Have been using a Win/ Ubuntu dual boot config for years with either OS selected at boot up. Occasionally, however, like today, I'll find Win missing from the menu or the menu won't appear at all at boot up and
goes directly into Ubuntu. This has happened a couple of times over the last five years. I used boot-repair to fix today (I don't know how I've fixed in the past), but still wonder why it seems to occur at random
like it does and would welcome your answers. Thanks in advance.
Jake M wrote:
Have been using a Win/ Ubuntu dual boot config for years with either OS
selected at boot up. Occasionally, however, like today, I'll find Win
missing from the menu or the menu won't appear at all at boot up and
goes directly into Ubuntu. This has happened a couple of times over the
last five years. I used boot-repair to fix today (I don't know how I've
fixed in the past), but still wonder why it seems to occur at random
like it does and would welcome your answers. Thanks in advance.
If I had to guess I would say maybe you don't have the os prober enabled
in grub.
Make sure the line in /etc/default/grub exist:
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
then update grub:
sudo update-grub
and reboot and see if the Windows entry is restored. I cannot remember
when Ubuntu changed the default to disabled the os-prober. I haven't
dual booted in a long time, but it is been awhile I began seeing:
"Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable
partitions.
Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.
Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry."
when updating grub on my systems. This might help explain:
<https://askubuntu.com/questions/1414245/why-do-i-get-warning-os-prober-will-not-be-executed-to-detect-other-bootable-p>
On 2/27/2024 7:17 AM, Jonathan N. Little wrote:
Jake M wrote:
Have been using a Win/ Ubuntu dual boot config for years with either OS
selected at boot up. Occasionally, however, like today, I'll find Win
missing from the menu or the menu won't appear at all at boot up and
goes directly into Ubuntu. This has happened a couple of times over the >>> last five years. I used boot-repair to fix today (I don't know how I've >>> fixed in the past), but still wonder why it seems to occur at random
like it does and would welcome your answers. Thanks in advance.
If I had to guess I would say maybe you don't have the os prober enabled
in grub.
Make sure the line in /etc/default/grub exist:
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false
then update grub:
sudo update-grub
and reboot and see if the Windows entry is restored. I cannot remember
when Ubuntu changed the default to disabled the os-prober. I haven't
dual booted in a long time, but it is been awhile I began seeing:
"Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable
partitions.
Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.
Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry."
when updating grub on my systems. This might help explain:
<https://askubuntu.com/questions/1414245/why-do-i-get-warning-os-prober-will-not-be-executed-to-detect-other-bootable-p>
You would likely want to check that the os-prober package was installed.
I've had distros before, where that was one of the steps. So that's
two things to check. If os-prober was entirely missing from a repository, that would be additional work. Sometimes, people forget to enable
"universe" and "multiverse", which contain a lot more packages
than the core ones do.
For example, this is a typical Ubuntu sequence, early on. From my notes file (so some details may have changed). This is how I arrange my coffee
so it has just the right amount of cream and sugar :-)
sudo add-apt-repository universe
sudo add-apt-repository multiverse
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install synaptic
sudo synaptic
Then you can do the equivalent of this, in the search.
apt search os-prober
os-prober/focal 1.74ubuntu2 amd64
utility to detect other OSes on a set of drives
The changes to boot could be happening on kernel updates.
The kernel update would update the boot menu, as a side effect.
There are also things you can do to /etc/default/grub, to make
a better menu experience (make the ASCII menu appear on the screen for example).
When you do the
sudo update-grub
then the response dumped in the terminal, tells you whether
your dual-boot is being picked up properly. Once you've verified
the entries you expect are there, you can test-boot. There is no
sense testing, until the output indicates a change of mood.
I believe the GRUB version may have also changed, and
that is the most likely candidate for "flicking the light
switches on and off". Normally, if you'd configured things
a certain way, they would "stick". Whereas a GRUB package update
could mess with the controls (like "all good software" must).
Paul
You would likely want to check that the os-prober package was installed.
I've had distros before, where that was one of the steps. So that's
two things to check. If os-prober was entirely missing from a repository, that would be additional work. Sometimes, people forget to enable
"universe" and "multiverse", which contain a lot more packages
than the core ones do.
And a dual-boot Windows-Linux configuration file can be
trashed by Windows kernel updates.
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