New install fails to boot

[rgietzen]

I’m attempting to install tumbleweed on my parents old Lenovo ThinkStation PC. I checked the basic requirements for hardware and it met them all, but it’s over 10 years old. The computer had Windows 7 on it, which has been out of support for some time. And they were open to moving to linux.

I used a bootable USB, which I know works well, because I just installed Tumbleweed on my computer. The install process seemed to go well, until the last step. I got the following error message in YaST2:

Execution of command “{{”/usr/sbin/shim-install",“–config-file=/boot/grub2/grub.cfg”]]" failed.
Exit code:5
Error output: Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.
Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device

When I try to boot, it goes to grub rescue.

After searching the forum I found some possible solutions, but non-worked. I booted from the USB and went into Yast Bootloader and unselected VRAM. That didn’t work. I also navigated into BIOS, but couldn’t find anything that would help.

Also, during install, I used the default suggestions for partitions. I figured it would erase the old files, but when I’m in the Live USB, I can mount the main hard-drive and see all the old files and Windows software is still there.

Could that be the problem? Do I need to remove Windows to have enough space? Any other ideas?

[myswtest]

@rgietzen

but when I’m in the Live USB, I can mount the main hard-drive and see all the old files and Windows software is still there.

Could that be the problem? Do I need to remove Windows to have enough space? Any other ideas?

I’d say it’s a space issue, based on the error (did you miss it?)

Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device

Did the installer suggest shrinking the Win partition?

If you don’t want Win7 anymore, I would blast away all its partitions and install using the whole drive.

[rgietzen]

There was no mention of the Win partition on install and no option to shrink it. I’m thinking the same as you are, just remove the old partitions in Partitioner and re-install. No need for it.

I didn’t at first realize the old partitions were still there and when I searched for solutions, it suggested the cause could be something else. It wasn’t until the end, that I realized they are still there.

But I like the way you are thinking. I’ll plan on this.

[malcolmlewis]

@rgietzen So are you using Legacy Boot or UEFI on this system? Check the system BIOS.

It could also be an NVRAM issue if booting in legacy and expecting UEFI…

[rgietzen]

I configured it to boot with UEFI.

[nrickert]

@rgietzen

Could not prepare Boot variable: No space left on device

There are two possibilities here.

One possibility is that you are short of space in the EFI partition. However, it only needs 2-3M of space, so this is unlikely. But if Windows was using UEFI booting, then you can try removing the Windows stuff from the EFI partition. I think that’s under directory “Microsoft”.

The other possibility, is that NVRAM is full. I’m not actually sure of how to clean that up.

[malcolmlewis]

@rgietzen and was it booting that way with windows 7? If not, need to check the disk to see it’s gpt and partitions (Boot from a live USB).

I would also look at the system BIOS and see if can manually delete entries there, or again from a live USB show the output from efibootmgr -v.

[rgietzen]

@nrickert

There are two possibilities here.

One possibility is that you are short of space in the EFI partition. However, it only needs 2-3M of space, so this is unlikely. But if Windows was using UEFI booting, then you can try removing the Windows stuff from the EFI partition. I think that’s under directory “Microsoft”.

The other possibility, is that NVRAM is full. I’m not actually sure of how to clean that up.

Hmm. Yeah, it seems less likely it is a space issue.

I did try disabling NVRAM, would that fix the problem if its full?

[rgietzen]

@malcolmlewis

nd was it booting that way with windows 7? If not, need to check the disk to see it’s gpt and partitions (Boot from a live USB).

I would also look at the system BIOS and see if can manually delete entries there, or again from a live USB show the output from efibootmgr -v.

For windows 7 the boot mode was “auto” and when I had troubles with this install, I switched it to “UEFI”. I’m not sure what “auto” was defaulting to.

I’m happy to grab that info when I go back to my parents home and post it here.

[nrickert]

@rgietzen

I did try disabling NVRAM, would that fix the problem if its full?

That probably won’t help. You could try resetting BIOS to factory defaults, to see if that helps. In the meantime, you should be able to use your install media to boot the system. Try the option “Boot hard drive”, and if that doesn’t do it there should be an option to boot linux system.

