Grub hell. Can I just delete the EFI partition and reinstall ubuntu?
by Rotwang2 from LinuxQuestions.org on (#4Z2SV)
What happens if I just delete the EFI partition and reinstall ubuntu?
I'm having problems reinstalling ubuntu and it has something to do with either grub or EFI or both. So can I just delete that partition and will the installer make a new one?
Here's the story:
I was having problems with python/django so out of frustration I decided to just reinstall ubuntu entirely.
My /home directory was on the same partition as /.
So before the reinstall I used gparted and resized the partition and made room for 100g for the new install.
When I installed (18.04), In the installer I set the mount point for what *was* the old ubuntu as /home, and use the new empty partition as /
I installed, when I rebooted it threw errors and dropped to cli. So I figured grub was trying to point at the /boot on the old install partition. (why didn't the installer tell grub to point to the new / partition? why would it tell grub to point to the /home/boot?)
So I figured, I'll just hide every directory in what *was* the old install into a directory called (oldboot) so the installer can't even find a boot directory, and then I deleted the 100g partition and then I reinstalled 18.04 again.
Now what happens is I get the emergency mode cli. (not the same prompt as before (and btw neither one is a grub prompt). This was was the "You are in emergency mode press Ctrl-D to login" prompt)
So what's happening? Is this grub's fault? Maybe grub still hung up on something remnant? Or maybe it's looking at the EFI?
How do I tell the installer to just delete grub entirely and reinstall it, instead of editing the current one?
I don't understand what the installer and/or grub is doing to make it try to even look in the /home directory at all.
How does this happen? This makes no sense.
So what if I just delete the efi parition and try reinstalling again?
I'm having problems reinstalling ubuntu and it has something to do with either grub or EFI or both. So can I just delete that partition and will the installer make a new one?
Here's the story:
I was having problems with python/django so out of frustration I decided to just reinstall ubuntu entirely.
My /home directory was on the same partition as /.
So before the reinstall I used gparted and resized the partition and made room for 100g for the new install.
When I installed (18.04), In the installer I set the mount point for what *was* the old ubuntu as /home, and use the new empty partition as /
I installed, when I rebooted it threw errors and dropped to cli. So I figured grub was trying to point at the /boot on the old install partition. (why didn't the installer tell grub to point to the new / partition? why would it tell grub to point to the /home/boot?)
So I figured, I'll just hide every directory in what *was* the old install into a directory called (oldboot) so the installer can't even find a boot directory, and then I deleted the 100g partition and then I reinstalled 18.04 again.
Now what happens is I get the emergency mode cli. (not the same prompt as before (and btw neither one is a grub prompt). This was was the "You are in emergency mode press Ctrl-D to login" prompt)
So what's happening? Is this grub's fault? Maybe grub still hung up on something remnant? Or maybe it's looking at the EFI?
How do I tell the installer to just delete grub entirely and reinstall it, instead of editing the current one?
I don't understand what the installer and/or grub is doing to make it try to even look in the /home directory at all.
How does this happen? This makes no sense.
So what if I just delete the efi parition and try reinstalling again?