[RESOLVED] Replacing Windows 7 with Zorin on a 2 HHD system.

This concerns a 64 bit, 2 HDD dual boot laptop, with Windows 7 installed on the primary drive and Ubuntu Gnome on the secondary drive. I wish to replace Windows 7 entirely with Zorin on the primary, but still keep Ubuntu Gnome intact on the secondary. The installation message in Zorin setup says that a Windows replacement choice will entirely erase all data in all OS. Does this also include the secondary drive? Do I need to disconnect the secondary for this? And if so, will the Grub recognize the secondary when reconnected?

Thanx.

Hi, When dual-booting of any nature and additional drives are present it is always wisest to disconnect the drive you don't want altering in any way shape or form. Install Zorin to the drive you want to then shut down and reconnect the Ubuntu drive. You won't see anything other than the Zorin GRUB at first boot. After you have logged in to Zorin, open a Terminal (Menu | Utilities | Terminal or Ctrl+ Alt+ T) and enter:

Code:

sudo update-grub

It should then list all your OS's after you have entered your login password to elevate you to root.
Now reboot and you should graphically see an entry for your Ubuntu drive.

Everything worked fine until the 'sudo update-grub' command, which failed to locate the secondary drive boot. I suspect it may have been on the primary drive, which got erased when Zorin was installed. The second drive will now not even boot by changing boot priority in the CMOS setup. Fortunately Zorin does read the 2nd drive files, so I will probably have to copy all the personal files to Zorin, and reinstall Ubuntu on it. Or is there a faster, or more convenient, way to reacquire bootability of this 2nd drive OS? All the files appear intact.

Altair611 wrote:

Screenshot from 2020-07-13 19-29-34.png

Everything worked fine until the 'sudo update-grub' command, which failed to locate the secondary drive boot. I suspect it may have been on the primary drive, which got erased when Zorin was installed. The second drive will now not even boot by changing boot priority in the CMOS setup. Fortunately Zorin does read the 2nd drive files, so I will probably have to copy all the personal files to Zorin, and reinstall Ubuntu on it. Or is there a faster, or more convenient, way to reacquire bootability of this 2nd drive OS? All the files appear intact.

Could you please go back into the grub and alter to:
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
Save and exit the grub config and reboot. Check if both O.S.'s appear. If not, please hit the esc key at that point and report what happens, if anything.

In the grub.cfg this is the closest I have found to the Grub window message. Have not found any specific line 'GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT' or 'GRUB_TIMEOUT'. How do I find these?

Altair611 wrote:[/attachment]
In the grub.cfg this is the closest I have found to the Grub window message. Have not found any specific line 'GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT' or 'GRUB_TIMEOUT'. How do I find these?

In a terminal emulator, could you paste in

Code:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

What you see in your emulator should look similar to mine:

Code:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash pci=nomsi,noaer"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="initrd=/casper/initrd.lz4"


Focusing only on these two:
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0

Come to think of it... It may be that you could try
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
instead of
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
One of those options was deprecated sometime back...
On your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT Line, stick to "quiet splash nomodeset" and let's see if that works, first.

Once you have made your changes, hit ctrl+x, then select "y" to say yes to save changes. Then hit the enter key to accept the save.

Thanx. That eliminated the error message. But Grub update still is not picking up Ubuntu on the 2nd HDD.

A couple things: This is Zorin version 12.4, which iso is what I had available on a flash drive from a couple years ago.
Also, when Zorin first starts the grub, I get no choices concerning boot options, unless I hit 'escape' at the right moment, and then I can choose the 2 Linux or initrd images, but the memtests don't show up here either.

Altair611 wrote:

Screenshot from 2020-07-14 14-47-12.png

Thanx. That eliminated the error message. But Grub update still is not picking up Ubuntu on the 2nd HDD.

Ok, at that point, what happens if you hit the esc key?
Wait, no, I see that you answer this below:

Altair611 wrote:unless I hit 'escape' at the right moment, and then I can choose the 2 Linux or initrd images, but the memtests don't show up here either.

Ok, so we have established that the escape key shows it. This means that we know that the Zorin OS and Ubuntu OS are both intact and good.
Both are bootable.
So, back to using sudo nano etc/default/grub...
Change GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE to
countdown
instead of
hidden

Next, change the GRUB_TIMEOUT value to
10
instead of
0

Let's see if this makes the menu appear.

(Sorry I had other things I needed to attend to.)
I made the last 2 changes, and now the Grub looks and acts like I would expect, except that I still have to hit 'escape' at the initial Grub window to see it. Otherwise, the system boots straight to Zorin with no other choices displayed.
I need to correct something here: when I wrote that I saw 2 versions of Linux, I rather should have written 2 versions of Zorin, that is -171 and -30. I have never yet seen any reference to Ubuntu Gnome on any boot screen since I loaded Zorin and reinstalled the 2nd drive.
Again, Thanx for your help.

Altair611 wrote:(Sorry I had other things I needed to attend to.)
I made the last 2 changes, and now the Grub looks and acts like I would expect, except that I still have to hit 'escape' at the initial Grub window to see it. Otherwise, the system boots straight to Zorin with no other choices displayed.
I need to correct something here: when I wrote that I saw 2 versions of Linux, I rather should have written 2 versions of Zorin, that is -171 and -30. I have never yet seen any reference to Ubuntu Gnome on any boot screen since I loaded Zorin and reinstalled the 2nd drive.
Again, Thanx for your help.

