I'm still not sure how to access that menu as when I press Esc during boot it doesn't take me to that menu, I got into the Grub screen easily enough, but there is no menu there. It says "Tab shows possible commands", I press tab and a list of commands comes up but I don't see anything that includes "menu" or "advanced options".
Please post the output of
cat /etc/default/grub
You only need to post these parts:
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash loglevel=3"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
I would need a little help here, how do I identify the USB number?
This was what I had originally done and it uses msdos FAT32.
So I've done this now and the SD card is now writeable, but I know over time this won't stick as it's the same scenario that I was in when the permissions started to act up previously...
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
Do I need to change "hidden" to "menu"?
No worries - might not be ttyUSBx after all, since it's an SD - I hooked my USB reader up to see something. Use blkid - should spit out something around /dev/sda and replace with sudo chmod 600 /dev/sda or however it's listing your SD card with blkid - that may not be the case after all since it is in fact working / writable for now. May need to do some device health checks with something like testdisk or GParted though.
For all my fresh installs (OS) I always install libusb-dev - drastically improves USB support for devices.. my weird no-name devices that is lol
You set your timeout to 0, which means that there are Zero Seconds for Grub menu to appear. The Zorin OS Default is 10. I do not recommend less than 5.
You can set the timeout to 5 or 10, then tap ctl+o to overwrite. Tap enter to save current configuration. Tap ctrl+x to exit the editor.
Now you must run
sudo update-grub
for the change to take effect.
Then reboot, and tap the esc key as before and see if you can access Grub Menu.
You really want to be able to access it in case you need the Recovery Menu someday.
I wish there was a way to persuade users that it is a really bad idea to set Grub timeout to zero just to save a few seconds on boot. The resulting consequences appear here time and again.
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I haven't set my timeout to 0. I didn't even know that the Grub menu existed before starting this thread!
I have no idea how to set the timeout....
Funny that you guys are assuming that I (or any other user) has done this deliberately....
Again, I never modified this....
There are plenty of apps or scripts that can and will modify Grub on your behalf. For example, grub customizer is an application that can do so.
Most often, a user looks up a guide on how to do something and follows the commands given by the guide. They copy/pasted commands, so do not remember the commands. They may not associate what that guide told them to do (Guide labeled "Speed up Ubuntu") with a later mention of (talk of "Grub Timeout").
The above is not intended as shaming. Or a direct accusation.
And I hope it is very clear to us all that such changes can be made without the users knowledge - as with the example of Grub Customizer.
Other things that can also change that value include
- Dual Booting with other distros: A different distro may have a different timeout and may be set as the default grub to boot with.
- Boot repair attempts using automated boot repair.
- BIOS / EUFI Firmware updates
Your grub file is located in /etc/default/grub and you can restore it to default with this post.
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I can attest for this - tried some Grub options on start some time ago, holding Esc; didn't think it would throw my Grub into what it did though lol it reset my timeout and some other settings - wasn't a big deal, knew what was goin' on. Others might not though - which isn't a bad thing; I've been 'got' many times before with certain things.
Do agree though, following some guides out there can be conducive.. I always try to throw out reading the whole guide from start / finish to see what is going to be changing, removing, etc. before, just to make sure it isn't going to be a change for bad..
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Ok but I have never attempted any of those things, like dual booting etc, but obviously can't rule out that some application and/or script has changed Grub for me, not to my knowledge though.
So in Terminal when I enter /etc/default/grub as suggested I get this;
sudo /etc/default/grub
[sudo] password for laptop:
sudo: /etc/default/grub: command not found
You must specify an application to open that file in that path with. In this case, you are looking to Edit the file, so it would be nano:
sudo nano /etc/default/grub
You can use the arrow keys to navigate the cursor.
If you prefer to use the GUI method, you can instead run:
sudo -i
Then launch the file manager:
nautilus
Navigate to "Other locations" in the left pane, then "Computer" in the right pane. Then click through the folders - etc, then, default and lastly, right click on grub and select "Open with: Text Editor"
move the cursor to
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=
GRUB_TIMEOUT=
And set the values. It is not necessary to set the timeout style to menu - but it may be helpful. You also can change it back to "hidden" later and gain some practice.
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
If using the GUI text editor, Save The File.
If using the terminal, tap ctl+o to overwrite. Tap enter to save current configuration. Tap ctrl+x to exit the editor.
Now you must run
sudo update-grub
for the change to take effect.
Reboot and you should be able to access the Grub Menu. From here, we can pick up where we left off: Select Advanced Options for Zorin and then select the option for Zorin on 5.15.0-83
You should then boot into the normal desktop environment.
