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Grub Broken on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Mate 1.14 GUI

I recently installed Ubuntu desktop 16.04 LTS with the Mate GUI after I instialled the release on April 21st. Everything went smooth. I spent hours going through this new for me environment, although I have been a long time user of Ubuntu Server editions.

This morning, I noticed the update panel was open, offering me updates. I chose the updates. The system rebooted.

Unfortunately, I am looking at the "grub" prompt. I know very little about grub (ver#2) command. When I enter "boot", it promptly responds that no kernel found. Therefore, I booted a live ubuntu CD and browsed to the /boot directory. I see two versions of the kernel.

So the question is:

1. How do I get grub to point to one of these kernels? My understanding is it will go to the default kernel if it is the only one present. Or, give you a choice if more than one found. The server versions I am familiar with will present the grub boot list by holding down the "shift" key. That doesn't happen here.

2. Why doesn't the shift key work?

I would like to maintain my installation after so much time spent.  How do I repair this as I seems to me to be a grub issue?
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David Johnson, CD
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RayRider

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David,

If I understand, I am booting from any live Linux CD, such as the "try it first" on the Ubuntu installation ISO. Then I run the above three commands. Since I am using a CD, where do the tools get written? Or, is this process just a one-time repair for the moment, and not a permanent tool I am creating?
David,

Sorry for the extra questions. I followed the links to download the ISO and then to download the Unetbootin utility to create a USB bootable flashdrive for running the Boot-Repair utility. I will do this soon in order to have on the next update from Ubuntu that "breaks" Grub!!

Thanks!!
they get written to ram disk and disappear.
You can reinstall grub using normal ubuntu Live CD that you used to install ubuntu.
Just make a directory, mount presumable root or boot partition, then mount /dev/ and /sys/ there under, chroot, and run mount -a (mount all filesystems) and execure grub-mkconfig.
After that grub2 config file will be regenerated and system will boot OK

Or maybe try to boot older kernel first? Then uninstall latest kernel and run normal apt upgrade to get new kernel correctly configuted.