error: file '/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

Grub has a small core image that is loaded at boot time. The core image dynamically loads modules which provide further functionality. i386-pc/normal.mod not found indicates that grub can not load normal.mod, which is a grub module that provides the normal command. To load normal.mod you need to tell grub where it is. To do this you can use the grub command-line (aka Rescue Console). Grub will start the command-line if there is a problem booting, or you can start it manually by holding the shift key as grub starts (to force show the grub menu), and then pressing the 'c' key.

Using grub you can explore the drives, partitions, and filesystems. You need to:

• locate the grub install using ls or search.file
• set grub variables $prefix and $root
• load and run the normal module

Example

The following is just an example. You will need to adapt it to your local drive and partition setup.

where is normal.mod? look in some likely locations

grub> search.file /i386-pc/normal.mod
error: no such device: /i386-pc/normal.mod

grub> search.file /grub/i386-pc/normal.mod
error: no such device: /grub/i386-pc/normal.mod

grub> search.file /boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod
hd0,msdos1

If you get "Unknown command 'search.file'" this means that the search.file command is not available. This is probably because you are at the grub rescue> prompt and not grub> prompt. In this case you can still carry on and use the ls command and your knowledge of your partition layout to find normal.mod.

found it at (hd0,msdos1)

grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod
normal.mod

why did grub not find it?
check $prefix - absolute location of the grub directory
(this is set when grub is installed by grub-install)

grub> echo $prefix
(hd0,msdos2)/boot/grub

check $root - default device for paths that do not include a device
grub initially sets this to the device from $prefix

grub> echo $root
hd0,msdos2

root and prefix are pointing to the wrong partition (hd0,msdos2)
set $root and $prefix to the partition where we found normal.mod (hd0,msdos1)

grub> set root=(hd0,msdos1)
grub> set prefix=(hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub

load and run normal module

grub> insmod normal
grub> normal

Some other commands that may be helpful

ls list all devices and partitions

grub> ls
(hd0) (hd0,msdos5) (hd0,msdos1)

ls partition

grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)
        Partition hd0,msdos1: Filesystem type ext* - Last modification time
2014-05-08 15:56:38 Thursday, UUID c864cbdd-a2ba-43a4-83a3-66e305adb1b6 -
Partition start at 1024KiB - Total size 6290432Kib

ls filesystem (note / at end)

grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)/
lost+found/ etc/ media/ bin/ boot/ dev/ home/ lib/ lib64/ mnt/ opt/ proc/
root/ run/ sbin/ srv/ sys/ tmp/ usr/ var/ vmlinuz initrd.img cdrom/

look inside /boot/grub
presence of i386-pc directory means this is a BIOS install
presence of x86_64-efi directory would indicate an EFI install

grub> ls (hd0,msdos1)/boot/grub
i386-pc/ locale/ fonts/ grubenv grub.cfg

• Grub Manual: Troubleshooting: GRUB only offers a rescue shell covers the basic recovery method described above
• For available commands and variables see Grub Manual: The list of command-line and menu entry commands and Special environment variables.
• It may be possible to load other missing modules e.g. if the search or search.file commands are not recognised set $prefix correctly and then do insmod search, for ls do insmod ls etc. Run find /boot/grub -name *.mod on a working Linux install to see all of the dynamically loaded Grub modules.
• You can always just boot from external media and re-install Grub.

Solved this on a machine this afternoon. It seems that one cause of this problem is the installer thinking that you have EFI secure boot, when you don't and therefore loading the incorrect GRUB files.

What you need to do is install GRUB 2. To do this you need to boot to the live instance, mount your root partition and install.

From a live instance, find the partition on which your root partition is loaded. GParted will tell you this, or you could use

sudo fdisk -l

Go for the partition in which ubuntu is installed.

Once you have your partition you need to mount it. Assuming the root partition is on /dev/sda5, that'd be:

sudo mount /dev/sda5 /mnt

Then install GRUB 2

sudo grub-install /dev/sda --root-directory=/mnt [use copy and paste for this one as there are some spaces that you need to get right.]

Assuming this is your problem, then you should just be able to reboot and everything will work fine.

Original solution for this was from here: http://ubuntujournal.blogspot.com/2012/11/fix-new-install-of-ubuntu-1210-wont-boot.html

Other solutions may not work if you get to the grub-rescue prompt and/or your configuration uses LVM, this one should.

Boot on a rescue disk (tip : I keep a small distribution on a dedicated partition of my backup USB disk).

If you use LVM, find the name of your volume group with lvdisplay or another LVM-related commands. Activate it (otherwise you'll get a mount: special drive /dev/volumegroupname/partition does not exist error when trying to mount) :

vgchange -a y volumegroupname

Now mount your usual / partition, e.g. on /mnt :

mount /dev/volumegroupname/partition /mnt

Mount a few special devices as well (as well as /boot if on a separate partition) :

mount -t proc none /mnt/proc
mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount -t sysfs /sys /mnt/sys

Then chroot into your usual distribution :

chroot /mnt

Finally, reinstall GRUB2 — commands may vary depending on your distribution, this works on Slackware (if your drive is /dev/sda) :

grub-install /dev/sda
grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Reboot and you should be done.