[rgietzen]

@nrickert

That probably won’t help. You could try resetting BIOS to factory defaults, to see if that helps. In the meantime, you should be able to use your install media to boot the system. Try the option “Boot hard drive”, and if that doesn’t do it there should be an option to boot linux system.

Yeah. I’m currently using it by booting from the flash drive. That’s not a long term solution though.

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll keep working at this.

[arvidjaar]

@nrickert

The other possibility, is that NVRAM is full. I’m not actually sure of how to clean that up.

NVidia: failed to enroll new keys but secure boot is enabled

Hi there, I’m facing a strange issue: when I install nvidia G05, as recommended by the nvidia website for my GTX 1070 Ti graphics card, the system freezes on boot and never asks me to enroll the keys. The only fix here is to rollback to the previous working version without nvidia installed. Some years ago, I had the nvidia drivers installed on this machine with OpenSuse Tumbleweed, but stopped upgrading it because I wasn’t doing any 3D stuff and maintaining nvidia was more hassle than it was wo…

[rgietzen]

@malcolmlewis

show the output from efibootmgr -v.

Any ideas what could be the fix with this info?:

tom@VM-PC:~> sudo efibootmgr -v
[sudo] password for root:
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002,0005,0003,0004
Boot0000* Hard Drive BBS(HD,0x0)2055534220466c617368204d656d6f7279312e303000
dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 20 55 53 42 20 46 6c 61 73 68 20 4d 65 6d 6f 72 79 31 2e 30 30 00
Boot0001* Network Card BBS(Network,0x0)49424120474520536c6f74203030433820763133363500
dp: 05 01 09 00 06 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 49 42 41 20 47 45 20 53 6c 6f 74 20 30 30 43 38 20 76 31 33 36 35 00
Boot0002* Hard Drive BBS(HD,0x0)50303a204869746163686920484453373231303530434c4133363020202000
dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 50 30 3a 20 48 69 74 61 63 68 69 20 48 44 53 37 32 31 30 35 30 43 4c 41 33 36 30 20 20 20 00
Boot0003* opensuse-secureboot HD(2,MBR,0x97be5b6a,0x35904800,0x81000)/File(\EFI\opensuse\shim.efi)
dp: 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 00 48 90 35 00 00 00 00 00 10 08 00 00 00 00 00 6a 5b be 97 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 04 04 32 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 6f 00 70 00 65 00 6e 00 73 00 75 00 73 00 65 00 5c 00 73 00 68 00 69 00 6d 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
Boot0004* UEFI: USB Flash Memory1.00 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/USB(1,0)/USB(4,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x5d73befd,0xbec,0x246c)
dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 1d / 03 05 06 00 01 00 / 03 05 06 00 04 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 ec 0b 00 00 00 00 00 00 6c 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 fd be 73 5d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 7f ff 04 00
Boot0005* CD/DVD Drive BBS(CDROM,0x0)50313a20484c2d44542d53544456442d52414d20474837304e202020202000
dp: 05 01 09 00 03 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 50 31 3a 20 48 4c 2d 44 54 2d 53 54 44 56 44 2d 52 41 4d 20 47 48 37 30 4e 20 20 20 20 20 00

[rgietzen]

[malcolmlewis]

@rgietzen does this system support secure boot?

[myswtest]

The NTFS partition (sda1) is still there, taking up 90+% of the space.

As with my first reply, get rid of it completely … there’s no room on the disk, which was shown in your orig post!

[rgietzen]

@malcolmlewis

does this system support secure boot?

I don’t see that option anywhere in BIOS. It’s an old PC. At least 13 years, but it was pretty good when it came out.

[rgietzen]

@hui

The space for the Tumbleweed Efi system partitition, 4.5MB, is way to small.

That makes sense. I need help fixing that. Can I do it with the live USB in?

[hui]

Sorry, it was my mistake. That “partition” is your installation media (USB-pen-drive)…so everything fine there…

[rgietzen]

Ah, right… Bummer. That would have been an easy fix