TUMBLEWEED Upgrade failed - No valid EFI partition found

English Install/Boot/Login
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Starting new thread that began in "TUMBLEWEED How to fix messed up Grub-loader, as requested. (Previous info in quote below.)

On a slight variation on the theme, I have just attempted an upgrade from 13.2 to Tumbleweed using the DVD, but at the end I received an error message indicating that the /usr/sbin/shim-install, config-file = /boot/grub2/grub.cfg had failed (Error 1) because there was no valid EFI partition and the system will not now boot.

I have found my way to the rescue system and have read the instructions regarding the grub loader in the link specified in this thread. However, I’m guessing that I need an EFI partition in which to put the grub.cfg file. Is this possible from the rescue system? Or am I dead in the water? Thanks.

Reply from Flux Capacitor Penguin.

Well was it originally EFI or MBR boot?? If this is a UEFI machine and not a BIOS based one then you may need to turn off secure boot for the install/upgrade. Assuming you need a EFI boot ( ie pervious system was EFI) then be sure to boot the installer in EFI mode if the old was booting MBR then you need to boot the installe in legacy mode. The EFI boot directory is a small generally under 100 meg FAT partition. If it does not exist then you were using MBR boot and you must do the upgrade in legacy mode ie NOT EFI mode. Need a lot more detail since we can’t see over your shoulder. Things like are you dual booting if so with what?

This should be recoverable but you need to share more info.

Really you should start a new thread

[HR][/HR]The system is (was) a single boot Harlequin version 13.2 on a BIOS based Intel Celeron platform with two SATA drives. One for normal system operation, the other dedicated for daily backups of the /home directory. From what has been said above, it appears that it was using an MBR boot. Sadly, while it’s easy to say that I should have attempted the upgrade in legacy mode, I don’t remember any such option appearing on the screen during the upgrade process with the DVD and was only presented with the EFI issue at the end of the install. Did I miss this vital piece of information? If so, would the fix be as simple as to re-run the upgrade, but in legacy mode?

Attempting to boot the system now only returns the message 'can’t find command ‘linuxefi’, etc.

fdisk -l command in rescue mode returns

/dev/sda1 2G Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda2 20G Linux
/dev/sda3 276G Linux

/dev/sdb1 931G Extended
/dev/sdb5 931G Linux

Thanks.

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Further to the above, I have attempted to re-run the upgrade, but receive the message from ‘ruby’ that the product installed is not compatible with the media I am using, although that was what I used to perform the upgrade. Perhaps it’s because its prime purpose is to upgrade 13.2 to Tumbleweed, whereas the system is now Tumbleweed.

In addition, I have booted the system using the DVD via the Boot Linux System menu option and am able to access my files and applications. So it appears that I just need to figure out how to restore the boot on the MBR.

Any assistance with this will be appreciated. Thanks.

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OK. So here’s an update.

Having gone around the houses a few times having incorrectly surmised that the bootloader and/or MBR was at fault, the apparent fix has been to remove the references to linuxefi and initrdefi in the /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file.

This was done by changing the directive in the /etc/default/grub file

GRUB_USE_LINUXEFI = “true” to “false”

and then running

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

to update the grub.cfg file.

On a general note regarding the Tumbleweed upgrade. I find it a little difficult to understand why there isn’t at least a mention in the upgrade notes that there’s a fundamental difference between legacy MBR and UEFI systems, so that this would be a point worthy of consideration during the process. Users rather than developers would then be able to look out for appropriate boot loader options during the upgrade and, hopefully, make the correct choices. Thanks.

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Adding a note there would probably be confusing to most users.

Typically, this isn’t an issue when upgrading. If you are upgrading an MBR system, normally it will stay MBR. If you are upgrading a UEFI system, normally it will stay UEFI.