 1.0, you'll have to remove any previous version along with configuration files using the following commands:

sudo apt-get purge burg-manager
sudo rm -rf ~/.burg-manager
sudo rm -rf /root/.burg-manager

Then you'll have to download and install BUC. And finally you'll be able to download Burg Manager 1.0 from its author blog and install it.

For a complete how-to on using Burg Manager, see our Install And Configure Burg In Ubuntu With Burg Manager post.

Update November 13: both the BURG Manager and BUC servers seem the be very slow or don't work at all so I've uploaded BURG 1.0 and BUC to some file hosting websites until the BURG Manager / BUC servers issue is fixed:

BUC (you only have to download BURG Manager from one of the links below, I've only added multiple links in case some don't work for you):

• 32bit: Link 1 | Alternate link 2 | Alternate link 3
• 64bit: Link 1 | Alternate link 2 | Alternate link 3

BURG Manager (you only have to download BURG Manager from one of the links below, I've only added multiple links in case some don't work for you):

• 32bit: Link 1 | Alternate link 2 | Alternate link 3
• 64bit: Link 1 | Alternate link 2 | Alternate link 3

Image in the beginning of the post: Dark Shine BURG theme @ Deviantart (included in BURG Manager).

Install And Configure Burg In Ubuntu With Burg Manager

(Burg menu)

Burg (Brand New Universal Bootloader) is a boot loader based on Grub which supports themes so you can choose the OS you want to boot based on its icon in the menu list (it supports a lot of Linux distributions, Windows, Mac OSX).

Burg Manager is an application to easily install Burg (along with the default Burg themes and a Burg emulator) and change most of the Burg settings such as the timeout, download and install new themes, remove Burg and restore Grub 2, set the default operating system and many advanced options. Burg works in both Ubuntu and Kubuntu (I've tested it in both) and most probably other *ubuntu flavors too.

(Burg Manager)

Install Burg Manager

1. To install Burg Manager (even though it hasn't been updated, it works in Ubuntu 10.10 too) in Ubuntu, firstly download and install BUC (it comes with .deb files).

2. Then download and install Burg Manager - you can find Ubuntu 32bit and 64bit download links in THIS post from the Burg Manager author's blog.

Using Burg Manager

Firstly, you must install Burg. To do this, open Burg Manager (Applications > System Tools > Burg Manager) and from its interface, select "Burg install" (from the first tab, called "Burg-installer") to start installing Burg.

When installing Burg for the first time (this doesn't show up if you remove and install Burg again unless you purge everything), you should see a screen like this:

Here, you must press SPACE to select the HDD to install Burg to (an "*" must be displayed next to the HDD where you have installed Ubuntu - like in the above screenshot), then TAB and ENTER. If you do not press SPACE, Burg will not run when you restart your computer.

Then use Burg Manager to change everything to suit your needs (change the default OS, install new themes or tweak some advanced parameters or just preview some Burg themes) and then restart your computer.

Some setting can be changed directly from the Burg menu - press F2 to change the theme, F3 to change the resolution or F1 to see all the available options.

Note: I've only tested Burg Manager in VirtualBox - with Ubuntu and Kubuntu (that's why there are 2 Ubuntu icons in the screenshot below), as I do not dual boot. Here's a Burg screenshot from my computer:

Thanks to saurabhneo23 for the Burg Manager tip; credits for the first image in the post: Ubuntu Radiance for Burg

Grub Customizer 1.5 Released With Grub 2 Recovery Feature

Grub Customizer is a new graphical GRUB2 settings manager which we've told you about last week.

Immediately after we published the Grub Customizer article, a new version was released which added BURG support so if you've read that article as soon as we've posted it, you might have missed this feature.

Grub Customizer 1.5 which has been released today comes with a cool new feature: Grub recovery & configuration using a live CD:

All the file systems you need will be mounted after choosing the root partition and some sub partitions.

Version 1.5 also comes with a Grub install functionality and a new icon.

To install Grub Customizer 1.5, use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Once installed, you can find it under Applications > System Tools > Grub Customizer.

Note: I did not test the latest Grub Customizer features as I don't need to recover Grub (fortunately).

If you prefer the command line way of fixing GRUB 2, see: How To Recover GRUB2.

Grub Customizer Lets You Reorder, Add Or Remove GRUB 2 (Or BURG) Menu Entries

Grub Customizer is a new graphical GRUB2 settings manager. For now, it only allows you to edit the GRUB2 menu entries: reorder, rename or add/remove entries. Since these are actually scripts which generate the boot.cfg file, Grub Customizer changes the actual script order and then generates a new boot.cfg so if you then run "sudo update-grub", your customization won't be overwritten.

