{"id":5068,"date":"2023-06-20T12:43:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-20T12:43:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/?p=5068"},"modified":"2025-09-26T17:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T12:14:15","slug":"use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The default bootloader for systems based on the Linux kernel is the GRUB (How to Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure?), a tool for booting and loading operating system kernels. Regular users hardly ever see GRUB in use, despite the fact that it starts up immediately when a computer is turned on. It runs automatically and doesn&#8217;t need any input from the user.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, if you try to boot another operating system at the same time as Linux on the same machine, the bootloader of the other system can overwrite GRUB, making it impossible for Linux to start<\/p>\n<p>This article will demonstrate <span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>How to Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure?<\/strong> <\/span>and the Boot Repair programmer to resolve a <a href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/how-to-build-linux-kernel-from-scratch\/\">Linux boot<\/a> problem.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>An account with sudo privileges.<\/li>\n<li>Access to the command line.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_74 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#GRUB_Boot_Problems\" >GRUB Boot Problems<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#Rescue_Commands_for_GRUB\" >Rescue Commands for GRUB<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#Repairing_Boot_Error\" >Repairing Boot Error<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#1_Thru_Grub_Terminal\" >1: Thru Grub Terminal<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#2_Via_Live_picture\" >2: Via Live picture<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#3_GRUB_configuration_file_update\" >3: GRUB configuration file update<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#4_GRUB_Reinstallation\" >4: GRUB Reinstallation<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/use-grub-rescue-to-fix-linux-boot-failure\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"GRUB_Boot_Problems\"><\/span><strong>GRUB Boot Problems<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The most frequent cause of GRUB failing to boot into the operating system is that the bootloader of another OS has overwritten the GRUB boot configuration. When trying to dual boot with an existing Linux installation, the issue arises. The unintentional deletion of GRUB configuration files is another factor.<\/p>\n<p>The GRUB Rescue prompt comes if GRUB is unable to boot the machine.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;no such partition&#8221; error is displayed by GRUB in the aforementioned case before the grub rescue question appears. &#8220;Unknown filesystem,&#8221; followed by the same query, is a typical GRUB error.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grub-boot-problems.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-14077\" title=\"grub boot problems\" src=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grub-boot-problems-300x157.jpg\" alt=\"grub boot problems\" width=\"728\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grub-boot-problems-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grub-boot-problems-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grub-boot-problems-768x402.jpg 768w, https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/grub-boot-problems.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 728px) 100vw, 728px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, the screen might just display the grub prompt.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Rescue_Commands_for_GRUB\"><\/span><strong>Rescue Commands for GRUB<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>How to Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure? The list of frequently used GRUB Rescue commands is shown below. Use the commands listed in the preceding section&#8217;s prompts.<\/p>\n<table width=\"681\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>Command<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\"><strong>Description<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>Example<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>boot<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Start booting (shortcuts:\u00a0<strong>F10<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>CTRL<\/strong>\u00a0+\u00a0<strong>x<\/strong>).<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\">The command is issued without arguments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>cat<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Write the contents of a file to standard output.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>cat (hd0,1)\/boot\/grub\/grub.cfg<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>configfile<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Load a configuration file.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>configfile (hd0,1)\/boot\/grub\/grub.cfg<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>initrd<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Load the initrd.img file.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>initrd (hd0,1)\/initrd.img<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>insmod<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Load a module.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>insmod (hd0,1)\/boot\/grub\/normal.mod<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>loopback<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Mount an image file as a device.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>loopback loop0 (hd0,1)\/iso\/image.iso<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>ls<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Display the contents of a directory or partition.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>ls (hd0,1)<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>lsmod<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Display a list of loaded modules.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\">The command is issued without arguments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>normal<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Activate the normal module.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\">The command is issued without arguments.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>search<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Search for devices. Option\u00a0<strong>&#8211;file<\/strong>\u00a0searches for files,\u00a0<strong>&#8211;label<\/strong>\u00a0searches for labels,\u00a0<strong>&#8211;fs-uuid<\/strong>\u00a0searches for filesystem UUID.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>search -file [filename]<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"131\"><strong>set<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"286\">Set an environment variable. If issued with no arguments, the command prints the list of all environment variables and their values.<\/td>\n<td width=\"264\"><strong>set [variable-name]=[value]<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Repairing_Boot_Error\"><\/span><strong>Repairing Boot Error<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The <strong>GRUB Rescue prompt<\/strong> and the Boot Repair tool are the two methods covered in this tutorial for fixing GRUB boot problems.