From here, test how things are working.
Thank you Aravisian for your patience and clear instructions.
I have successfully updated the Grub menu and can enter it on booting.
However, there are only two options in the Advanced Options, one for 5.15.0-87 and one for 5.15.0.86, both with recovery modes.
Well, let's try the -86 kernel. I am not sure how long you have had the OS installed or what cleaning has been done that may remove old kernels.
Ok. There is one slight problem now though...
Since I reformatted the SD card using the Mp3 player itself, the SD card is now writeable. However, I have already been though several cycles like this, it will work for a while and then during some file transfer it will abruptly become read-only. So I'm not going to be able to check this until it does that itself, I have no idea how to trigger the read-only issue intentionally.
My logic in testing an earlier kernel was that you described the issue as appearing suddenly one day. If the driver (The kernel is a set of hardware drivers) was faulty, this may cause issues with the communication with the SD Card.
What you just described above is a bit unexpected. I cannot help but think that it is not a permissions issue as permissions just do not abruptly or arbitrarily change themselves. Rather, that the read/write is being affected by something else.
How old is this SD card? Has it seen a lot of use?
SD cards have a limited lifetime of read/write cycles. An SD card reaching its end of life can show symptoms like you describe.
Normally, I would suggest using fsck to check the filesystem of the card. But you have recently formatted it. This tells us that even if file system errors built up previously - that it did so and so swiftly again is suggestive of SD Card impending failure.
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Interesting. I wasn't aware that Sd cards had a limited life cycle. The card is probably around 5 years old. But these symptoms started at least 3 years ago and I have been struggling with it since. I wonder if the mp3 player has had an impact on the card's lifespan?
Generally speaking I would add some files to it perhaps once a month and then it would simply stay inside the mp3 player and be read by it, usually on a daily basis.
The issue didn't start until I changed OS from my old macbook to my current laptop, originally running Elemental. I had the same permissions issue with my external hard drives on Elemental too. Switching to Zorin seems to have cured the issue with the hard drives, but not the SD card. So I assumed that it was an OS issue, rather than a hardware issue.
When the permissions issue occurs again, can I use fsck to generate any meaningful information that may help to diagnose the issue?
I'm not impressed with the lifespan of the Sd card if that is the issue, I would expect more but I've never heard anyone mention this before and I have other smaller capacity cards from years ago that still appear to work fine...
Brand matters. The quality of the card can be a determining factor in the lifespan of the product. This is true of USB sticks and SSD, as well.
In recent years, the read/write cycle of SSD has improved dramatically.
But Solid State Drives have been around since the very beginning. They were not economical or practical to use since Spinning hard drives last far longer and were more reliable.
It was not until improvements were made to SSD that finally enabled them to match their HDD counter-parts that consumers began to see them more commonly used. SSD does have an advantage in faster speeds.
But SD and USB sticks both lag behind SSD in development. They are seen as more disposable.
And many manufacturers still use the older methods of making them. I recommend SanDisk as that company still wants a reputation of quality.
PNY is also quite reliable.
We can give a general estimate of how long one should last - but the reality of life can change that variable by pretty large degrees. For example, an SSD with average use should last 5-8 years (Which already has a 3 year gap in it) but users that work a lot in graphic design might see one quit after 2 years.
The most reliable SD cards are those marketed toward iPods or Digital Cameras.
Some high quality MP3 players.
But anything else are made more cheaply and are almost just throw-away devices.
Well this has certainly been an education for me!
The card in question is a genuine SanDisk 64gb SDHC, bought new directly from SanDisk.
I have bought at least one counterfeit SanDisk card in the past which was formatted to show double its actual volume, and so caused all sorts of issues when reading/writing.
I guess we'll assume that my original issue is actually confirmed if this is true. Although I don't use the card for long term storage anyway, so nothing important is stored on it. I might as well continue to use it and every time the read-only error appears I'll simply reformat and use it for a bit longer. Might as well get my money's worth!
Are you referring to SSD drives or HDD drives here or both?
I do use a Lacie 250gb HDD drive for long term backup, it's about 20 years old now! But does work fine and has never produced an obvious error to my knowledge.
Many thanks guys for your patience and help in understanding this subject. At the very least I have learnt some valuable things, like the Grub menu etc. I have certainly had a better experience on this forum than previously when I was using Elemental - it was very hard to get answers from the general Linux forums.
I'm generally very happy with Zorin and glad that I've been able to successfully moave away from Mac and Windows with ease.
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I would consider getting another hard drive and start moving all your storage over there. All drives fail eventually and unfortunately they have this nasty habit of not giving any signs or warnings before giving up. Speaking from experience...