Error invalid arch independent elf magic grub rescue

I am stuck with a rather irritating problem I ran into after installing 11.10 on my macbook pro 5,5.

I did a clean install efi booting into the setup using the desktop cd. Upon the first reboot I was presented with the «invalid arch independent ELF magic» and grubs rescue console.

I have read GRUB: «invalid arch independent ELF magic» after install on SSD but the solution is no solution for me since installing grub via live cd only means installing the mbr version and I can’t seem to find any manual on how to install grub-efi while booted into the live cd.

So my question is: How can I either edit the grubx64.efi file in my EFI Partition, reinstall grub-efi with a live CD / DVD or use grub rescue commands to fix this issue?

I had the same problem “invalid arch independent ELF magic”.

I was installing from a USB stick booted from the Bios in UEFI mode.

After a couple a couple unsuccessful reinstallation of 12.04,I tried the same installation with the the USB stick booted without the UEFI mode and it works.

For your information my setting on a 120GB SSD

sda1 /windows 90 GB   windows 7
sda2 /boot  100 MB
sda5 swap     1 GB
sda6 /        18GB   ubuntu 12.04
sda7 /home     8GB

My motherboard is P8P67 Pro with Asus EZbios and I had two choice in my boot menu for the USB with 12.04 installation.

Hope it helps!

I used the boot repair option in System Tools (I think) that was there after booting live CD/USB. Go online first (settings/WiFi) then run the repair using defaults. Worked fine for me using Zorin 15.

Well. After updating 15 (suggested updates this is new install), boot failed again with different grub error, so ran boot repair again. Said repair failed but started eventually after a few errors then second restart was normal after complete shutdown although I get an error about a theme file missing.

I’m dual booting Win 10 on an SSD (which still works ok for now until the next Win update screws it again..

Hoping that this isn’t a regular thing after every Zorin update!

answered Nov 6, 2019 at 21:41

I had this problem after doing a fresh install of 20.04 on a DELL E5510.

The first messages were GRUB complaining the drive was encrypted. Then after another reinstall, I got the invalid arch message.

After several hours: 1. I switched my BIOS to UEFI and booted Live CD. 2. Ran Boot-Repair on my HDD. Boot repair then removed GRUB and installed grubx64.efi file. (Boot Repair wouldn’t run unless I booted the Live CD in UEFI.)

1. Computer still complained «no bootable drive». Went back in to BIOS and had to point the UEFI interface to grubx64.efi. Prior to that, it was looking for shimx64.efi.

Hopefully you don’t spend 2 days as I did.

answered Nov 2, 2021 at 20:03

DaemonTux писал(а): ↑

28.10.2012 06:03

У вас каша в голове.

Друзья, подбирая кусочком хлеба остатки глазуньи, я с помощью загрузочного ЮСБи и с горьковатой ухмылкой крапаю вам сей пост: он видится мне унизительным. Как вы можете понять из этих стенаний, положение мое, по меткому выражению Пастернака, бедственное. Буду краток (но не по причине запланированного мной на сегодня курса ирландской чечетки, а ввиду экономии вашего времени).

После установки Кубунту на новый ноутбук (тоже lenovo), винт не видит операционки. При загрузке выдает

error:invalid arch independent ELF magic
grub rescue>

Что делать и при чем тут волшебные эльфы?

Прошу помощи.

Лунный гонщик писал(а): ↑

03.03.2013 20:05

Спасибо, конечно, за ссылку, но считаю своим приятным бытоописательским долгом уведомить вас, что, увы, не сработало.

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mount: special device /dev/sda5 does not exist

Читайте внимательнее.

Естественно, на /dev/sda5 в моем случае находится корневой раздел установленной системы.

Нужно подставить в команду путь к Вашему корневому разделу.

Пишите правильно:

Лунный гонщик писал(а): ↑

03.03.2013 20:05

Спасибо, конечно, за ссылку, но считаю своим приятным бытоописательским долгом уведомить вас, что, увы, не сработало.

