I had Linux Mint as the only OS on my computer. I then replaced that with PCLinuxOS, although in the Grub Mint is still shown but cannot be loaded anymore.

Today I installed Solus. During the installation procedure it asked if \I wanted to install Solus next to Mint or replace it, PCLOS was not mentioned. I decided to install Solus next to Mint because I wanted to avoid accidentally erasing PCLOS if Solus 'mistook' PCLOS for Mint.

The installation went fine, but when I restarted only PCLOS and Mint are shown in the Grub, even though Solus is there (11 Gb). I have attached a screenshot of GParted, and Solus is the highlighted partition. The one above it, p1, is PCLOS.The Grub menu show the various Mint kernels as being in p1.

Updating Grub shows this:

update-grub

Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /boot/grub2/themes/pclinuxos/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.13-pclos1
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd-5.15.13-pclos1.img
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Found Linux Mint 19.3 Tricia (19.3) on /dev/nvme0n1p1
Found Solus (4.3) on /dev/nvme0n1p3
done

But a restart still shows the same Grub menu as before, without Solus.

Oddly, Solus is not shown in boot, and neither is Mint:
[root@localhost peter]# cd /boot
[root@localhost boot]# ls
EFI/ config@ initrd-5.15.13-pclos1.img
System.map@ config-5.15.13-pclos1 initrd.img@
System.map-5.15.13-pclos1 gfxmenu* vmlinuz@
boot.backup.sda grub2/

My questions:

  • how can I make Solus show up in the Grub?
  • how can I delete Mint from the Grub?

    I'm not sure how to make the Grub adjustments you want, so I'll leave it to others to help with that.

    All I can suggest in that regard, is perhaps trying out a program called grub-customizer. I think it's included in Ubuntu repos, so you should be able to install it with this: sudo apt install grub-customizer. Maybe it has what you're looking for?

    As far as booting Solus, have you tried booting it up via the BIOS / UEFI menu by mashing an appropriate key when powering on your PC? Solus should be available as one of the options on the boot list (as far as its name on the list goes, it gets generated by your motherboard; it won't simply be named Solus, you'll have to check / guess which entry it is).

      Junglist thanks for your feedback. I installed grub customizer, but it only lists PCLOS, even though GParted shows Solus as being present:

      The 16.78 GiB unallocated is where the Mint bit was but I deleted it with GParted. Curiously, Grub still shows Mint.

      So, I am confused about this. Grub is always tricky when using 2 or more OS'es side-by-side. Anyway, I know you cannot help me further, so I just added this info to maybe make it easier for others to determine what I need to do.

      BTW, I have not tried the Bios/Uefi+key mash because I am not sure how to do that, and in any case it sounds like a workaround, not a solution.

          There is also this:

          os-prober

          /dev/nvme0n1p3:Solus (4.3):Solus:linux
          /dev/sda1😛CLinuxOS😛CLinuxOS:linux
          [root@localhost peter]# mount /dev/nvme0n1p3
          mount: /dev/nvme0n1p3: can't find in /etc/fstab.

          GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="splash quiet noiswmd resume=UUID=8cf8799f-3f15-436e-8a88-95244ef7a9ad audit=0 vga=788"
          GRUB_DEFAULT="saved"
          GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="false"
          GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="false"
          GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU="y"
          GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="PCLinuxOS"
          GRUB_GFXMODE="1024x768x32"
          GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX="auto"
          From /etc/default/grub:

          GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="true"
          GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="gfxterm"
          GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub2/themes/pclinuxos/theme.txt"
          GRUB_TIMEOUT="5"

          Should/can Solus be added to GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR ?

          Peter-Buyze BTW, I have not tried the Bios/Uefi+key mash because I am not sure how to do that, and in any case it sounds like a workaround, not a solution.

          To access the Boot Menu during startup, you boot the computer while continually pressing a specific key, pressing the key about once per second. The key you press depends on your computer manufacturer and/or motherboard.

          A list of common keys, sorted by manufacturer and motherboard, can be found at the University of Wisconsin's DoItHelpDesk's "Booting to the Boot Menu and BIOS" article. My computers are all Dell, so F2 brings up BIOS/UEFI settings and F12 brings up the Boot Menu.

          As I see things, this is not a workaround. I dual boot, but I use dual-drive, dual-boot set up in a way that the two drives do not see each other at all during the boot process. I use the startup Boot Menu to select the operating system I am going to boot and BIOS/UEFI settings to determine boot priority. On my dual-boot Solus/Windows computer, I boot into Solus 80-90% of the time, so Linux Boot Manager (Solus) is primary and Windows Boot Manager secondary. That way, the computer automatically boots into Solus unless I intervene.

          I adopted this method after years of trouble with Windows/Solus/Grub booting, and I have never had a problem setting up different OS's on different drives and keeping the boot loaders and boot partitions completely separate from one another. This method will not work as easily, of course, if you are trying to set up several OS's on a single drive, although I understand that is is possible to set up separate boot partitions, one for each OS, and have a workable system that can boot from the Boot Menu. I've not personally tried that, though.

