linux – Virtualbox and the disappearance of /boot/grub

Question:

There is Windows 7 + Virtualbox and Ubuntu Desktop 14 installed. Snapshots from Vbox are occasionally created. Ubuntu is constantly updating the system, and at some point on the next boot, Ubuntu gives an error error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found . For real, the /boot/ folder is empty at all.

I try to switch to the previous snapshot, but the error is the same, and even the very first image is also broken. That is, I made backups in vain. This has happened 3 times in a year.

  1. Why could data disappear from /boot/ ?
  2. Why are all earlier made snapshots and the original broken?
  3. How can this be fixed without starting from scratch?

Answer:

1, 2. It looks like you mounted a partition in the /boot directory located on another virtual (or real) block device (the so-called disk).

3. the easiest way: find the "missing" section.

more difficult:

  • boot this virtual machine from some other image (almost any installation / live / "rescue" / etc. from any gnu / linux distribution will do), connecting it as an additional block device
  • mount all necessary partitions, starting from the root, to the directory (for example) /mnt
  • download and copy to /mnt the package file with the appropriate version of linux
  • do chroot /mnt
  • there, in the chroot , install the package with linux : dpkg -i файл
  • just in case (in theory, this command should be executed during the installation of the package with linux ) also update-grub
  • get out of chroot
  • unmount what was mounted, reboot the virtual machine without an auxiliary image
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