[SOLVED] 2 SSDs each with EFI boot - 4 OS installs

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 07:14 AM

Older dell laptop using UEFI not legacy. Internal SSD and a removeable repurposed SSD connected with a USB3 adapter. UEFI boot order in bios setup shows Ubuntu, Windows, KDE Neon, Manjaro order. I could take a picture with phone if needed.

When external SSD is connected it boots to manjaro grub where I have ubuntu as default (I try). If extern not connected it does boot normally to ubuntu grub and I can choose windows or neon from that grub menu. But nothing I do short of using F12 for one-time boot will boot EFI on internal sda1 when external is connected: With external connected from within ubuntu on sda3:

Code:

$ Fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: Lexar SSD NS100 
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: 47F4F7C8-1323-4270-9F4C-59053B5DC8A5

Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048   1128447   1126400  550M EFI System
/dev/sda2    1128448 144488447 143360000 68.4G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda3  144488448 322303999 177815552 84.8G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4  322304000 411922431  89618432 42.7G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda5  411922432 500117503  88195072 42.1G Microsoft basic data


Disk /dev/sdb: 119.24 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors
Disk model: ITY4            
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: 5432592C-544D-42A2-BFA2-D201173B4EC7

Device         Start       End  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1       2048   1128447  1126400  550M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb2    1128448  73107455 71979008 34.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb3  165464064 250068991 84604928 40.3G Linux filesystem
/dev/sdb4   73107456 165464063 92356608   44G Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

sda2 - Win 10 daily but very light use
sda3 - kubuntu daily driver with data backed up regularly
sda4 - KDE Neon am trying it out daily pretty happy so far
sda5 - shared storage for linux and windows

Other info from within ubuntu:

Code:

$ dir /etc/grub.d
00_header        20_linux_xen        31_uefi-firmware  backup
05_debian_theme  21_memtest86+       35_fwupd          bin
10_linux         29_os-prober_proxy  40_custom         proxifiedScripts
11_linux_zfs     30_os-prober_proxy  41_custom         README

$ dir /etc/grub.d
# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT="Ubuntu"
#GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE="hidden"
GRUB_TIMEOUT="10"
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER="false"

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL="console"

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE="640x480"

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID="true"

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT="false"

See below I did update-grub afterward from ubuntu with external connected and it nagged about the btrfs but otherwise no errors. I even resorted to using that grub customizer (I know I know) to write to mbr. sdb2 - manjaro - just installed last night and I created efiboot partition sdb1 for it to use. And it has used (and what is with the btrfs from snapshot that live installer never told me about? I have no room for snapshots on a trial system!) No other weirdness but the machine continues to boot the external hard drive and find that efi first I guess.

Code:

$ sudo update-grub
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-15-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-15-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-14-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-14-generic
Memtest86+ needs a 16-bit boot, that is not available on EFI, exiting
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
Found Windows Boot Manager on /dev/sda1@/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
Found KDE neon 5.27 (22.04) on /dev/sda4
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.
Found Manjaro Linux (23.1.3) on /dev/sdb2
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

Here is some info from within manjaro on the external:

Code:

 sudo efibootmgr

BootCurrent: 0004
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0002,0004,0005
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,837bc813-8438-41e7-ba6b-f2af19d3949f,0x800,0x113000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d0000002c000100000010000000040000007fff0400
Boot0001* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,837bc813-8438-41e7-ba6b-f2af19d3949f,0x800,0x113000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0002* neon	HD(1,GPT,837bc813-8438-41e7-ba6b-f2af19d3949f,0x800,0x113000)/File(\EFI\neon\shimx64.efi)
Boot0004* Manjaro	HD(1,GPT,837bc813-8438-41e7-ba6b-f2af19d3949f,0x800,0x113000)/File(\EFI\Manjaro\grubx64.efi)
Boot0005* UEFI: Lexar SSD NS100 256GB, Partition 1	HD(1,GPT,3de1a57a-f04e-4771-b896-09c935589e6b,0x800,0x113000)/File(EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)0000424f


$ dir /etc/grub.d
00_header  20_linux_xen  30_uefi-firmware  41_snapshots-btrfs  README
10_linux   25_bli	 40_custom	   60_memtest86+
15_ostree  30_os-prober  41_custom	   60_memtest86+-efi

 GRUB boot loader configuration
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Manjaro"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash apparmor=1 security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Preload both GPT and MBR modules so that they are not missed
GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="part_gpt part_msdos"

# Uncomment to enable booting from LUKS encrypted devices
#GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y

# Set to 'countdown' or 'menu' to change timeout behavior,
# press ESC key to display menu.
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden

# Uncomment to use basic console
GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT=console

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command 'videoinfo'
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto

# Uncomment to allow the kernel use the same resolution used by grub
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

# Uncomment if you want GRUB to pass to the Linux kernel the old parameter
# format "root=/dev/xxx" instead of "root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/xxx"
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true

