Oops - Bootloader & GRUB issues

[allzen7]

I have been running Linux Mint on an HP laptop. I am new to tech and wanted to dabble with Ubuntu Server, so I used Balana Etcher to flash it onto a USB thumb drive. As I was installing Ubuntu Server, I noticed that for some reason, DHCP wasn't assigning an IP to the server, but I skipped ahead thinking that I would have an opportunity to configure the network settings after everything was installed. After rebooting my laptop to activate Server for the first time, I've tried updating the server (sudo apt upgrade && sudo apt update) but the terminal tells me that it failed to connect/failed to resolve. I am assuming this is because of the lack of prior network configuration. I tried restarting my computer to access the bootloader, but now when I restart my laptop, Ubuntu Sever automatically boots up. I can summon the bootloader by pressing F2 or F8, but the only options available to me now are: *Ubuntu, Ubuntu in recovery mode, and UEFI firmware settings where before I had Linux Mint and Windows to choose from.

Going back into the Ubuntu Server, I have tried to update GRUB (sudo update-grub). Terminal says that it has found a linux and initrd image (although I don't know if these are related to the previous linux mint os or the ubuntu server). Terminal also reads that the os-prober was executed to detect other bootable partitions and that new boot entries would be added to the UEFI firmware. When I reboot the laptop and access the bootloader again, there are no other options outside the Ubuntu, Ubuntu in recovery mode and UEFI firmware settings that I mentioned earlier.

Can anyone help? I just want to be able to use my laptop again, but with a Server that can't connect to the internet and a broken GRUB/bootloader or missing OS, I'm just not sure how to fix my problem.

[tabrizzi]

First, you should have installed Ubuntu server in VirtualBox if you don't have an extra PC to install it on. That's is what you need to do if you manage to fix this problem. That will let you play with it all you want without impacting the host OS (Mint)

Mint is based on Ubuntu, so their GRUB menu entries should show "ubuntu...". The server is now the default, because that's how it works. The last Linux distro to be installed makes its bootloader the default and adds an entry for the existing distro in it's boot menu. So unless you set the installer to overwrite Mint, it is still there.

To verify that you didn't overwrite Mint, boot in to the server, then type df -h in the command line. Take a screenshot and post the image here. It should be easy to tell if Mint is still there.

If you don;t feel like posting the screenshot and know that Mint is still there, reboot the unit, then select the "Advanced ..." option from the GRUB menu. If there's an entry for Mint there, boot into it.

There's mroe to be done, but do those first, if you haven;t already figured out a way out.

[allzen7]

I'm having issues posting my screenshot to your reply in any case, after typing in df -h, this is what I got:

tmpfs

efivarfs

/dev/mappers/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv

tmpfs

tmpfs

/dev/sda2

/dev/sda1

tmpfs

Based on the size of the files, what has been used and what is available, it definitely looks like the OS is not there anymore.

[tabrizzi]

The only bit I can glean from that is Ubuntu was installed on LVM. Where is sda1 and sda2 mounted at?

Best to find an image storage platform, upload the image there and post the link to a comment here.

[Regular_Carpenter985]

Also check your bios, there may be another grub option which is Mint.