From the message context, it seems likely it’s related to firmware updates.
You can try running the following command in a terminal window:
sudo fwupdmgr refresh
That should update the metadata without applying any updates and stop the message popping up. You may want to consider applying the updates, but ultimately you’ll need to determine if the updates provide value. Chances are there’s at least an update to the secure boot database, as ISTR there’s a certificate expiration happening soon related to Microsoft’s signing keys.
$ sudo fwupdmgr refresh
[sudo] password for root:
WARNING: UEFI ESP partition not detected or configured
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:esp-not-found for more information.
WARNING: UEFI firmware can not be updated in legacy BIOS mode
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:legacy-bios for more information.
Metadata is up to date; use --force to refresh again.
$
Hmm. Okay…
$ sudo fwupdmgr --force refresh
WARNING: UEFI ESP partition not detected or configured
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:esp-not-found for more information.
WARNING: UEFI firmware can not be updated in legacy BIOS mode
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:legacy-bios for more information.
Updating lvfs
Authenticating… ▕⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿▏ Less than one minute remaining…
Successfully downloaded new metadata:
• 4 devices are updatable
• 0 devices are supported in the enabled remotes (an update has been published)
$
You’ve got four devices that are updatable. If you run sudo fwupdmgr get-updates (this just tells you what you’ve got that can be updated, update or upgrade will apply the updates), you can see what they are.
Retrieving the list of available updates should in theory stop the pop-up message from showing up.
$ sudo fwupdmgr get-updates
WARNING: UEFI ESP partition not detected or configured
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:esp-not-found for more information.
WARNING: UEFI firmware can not be updated in legacy BIOS mode
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:legacy-bios for more information.
Devices with no available firmware updates:
• AXIOM 120GB
• Bolt Receiver
• CS900 1TB SSD
• Ultra II 480GB
No updatable devices
$
I am confused. I thought I had a UEFI BIOS. At boot time it even offers “Press F2 or DEL to enter EFI BIOS”. Yet fwupdmgr indicates otherwise.
$ ll /boot/efi /sys/firmware/efi
ls: cannot access '/boot/efi': No such file or directory
ls: cannot access '/sys/firmware/efi': No such file or directory
$
I haven’t done it myself. I understand that it can be done, but it’s not a straightforward change because you need disk space for the EFI partition, and the partition table format changes.
So it’s probably easiest to reinstall after backing your data up.
If you have some way of setting up an EFI partition to be mounted at “/boot/efi”, then it is possible to get EFI mode. But I do agree with @hendersj42 that re-install might be easier.
Yes, I do. The swap partition is oversized at 64GB on /dev/sdb. I could re-partition that section into two, one that is 400MB, with the rest being the swap.
I would make the boot partition larger, since you are using xsf 1GB should be enough.
A couple of years ago I transformed a non-UEFI install into an UEFI system by following this guide:
The system was later changed from grub2-efi to systemdboot. Still runs without any issues.
After backing up you have nothing to loose to give it a try. If it fails you can always do a reinstall. You can even try to attempt to change the existing system with the help of the installation USB. Instead of installation pick upgrade, here you can change the bootloader, for me this also worked when I change from grub2-efi to systemdboot on a separate machine.