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Thru_Grub_Terminal\"><\/span><strong>1: Thru Grub Terminal<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><u>1: To display the environment variables, use the set command without any arguments:<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>set<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>According to the example output, GRUB is configured to start from the (hd0, msdos3) partition:<\/u><\/p>\n<p><u>2: The ls programme displays a list of the disk&#8217;s accessible partitions.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>ls<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The partition list appears in the output.<\/p>\n<p>To locate the partition holding the boot directory, use the ls command.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>the partition named ls<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The (hd0, msdos1) partition&#8217;s boot directory is displayed in the example.<\/p>\n<p><u>3: Change the root variable&#8217;s value to the boot partition. The illustration employs the division titled (hd0, msdos1).<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>place root= (hd0, msdos1)<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>4: Launch the standard boot mode.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>insmod default<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>5: Launch the standard boot mode.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>normal<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can provide more intricate commands in the usual mode.<\/p>\n<p><u>6: Use the Linux command to load the Linux kernel.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>root=\/dev\/sda1 ro Linux \/boot\/vmlinuz-4.2.0-16-generic<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>7: Execute the command boot.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>boot<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Now, the computer boots correctly.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Via_Live_picture\"><\/span><strong>2: Via Live picture<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Using a Linux live image to boot from an external device is another option to resolve your GRUB boot problems.<\/p>\n<p><u>1: Get a live Linux installation first. The ISO image of Ubuntu 20.04 is used in this example.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LFj_yqk6AUI\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><u>2: Write the Linux image to an SD card or USB flash drive using a programme like Etcher.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><u>3: Start the computer after inserting the bootable media.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><u>4: Choose On the welcome screen, try Ubuntu.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><u>5: Establish an internet connection when the live system starts up.<\/u><\/p>\n<p><u>6: To add the repository for the Boot Repair programme, open a terminal and enter the following command.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>Adding the ppa: Yannubuntu\/boot-repair repository with sudo<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>Once the repository has been added, hit Enter.<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>7: Repository updates.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>apt update with sudo<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>8: Set up the Boot Repair programme.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>install boot-repair with sudo apt<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>9: Use the terminal to launch the Boot Repair tool.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>boot-repair<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>10: Choose the suggested repair.<\/u><\/p>\n<p>Await the tool&#8217;s completion of bootloader repair.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_GRUB_configuration_file_update\"><\/span><strong>3: GRUB configuration file update<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>How to Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure? Check the GRUB configuration after the system has successfully booted up.<\/p>\n<p><u>Execute this command:<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>update-grub<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_GRUB_Reinstallation\"><\/span><strong>4: GRUB Reinstallation<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>To reinstall GRUB on your Linux machine, adhere to the methods listed below.<\/p>\n<p><u>1: Mount the OS installation partition. The \/mnt directory is where the \/dev\/sda1 partition is mounted in the example.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>mount \/dev\/sda1 \/mnt with sudo<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>2: Connect the respective directories in the \/mnt folder to the \/dev, \/dev\/pts, \/proc, and<\/u> <u>\/sys directories.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>sudo mount --bind \/dev \/mnt\/dev &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo mount --bind \/dev\/pts \/mnt\/dev\/pts &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo mount --bind \/proc \/mnt\/proc &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo mount --bind \/sys \/mnt\/sys<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>3: Setup GRUB.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>grub-install -root-directory=\/mnt\/dev\/sda sudo<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><u>4: Following a successful installation, unmount the folders.<\/u><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><code>sudo umount \/mnt\/sys &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo umount \/mnt\/proc &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo umount \/mnt\/dev\/pts &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo umount \/mnt\/dev &amp;&amp;<\/code><\/li>\n<li><code>sudo umount \/mnt<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span><strong>Conclusion<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>After reading this article, you ought to be able How to <strong>Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure<\/strong>? or Boot Repair tools to resolve your <strong>Linux boot issue<\/strong>. Read How to Use fsck Command for another method to resolve your boot-related problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The default bootloader for systems based on the Linux kernel is the GRUB (How to Use Grub Rescue to Fix Linux Boot Failure?), a tool for booting and loading operating system kernels. Regular users hardly ever see GRUB in use, despite the fact that it starts up immediately when a computer is turned on. It [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6020,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"table_tags":[],"class_list":["post-5068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5068"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14078,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5068\/revisions\/14078"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5068"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arzhost.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=5068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}