Cannot boot back to 18.04.06 from 22.04

dear Tony,

normally Ubuntu installs only that version of Ubuntu;
you can choose to create a dual-boot version of Ubuntu-and-an-Other-OS

If you choose all default actions,then all you old data will be removed.

The option to "retain previous version" saves your old data, but does NOT create a dual boot version of Ubuntu-18 and Ubuntu-22

Knowing now that THAT was your wish, you actually had to install the new Ubuntu (22.04) on new (empty) partitions, not using the old partitions.

Sadly, too late to correct now.

It is worth trying this way of working:
* download Ubuntu-18.04 amd64 version (this can be done running the 22.04 version)
* create a bootable USB containing the 18.04 version ( do NOT copy the file to the USB, but use /usr/bin/usb-creator-gtk )
* boot using this USB, then you are running in 18.04

Now you can try to save a backup from the directories containing the settings of mythtv.

Do you think you can manage this, or do you need more hints?

Hello Wim

Thanks for your suggestoions.
I believe I did install Ubuntu 22.04 on to a new empty partition sdc5 and GRUB shows the menu option Ubuntu 18.04.6 /dev/sda1 in the boot menu which when selected returns the error "you have to load the hernal first".

Here is the config as reported by boot-repair

sda1:
__________________________________________________________________________

     File system: ext4
     Boot sector type: -
     Boot sector info:
     Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS
     Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /etc/default/grub
                        /boot/grub/i386-pc/core.img

and

sdc5:
__________________________________________________________________________

     File system: ext4
     Boot sector type: -
     Boot sector info:
     Operating System: Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
     Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /etc/default/grub

I have put the entire boot report on pastebin here: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/TFJMfwQBBS/

With your expertise you migh be able to tell if I can recover the ability to boot back to 18.04.06 or not as my knowledge of the boot structure of Ubuntu is not good although I have tried tpo read up on the process. The articles on GRUB and long and complex as it is designed to fit so many different scenarios and my machine has 3 separate disks and about 8 partitions. I believe the installation of ubuntu 22.04 created 3 new onces sdc 3-5.

it reports: -
================================ 2 OS detected =================================

OS#1: The OS now in use - Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS on sdc5
OS#2: Ubuntu 18.04.6 LTS on sda1

Tony,

first i am going to try to understand the state of your system a bit more.

( .1. investigate 22.04 )
Please just boot-up your system (is goiing to 22.04 i assume).

Log in. Open a Terminal Window, and copy-paste the 2 text-lines below in the Terminal; please do this line-by-line and confirm with the <Enter>-key on your keyboard.

  echo etc/fstab ; cat /etc/fstab ; ls -l /etc/fstab

  echo mount ; mount -lnv | grep ev/sd

Now select ALL text in that Terminal Window and copy-paste it here in your reply.
After this you can close the Terminal by
either entering the command
  exit
(followed by the <Enter>-key
or by clicking the close-cross in the upper right corner of the Terminal-Window.

( .2. booting-grub )

Reboot the PC. After the BIOS-boot, please press both SHIFT-keys
until GRUB comes up and gives you the choice:
* Ubuntu GNU Linux
* Advanced options for Ubuntu (sometimes Recovery-options for Ubuntu)

Select the Advanced-Options line an press the <Enter>-key

Now you can select out 4 lines (or more) ; the first 2 probably 5.15.xxx and 5.15.xxx-recovery (these are 22.04)
The next 2 lines describe an older kernel; select the Recovery-line (so probably yhe 4th line on your screen)

Can you describe here what is happening after selecting this line ?!?

Hello Wim

Here is the output you asked for.

anthony@MediaCentre:~$ echo etc/fstab ; cat /etc/fstab ; ls -l /etc/fstab
etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdc5 during installation
UUID=8970f231-441b-4b59-b822-7a05b187e502 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sdc2 during installation
UUID=937E-9470 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0
-rw-rw-r-- 1 root root 665 janv. 21 19:58 /etc/fstab
anthony@MediaCentre:~$ echo mount ; mount -lnv | grep ev/sd
mount
/dev/sdc5 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdc5 on /var/snap/firefox/common/host-hunspell type ext4 (ro,noexec,noatime,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sdc2 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
anthony@MediaCentre:~$ ^C
anthony@MediaCentre:~$

I'm not sure if you were able to review the report I put in paste bin or perhaps it did not have the information your needed.

I was able to boot into 19.04.06 using a USB drive made bootable with 18.04.06 and I could see the old environment exactly as it was and all the apps worked perfectly. I was able to load and run mythtv and set and execute records of content. I was locked out for weeks so no streaming was possible in our house. It will take a while to get all this working again in 22.04 so it would be good to be able to boot back from Grub to keep things working until I can duplicate in the new version.

I don't understand how the installation program can fail so completely to provide a boot menu that does not at all work.

I will report on the other elements shortly.