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mount: special device /dev/sda5 does not exist

Так красиво излагаете, а споткнулись на такой простой вещи…
Если не уверены, где у вас корневой раздел, покажите содержимое /etc/fstab

Что ж, неудачи я признать не боюсь, даже наоборот — как всякому полиглоту мне целительно говорение, особенно искреннее.

Brainsburn писал(а): ↑

04.03.2013 03:41

Если не уверены, где у вас корневой раздел, покажите содержимое /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use ‘blkid’ to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=f3dd1d32-05c7-467c-ae8c-d877eb5f0df2 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=0235-91CE /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 1
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=0324d278-9c43-4854-a803-44c259e97044 none swap sw 0 0

I’ve created a virtual machine with Ubuntu (having TinyOS). The problem arises when I start the machine. I immediately get a black screen with written:

GRUB loading.
error: invalid arch independent ELF magic
grub rescue>

What kind of a problem is it, and more importantly how can I solve it?
I tried it on my laptop which has Windows 7 64 bit, and so I also tried it on my Ubuntu partition and also with Ubuntu, once I launch the virtual machine I get the same error!

This happens when the GRUB core image (the boot loader’s first stage) is built for a different CPU architecture than the modules that it tries to load from /boot/grub. (Here’s the check you’re running into, modulo slight typographical changes that have been made since then; it’s called from here.) This suggests a serious error when installing the OS. It doesn’t directly relate to 64-bit support in the VM or anything like that, although it’s of course possible that that kind of thing might have confused the OS installer into doing the wrong thing somehow.

Since you asked this several years ago, it’s possible that you’ve solved it by now, that you’ve given up, or that simply reinstalling with a newer version of Ubuntu will help. But if none of those things are true:

• Ensure that the disk image was clean before you installed the virtual machine guest. This sort of thing might happen if you have bits of GRUB left over from a previous installation.
• Make sure you aren’t doing anything funny like trying to boot the guest using a boot loader that wasn’t installed by the guest OS installation.
• Make sure the process of installing the guest was as simple as possible. There usually isn’t much reason to have something like a complicated partitioning setup in a VM guest, and that sort of thing just introduces ways that things can go wrong.

answered Nov 22, 2017 at 0:38

im noob to linux but i got a previous Linux Mint 12 installation along side with Windows 7, and then Linux Mint 13 was released so i tried it out, download it and made a USB version via UNetbootin (i made it on Windows 7) i have read the upgrade instructions here

http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/2

particularly this parts
7. Once you’re happy and confident that this newer release is good for you, click on «Install» on the desktop and proceed with a normal installation.
8. When asked by the installer, choose «Specify partitions manually (advanced)», select the partition that you used for your current installation of Linux Mint, assign «/» to it, and reformat it to «ext4».

so i restart Windows 7 and boot to the USB containing Linux Mint 13 and click «Install Linux Mint» on the desktop and when im prompted by «Installation Type» i choose «Something Else» and selected the EXT4 filesystem since that is Linux Mint 12 and click the «Change» button and then set «EXT4» and set «/» for it

and after the installation and reboot Linux Mint 13 i cannot boot into Windows 7 or Linux Mint 13 that is not the USB version it gives me this error

ERROR: Invalid Arch Independent ELF Magic
Grub Rescue>

i googled for this error but nothing helps, and most solutions are for SSD storage device and UEFI bios problems which is not my case, hope someone can solve my problem here, i got a lot of files on my Windows 7 and do not want to lose them

bump for more information

currently im accessing my computer via the USB version of Linux Mint 13 that i made on windows 7 UNetbootin
my specs are SATA HDD, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, and i download this Linux Mint 13 version -> Linux Mint 13 «Maya» — MATE (64-bit) http://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=104

i open the «Install Linux Mint» again on the desktop and this is what i configured earlier

it seems the GRUB is gone or need some new configuration which i got no clue how to fix it (googled some solutions but they do not work or they are just not too noob friendly for me), and yes i want to Dual-Boot Windows 7 and Linux Mint

I have a feeling you’ve run into a common problem I’ve seen.

On your partition screenshot, under the section: «Device for bootloader installation», /dev/sdb is selected. /dev/sdb I’d bet is your live USB. You might have a proper install, but you can’t access it.

