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Update
Used boot-repair.
It insisted that my first SATA is "removable disk" - could not change it.
That is my current and ONLY OS actually working - makes me extra nervous.
Tryed "advance options" only to end up with "GPT error ..." and recommendation to "create BIOS GRUB partition" on SAME working HDD!
Recommenced Using Gparted! Did that already on the USB drive - and it is NOT on the USB drive.
I need to revisits that before doing next step.
Why modifying / building BIOS partition on working / booting drive ?
Not going to do that !
My next step will be to REMOVE ALL storage devices and run this boot-repair on the USB stick.
I understand there should be only ONE boot ( efi or not ) in the system - so USB stick will be it!
BTW - I am well aware HOW system F2 / F11 and ESC should work BEFORE anything else - IT DOES NOT work at all!
I try to remove / reinstall GRUB but the only effect is I cannot get into my PC (EFI) setup at all.
The GRUB version and what I get initially are NOT the same.
What do you mean by this? Are you saying you removed and then reinstalled grub using apt and now the grub version is different? If so that would explain why update-grub is creating a menu.lst instead of a grub.cfg. "
Code:
sudo apt install grub-efi
" to install grub to be used on an efi system. If you mean something else please explain in more detail.
as already been mentioned post the output of the boot-repair report
Last edited by colorpurple21859; 10-29-2018 at 09:22 PM.
Boot notes System setup - UEFI
Can access “setup” F2 /F11 only when FIRST (UEFI) boot option is “ubuntu”.
Selecting any other options - identified by HDD /USB drive names does not let F2/F11 work or makes reliable boot.
Multiple boot file
Multiple boot file generated by ? Boots after timeout ( 8sec) into working OS – located on sdc1 / sdc2.
Selecting other options loads / boots older OS and most of them do not work, just load “desktop”.
Boot-repair
TODO Identifies /boot/grub/grub.cfg and file which builds it. TODO This file has “multiple boot” entries – sometime not accessible via wireless keyboard , only via Ps2.
sudo apt install grub-efi
Generates some data about Linux version, however, when I later do sudo update / upgrade it removes what appears related stuff and generates same Linux data as before.
mixing legacy and efi on the same machine is sure to cause problems. From what I gather from your boot-repair info you have several drives that will only boot in legacy mode. When mixing the two will have to use f-keys to select which system to boot. Would suggest to boot all in legacy mode. For grub2 to install to disk in legacy mode have to have grub-i386pc installed. On gpt disk grub-i386pc requires a 1-2mb blank partition to install the boot code to.
grub-i386pc and grub-efi will not chainload each other, not sure about grub-legacy.
several system efi bios doesn't allow gpt disk to boot in legacy mode from system f-keys
Last edited by colorpurple21859; 10-30-2018 at 09:42 AM.
mixing legacy and efi on the same machine is sure to cause problems. From what I gather from your boot-repair info you have several drives that will only boot in legacy mode. When mixing the two will have to use f-keys to select which system to boot. Would suggest to boot all in legacy mode. For grub2 to install to disk in legacy mode have to have grub-i386pc installed. On gpt disk grub-i386pc requires a 1-2mb blank partition to install the boot code to.
grub-i386pc and grub-efi will not chainload each other, not sure about grub-legacy.
several system efi bios doesn't allow gpt disk to boot in legacy mode from system f-keys
I am really not concerned about "legacy" boots - they do not work anyway.
Ideally I would like to duplicate current working OS onto different HDD or USB - just to have a real backup / dual boot system. Don't care if EFI or legacy.
To do that I need to get minimum 500 GB USB stick.
My 2TB USB drive is half empty but it is too risky to try to make is as "second bootable OS" .
Your EFI partition should be marked as boot and esp, in GParted there are check boxes you need to check to enable this. Boot GParted or Ubuntu install medium which has GParted, open GParted, highlight sdc1 in the main window, click on the Partition tab at the top of the window, then click Manage Flags in the drop down menu and check to see that the check boxes are checked for boot and esp. Set the BIOS to boot sdc first the 465GB drive. THe grub.cfg file on this partition has entries for all your Ubuntu installs on the various drives/partitions. I expect you would be able to boot all the systems from this grub.cfg file. I have an efi install on one drive with several Legacy systems on the second drive and Grub has no problem booting all.
Is the Ubuntu install on sdc2, the EFI install the only one which boots? When you boot from the menu of this system, are you able to boot any other of the multiple Ubuntu 16.04 installs?
Your EFI partition should be marked as boot and esp,
it is and it works - no need to do what you are suggesting here - both EFI boot partitions and OS are fine as is
in GParted there are check boxes you need to check to enable this. Boot GParted or Ubuntu install medium which has GParted, open GParted, highlight sdc1 in the main window, click on the Partition tab at the top of the window, then click Manage Flags in the drop down menu and check to see that the check boxes are checked for boot and esp. Set the BIOS to boot sdc first the 465GB drive. THe grub.cfg file on this partition has entries for all your Ubuntu installs on the various drives/partitions. I expect you would be able to boot all the systems from this grub.cfg file. I have an efi install on one drive with several Legacy systems on the second drive and Grub has no problem booting all.
Is the Ubuntu install on sdc2, the EFI install the only one which boots? When you boot from the menu of this system, are you able to boot any other of the multiple Ubuntu 16.04 installs?
Yes,but they really do not work. For example I cannot get any text into terminal - the whole "window" is black.
Yes,but they really do not work. For example I cannot get any text into terminal - the whole "window" is black.
Does that mean your monitor screen is black when booting finishes on your 'secondary' Ubuntu installs OR, does it boot to the Desktop showing the standard Desktop icons and then when opening a terminal, you are unable to enter anything?
Does that mean your monitor screen is black when booting finishes on your 'secondary' Ubuntu installs OR, does it boot to the Desktop showing the standard Desktop icons and then when opening a terminal, you are unable to enter anything?
No _ I get normal desktop and yes cannot do anything on it.
.
When I "open " terminal I get black "window" , same when I open "System Setting" and cannot enter anything.
But as I said - it really does not matter.
If I delete all that extra OS junk I would get just ONE OS "GRUB setup' options.
Sorry - just surprised at the number of "disks" in your paste output.
Also, it wouldn't be usual to have a gpt partition table on a USB stick.
I did not mean to be snippy, but sometime innocent remarks get carried away...
I actually plugged all those USb sticks to see if any are recognized as EFI and just forgot about them
But it was not all in vain - these "cheap" sticks get pretty hot when plugged in for awhile.
I actually plugged all those USb sticks to see if any are recognized as EFI
on most systems a usb formatted as fat32 flagged as efi/EF00 and has an efi directory with an efi bootloader in the efi directory should be able to boot in efi mode. It doesn't really matter if it is msdos or gpt partition table. The same said usb will also boot in legacy mode if a bootloader is installed to the mbr of the usb.
If a distro boots in efi mode there will be a /sys/firmware/efi/*. not sure if this is true on an older distro that came out before the efi era.
what happens when you try to boot without all the usb plugged in.
edit:
not all efi firmware works the same way.
Some efi firmware requires that the boot loader file be in efi/boot directory on the efi partition and named as bootx64.efi. If your system is one of these then on the Linux system installed to your internal hard drive copy /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi ( this is assuming the efi partition is mounted to /boot/efi),
on a usb partition formatted as fat32 flagged efi/EF00 it would be /EFI/boot/bootx64.efi
some efi firmware systems require 32bit efi bootloaders
Last edited by colorpurple21859; 11-01-2018 at 12:15 PM.
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