Even though these are very basic operations, such a tool is very welcome since most GRUB 2 options lack a GUI for easy tweaking.

Further more, Daniel Richter, the Grub Customizer developer plans to add more features in the future, like GRUB 2 recovery functionality for Live CDs or configuring the /etc/default/grub preferences.

Grub Customizer comes with an Ubuntu PPA (the first packages have been uploaded only a few minutes ago) so to install it in Ubuntu (Lucid and Maverick), use the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer

Once installed, you can find it under Applications > System Tools > Grub Customizer.

To download the source code or report a bug, see the Grub Customizer project page @ Launchpad.

Update: Grub Customizer (stating with version 1.1) now supports BURG too!

For another GUI tool for managing GRUB 2 (but with a different set of options), see StartUp Manager.

How To Reboot In Windows From Ubuntu (GRUB 2)

If you're dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows, you can use a simple command (or create a menu shortcut for it) to easily restart in Windows from Ubuntu. This should actually work with any Grub entry, not just Windows (so if you using multiple Linux distributions, it will work with that too).

Note: this will only work with GRUB 2.

This command will not change the GRUB menu entries order. When GRUB starts, the first entry in the menu list is highlighted - this command will highlight the menu entry you set and will boot it if you don't select a different option (so the GRUB menu will still be displayed if you've set a GRUB timeout higher than 0).

1. Edit /etc/default/grub:

sudo gedit /etc/default/grub

and modify the "GRUB_DEFAULT=0" value (it should be on line 4) from "0" to "saved" (without the quotes) so that it looks like this:

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved

Then save the file.

2. Update GRUB:

sudo update-grub

3. Now to reboot Ubuntu in Windows or some other OS, run the following command:

sudo grub-reboot X

where X is the menuentry position (starting with 0 as the first entry) of the OS you want to restart in from the GRUB menu. So if Windows is the 4th option in the GRUB menu, you would run "sudo grub-reboot 3". You can also use the exact menu entry instead of the menuentry position (like "Windows 7 (on /dev/sda1)") but entering just a number should be easier to remember. The grub-reboot will set the default boot entry for the next boot only.

Then simply restart your computer and it should boot in Windows or whatever GRUB menuentry choice you've entered for the above command.

4. (optional) For easy access, you can make a script which automatically makes your computer restart in predefined OS:

#!/bin/bash
gksu grub-reboot X
gksu reboot

Again change "X" for the GRUB menuentry number you want to boot in (counting from 0) and make a shortcut for this script on your panel for example.

Fix Symbol 'grub_puts' Not Found When Migrating From Ubuntu Karmic To Lucid

Alexandre from jellykernel sent us a tip he wrote on his blog (in French) about an "Fix symbol 'grub_puts' not found" error when migrating from Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala to Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, so we'll translate it into English so it hopefully helps a lot of people.

To fix the "Fix symbol 'grub_puts' not found" error, you'll need a live Ubuntu CD. Boot from the CD, open a terminal and type:

sudo fdisk -l

You should see a list of your hard drives, and their partitions. Find the root partition (the one where your Ubuntu is installed). For example: /dev/sda1

Note: it's /dev/sdaX (where X is a number), not just /dev/sda (of course, on your computer it could be /dev/sdbX and so on).

Now must run the following command:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Where /dev/sda1 is the root partition which like I told you, it can be /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2, /dev/sdc1 and so on, depending on your system.


Then run the following commands:

sudo mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
sudo mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
sudo mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
sudo chroot /mnt

Now check if Grub2 is installed:

apt-get install grub-pc

Then create a config file:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

And finally:

grub-install /dev/sda

Then reboot. If you're still having some issue, run update-grub:

sudo update-grub

Special thanks to jellykernel for sending us the tip!

Boot ISO Files From Your USB Stick Using GRUB2

You can already create an ISO with multiple Linux distributions using MultiCD but if you want to use GRUB 2 on your USB memory stick, rrw has a really nice how-to for doing this.


Using his how-to, you can of course boot multiple ISO files like with MultiCD. Read all about it HERE.

BURG Radiance Theme For Ubuntu

If you're using Burg and want a persistent look through all the boot - desktop process, you will be glad to know there is now a new BURG theme which matches the new "light" Radiance Ubuntu 10.04 theme:

The BURG theme can be downloaded via Gnome-Look.

