GRUB error after Ubuntu Raring desktop amd64 install

[Mattia Migliorini]

OS: Ubuntu
OS version: 13.04 (development branch), daily build (16 March 2013)
Uname: Linux ubuntu 3.8.0-12-generic #21-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 7 19:08:49 UTC 2013 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Steps to reproduce:
- Install Ubuntu 13.04 (development branch)
- Restart the computer

Expected behaviour:
GRUB loads, allowing me to choose what OS to run.

What happened instead:
GRUB reported the following error:

error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

Now I don't have any 32bit OS installed and these are my disk's partitions:
/dev/sda1 - ntfs - 16.11GiB
/dev/sda2 - ntfs - 100MiB
/dev/sda3 - ntfs - 65.81GiB
/dev/sda5 - swap - 7.45GiB
/dev/sda6 - ext4 - 29.80GiB (Older Ubuntu Raring install)
/dev/sda7 - ext4 - 46.56GiB (This Ubuntu Raring install - / )
/dev/sda8 - ext4 - 132.25GiB (This Ubuntu Raring install - /home )

[Ubuntu QA Website (ubuntuqa)]

This bug has been reported on the Ubuntu ISO testing tracker.

A list of all reports related to this bug can be found here:
http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/reports/bugs/1155993

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Scott Moore (scottbomb)]

I rebooted and got a GRUB> prompt. I had to load up a Grub Repair CD to fix Grub. Dual-booting with Windows 7 on 64-bit AMD machine.

[Mattia Migliorini (deshack)]

I obviously solved it rebooting with the liveCD of Ubuntu and executing update-grub, update-grub2 and grub-mkconfig (just to be sure, it didn't work with only update-grub), but I know what to do, other users don't.

[Mattia Migliorini (deshack)]

Ok, I did another test this evening on an image downloaded more or less yesterday at 18:30 GMT+1.
The bug, obviously, was still there and I was unable to solve it by just running grub-install, update-grub, update-grub2 and grub-mkconfig. On the other hand, Boot-Repair (running on the same live version of Ubuntu Raring) solved it.

[Adrien Béraud (aberaud)]

I have a dedicated boot partition and had this issue when installing Raring 64bits today (release day ISO). My laptop couldn't boot after installing Ubuntu. Trying to fix it with Boot-Repair as proposed by deshack.

[Rehan Khamaruddin (rsk02)]

Same issue with fresh install of release ISO (x64). I have a multiboot system (several partitions). Grub was not installed. I always install grub to the partition and selected that option during install. The third-party bootloader I am using (BootIT Baremetal) reports the partition is not bootable. Guess I'll have to try boot repair. I am a bit reluctant to dink around with this for fear of hosing the mbr.

[Rehan Khamaruddin (rsk02)]

Update:

Well, I bit the bullet and used boot-repair to try and revive the unbootable 13.04 install. I used the instructions in the Ubuntu wiki and installed boot-repair and then ran the summary first (and it saved my life). The summary showed all my Bootit partitions with full info on start and end sectors. Encouraged by the depth of info gathered, I decided to trust boot-repair and click on the "repair" button. It went off to do some more magic and then cambe back and gave me some commands to try and run in a terminal. It turns out that grub-efi was installed whereas grub-pc was required. Yes, I have a UEFI bios but am running in legacy mode because many of the installed OSes on this hdd predate the current motherboard. The commands provided ran without issue and grub was installed to sda1 (as I selected on the configuration screen). That's when things began to go south. I should have quit at the point when I saw that grub was installed correctly to the partition of my choice. Instead, I went ahead and clicked "Forward" in the boot-repair. It promptly proceeded with hosing the mbr on both my installed hdds and very thoroughly wiped the bootit partition. Luckily for me, I still had the boot summary (see above) and used that to reconstruct my bootit partition and got back all (hopefully) my other OS partitions. I need to verify of course. Just thought I would share this information for the benefit of other lost souls who might stumble upon this page.

[Tigerboy (tigersands)]

With fresh install of UbuntuStudio 13.04 downloaded on June 22, 2013- I have exactly the same problem- the DVD was checked for errors- for some reason the install is missing several critical grub files grub-install grub-mkconfig so programs like boot-repair do not work.

This was downloaded from the bittorrent route on UbuntuStudio's site. It is the released 13.04 for 13.04.

[Tigerboy (tigersands)]

Missing grub files seem to be in grub-common (for grub 2.0) and other packages related to grub 2.0- I'm installing and trying to fix this mess.

[Marcus Tomlinson (marcustomlinson)]

This release of Ubuntu is no longer receiving maintenance updates. If this is still an issue on a maintained version of Ubuntu please let us know.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for grub2 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]