Cannot boot if USB drive with grub install is removed

Newbie1

I have a old dell computer with I believe the old bios no uefi.
I have Linux mint installed on the hard drive
I created today a full install of Solus on a usb flash drive.
When i boot from the flash drive it gives me option to choose Solus or mint to boot.

Either options boot perfect into the chosen OS.

But when I remove the flash drive and boot from my computer I get grub rescue or something like that on the screen.

I believe I destroyed my grub loader to boot from computer by itself.

The only way to boot the hard drive is to use the newly created flash drive which then give me the option to boot from hard drive (mint) or Solus.

How do I fix this problem so I can boot my computer via hard drive and not have to use the flash drive.

I am a newbie to this.
Help!

alfisya

The boot order might get scrambled after you boot from flash drive. Make sure that in the BIOS, it prioritizes your hard drive over other medium. Go to your BIOS settings and set your hard drive as the first one in the priority order.

BuzzPCSOS

When installing Solus it will often choose the largest or fastest drive to put your boot information onto.
When you install make a special check at the sanity screen before you click start install that the boot information is not being written to your USB boot media.
Back up any personal files you have on the Solus install to an external drive and then reinstall Solus making a special note of where boot information is being written to. Rather than wipe the Solus install just choose to overwrite the Solus data partition.
There is probably a much more technical way to change this but on a fresh install this is probably the easiest.

Newbie1

When I press f12 during boot I see Hard Drive only option at the top without the flash drive.

It goes to grub rescue so I must have screwed up the grub when I created the full installed on the flash drive.

I remember before I press install
It said it was going to put boot to Ada
So I assume the Hard Drive was where the boot info was being installed and not on the flash drive sac.
>!!<
Sdb was the live usb

BuzzPCSOS

Newbie1 That sounds about right for the scenario that I outlined above. You will likely find that trying to use the Solus install media on another computer will cause errors because you have written the boot information for your Dell machine onto the USB drive which is why you need it to be inserted for the machine to start now.
When installing, it is easy to miss the section that tells you where your boot menu will be written. Proof of the pudding is to try your boot media on another PC.
A simple way to avoid this, providing you have a DVD drive. Would be to install something like xfburn (in the repository) write your Solus iso to a DVD then boot and install from that as there will then be no option to write boot information to a USB drive.

Newbie1

thanks, i will do a Solus full install on a new usb in the future with a DVD.
But right now i would like to fix my computer i guess grub so i can just boot up to the Mint OS on the internal HD.
i use the boot repair tool when i was in Mint OS booted up via flash drive by picking Mint rather than Solus.

i put the screen shot when boot repair finihed as shown.
it then ask if i want create a url of the results of the scan to show you for help.
i screen shot that as shown also.

can you explain what it is saying?

BuzzPCSOS

Newbie1 Computers use two different boot methods. Older computers on Linux have a BIOS and need GRUB to control the boot process. Newer machines can boot using UEFI which generally is a better choice if available (more or less).
It looks like the boot repair software you used was a UEFI program so could not do what you wanted.
Try this software which should do the job. There are lots of options so you might need to go through some of the tutorials to see what is best for your setup.

Newbie1

yes i definitely don't have uefi but Grub.
it make perfect sense the boot repair is 64 bit new version.
i may actually have a old 32 bit boot repair somewhere, but probaly have to down load a old version from the net.
i will read up on your page to try to fix my problem.

Newbie1

Fast question, just finished reading Rescatux page.
Since my computer is older than 2020 which Rescatux 0.73 is Apr. 2020
Should i use Rescatux 0.30.2 Nov. 2012 instead?

BuzzPCSOS

Newbie1 Quick hint, when replying to someone use the Reply button that appears when you hover your mouse over their message. That way they will get a notification that you have asked a question.
OK, on with the problem. The latest version (0.74) should be fine to use, it still deals with GRUB and is very similar to the older versions but with some improvements. ~~There is also a SuperGrub2 Disk program selection table to make things clearer that is another option and makes makes some sensible recommendations.~~ EDIT this entry was to access a broken boot system not to repair it.
Lots of information on that site and also when you use the boot disc. The answer is (almost) always there but a degree of knowledge about what you are doing makes the whole thing much easier on the nerves. If possible it is always a good idea to back up any critical files you have onto separate storage just in case.

Newbie1

BuzzPCSOS

Before I got your reply.
I used .3

It failed.
I took photos of the screen and want to show you but when I use the upload button here it comes back with oops try again.
Can you tell me how I can get my pictures here to show you what happen?

The previous screenshots was easy because I was in mint OS and took screenshots there.

On the rescux live cd I don’t know how to do it so I just use my phone to take pictures of my computer.

BuzzPCSOS

Newbie1 The upload command may be dependant on where your picture is stored on the PC, try moving it to your Downloads folder and then try again from there.
As an expansion of the instructions from @stekte you will need to type sudo update-grub and then enter your password to do this. I hope this works for you.

Newbie1 I used .3
It failed.

