What happened to my computer

Pretty unhelpful responses so far. Enter

exit

to exit the current screen and return to a selection of installed OS/Kernels. You should be able to boot normally from there on. Once logged in, try

update-grub

which should repair your bootloader config.

Note: If update-grub isn't present, it's fine as it's basically just a short script for grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

You broke grub

Achievement unlocked.

If you can fix it you unlock another one. If you manage to boot the system without using a rescue USB pen you unlock another one.
- Eventually Linus himself will come and personally re-write your cfg file for you
- Is that the platinum trophy?

Your system is fucked, that's what happened.

More specifically, it cannot find the config file (/boot/grub/grub.cfg) it uses to load the menu & stuff to boot.

Usually it means one (or more) of:

the grub.cfg got moved/deleted
grub directory got moved/deleted
/boot directory got moved/deleted
boot partition failed to load

You’ve got some schmutz on your screen.

Those might be tears.
- Are you alright joel?
  
  How to i @ someone lmao

Welcome, this is the Linux user equivalent of popping your cherry.

You have a few options, but the easiest is to just use a rescue thing like Rescatux on a USB drive that automates most of the process. If you haven't the means of flashing a USB drive (like another computer) but still have your linux installation USB drive, most distros offer a "rescue existing install" option somewhere in their installer/liveUSB. But you'll have to search around.

Same thing happened to my windiws oc way back in 2002. Hdd crash wrecked its boot loader

ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

Dont forget to play around with grub while its like this. Tab completion works great, try '(' the press tab to maybe see your disks as grub sees them. I think help lists commands and most of them are harmless.

Dont forget to play around with grub while its like this. Tab completion works great, try ‘(’ the press tab to maybe see your disks as grub sees them.

Is this a joke like sudo rm -rf --no-preserve-root / to speed up the PC? Because it kinda sounds that way.
- No. It's a little shell that you can explore with commands. If needed, you can mount and boot your OS just with commands in the grub shell.
Sounds like you'd love configuring network hardware then! You can get a peek into that in Linux with frr since it has a mode to configure your linux machine like you've just SSHed into a Catalyst switch, or just hop on ebay and buy a 20 year old switch for peanuts

What were you doing before you got this? If the systems intact you can just boot your machine manually with grub commands.

Here's a guide I found: https://www.unix-ninja.com/p/Manually_booting_the_Linux_kernel_from_GRUB

It isn't booting a kernel, you're in the bootloader.

How do i get it to load the kernal
- Have you tried turning it off and back on again?
  
  If that doesn’t help boot with a live-cd or rescue, and check that your grub config points to a valid kernel.
  
  Your hdd might be the culprit but it’s very hard to say from that screen. Maybe the one previously that can show your boot command
- It depends, is this a new install? Did you just update something?
- Sheer hope, and a warrior's bravery

I think I remember that a non geek friend of mine had good luck with this for fixing their Grub : https://www.supergrubdisk.org

Another option : https://www.system-rescue.org/disk-partitioning/Repairing-a-damaged-Grub/

Can you give a little more background info? What distro are you using, are you dual booting, is it a new install, did you make changes to your kernel, your partitions or grub before that?

While it's clear that grub couldn't find a kernel to boot, we need these Infos to help you find a solution.

Im using kde I did not even use my pc the last few days I came home it froze and when i rebooted i got this I do NOT have any duel boot
- You may want to replace the disk on that computer after you fix your boot. (As people said, with a recovery drive, probably the same one you use to install.)
  
  After your computer is back, get a SMART client (like smartmontools) and check your disk status.
- Well - the screen seems to indicate that it might wanna duel you anyway

Burn a live Linux system onto a USB (can be one with just a terminal, like Arch Linux). If you don't have another computer to plug the USB into, this can be done on an Android phone using EtchDroid.

Then, boot from that USB and mount your main filesystem. Inside of the Live system, chroot into the mounted filesystem and run sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg which should fix the bootloader.

After that, you can just exit the USB system and return back to your OS which should boot now.

(If you don't know how to mount a filesystem or chroot, I would explain but I forgot how to do it. If someone else could explain that would be neat)

@joel_feila Super Grub2 Disk
https://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/
Rescatux
https://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/
build a rescue stick
https://pendrivelinux.com/yumi-multiboot-usb-creator/

I also like https://www.system-rescue.org/, it also has a menu entry that will detect and boot into installed Linux systems.

Remember that you can use Ventoy as a super simple method of using these tools. Ventoy will prepare a flash drive with a tool that, when booted, will give you a menu of all the ISO images on the drive and lets you boot any of them. You can have a drive with a collection of rescue tools, install ISO's, whatever you want, and it's as easy as dropping the ISO's on there. You can also use that partition to store your own files or whatever you want, it doesn't mind.

Some good tips on this thread, saved for later.