No boot option available after attempted 42.3 Leap install

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

I recently attempted to install an Opensuse leap 42.3 installation on my new computer (Lenovo P51), and arrived at an issue. While the installation appeared to succeed without error, there is no grub menu available upon restart. Instead, it only opens up the Bios boot menu, and any choice of hard drive simply takes it back to the boot menu. However, if the installation medium is inserted and the boot hard drive option is selected, a grub with the Leap options are available, so it appears it installed correctly (though I couldn’t access Windows). The USB appears to only boot in Legacy mode.

My final partition customization appeared as (had to make a lot of adjustments because apparently it wanted to install on my usb instead of the free partition space)

/dev/sda-465.76 GiB
/dev/sda1-260.00 MiB- EFI boot-Fat
/dev/sda2-16 MiB-Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3-300 GiB-HPFS/NTFS-NTFS-Windows
/dev/sda4-4 GiB-swap-swap
/dev/sda5-50 GiB-root-btrfs-/
/dev/sda6-120 GiB-home-xfs-/home

I’m assuming the issue has to do with UEFI, but I am not sure how to fix it

#2

Are you sure you installed by booting the install media in EFI mode??

You should have grub2-efi as boot code the EFI boot partition should be mounted as /boot/efi if secure boot is on that box should be checked

If you see options along bottom of the installer first menu you booted in legacy mode

#3

Hi
Have to ask since it’s a Lenovo system, you haven’t installed Ub* 17.10 on it at some point?

If so, you may want to see;
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/21/ubuntu_lenovo_bios/
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1734147?comments=all

#4

I haven’t installed Ubuntu at all on this computer; I just got it a few days ago.

I haven’t been able to install the software using UEFI. Setting the installation to “boot UEFI only” causes it to ignore the USB installer. Only when Secure Boot is disabled, and UEFI and Legacy possibilities are selected does the installation boot.

#5

How did you create the install media?

#6

I tried two methods. The first was created using the suse image creator from my old computer. The other was created on the windows boot of the new computer using Rufus, with the gpt uefi boot option

#7

Image Creator should work but rufus may not depending on options.

from Windows best to use

https://www.osforensics.com/tools/write-usb-images.html

From Linux use dd or cp to copy the ISO direct to the device NOT a partition on the device

I us cp like this as root

cp pathtoiso /dev/sdX

where sdX is the USB device. You can see where it is registered with fdisk -l

You want a pure unmodified binary copy to the device

#8

My other computer is not a UEFI computer. Would that be an issue when generating the installation media in linux?

#9

Also, all USB ports are USB 3.0. I don’t know if this would be an issue (as I read somewhere that some people were having trouble installing on a 3.0 port and had to use a 2.0 port)

#10

No it is a pure binary copy to the device that works just about anything that does that will work

#11

USB3 may be an issue. Don’t know of solution :’(

#12

So I installed the iso using the cp method, and still the system goes to the forced boot menu and is unable to exit when I force UEFI only mode. However, I tested it on my old computer (a Lenovo W550s), which had Opensuse installed via legacy. When I change the option to UEFI only on that computer, the installation media boots up as desired. So it appears it was created correctly, but doesn’t seem to be detected on my current computer.

#13

Upon further examination, my old computer also only possesses usb 3.0 ports, so that shouldn’t be the issue. The only difference between the two computers is that the windows and linux were installed as legacy, and that the Uefi version is not up to date (last update was from 2015). It may be that I have to completely wipe my new computer and reinstall windows so I can actually boot to it, and then attempt to reinstall opensuse correctly, but I would prefer if that wasn’t necessarily (especially as I am unsure if it would help)

#14

You should not need to wipe anything just supply space to install to.

Be sure that secure boot is off on some machine it may interfere. Should be able to turn back on after instill If you really think you need it just be sure that secure boot box is checked

At exactly what point does the install fail? Do you get the first menu??

Is the UEFI (aka BIOS) up to date?

Note that different USB makers may make thing differently. Thus one USB3 may not be the same as another one

#15

As a brief summary of what happens (with secure boot off):

Plugging in USB will only boot it as a legacy media on my new computer (but boots uefi on the old computer). Forcing UEFI boots the computer to the Windows boot menu (choose device to boot) listing the USB and the hard drive as the two options; selecting either of them takes you back to the boot menu, and you are unable to do anything. So while the old computer can get to the UEFI installation menu, the P51 can’t (despite being the same installation media).

If booted as legacy, the installation goes (mostly) fine with no errors. However, it can only be booted if the USB is in and “boot from hard drive” is selected. This allows booting the Linux partition (as the Windows was installed using UEFI, it won’t appear). I believe the UEFI/BIOS on the new computer is the newest version (unless a new one was released in the past few days that I don’t know about).

#16

Hi
Is your windows install 64bit? System doesn’t have a 32bit UEFI setup…?

I would check for Lenovo BIOS updates since the bug listed above is still in play.

#17

So, I updated BIOS to the newest version (updated from 1.16 to 1.17), but it made no difference. OS is definitely 64 bit.

I found someone with an identical problem to me posted a few months ago (https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/527643-Problems-booting-on-Lenovo-P51), but there did not seem to be any real solution that was found then.

#18

Hi
You may have to install everything in legacy (mbr) booting…

If you go the Lenovo web site, you should be able to get a free restore image sent to you, else download an iso image direct from Microsoft…

Can you try a Tumbleweed rescue or live image and see if that boots?

Only use imagewriter or dd for the image.

If you use dd, then make sure you clean out the USB device with wipefs, for example if you device is sdb;


wipefs -a /dev/sdb2
wipefs -a /dev/sdb1
wipefs -a /dev/sdb

imagewriter

or

dd if=openSUSE-Leap-42.3-DVD-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdb
sync