          The problem with Grub is that, like the Windows Boot Manager, it wants to take over the boot process entirely, and I always ended up, sooner or later, with a mess. That's why I prefer to avoid using Grub to control the boot process, and boot from the startup Boot Menu.

          Peter-Buyze My questions:
          how can I make Solus show up in the Grub?

          I've read a lot of conflicting advice about whether this is possible, and if so, how to do it. A number of the "solutions" require Solus to be booted from Legacy (BIOS/Grub) rather than UEFI/EFI, and that is not something I am willing to do. I hope that someone will come along who can give you solid, accurate advice.

                Brucehankins when I installed PCLOS I set the system settings to Legacy. I did not change that after installation. So, is it fair to assume that the system did not revert to UEFI, therefore it was still Legacy when I installed Solus?

                  tomscharbach OK, I went into the boot menu, and there are 3 items, incl. PCLOS, another called EFI, and yet something else, but no Solus. Nevertheless, I tried both on the non-PCLOS ones (i.e. 2 fresh launches): EFI gave me PCLOS too, the other one a black screen with Grub >. On this last one I did not know what to do so did a forced shutdown.

                      Peter-Buyze OK, I went into the boot menu, and there are 3 items, incl. PCLOS, another called EFI, and yet something else, but no Solus. Nevertheless, I tried both on the non-PCLOS ones (i.e. 2 fresh launches): EFI gave me PCLOS too, the other one a black screen with Grub >. On this last one I did not know what to do so did a forced shutdown.

                      This kind of thing sounds very familiar, back before I installed dual-boot on dual-drives, each independent. At this point, I don't have any good advice about how to back out of the mess. Back then, I would end up rebuilding the computer from ground up in situations like this, but I no longer try to dual-boot on a single drive (Solus is the bare metal install, and I use VM's for everything else). So I'm afraid I won't be of any help.

                      The forum has a lot of threads about dual-booting, and you might be able to get help browsing through those threads. I also see dual-boot threads on the PCLinux forum, so those might be of help as well.

                          sudo sync && sudo clr-boot-manager update- clears unused kernels but not sure you need this.

                          what's weird sticking out to me is the fat with the boot on it. the fat with the boot on it is 286Mib but of the FAT, 71MiB of the 286 is flagged for the boot. It's weird because I'm used to seeing dedicated boots partitions, and for Solus you need 512MB for the boot.
                          Were all the OS's booting from that 71?
                          (In my reckoning Mib and MB are similar so adjust the 512 accordingly).

                            tomscharbach thanks Tom. I am seriously considering starting from scratch, i.e. wipe the entire hard disk (it is not my main computer) and only install Solus at this stage.

                              brent I cannot answer your question as my Linux knowledge is too limited for that. When I bought the PC there was Win 10 on it. I immediately installed Mint, not as dual boot, but as a complete wipe. That is when I set up the various partitions as per what I had read.

                              I probably did not do it properly. Then I installed PCLOS with the wipe option, though apparently it kept boot/EFI.

                              Then I installed Solus as a dual boot, but as you can see from my posts above, Solus is on the nvme0n1p3 partition but not detected.

                              Like I said to tomscharbach, I'll probably wipe and reinstall.

                                    Peter-Buyze I'll probably wipe and reinstall.

                                    Yeah, given the state of your hard drive, that is what I would do at this point.

                                    I'd suggest a UEFI installation, because that is the modern standard. Go into the UEFI/BIOS menu and set the system to UEFI rather than Legacy and disable Secure Boot. When you install, be sure to use the "erase entire drive" installation option (that should wipe the drive and existing partitions and clean up the partition mess) rather than "install alongside" or "custom" options.

                                    When you are done installing and Solus is up and running okay, go back into your UEFI/BIOS menu and look at your boot entries. You will probably see "Linux Boot Manager" (that is how the Solus UEFI boot loader is normally identified) and a bunch of other entries (e.g. "PCLOS, another called EFI, and yet something else") that are old, unused Grub entries. If you do see the Linux Boot Manager, and if the menu permits (most do), disable/remove all boot loaders except the Linux Boot Manager. That will remove unused Grub Legacy (BIOS) boot loaders, which might help avoid problems in the future should you install a different distro.

                                    Good luck.

                                        tomscharbach I almost did what you advised but then realized that is how I had already installed Solus. But your advice to check out the boot menu gave me food for thought. The EFI showed PCLOS and what was probably Linux but did not show Solus.

                                        Then I realized the source of my problem: the PC has an SSD disk and a normal hard disk. Solus was installed on the SSD, whereas PCLOS and Mint on the HD which is stupid.

                                        So, I deleted the partition with Solus on, then reinstalled it on the SSD, but chose the option to use partitions already existing, which meant it showed the EFI (which was/is on the SSD) and would use it, and that existing stuff in the EFI would be wiped.

                                        That went fine, Solus is installed and runs well (😀). I did the software update, which was big but being a rolling release updates will be a regular feature now. 👍

                                        I still need to check if PCLOS is present on the HD; if it is I'll delete it.

                                        All that to say I managed to figure things out thanks to your input too, for which I am grateful. Many thanks. Have a nice weekend.