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I recently installed Ubuntu 14.04 on my laptop. I already had a single Windows 7 partition and two linux partitions. The problem is that Ubuntu overwrote the grub bootloader, and now there is no option to boot to my encrypted debian install

Here is my disk layout

  • Windows partition /dev/sda1
  • Extended partition /dev/sda4
    • Ubuntu / and /boot on /dev/sda5
  • /boot for Debian (ext3) /dev/sda2
  • LUKS volume
    • LVM
      • ROOT-FS / for Debian
      • SWAP-FS swap for Debian

I want to be able to boot to the encrypted debian install, Ubuntu and Windows from the grub boot screen. How can I do that? I don't want to use paid or closed-source software.

Bonus: move the debian /boot and grub to a usb stick and boot from that.

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2 Answers 2

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Possible Solutions are :

Use EasyBCD Software:
If you can boot to Windows OS,
Use EasyBCD Software to create your own boot entries, so from that you can create boot entries for those linux distros and to the Windows OS.
For more details visit EasyBCD

Use Boot-Repair:
Live boot an Ubuntu OS, Install Boot-Repair.
Boot-Repair will create a new grub loader.
For more details visit Boot-Repair

I think EasyBCD will solve your problem.

Suggestions and comments are welcome.

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  • This will probably not work, since my debian install is encrypted. Also, EasyBCD is paid and closed-source software. I don't think you are supposed to put links to paid software...
    – redfast00
    Nov 27, 2015 at 19:01
  • Note that EasyBCD is free (no need to pay) for personal use. (Hmm... why do you think that paid software should not be linked here?)
    – Volker Siegel
    Nov 27, 2015 at 19:28
  • @VolkerSiegel okay, you don't have to pay for EasyBCD, but it still isn't free (as in free speech). I thought that because I saw some posts getting flagged for product recommendations.
    – redfast00
    Nov 27, 2015 at 20:28
  • I did not find an explicit meta answer on this, but I think what is discuraged is asking for product recomendations. Also, answers consisting of only hinting to a product - which is similar too a link only answer.
    – Volker Siegel
    Nov 28, 2015 at 0:17
  • @lttesp Both solutions won't work, because the debian partition is encrypted.
    – redfast00
    Nov 28, 2015 at 13:55
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You can boot a live CD and chroot into the encrypted disk. From there, you can run grub-install /dev/sda and then update-grub. This will rescan the disks for all OSes.

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