How to remove broken Grub boot entries on Linux
Did you uninstall an operating system from your Linux PC? Not sure why it’s still showing up on the Grub bootloader list despite being uninstalled? Unsure how to remove it from the Grub menu? We can help! Here’s how to remove broken Grub boot entries on Linux!
Install Grub Customizer
In this guide, we’ll be using the Grub Customizer application to make it easier to modify and tweak entries in the Grub boot menu and gives a simple graphical user interface that users can use to change Grub without wading into confusing configuration files, or anything like that.
The Grub Customizer application isn’t installed on any distribution by default, so you’ll need to go through the installation process before learning how to use it to remove boot entries. To install the latest version of Grub Customizer, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T on the keyboard. From there, follow the command-line instructions that correspond with your Linux distribution below.
Ubuntu
For the longest time, Ubuntu users looking to use Grub Customizer needed to work with a PPA repository. As of Ubuntu 19.04, this has changed, and Canonical has included the software in the official software sources for easy installation.
To install Grub Customizer on Ubuntu 19.04, use the Apt command below.
sudo apt install grub-customizer
Are you using Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS instead? Need to get your hands on the latest release of Grub Customizer? Add the software PPA to Ubuntu with the following command.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
Following adding the software PPA, run the update command.
sudo apt update
Finally, install the app on your PC with:
sudo apt install grub-customizer
Debian
Much like Ubuntu, getting Grub Customizer working on Debian Linux used to be pretty tedious. However, as of the newest release of Debian 10, users can easily install the application with little issue, as it’s included in the “Debian Main” software repository. To start the installation, use the Apt-get command below.
sudo apt-get install grub-customizer -y
Need to get Grub Customizer on Debian 8 or 9? We highly recommend upgrading your release to version 10 to install the software, as Debian 10 is a new and stable release with everything you need!
Arch Linux
Grub Customizer is installable on Arch Linux, so long as you enable the “Community” software repository. To enable this repo, open up your Pacman configuration file with the Nano text editor.
sudo nano -w /etc/pacman.conf
Inside of Nano, move down to “Community” section and remove the # symbols from in front. Also, do this for any text directly underneath it. Then, save the edits in Nano with Ctrl + O, and exit with Ctrl + X.
Once out of Nano, install Grub Customizer directly from the “Community” repo with:
sudo pacman -Syy grub-customizer
Fedora
Since version 29, Grub Customizer has been available to Fedora Linux users. If you’d like to install the software, open up a terminal window and use the Dnf command below.
sudo dnf install grub-customizer
OpenSUSE
To install the Grub Customizer application on Open SUSE, click here. Once on the page, look for your version of SUSE and click the install button to get going.
Remove broken Grub boot entries
Launch the Grub Customizer application on your Linux desktop by pressing Alt + F2, typing in “grub-customizer,” and press enter. Alternatively, search for it in the app menu.
Once you have the application running, a password box will appear. Enter your username’s password. Entering your password will give you root access needed to modify settings inside of Grub Customizer.
Follow the step-by-step instructions below to remove boot entries.
Step 1: Look for the “List configuration” tab in the app and click it with the mouse to load up the Grub menu found on your Linux PC.
Step 2: Scan through the list to locate the Grub entry you’re looking to get rid of. When you’ve found it, right-click on it to open up the right-click menu.
Step 3: Look through the right-click menu for the “Remove” button to instantly delete the menu entry from your Grub bootloader list. Repeat this process to remove other ones too, if necessary.
Step 4: Locate the “Save” button and select it to save the changes you’ve made to the menu system. When everything is saved, close the app.
Updating Grub
Now that the broken Grub entries are removed, the Grub bootloader needs to be updated to reflect the changes. To do this, follow the commands below.
Ubuntu/Debian
sudo update-grub
Fedora/OpenSUSE
sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg
Arch Linux
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
With Grub up to date, reboot your Linux PC. As your Linux PC starts back up, you’ll notice that the changes made to the Grub bootloader have been saved, and the entries you’ve removed should no longer be there in the boot menu.
Thanks, very handy!