[sf-lug] My NUC computer model NUC5PPYH

[Rick Moen]

Quoting John Strazzarino (jstrazza at yahoo.com):

> So we are making small amounts of progress.

Are you, though?  ;->

> Rescatux would not boot at all.

One key problem in diagnosis is watching out for uncontrolled variables.  
Above, you're making an implicit assumption that you were using a
functional copy of Rescatux... but, did you ever test that?  I'm
guessing no.  Testing it being functional would mean test-booting
the Rescatux media on something else, a known-good, relatively boring
computer.  If this step hasn't been taken, then it might be that Rescatux 
isn't booting because it's simply not bootable for some reason.

Back in the 1980s when I first worked in IT, I had a boss named David
Carroll whose quirks included asking (rhetorically) 'What do we know?'
when starting a diagnostic effort.  I came to realise that it was a
quite wise question:  A good starting place was to marshall which facts
you've taken the trouble to confirm, vs. which ones you simply _think_
are probably true.

> Per Bobbie's suggestion, I downloaded supergrub2 and
> rescatux.  Supergrub2 on a thumb drive, allowed me to see a lot of
> info and successfully load windows/10.  However, it would not load
> pclinuxos64.  I tried both the regular and the rescue version and they
> both loaded up to grub rescue.

When you say 'loaded up to GRUB Rescue', as I've mentioned before, this
means your GRUB2 installation is damaged to the point that GRUB2 cannot
even find its second-level processor, normal.mod -- and is also able to 
find the GRUB2 folder contains the menu, modules and stored
environmental data.  Your path out is to (iteratively!) use the GRUB2
'ls' command to find the normal.mod file, which will be (probably!) in
the place that is normally mounted as /boot/grub/i386-pc/ .  Finding
normal.mod will put GRUB2 into Normal mode, where it's smarter and
better able to help you.

I've already pointed out two (of many) GRUB2 troubleshooting guides that
should be able to get you through the rest of the way:

https://www.howtoforge.com/tutorial/repair-linux-boot-with-grub-rescue/
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub/html_node/GRUB-only-offers-a-rescu
e-shell.html

Basically, once you find normal.mod, you can set the 'prefix' value to
state where the /grub directory can be found and where the root
directory is -- then you can type 'insmod normal' to load normal.mod and
enter Normal mode.  And then, you can re-train GRUB2 as to where to find
the kernel, the root FS for booting purposes, the initrd, and any boot
options, and then order GRUB2 to boot.  

Having tested the ability to boot, you can then do

$ sudo update-grub  #to update GRUB2's config file, and
$ sudo grub-install /dev/sdX  #to reinstall GRUB2 on device sdX

Obviously, you would substitute something real for 'sdX'.

But, really, the big problem is that you apparently (or at least I
gather) don't have a firm grasp on how PCLinuxOS was booting before
things got broken.  It would be really handy right now to know 
the steps GRUB2 was supposed to take, and how it interacts with the BIOS
and with NT Loader.  You really should aim to not only fix your system
but also to acquire that knowledge, IMO.  And, the more complex your
boot setup is, the more important your having that knowledge is.
Personally, I prefer to keep booting extremely simple, e.g., avoiding
dual-boot entirely.