# Uncomment and set to the desired menu colors.  Used by normal and wallpaper
# modes only.  Entries specified as foreground/background.
GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-gray/black"
GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="green/black"

# Uncomment one of them for the gfx desired, a image background or a gfxtheme
#GRUB_BACKGROUND="/usr/share/grub/background.png"
GRUB_THEME="/usr/share/grub/themes/manjaro/theme.txt"

# Uncomment to get a beep at GRUB start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

# Uncomment to make GRUB remember the last selection. This requires
# setting 'GRUB_DEFAULT=saved' above.
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

# Uncomment to disable submenus in boot menu
#GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y

# Uncomment this option to enable os-prober execution in the grub-mkconfig command
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

# Uncomment to ensure that the root filesystem is mounted read-only so that
# systemd-fsck can run the check automatically. We use 'fsck' by default, which
# needs 'rw' as boot parameter, to avoid delay in boot-time. 'fsck' needs to be
# removed from 'mkinitcpio.conf' to make 'systemd-fsck' work.
# See also Arch-Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fsck#Boot_time_checking
#GRUB_ROOT_FS_RO=true

Thoughts? I have one more test spot open on the external and I still would like to try mint again but with the same name as kubuntu in EFI I think it is going to cause big problems even if I can force it to use external efiboot.

colorpurple21859 · 02-04-2024, 09:47 AM

Check device boot order in bios settings with external drive plugged in. After testing the installation of linux mint, regardless of what I did the installation would grab the internal esp partition. I didn’t try changing device boot order in bios settings. The only work around I was able to figure out is to unmount the internal esp partition and mount the external esp before the installer gets to the grub installation stage. This also requires after installation the editing of /etc/fstab to mount the correct esp partition during boot up.

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 10:44 AM

Boot order in BIOS setup screen is the same whether I have the drive plugged in or not. ubuntu, windows, neon, manjaro and UEFI firmware on the lexar (sda1). I don't see an option for the ocz (sba1)efiboot but is bootable obviously as it goes to manjaro's grub menu and I can choose any of the others there.

If I do get to installing mint again it wouldn't be until the buntus get their multiboot family act together. You can't have your customers trying out or just wanting a second flavour of a buntu on same machine but they are not able to because of that naming in EFI issue. People will just have to try out other offerings. I know so many that have multiple installs of debians, SUSEs, etc. I used to even have more than one flavour of PCLOS on one machine.

This new issue, I don't know what is making it boot a partition it is not recognizing to chose but rather by the manjaro /root in grub. Could be something peculiar to my firmware or a quirk of manjaro like that btrfs snapshot boot file I didn't ask for. I will pursue that in a manjaro forum.

colorpurple21859 · 02-04-2024, 10:51 AM

You don’t have a usb drive/key option in settings that can be moved after disk drive. This is in bios settings, not bios boot menu

wpeckham · 02-04-2024, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nishtya

Boot order in BIOS setup screen is the same whether I have the drive plugged in or not. ubuntu, windows, neon, manjaro and UEFI firmware on the lexar (sda1). I don't see an option for the ocz (sba1)efiboot but is bootable obviously as it goes to manjaro's grub menu and I can choose any of the others there.

If I do get to installing mint again it wouldn't be until the buntus get their multiboot family act together. You can't have your customers trying out or just wanting a second flavour of a buntu on same machine but they are not able to because of that naming in EFI issue. People will just have to try out other offerings. I know so many that have multiple installs of debians, SUSEs, etc. I used to even have more than one flavour of PCLOS on one machine.

This new issue, I don't know what is making it boot a partition it is not recognizing to chose but rather by the manjaro /root in grub. Could be something peculiar to my firmware or a quirk of manjaro like that btrfs snapshot boot file I didn't ask for. I will pursue that in a manjaro forum.

BIOS shows devices only, it knows nothing about operating systems or even partitions. IF you are seeing the operating system names you are at a later (higher) level than the BIOS. BTW: The Original BIOS knows nothing about GRUB, it knows how to IPL/Bootstrap from certain sectors of the first boot device with supported code in that location (called the MBR). EFI bios knows another location and can load from the MBR plus the records the MBR points to - generally the EFI partition data file.

What you report makes me suspect that you have not gotten down to the device priority level of the motherboard BIOS settings.

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

You don’t have a usb drive/key option in settings that can be moved after disk drive. This is in bios settings, not bios boot menu

I lose those options in UEFI mode. Only have those (CD, floppy, etc) if I chose legacy BIOS mode (CM?). This all UEFI. The USB configurations tab in setup has both options enabled for booting USB devices.

I will get a pic of the screen in boot tab of setup and what options are in there.

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 12:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wpeckham

What you report makes me suspect that you have not gotten down to the device priority level of the motherboard BIOS settings.

