Booting trouble (Really urgent!!!)

English Install/Boot/Login
1

HI All.

I am novice with the Booting system and topics concerning the GRUB/MBR. So please help me with as many details as possible.

Problem: I can not boot my opensuse Leap 42.3 without using a install USB. Apparently, using the USB I can load the installation.

Details: I installed Ubuntu first. But then I wanted to install Opensuse and after doing that I found this problem. Even now, the bootloader shows Ubuntu as the top option despite having overwritten by opensuse.

System details:

lspci output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Device 5904 (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Device 5916 (rev 02)
00:14.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP USB 3.0 xHCI Controller (rev 21)
00:14.2 Signal processing controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP Thermal subsystem (rev 21)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP CSME HECI #1 (rev 21)
00:17.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 21)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d10 (rev f1)
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PCI Express Root Port #5 (rev f1)
00:1d.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d18 (rev f1)
00:1d.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d1a (rev f1)
00:1d.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d1b (rev f1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation Device 9d58 (rev 21)
00:1f.2 Memory controller: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP PMC (rev 21)
00:1f.3 Audio device: Intel Corporation Device 9d71 (rev 21)
00:1f.4 SMBus: Intel Corporation Sunrise Point-LP SMBus (rev 21)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM108M [GeForce 940MX] (rev a2)
02:00.0 SD Host controller: O2 Micro, Inc. Device 8621 (rev 01)
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 10)
05:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)

fdisk -l output:

Disk /dev/sdb: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 9167B343-9286-431B-A54E-1E4C6F7AD440

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 49151 47104 23M BIOS boot
/dev/sdb2 49152 83939327 83890176 40G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb3 83939328 468647935 384708608 183.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb4 468647936 500117503 31469568 15G Microsoft basic data

As you can see this output prints the SDD as the sdb. With USB inserted the same command reads:

Disk /dev/sdb: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 9167B343-9286-431B-A54E-1E4C6F7AD440

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 49151 47104 23M BIOS boot
/dev/sdb2 49152 83939327 83890176 40G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb3 83939328 468647935 384708608 183.5G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb4 468647936 500117503 31469568 15G Microsoft basic data

Disk /dev/sda: 29.9 GiB, 32034041856 bytes, 62566488 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1b681c50

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 4220 12031 7812 3.8M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sda2 * 12032 9062399 9050368 4.3G 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS

Please help!! It is quite urgent for me to get things moving as my laptop is currently the only device that I can use to do work! I would be really grateful if someone can sort the issue out!

2

Well Assuming EFI boot just over writing does not change the the entries into the UEFI flash. You pretty much have to manually do that.

Read the man efibootmgr pages that tool allows you to edit/change the UEFI flash settings.

3

Hi.

Thanks for the reply! Unfortunately, I have no idea what you just said. Can you explain in detail?

4

Read the man pages ie at a console prompt type **man efibootmgr **for the man (ie HELP) pages

From the first read of your problem it seem like the problem is in the UEFI (aka BIOS). BTW are you doing any kind of dual boot?. In any case you should be able to set boot order in the UEFI. Though you may not be able to remove the Ubuntu entry from there. You can from the efibootmgr.

The UEFI stores boot information in its built in flash

5

Thanks.

No dual boot.

Running efibootmgr readsL

EFI variables are not supported on this system.

6

OK so it is an old BIOS or you installed using legacy (MBR) boot

But I see


/dev/sdb1       2048     49151     47104    23M BIOS boot

Which indicates an EFI boot

Perhaps you installed Ubuntu in EFI and openSUSE in MBR boot mode. In any case you should be able to set boot order in the UEFI (consult the computer’s manual for which key to press during boot)

7

Hmm.

Will installing opensuse again help? if I select UEFI (speaking from memory here) during install it throws a warning that this combination is not proper (or something or that sort).

8

Ok. tried changing the boot load order from UEFI first to legacy first and sadly that did not solve the issue.

9

Go to yast-bootloader and see if you are using grub2 or grub2-efi.

When installing you need to boot the install media in EFI mode

You should then default to grub2-efi boot loader and you should have the efi-boot partition set to format as FAT and mount at /boot/efi. You may want to format this partition to remove any trace of Ubuntu since you are not dual booting

Since you have partitions now you will need to chose which to use as what. If you hae real data in /home then you may want to set the home partition NOT to format

10

Hi.

It says no EFI partition found.

11

Can anyone help please? I understand its a Sunday. But I am really desperate!!