There’s a few ways to fix this. My suggestion is this: plug in your live USB and boot from it. If my hunch is correct, you’ll get a GRUB prompt for either LM13 or Windows 7. If that’s the case, then boot to your hard drive installation for Linux Mint 13, open a terminal and type the following:

sudo grub-install /dev/sda
sudo update-grub

Then eject your USB and reboot. If that works, then you have to fix your live USB by re-burning it with Unetbootin, for example.

@Deemoney

when i plug-in my USB and boot from it, i do not have the option to choose between Windows 7 and Linux Mint anymore, its just Linux Mint
even so i tried those commands you gave and it give me this error

and yes it looks like its a common problem from what i googled, but that made me think if this is such a common problem why their still no common solution or easier solution for this, im getting scared now that i might lose all my files on Windows 7, but thanks for the response, waiting for more help

bump for update

i can log on to windows now after doing this

You should have fixed your MBR either before or after removing Linux because GRUB is still on the MBR and has no file to look to to boot because you removed linux.
Boot the Ubuntu Live CD/USB and when the desktop loads open a terminal and run

This will install lilo to the live session only.
Next in terminal run

Reboot without the Live CD/USB and you should boot to windows.

source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p= … stcount=53

now my problem is how to dual-boot Windows 7 and Linux Mint 13 since their is no GRUB2 prompt before the start of the pc boot process unlike before when i still got Linux Mint 12, when i boot my computer it goes straight to Windows 7 now when ive done that LILO and MBR solution

and i think Linux Mint 13 is already installed on my PC, but i got no sure way to check and im lost on what to do next

j0x wrote:@Deemoney

when i plug-in my USB and boot from it, i do not have the option to choose between Windows 7 and Linux Mint anymore, its just Linux Mint
even so i tried those commands you gave and it give me this error

and yes it looks like its a common problem from what i googled, but that made me think if this is such a common problem why their still no common solution or easier solution for this, im getting scared now that i might lose all my files on Windows 7, but thanks for the response, waiting for more help

just follow these instructions to restore your Windows 7 boot loader and mbr http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 then after that is fixed try doing

sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install /dev/sda

to install Grub again which should fix it as i’ve had this issue in the past but not lately *knocks on wood*

crborga wrote:
just follow these instructions to restore your Windows 7 boot loader and mbr http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392 then after that is fixed try doing

Code: Select all

sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install /dev/sda

to install Grub again which should fix it as i’ve had this issue in the past but not lately *knocks on wood*

ye i think the MBR is updated or solve now, my last post shows the steps ive done and i can boot on Windows 7 again but the problem now is how can i make that GRUB2 show again for me to dual boot between Windows7 and LinuxMint because at the moment when i start my PC it goes straight to Windows 7 now

those commands you show me do i have to boot from my Linux Mint 13 USB version first? before doing those commands?

thanks crborga

EDIT:

tried it (boot from USB again) and same error on the past reply of mine like this

i found a solution, i re-installed Linux Mint again to think that the installer will configure GRUB but Windows 7 is still the one booting up and i do not get the GRUB screen at boot up, but this one solved the issue

How to restore the Ubuntu grub bootloader (9.10 and beyond)
First you need to find out what your drives are called. You can do this by going to a terminal and typing:

From that you need to find the device name of your Ubuntu drive, something like “/dev/sda5″.
So, still in the terminal, type:

Code: Select all

sudo mkdir /media/sda5
sudo mount /dev/sda5 /media/sda5

And then, to reinstall the grub:

Code: Select all

sudo grub-install --root-directory=/media/sda5 /dev/sda

Push enter and you’re done! Of course you need to replace “/dev/sda5″ and “/dev/sda” with what you found in the fdisk output.

source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1014708

wew, well that solves it, now i know that Linux is really hard for noobs since you got to work on the commandline and worse those commandlines are like aliens, you need a lot and a lot of time and patience reading a lot again to somehow use Linux, hope Linux will improve for noobs in the future

but at the moment Linux Mint 13 and Windows 7 are again Dual-Booting for me using GRUB version 1.99 as the screen said and from googling its GRUB2 already, thanks for your help folks!!!

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