Ok ummm... hang on...
Do you have Ubuntu and then two versions of Zorin?
Or do you have just two versions of Zorin?
Is the secondary drive not showing up at all?

I only loaded one version of Zorin (12.4) on the primary HDD, (replacing Windows 7, which was the only OS on it prior to Zorin install) but it ended up with 2 different 'ages' of Zorin being installed; all I remember are the last digits, -171 and -30. Before the Grub changes I last made, these 2 'ages' are what showed up when I hit 'escape' in the initial Zorin Grub window. Now when I hit 'escape', it shows what I would expect, memtests, etc.
Ubuntu 16.04 is what is still on the second HDD, and I just finished copying all personal files from it to Zorin. The second drive shows up in CMOS and the initial Dell boot screen, and it mounts and files are accessible from Zorin. However, the Grub has so far been unable to access it, and I have been unable to boot to it either by changing boot order in CMOS, or using F12 and selecting it in the Dell boot screen. It appears the bootability is gone.

Altair611 wrote:I only loaded one version of Zorin (12.4) on the primary HDD, (replacing Windows 7, which was the only OS on it prior to Zorin install) but it ended up with 2 different 'ages' of Zorin being installed; all I remember are the last digits, -171 and -30. Before the Grub changes I last made, these 2 'ages' are what showed up when I hit 'escape' in the initial Zorin Grub window. Now when I hit 'escape', it shows what I would expect, memtests, etc.
Ubuntu 16.04 is what is still on the second HDD, and I just finished copying all personal files from it to Zorin. The second drive shows up in CMOS and the initial Dell boot screen, and it mounts and files are accessible from Zorin. However, the Grub has so far been unable to access it, and I have been unable to boot to it either by changing boot order in CMOS, or using F12 and selecting it in the Dell boot screen. It appears the bootability is gone.

Since the drive containing Ubuntu was not connected during the installation, I cannot see how that may have affected any files on the Ubuntu Boot.
However, I wonder if the MBR is what is at fault.

I can see that that is possible. But without Windows 7 any more, I am unsure of how and where to access it. I did go thru CMOS earlier, I think I will check it again.

I tried disabling the primary HDD in the BIOS, and then the computer comes up with 'No Bootable Device Present'. I wonder if the MBR was on the primary drive and got erased when Zorin was installed? Anyway, enough for tonight. Thanx again for your help.

Altair611 wrote:I tried disabling the primary HDD in the BIOS, and then the computer comes up with 'No Bootable Device Present'. I wonder if the MBR was on the primary drive and got erased when Zorin was installed? Anyway, enough for tonight. Thanx again for your help.

The MBR is the master boot record, a partition governed by the BIOS. It is used for any installation of OS you use, whether it be Windows, Linux or Mac.
Normally, to correct a corruption, a person would use a Boot Repair Utility. I am not sure at this point if you have tried that, but it may be worth a shot.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

Have not tried this yet, have only done this in Windows systems up to this point. Can the boot repair utility be installed on Zorin and then used to (attempt to) repair the MBR on the second drive containing Ubuntu?

I was wondering if 'fsck' might help at all?:

https://www.tecmint.com/fsck-repair-fil ... -in-linux/

This has always worked for me to repair the MBR on Linux:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/

fsck just indicates the volume is clean, no errors. Since it can't be booted, can't use fsck in advanced options.

mdiemer wrote:This has always worked for me to repair the MBR on Linux:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/boot-repair-cd/

Interesting you mention that - pretty sure it is present on the live iso of Zorin 15.2!

So if I update to Zorin 15.2 I will have boot repair without needing the DVD?

I think it is present on the live iso but not present after installation (like GParted is removed after installation).

I tried the SourceForge Boot Repair startup. It was able to find the Grub/Boot info on the 2nd HDD, but could not interact with it, such as mount and possibly repair.

Thanks to all who responded, but since I was able to copy all personal data to Zorin from the non bootable drive, as well as Firefox bookmarks, etc., the quickest solution was to simply re-format and re-partition the second drive using 'gparted' from Zorin, and then reinstall Ubuntu Gnome on it. (I updated it to 18.04 LTE) And then copy back what personal files I wanted. This resulted in a Grub that has Ubuntu as the default OS, and Zorin in 5th place down the list. Not a big deal, but since I am finding I like Zorin better that Gnome (at least these versions of the OS's), I may attempt to change that at a later date.

As to what caused the original problem, (losing bootability of the 2nd HDD, even though it was removed before Zorin installation) I am not sure. I suspect the better route would have been to erase Windows 7 entirely first, by a re-format and and re-partition the primary HDD, using 'gparted' from Ubuntu on the 2nd HDD. Then perhaps the Zorin install could have been done as a side by side operation. But then, who knows?

The original specific issue can be considered resolved.

Hi, Glad you finally got sorted friend! For future ref. if we have managed to solve the issue, go back to your first post and in front of Subject enter [SOLVED] - where you have sorted it yourself [RESOLVED].