Many Thanks

Anthony

On 26/02/2024 20:00, Wim wrote:
> Your question #709231 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Wim requested more information:
> Tony,
>
> first i am going to try to understand the state of your system a bit
> more.
>
> ( .1. investigate 22.04 )
> Please just boot-up your system (is goiing to 22.04 i assume).
>
> Log in. Open a Terminal Window, and copy-paste the 2 text-lines below in
> the Terminal; please do this line-by-line and confirm with the
> <Enter>-key on your keyboard.
>
> echo etc/fstab ; cat /etc/fstab ; ls -l /etc/fstab
>
> echo mount ; mount -lnv | grep ev/sd
>
>
> Now select ALL text in that Terminal Window and copy-paste it here in your reply.
> After this you can close the Terminal by
> either entering the command
> exit
> (followed by the <Enter>-key
> or by clicking the close-cross in the upper right corner of the Terminal-Window.
>
>
> ( .2. booting-grub )
>
> Reboot the PC. After the BIOS-boot, please press both SHIFT-keys
> until GRUB comes up and gives you the choice:
> * Ubuntu GNU Linux
> * Advanced options for Ubuntu (sometimes Recovery-options for Ubuntu)
>
> Select the Advanced-Options line an press the <Enter>-key
>
> Now you can select out 4 lines (or more) ; the first 2 probably 5.15.xxx and 5.15.xxx-recovery (these are 22.04)
> The next 2 lines describe an older kernel; select the Recovery-line (so probably yhe 4th line on your screen)
>
> Can you describe here what is happening after selecting this line ?!?
>

Hello Wim

Following these instructions - " Reboot the PC. After the BIOS-boot, please press both SHIFT-keys
until GRUB comes up and gives you the choice:
* Ubuntu GNU Linux
* Advanced options for Ubuntu (sometimes Recovery-options for Ubuntu)

Select the Advanced-Options line an press the <Enter>-key"

This brought up four options as follows:
1. Ubuntu 6.5.0-21
2. Ununtu 6.5.0-21 (recovery mode)
3. Ubuntu 6.5.0-15
4. Ubuntu 6.5.0-15 (recovery mode)

Choosing option 4 as instructed takes you to the recovery menu and choosing boot to ubuntu takes you 22.04 with 600 x 800 resolution.

However if using normal boot to GRUB without the shift key I get six option on choosing 18.04.06 recovery mode provides 6 options as follows:

1. Ubuntu 4.15.0-213
2. Ubuntu 4.15.0-213 (recovery mode)
3. Ubuntu 4.15.0.210
4. Ubuntu 4.15.0-210 (recovery mode)
5. Ubuntu 3.16.0.77
6. Ubuntu 3.16.0.77 (recovery mode)

All options when chosen return the error reported - "you have to load the Kernal first."

As advised I can boot into 18.04.06 via the thumb drive for that version so that environment it is all still there but all menu items on Grub except for default fail with the same message.

Kind Regards

Anthony

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> <email address hidden> On Behalf Of Wim
Sent: 26 February 2024 20:01
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #709231]: Cannot boot back to 18.04.06 from 22.04

Your question #709231 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231

    Status: Open => Needs information

Wim requested more information:
Tony,

first i am going to try to understand the state of your system a bit more.

( .1. investigate 22.04 )
Please just boot-up your system (is goiing to 22.04 i assume).

Log in. Open a Terminal Window, and copy-paste the 2 text-lines below in the Terminal; please do this line-by-line and confirm with the <Enter>-key on your keyboard.

  echo etc/fstab ; cat /etc/fstab ; ls -l /etc/fstab

  echo mount ; mount -lnv | grep ev/sd

Now select ALL text in that Terminal Window and copy-paste it here in your reply.
After this you can close the Terminal by either entering the command
  exit
(followed by the <Enter>-key
or by clicking the close-cross in the upper right corner of the Terminal-Window.

( .2. booting-grub )

Reboot the PC. After the BIOS-boot, please press both SHIFT-keys
until GRUB comes up and gives you the choice:
* Ubuntu GNU Linux
* Advanced options for Ubuntu (sometimes Recovery-options for Ubuntu)

Select the Advanced-Options line an press the <Enter>-key

Now you can select out 4 lines (or more) ; the first 2 probably 5.15.xxx and 5.15.xxx-recovery (these are 22.04)
The next 2 lines describe an older kernel; select the Recovery-line (so probably yhe 4th line on your screen)

Can you describe here what is happening after selecting this line ?!?

--
To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
this email or enter your reply at the following page:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231

You received this question notification because you asked the question.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Hello

As requested by WIM I provided more information but I have since heard nothing and still do not understand why I can boot from GRUB or how to recover from similar GRUB failures?

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> <email address hidden> On Behalf Of Launchpad Janitor
Sent: 14 March 2024 10:06
To: <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #709231]: Cannot boot back to 18.04.06 from 22.04

Your question #709231 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231

    Status: Open => Expired

Launchpad Janitor expired the question:
This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

--
If you're still having this problem, you can reopen your question either by replying to this email or by going to the following page and entering more information about your problem:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231

You received this question notification because you asked the question.

I suggest that you boot into any Ubuntu system and run the bootinfo script (maybe needs to be installed first) and then paste all output into this question document.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Needs information' state without activity for the last 15 days.

Hello

I never received any email notice of this additional request 15th March concerning the boot info script which I will run when I am back home in a few days.

I have already put the entire boot report on pastebin here: https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/TFJMfwQBBS/

What output do you receive for the following action:

Boot into Ubuntu 22.04, open a terminal window and issue the command

sudo update-grub

Sorry I have been in Hospital and will be away from my installation for a few weeks. I was waiting for awhile for assistance but the channel went dead. I'll get back to it when I can. Thank for your response.

Sent from Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/AAb9ysg>
________________________________
From: <email address hidden> <email address hidden> on behalf of Manfred Hampl <email address hidden>
Sent: Friday, April 12, 2024 7:47:18 PM
To: <email address hidden> <email address hidden>
Subject: Re: [Question #709231]: Cannot boot back to 18.04.06 from 22.04

Your question #709231 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231

    Status: Open => Needs information

Manfred Hampl requested more information:
What output do you receive for the following action:

Boot into Ubuntu 22.04, open a terminal window and issue the command

sudo update-grub

--
To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
this email or enter your reply at the following page:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/709231

You received this question notification because you asked the question.

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.