12

On Sun 20 Aug 2017 05:16:01 PM CDT, skaptan wrote:

Can anyone help please? I understand its a Sunday. But I am really
desperate!!

Hi
So is the sdb device the only disk? If so there is no boot flag set…

Where was the bootloader installed, on sda?

Boot the system and show the output from;


lsblk

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° SUSE Knowledge Partner (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE Leap 42.2|GNOME 3.20.2|4.4.79-18.26-default
If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below… Thanks!

13

Hi.

I reinstalled Opensuse. But the problem persists. Now I made the disk partitions myself and the lsblk reads like:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sdb      8:16   0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   101M  0 part 
├─sdb2   8:18   0   102M  0 part 
├─sdb3   8:19   0    40G  0 part /var/opt
├─sdb4   8:20   0 183.3G  0 part /home
└─sdb5   8:21   0    15G  0 part [SWAP]

the fdisk -l looks like :\



Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 9167B343-9286-431B-A54E-1E4C6F7AD440

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdb1       2048    208895    206848   101M EFI System
/dev/sdb2     208896    417791    208896   102M BIOS boot
/dev/sdb3     417792  84310015  83892224    40G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb4   84310016 468647935 384337920 183.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb5  468647936 500117503  31469568    15G Microsoft basic data
14

Hi
So now your using EFI booting? So now the disk is gpt, with an efi partition, so now show the output from;


efibootmgr -v
15

Sorry. Before reading your reply, I had tried to use Boot-repair-disk.
This was the output of its analysis (problem was not solved!!!)

http://paste.ubuntu.com/25362255/

EDIT:

However, efibootmgr now works!

output:


BootCurrent: 001E
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0017,0018,0019,001A,001B,001C,001D,001E,001F,0024
Boot0000* ubuntu    HD(1,800,100000,c71450d9-aad8-4395-8839-4aa65d282fe2)File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0010  Setup    
Boot0011  Boot Menu    
Boot0012  Diagnostic Splash Screen    
Boot0013  Lenovo Diagnostics    
Boot0014  Startup Interrupt Menu    
Boot0015  Rescue and Recovery    
Boot0016  MEBx Hot Key    
Boot0017* USB CD    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b86701296aa5a7848b66cd49dd3ba6a55
Boot0018* USB FDD    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e49
Boot0019* ATAPI CD0    030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35401
Boot001A* NVMe0    030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b001c199932d94c4eae9aa0b6e98eb8a400
Boot001B* ATA HDD2    030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f602
Boot001C* ATA HDD0    030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f600
Boot001D* ATA HDD1    030a2500d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f601
Boot001E* USB HDD    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b33e821aaaf33bc4789bd419f88c50803
Boot001F* PCI LAN    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803
Boot0020* IDER BOOT CDROM    ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)ATAPI(0,1,0)
Boot0021* IDER BOOT Floppy    ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(16,2)ATAPI(0,0,0)
Boot0022* ATA HDD    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f6
Boot0023* ATAPI CD    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25baea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a354
Boot0024* PCI LAN    030a2400d23878bc820f604d8316c068ee79d25b78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803

I guess, the problem is clear based on the output. SOmehow the ubuntu loader entry is first and refuses to go away. Can you please help fix this?

16

Also don’t see an openSUSE entry. Note that Ubuntu does not go away on its own you have to remove it but you should have a openSUSE entry also.

have you tried Yast-boot loader to force a reinstall of grub?

17

I removed open-suse with the help of boot-repair to facilitate clean install after taking a data backup :(.

How do I force grub install?

18

You removed the OS or just the flash entry?

Why? The flash entry is needed to boot.

If you can still run openSUSE start Yast from menu and go to boot-loader section make a small change maybe backk again to trick yast into thinking a change was made then accept this should rewrite the grub boot code.

Also maybe check that there is a openSUSE directory in the EFI boot partition should see int that at /boot/efi

19

https://www.happyassassin.net/2014/01/25/uefi-boot-how-does-that-actually-work-then/

From the above:

  • If you can possibly manage it, have one OS per computer.

  • If you absolutely must have more than one OS per computer, at least have one OS per disk.

  • If you absolutely insist on having more than one OS per disk, understand everything written on this page, understand that you are making your life much more painful than it needs to be, lay in good stocks of painkillers and gin, and don’t go yelling at your OS vendor, whatever breaks. Whichever poor ******* has to deal with your OS’s support for this kind of setup has a miserable enough life already. And for the love of cookies, don’t mix UEFI-native and BIOS-compatible OS installations, you have enough pain to deal with already.