I'm a total beginner with Linux Mint, and I'm hitting a snag during boot. Sometimes I see an "error: command failed" message and then I just get sent straight to the GRUB boot menu. If I try to run the "/boot" command, it says 'command not found.' This problem seems to happen randomly — after a few restarts, it sometimes boots up fine. I'm trying to figure out how to make this stop happening for good. My boot devices show my SSD and one labeled 'ubuntu.' Any advice?
5 Answers
If you have a bootable USB for Linux Mint, there's a tool on there called Boot-Repair. It could help sort out the boot issues. By the way, do you have a dual boot setup? What other OSes are installed?
If you're still stuck, reinstalling Linux might be the quickest way to solve the problem. Just make sure to back up any important files first to avoid losing anything important.
It sounds like your boot issue could be linked to some hardware problems. A few times of not booting could indicate your HDD is on its way out. Once it boots up again, you should run a check using smartctl to see how healthy it is. You can do that with: `smartctl -A /dev/sda` (just replace `/dev/sda` with your drive if it’s different). Then, look up the results online for more info.
First off, instead of typing "/boot", you should just use the command "boot". That might help clear up your issue right there. Also, we need to know what exactly the failure message says, so if you can, take a picture of the error when it happens and share that.
I’ll try to capture it next time!
I checked after it booted and it said my SSD has no errors.