Multi boot system but no Grub Menu

**dragonfly41** · 2 Weeks Ago

This is what I see when I bootup Dell Inspiron using F2. A few minutes ago.
Left panel:
Settings
|
General
- System Information
- Boot Sequence

Right Panel (see below)

Boot sequences

☑ rEFInd Boot Manager
☐ Windows Boot Manager
☐ Ubuntu-SATA-HD
☑ ubuntu
☑ ubuntu
☑ USB1
☑ USB2

rEFInd boot manager
ubuntu
ubuntu
USB1
USB2

The lower case “ubuntu's” are in fact Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04. Windows appears with two versions of Ubuntu in one GUI. Simples.
To find the appropriate boot loader you click on “Add Boot Option” although the long names are dificult to decipher - so some trial and error.
Finally
Boot List Options

☐ Legacy
☑ UEFI

Your BIOS might differ from Dell Inspiron.

Take note that rEFInd should be a top of boot options. I have other USB expanders seen in list.

**SUPERFITTER** · 2 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by 1fallen

That Picture is way to small for my aging eyes

Do you have a boot priority with F12 when immediately booting up? (Spam your F12 when it first begins to restart)

EDIT I did see First Boot device is a USB drive, not what we want though.

I changed boot order to SSD first.

**dragonfly41** · 2 Weeks Ago

Did you see rEFInd as top boot option?

**SUPERFITTER** · 2 Weeks Ago

I never got rEFInd to install.

Would it be faster to just reinstall Mint and Zorin. They were just fresh installs that I must have just messed up on after I tried to get the Boot Menu?

**dragonfly41** · 2 Weeks Ago

Reinstall rEFInd from LiveUSB. ReInstall REFInd into one of your SSD's EFI partition. I presume you have set boot flags in EFI partition which is why I suggested GParted to inspect. And you have ignored request to show BIOS (other than a difficult to read photo).

**1fallen** · 2 Weeks Ago

My rEFInd thumb drive shows as

Code:

Boot0002* EFI USB Device (SanDisk Cruzer U)	UsbWwid(781,55a5,0,20053954100F1DB33DE)/HD(1,GPT,eb0ef56a-4816-4dd1-9067-dfd783891989,0x800,0x301f)RC

EDIT OR

Code:

 sudo blkid | grep /dev/sdc1
/dev/sdc1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL_FATBOOT="ElTorito" LABEL="ElTorito" UUID="BF5A-E479" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="eb0ef56a-4816-4dd1-9067-dfd783891989"

**SUPERFITTER** · 2 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by dragonfly41

Reinstall rEFInd from LiveUSB. ReInstall REFInd into one of your SSD's EFI partition. I presume you have set boot flags in EFI partition which is why I suggested GParted to inspect. And you have ignored request to show BIOS (other than a difficult to read photo).

REFInd will not boot, times out and reboots Ubuntu.

**1fallen** · 2 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by SUPERFITTER

REFInd will not boot, times out and reboots Ubuntu.

Then something is amuck, I had asked you a while back>>>Is the Thumb drive formatted as Fat32?
With no clear answer....

**ajgreeny** · 2 Weeks Ago

Originally Posted by 1fallen

OP has said a few times now It boots straight to Ubuntu, But you know how that goes.

As we know, or at least I think we can say that we know with some certainty that the machine now just boots to Ubuntu each time, I wonder if it is worth running the command from the Ubuntu terminal to make sure that grub is managed by the Ubuntu OS and not some other currently unknown OS.

Code:

sudo grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi \    --bootloader-id=ubuntu --recheck --no-floppy

After doing that /etc/default/grub could be edited again to ensure that the important lines are correct to get grub show every time if he wants it, ie

Code:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=2
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=false
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Xubuntu-22-04"  # My own edit to show the real OS, not just another Ubuntu listed.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false  # or true if you prefer.