Failed to do what? Failed to boot? Failed to fix it? There are so many choices here that I don't know where to start.
Start by downloading this version of rescatux which should be version V0.74. The website is a little confusing and links keep taking you away from the software that you need. The link I have provided is the same as the one provided on the rescatux website but it takes a bit of finding.

At some point we might also have to look at how you are setting up your USB media. There is a software called Ventoy that allows you to simply copy the iso directly to the USB without rewriting the whole thing each time. Multiple isos can be copied on to the drive allowing a choice of OS's at boot tiime.

stekte

From the terminal as root the command
update-grub
should rewrite the mbr. If your solus usb is inserted that command will read the /boot directory from usb and will include solus in the new menu (os-prober must be installed for this to work).

Newbie1

BuzzPCSOS

i used Rescatux 0.74 Grub repair and it fix the problem.
i think it wrote the USB grub onto the HD. because i see the Solus logo next to my user name.
Regardless i can boot from HD without plugging in the USB into my Mint OS on the HD.
But a new problem happens.
When i plug the USB in , it does not let me choose Solus to boot.
It just goes into Mint OS from the HD.

Newbie1

BuzzPCSOS

By the way i did take a picture on my cell phone before i did a full Solus install on the USB.
As shown.
I guess i should have choose sdd for the install and i would not have the problem i had?

Newbie1

BuzzPCSOS

i may have too soon.
i have been using my computer boot up from HD without the USB but it just crash and the screen goes black and the cursor don"t work.

This may happen maybe 10 mins of use then it just goes black and hangup.
i power off reboot no problem use the computer and then evntually maybe half a hour of use it goes black again.

it did it 3 times so definitley something wrong.

i went into systems and screenshot crashes .
Hopefully you can explain to me what it say.

BuzzPCSOS

Newbie1 When i plug the USB in , it does not let me choose Solus to boot.
It just goes into Mint OS from the HD.

During the first install of Solus your boot information got written to your USB. The easiest fix here is to back up any important files you have on the USB and then wipe it, then reinstall the boot media program from scratch.

Newbie1 I guess i should have choose sdd for the install and i would not have the problem i had?

Yes. That would have helped you a lot.

Newbie1 i have been using my computer boot up from HD without the USB but it just crash and the screen goes black and the cursor don"t work.

Could you please post the results of running inxi -b in the terminal. The output can be saved as text so no screenshot is required.

Newbie1

i meant i may have spoken too soon saying my problem was fixed

Newbie1

BuzzPCSOS

Hi,
i decided to just do a fresh install of Solus OS onto my HD.
This also fix my boot loader problem . I then use a older version of full install Mint on a flash drive that was properly created for booting.
The Mint work perfectly booting up and running from flash drive.

But i still have a problem with Solus having the screen going black after awhile of inactivity.
if i press the power button it comes back.

i try to fix it with the settting by having screen never going off but after awhile when i come back to laptop it is black screen.

i ran your inxi -b command but d'ont know how to save to text so just copy everything from terminal here.
unknown@unknown-solus ~ $ script
Script started, output log file is 'typescript'.
unknown@unknown-solus ~ $ inxi -b
System:
Host: unknown-solus Kernel: 6.12.12-313.current arch: x86_64 bits: 64
Desktop: Budgie v: 10.9.2 Distro: Solus 4.7 endurance
Machine:
Type: Portable System: Dell product: Inspiron 1121 v: A01
serial: <superuser required>
Mobo: Dell model: 0K039P v: A01 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Dell
v: A01 date: 11/15/2010
Battery:
ID-1: BAT1 charge: 9.5 Wh (100.0%) condition: 9.5/56.0 Wh (16.9%)
CPU:
Info: dual core Intel Core i3 U 330 [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 1197
min/max: 666/1199
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel
Device-2: Syntek Integrated Webcam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.16 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.6 driver:
gpu: i915 resolution: 1366x768_60Hz
API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 2.1 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.3.4
renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics (ILK)
Info: Tools: api: eglinfo,glxinfo x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Network:
Device-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR8132 Fast Ethernet driver: atl1c
Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 [Kilmer Peak]
driver: iwlwifi
Device-3: Dell Gobi 2000 Wireless Modem (QDL mode) driver: qcserial
type: USB
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 232.89 GiB used: 9.24 GiB (4.0%)
Info:
Memory: total: 4 GiB note: est. available: 3.63 GiB used: 2.16 GiB (59.5%)
Processes: 234 Uptime: 1h 14m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.37
unknown@unknown-solus ~ $

BuzzPCSOS

Newbie1 Unfortunately Solus Budgie is not what I run so I am less likely to be useful for this issue. It is well worth a look round the forum though, I think there was an issue with not being able to prevent Automatic Suspend on Budgie that was discussed a short while back.
Looking at your specs, I noticed that your battery is pretty much worn out which could contribute to unreliable performance and random shutdowns.

Edit: This was the one I was thinking of, unresolved so far but worth knowing that someone else has a similar problem.

stocc

@Newbie1 it looks as though your computer is going into automatic suspend after a period of inactivity. Have you tried disabling that?