Ubuntu 13.10 Grub 2.0

Question

I know this question may have been asked hundreds of times before but there doesn't seem to be one answer to how to solve it. I upgraded my computer to Ubuntu 13.10 and my computer was low on battery, and I unplugged it from the charger and then the computer shut off. I'm guessing it got into some corrupted state because now when I boot into Ubuntu, all i see the is Grub 2 menu :

Minimal bash-like line editing is supported. For the first word, tab lists possible
command completions. Anywhere else tab lists possible device or file completions. 

grub>

I originally installed Ubuntu with the Wubi Installer so I have a dual partition, one with Windows 7 and the other with Ubuntu 13.10. What can I do to get out of the grub shell?

Solution

Did not figure out yet how to make the menu work. However, from this minimal grub, you can load an installed ubuntu; Just use the commands:

$ linux (hd0,gpt2)/boot/vmlinuz-3.11.0-12-generic.efi.signed root=/dev/sda2
$ initrd (hd0,gpt2)/boot/initrd.img-3.11.0-12-generic
$ boot

In above, use tab completion to obtain correct values. Eg, hd + tab will show you possible disks and partitions (gpt1, gpt2, ...) on the disk. As EFI will be in a first partition, your linux will normally be on a gpt2. You need the root option pointing to the name of the /dev in linux, so for the second on first hd, this normally will be /dev/sda2

The initrd loads the modules you need to talk to your hardware with linux, and boot starts the boot. Once in linux, you at least can start to try to fix the problem.

Comments

[Dan Hibbert]

Do you have any install disk/install flash drive around still? Do you have any other computers that you could use if you need to create such a thing?

[Etienne Lawlor]

I dont have any install disk around. I guess if there isn't any obvious solution, I may just considering wiping my whole drive and just installing Ubuntu. It seems that Wubi installations of Ubuntu that provide a dual boot option have never been a stable option for the long haul.

[Dan Hibbert]

I will say that WUBI can be a bit...tricky. It basically tries to but Ubuntu inside the Windows filesystem. If you actually boot the installer, it will give you an option to move the windows installation over to make some (or all if you so choose) space for Ubuntu. I would recommend you back up any files you want before going that route though, as anything in the windows filesystem could be lost if you wipe out windows. Better safe than sorry! The hard part is that if you have only one computer and no install disk it could be hard to do that (but maybe possible? I don't know for sure).

[Etienne Lawlor]

I just wish there was a little more support for these kinds of issues but I guess not too many people dual boot Ubuntu and Windows.

[Dan Hibbert]

You can dual boot without WUBI, I think probably a fair number of people dual boot, but probably most of them do it without WUBI. Do you have any other computer you can use to make an Ubuntu boot/install disk? You really need one in this case to get this straightened out.

[Etienne Lawlor]

I do have another computer, and how can I make the Ubuntu boot/install disk?