Tried to boot Ubuntu, but this shows up instead:
grub rescue>
Tried to boot Ubuntu, but this shows up instead:
grub rescue>
If you were able to boot Ubuntu in the past, but not now, follow these steps to solve the problem.
First type ls
command and Press Enter to see all the available partitions.
The entries will be shown as (hd0,msdos1) (hd0,msdos2) (hd0,msdos5)
etc.
Then type ls (hd0,msdos1)/
to see the content of the drive. if you see entries like vmliuz
or initrd
, it is your Linux partition. If you fail with (hd0,msdos1), try with (hd0,msdos2) and so on, until you recognize your Ubuntu partition.
When you correctly identify your Ubuntu partition, type root=(hdX,msdosX)
, replace the X
with correct identified number. For example, if you see vmlinuz
and initrd
entries by entering ls (hd0,msdos5)
, the command will be root=(hd0,msdos5)
.
then type configfile /boot/grub/grub.cfg
and type Enter. This will bring you Previous Ubuntu grub menu.
Then choose the entry to boot Ubuntu.
After you booted up, Open a terminal and type sudo update-grub
and press Enter. This will update the grub menu and prevent future problems.
insmod normal
. See if work, since this answer is for Grub-Legacy
I know this will sound irrelevant but after several restart attempts and before reading any posts, i decided to go to the bios in the scope of trying a restore defaults and / or change booting sequences. The problem was solved just by pressing F2 several times, including at the very moment Grub was supposed to start. I restarted a few times since then without any issues. My config is a dual booting with Ubuntu 12.04 & Windows 7
Hope it works for someone else
Disconnecting my Windows 7 drive fixed this.
set root
in Grub (which is the default behaviour in Ubuntu since at least a few years), you're doing it wrong.
Nov 13, 2016 at 19:49
For newer versions of ubuntu (16.04 ), this happens because ubuntu is trying to load in UEFI mode. But the usual install is Legacy mode, so go to BIOS->Boot Option->Select your Hard Disk and not UEFI Hard Disk.
When this happened to me it was because I swaped out a drive that I made a line in fstab for it. Swaped the drive in and resolver the problem. Then added error=continue
If you still haven't got it to work, I would recommend (and this is the absolute LAST option) a full Ubuntu reinstall. If you have a flash drive with at least 3 Gigabytes of storage space, and you have the time and means to do so, reinstall Ubuntu using the following method:
Using your Windows drive, download Rufus from here.
Download your desired Ubuntu .iso file from here.
After the .iso file is downloaded, open Rufus and plug in your USB drive. Go to Create a bootable disk using and select ISO Image. Find and select the desired .iso image and click Start. The rest is as simple as waiting for it to install and booting from the drive.