How To Recover GRUB2 [Linux]

Starting with Ubuntu Karmic, Grub2 is used (for clean installs for now), so THIS how-to on recovering the GRUB no longer works for the new GRUB2.

But recovering GRUB2 (after breaking the GRUB2 or installing Windows - which breaks GRUB2, etc.) is just as easy. Here is what you need to do

Note: This tutorial should work for any Linux distribution which uses GRUB2, not just Ubuntu.

You need a live CD of Ubuntu Karmic (Lucid will work too - or any other Linux distribution which uses Grub2) from which you need to boot. Once you boot to the LIVE CD, open a terminal an and type these commands:

a) Firstly, you need to find out on which partition your Linux system is installed:

sudo fdisk -l

(in my case, it's "sda1")

b) Now, we must mount this partition:

sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

Where "sda1" is the partition where you installed Ubuntu (or any other Linux distro). It could be "sda5", "sda6", etc. for you.

c) Install grub to the partition you've mounted:

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt/ /dev/sda

Important: Please notice that it's "/dev/sda", not "/dev/sda1". "sda" is the hard disk on which your Linux distribution is installed!

d) Restart your computer. As previous Grub2 entries are removed, run the following command to restore them:

sudo update-grub

Here is all the process (without step "d)" which takes place after restart) in a single screenshot:

And a final note: I have tested this in VirtualBox by breaking my GRUB2 and then mounting a Live Ubuntu CD and it all went very smooth.

[via mundogeek]

Message from Testking: No matter you want to get ccna or ccnp certification, we provide up to date resources to help you become networking expert in easy and fast way. Download the ccie questions to practice and pass real exam on first try guaranteed.

Customizing GRUB2 [ Ubuntu / Linux ]

GRUB 2 is a new boot loader which comes with Ubuntu Karmic Koala. GRUB 2 is in charge of showing the menu that allows you to choose the operating system or Kernel version when your computer starts.

Changing GRUB2 Splash Image

The Ubuntu repositories already include a set of background images for GRUB 2; the package is called grub2-splashimages. To install it, simply open a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install grub2-splashimages

The installation script will copy a series of images adapted to work for GRUB2, into /usr/share/images/grub

Copy the images to /boot/grub, that way if someone has an installation with a separate /boot with an encrypted file system for / , they can still use the images. (GRUB can't 'see' inside an encrypted file system):

sudo cp /usr/share/images/grub/*.tga /boot/grub/

The GRUB 2 splash images are controlled by /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme. Open this file for editing:

gksudo gedit /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

Find the following line and edit the highlighted area, replacing it with the grub splash image you wish to use (and located in /usr/share/images/grub):

for i in {/boot/grub,/usr/share/images/grub}/moreblue-orbit-grub.{png,tga} ; do

Here are the available images:

Now run this to update GRUB2:

sudo update-grub2

You can use any other image for the GRUB2 slash image. Simply open any image with GIMP, change it's size to 640x480 and save it in .tga format.

Changing GRUB2 font

To modify the grub menu font colors, you need to edit the same file you edited to set your GRUB2 menu background:

gksu gedit  /etc/grub.d/05_debian_theme

Scroll down (it should be around lines 33 to 43) and find this section of the file:

if background_image (hd0,2)/usr/share/images/grub/Windbuchencom.tga ; then
set color_normal=black/black
set color_highlight=magenta/black
else
set menu_color_normal=cyan/blue
set menu_color_highlight=white/blue
fi

You may change the colors you see here highlighted in yellow. If you're displaying a splash image (background), you will probably want to leave 'black' for your second normal color. In GRUB2, 'black' really means transparent. If you try to set any color here, that color will hide most of your background, (splash image).

Note: the first color is the foreground and the second color is the background.


Colors we can choose from include, black (or transparent), dark-gray, light-gray, white, brown, yellow, red, light-red, blue, light-blue, green, light-green, cyan, light-cyan, magenta, light-magenta.

After you are done, run this:

sudo update-grub2

NOTICE: If you do not edit the GRUB files correctly, your system will stop booting so be careful, make backups, etc!

Credits / further reference:

-I can't take a GRUB screenshot (I don't have Karmic installed in VirtualBox, but I use it on my main PC for some time now) so the image in the beginning of the post is from MacUntu user @ubuntuforums.org
-Grub2SplashImages
-Mundo Geek
-Grub 2 Guide thread @ubuntuforums.org
-You can also theme GRUB2 but I'll not get into that in this post. For more info, see THIS.

Message from Testking: Download the latest 350-030 practice questions to fasten your success in 70-642 exam. Join our N10-004 training program to get guaranteed success in real exam.