I am making an attempt to attach a picture of the BIOS setup screen for boot -sorry first time. I am not sure how many it is capable of displaying. There is an option to add (and delete - which I used when I removed an install) add fills in one string of a new screen and I need to supply other strings (not a clue but possibly be copied from a grub file?). I could go in there again and make some notes.

Trying to get to the heart of the matter why it is booting a removable rather than the internal? With the external unplugged it boots just fine to ubuntu's grub menu. Only when the external is plugged in does it jump to manjaro's on sdb1 bypassing sda1. Maybe it is a feature where they assumed that if you plug in a bootable external you did it to boot it? The laptop is close to ten years old.

colorpurple21859 · 02-04-2024, 01:06 PM

whats under advance boot options and/or system configuration?

yancek · 02-04-2024, 01:14 PM

Quote:

sdb2 - manjaro - just installed last night and I created efiboot partition sdb1 for it to use.

That is contradicted by the output of the fdisk command in your initial post which should show the filesystem type as fat32 and TYPE AS EFI System. Did you run fdisk before you installed manjaro again?

colorpurple21859 · 02-04-2024, 01:18 PM

post the contents of /etc/fstab of manjaro

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

whats under advance boot options and/or system configuration?

advance boot is just a screen to enable legacy mode roms and if you do your screen for bios sequence will change to old style booting device order.

Configuration is various and includes USB config to enable both USB support and supporting booting external.

Including a pic of the add option in UEFI boot order to add. Those strings in the middle are pre-populated and I really don't know where to fetch the rest or if it relevant to current behavior.

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 01:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

post the contents of /etc/fstab of manjaro

Code:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a device; this may
# be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices that works even if
# disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=5C3B-C536                            /boot/efi      vfat    umask=0077 0 2
UUID=41a1e6dd-91ca-48b8-983e-e23eb5ad66fb /              ext4    defaults,noatime 0 1

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

That is contradicted by the output of the fdisk command in your initial post which should show the filesystem type as fat32 and TYPE AS EFI System. Did you run fdisk before you installed manjaro again?

Yancek, I just noticed that. I am sure when I installed manjaro last night I used first gparted to format and set EFI and bootable, but then their installer's disk tool wanted to format and do it. I could've sworn I did fdisk right after install last night and it was fine. Didn't really double check when I ran it today for posting.

Next steps? I am enjoying trying out manjaro but we aren't going steady or anything not to mention I have to see about removing snapshot and whatever btrfs it got going there, as a matter of fact it was why I fdisked afterward to look for btrfs (I know nothing about snapshot, does it work on some virtual btrfs drive or something?) I can blow away everything but the one storage partition on there (sdb3) that has my backups from internal drive.

colorpurple21859 · 02-04-2024, 02:59 PM

also the output of:
sudo blkid

Nishtya · 02-04-2024, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by colorpurple21859

also the output of:
sudo blkid

run in manjaro

Code:

$ sudo blkid
/dev/sdb4: UUID="03bbc98f-896f-48a0-bae0-9d5cf82583d0" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="distro2" PARTUUID="5412002f-c05d-46a4-9066-9f3e1e009f63"
/dev/sdb2: UUID="41a1e6dd-91ca-48b8-983e-e23eb5ad66fb" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="distro1" PARTUUID="fb0b3751-0f44-4345-a536-0ba18274e26a"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="b85f0fc6-f8d4-4fa9-a456-1d9113a42e8f" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="backups" PARTUUID="bd816987-14ba-4829-92f0-f3f03557d0b2"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="5C3B-C536" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="837bc813-8438-41e7-ba6b-f2af19d3949f"
/dev/sda4: UUID="cf79ff43-f465-470d-87ab-b2f2768d6738" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="neon" PARTUUID="1160ade1-ea3b-f34a-b0a2-90929c81954e"
/dev/sda2: BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="5D50CF4C00248925" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="windows" PARTUUID="cf22048e-40ff-4165-96b5-773300230d77"
/dev/sda5: BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="6C77E6CD17EB6E6C" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Storage" PARTUUID="ee87faca-883f-4116-8d83-f59e2a013b3b"
/dev/sda3: UUID="dfbc7bcc-3573-4df6-8d67-1982f996a6f8" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTLABEL="Dell" PARTUUID="157ec81e-ec09-476d-869f-aec682b80471"
/dev/sda1: UUID="89E2-26CF" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="3de1a57a-f04e-4771-b896-09c935589e6b"

colorpurple21859 · 02-04-2024, 05:44 PM

That's odd all of the efibootmgr entries are from sdb1 except for this one:

Quote:

Boot0005* UEFI: Lexar SSD NS100 256GB, Partition 1HD(1,GPT,3de1a57a-f04e-4771-b896-09c935589e6b,0x800,0x113000)/File(EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)0000424f

Boot into ubuntu and post the output of sudo efibootmgr and sudo blkid