Grub not installing? Previous OS plymount

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Hi All, hope this finds you well!

I installed openSUSE Tumbleweed, and it doesn’t boot to openSUSE. The Plymouth splash is still displaying the previous OS (Fedora) with spinning progress icon but stalls, which I don’t understand. The only way I can actually boot to the OS if I interrupt the startup and select the boot device where the OS is installed, which is odd since I only have one HDD and I still see the previous OS (Fedora) as a selection.

These are the select boot device(s):
SATA 2: WDC
-Fedora
-UEFI OS
-opensuse
-opensuse-secureboot

After selecting openSUSE it boots fine, and I can sign in as normal.
The machine is a Lenovo Ideacenter 200.

I would really appreciate the help.

Thank you in advance

2

I have a Lenovo Thinkserver which behaves somewhat similarly.

I can set the boot order with “efibootmgr”. But the system ignores that, and reverts to the previous boot order. However, I can go into BIOS settings and change the boot order there.

3

Thanks for you help!

This is what I get from fdisk -l

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD5000LPVX-0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 164B512B-6A23-42DD-B4F0-1B1182AB3179

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 1230847 1228800 600M EFI System
/dev/sda2 1230848 3327999 2097152 1G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 3328000 972578815 969250816 462.2G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4 972578816 976773134 4194319 2G Linux swap



I see no boot device. shouldn't it have an * indicating boot device on one of those sda?
4

If you are using UEFI booting (as you appear to be), then booting works differently. It does not use the “active” partition flag.

To see the boot order, use the command:

efibootmgr

(run that as root). It should list the boot options, and list the boot preference order.

5

Some more information.

This is from a KVM virtual machine, using GPT partitioning:


# fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 50 GiB, 53687091200 bytes, 104857600 sectors
Disk model: QEMU HARDDISK   
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: 89282E03-D56D-473E-AE85-1D120BF9D351

Device       Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1     2048    616447    614400  300M EFI System
/dev/sda2   616448   1640447   1024000  500M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  1640448   2664447   1024000  500M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4  2664448 104857566 102193119 48.7G Linux LVM

That’s actually setup for legacy booting, with partition 2 as the “active” partition. But GPT partitioning (which you are using) is different, and there isn’t an actual “active” flag for a partition. As you can see, “fdisk” does not show an active partition.

I can, instead, use “parted”:

# parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA QEMU HARDDISK (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 53.7GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  316MB   315MB   fat32              boot, esp
 2      316MB   840MB   524MB   ext2               legacy_boot
 3      840MB   1364MB  524MB   ext2
 4      1364MB  53.7GB  52.3GB                     lvm

That shows a “legacy_boot” flag for partition 2, which is supposed to emulate the active flag. But “fdisk” does not show it, as you could see in the earlier output.

6

This is the output of efibootmgr

efibootmgr 
BootCurrent: 0006 
Timeout: 0 seconds 
BootOrder: 000E,000B,001E,0006,001C,001B,000D,0008,000C,0007,0005,0003,0004,0000,0002,0001,000A,0010 
Boot0000  Windows Boot Manager 
Boot0001  grub_uefi 
Boot0002  Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS 
Boot0003  Generic Usb Device 
Boot0004  CD/DVD Device 
Boot0005* arch 
Boot0006* opensuse 
Boot0007* Manjaro 
Boot0008* ubuntu 
Boot000A  Pop!_OS 20.10 
Boot000B* Fedora 
Boot000C* EndeavourOS 
Boot000D* debian 
Boot000E* opensuse-secureboot 
Boot0010  Pop!_OS 20.10 
Boot001B* UEFI: IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller 
Boot001C* UEFI: IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller 
Boot001E* UEFI OS
7

These are the outputs…

fdisk -l /dev/sda 
Disk /dev/sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors 
Disk model: WDC WD5000LPVX-0 
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes 
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes 
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes 
Disklabel type: gpt 
Disk identifier: 164B512B-6A23-42DD-B4F0-1B1182AB3179 
 
Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type 
/dev/sda1       2048   1230847   1228800   600M EFI System 
/dev/sda2    1230848   3327999   2097152     1G Linux filesystem 
/dev/sda3    3328000 972578815 969250816 462.2G Linux filesystem 
/dev/sda4  972578816 976773134   4194319     2G Linux swap 

rescue:~ # parted /dev/sda print 
Model: ATA WDC WD5000LPVX-0 (scsi) 
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB 
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B 
Partition Table: gpt 
Disk Flags:  
 
Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                  Flags 
 1      1049kB  630MB   629MB   fat32           EFI System Partition  boot, esp 
 2      630MB   1704MB  1074MB  ext4 
 3      1704MB  498GB   496GB   btrfs                                 legacy_boot 
 4      498GB   500GB   2147MB  linux-swap(v1)                        swap
8

I am such a dummy! All I had to do is switch from UEFI to Legacy.:embarrassed:

I am so sorry for wasting your time and I appreciate your help!

9

I’m glad things are now working to your liking. And thanks for reporting back.