Dual uefi boot, lost "ubuntu" option after booting windows

[Annoyingduck]

I installed mint successfully using this guide http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2014/06/11/ho ... -firmware/ on my dell machine with uefi. The system booted up fine with the grub menu appearing and giving me the option to boot into ubuntu or windows boot manager in uefi boot (bootloader installed on the efi partition in accordance to the guide). After setting everything up completely I needed to run windows and that's where I lost the option to boot back into Mint. The "ubuntu" option is just gone, there is nothing listed anywhere in the bios or boot order to get me back into it. Searching endlessly is showing "fixes" that I just don't think pertain to my issue. How can I get the ubuntu uefi boot option to appear again? Do I need to start all over or is there an easy way to get back into the already fully set up Linux system?

[wayne128]

If you are very sure your installation for BOTH Windows and Linux OSes are in UEFI mode,

then, two common ways to regain boot manager, as srs5694 has posted

boot repair, or rEFInd boot manager

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 67#p874202

[Annoyingduck]

If you are very sure your installation for BOTH Windows and Linux OSes are in UEFI mode,

then, two common ways to regain boot manager, as srs5694 has posted

boot repair, or rEFInd boot manager

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 67#p874202

Thanks, I'll look into those options later when I get home. I really curious to know why this happened to help me understand what the "fix" is actually doing. As I said the installation seemed flawless. I did read (after this mess happened!) that using unetbootin can mess up the efi boot installation. Do you happen to know of a better guide for uefi installing along side with win 8.1? I may just wipe the install and start over if the fixes fail.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[mr_raider]

Bot frm the live usb and post the output of:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

[Annoyingduck]

Bot frm the live usb and post the output of:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

Ok, won't be until I'm home later, but how do I run as root booting from the USB? I tried to do the update grub option, but root password is not set up booting from usb...

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[mr_raider]

Bot frm the live usb and post the output of:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

Ok, won't be until I'm home later, but how do I run as root booting from the USB? I tried to do the update grub option, but root password is not set up booting from usb...

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

You are automatically root in live USB. the update grub command will not work in the default live usb environment. You need to designate a root system with the chroot command.

For future reference, this is the proper way to fix grub from the live cd

http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair-re ... tu-live-cd

[Annoyingduck]

Bot frm the live usb and post the output of:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

Ok, won't be until I'm home later, but how do I run as root booting from the USB? I tried to do the update grub option, but root password is not set up booting from usb...

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

You are automatically root in live USB. the update grub command will not work in the default live usb environment. You need to designate a root system with the chroot command.

For future reference, this is the proper way to fix grub from the live cd

http://howtoubuntu.org/how-to-repair-re ... tu-live-cd

My grub is installed on the efi partition though, I'm not seeing that option in that guide. And anytime I try to run the sudo command from the live usb I get a password prompt.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[mr_raider]

That should not happen.

1. re download and recreate your live usb.

2.At boot up make sure you boot in EFI mode. You should see only a black background with a two line grub menu.

3 the mint usb root password is usually blank. The user is mint.

4. If none of that works, use a corresponding Ubuntu live CD.

[Annoyingduck]

Bot frm the live usb and post the output of:

Code: Select all

sudo efibootmgr -v

ok, that code kicked back efibootmgr command not found

[Annoyingduck]

Update: running boot repair via live session has returned my grub menu and I have been able to boot back into Linux. Now here is the issue, in the bios under uefi is set to Ubuntu, windows is not there (see screen). I think the same thing is going to happen if I chose windows from grub. How do I prevent losing that option? [img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/24/heduqubu.jpg[/img][img]http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/06/24/uva8e2aj.jpg[/img]

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[Annoyingduck]

So yes, as expected. Once I boot windows, I again lose the option to enter grub, only windows boot manager appears, not Ubuntu. What is going on here?

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[Annoyingduck]

Next update...so this time I created a uefi bootable usb stick with the Refined program. This worked wonderfully as in my boot screen (pressing f12) listed under uefi boot was "windows boot manager" and The usb stick with Refined on it. This allowed me to boot into my installed Mint without any issue. After booting into Linux, I set up the PPA for Refined and installed it. It auto set itself up to be the default boot manager. Upon reboot Refined took over and all was well - until.......I chose Windows from Refined. Windows booted as it should, but again on reboot Windows took over control of the uefi boot - there is no longer the option to boot into Refined. It does not appear in the Bios at all. So i then went back to the bootable usb stick with Refined on it and I was able to again boot back into Linux. So as of now I am able to dual boot correctly - well, sort of...if I boot into Windows at all, I need to use the usb drive to get back into Linux as I cannot find any other way to do it through the boot menu or through the bios.

My big question now is why does booting windows cause the efi boot partition to revert back to Windows alone without any option to boot Linux? I keep seeing in my searches to check to seed if there is an option in bios to allow other non-MS os's, but I'm not seeing any option like that. My machine is a Dell inspiron 660s. Is there an option in Refined to fix whatever issue this is? Has anyone seen or heard of this? Right now I am thinking that this is an issue with my bios, not with the install as everything seems to be ok.

Thanks again with all the help and input. What a great community! I really do want to get this figured out, especially now that I have been introduced to this Refined boot manager. That program is great and would really like it to work without having to use an external usb drive anytime I decide to run Windows 8.1.

[wayne128]

My big question now is why does booting windows cause the efi boot partition to revert back to Windows alone without any option to boot Linux? I keep seeing in my searches to check to seed if there is an option in bios to allow other non-MS os's, but I'm not seeing any option like that. My machine is a Dell inspiron 660s. Is there an option in Refined to fix whatever issue this is? Has anyone seen or heard of this? Right now I am thinking that this is an issue with my bios, not with the install as everything seems to be ok.

the behaviour you descibe seems to suggest your win8.1 is not 'fully shutdown',
perhaps it was in hybernation or suspend mode.
on next reboot, win8.1 would resume from suspend and thus there is no chance for you to get into the boot menu.

can you check Win8.1 setting, and attempt to shutdown fully?

there is one important thing at this point, hitting the f12 key immediately upon reboot would get you into the boot menu, that allows you to choose Windows boot manager, rEFInd or ( if installed properly another one that is ubuntu or linuxmint or whatever your future linux distros installed in UEFI mode).
if you can always get this to work, you can then by OK to boot into your choiced OS.

[Annoyingduck]

My big question now is why does booting windows cause the efi boot partition to revert back to Windows alone without any option to boot Linux? I keep seeing in my searches to check to seed if there is an option in bios to allow other non-MS os's, but I'm not seeing any option like that. My machine is a Dell inspiron 660s. Is there an option in Refined to fix whatever issue this is? Has anyone seen or heard of this? Right now I am thinking that this is an issue with my bios, not with the install as everything seems to be ok.

the behaviour you descibe seems to suggest your win8.1 is not 'fully shutdown',
perhaps it was in hybernation or suspend mode.
on next reboot, win8.1 would resume from suspend and thus there is no chance for you to get into the boot menu.

can you check Win8.1 setting, and attempt to shutdown fully?

there is one important thing at this point, hitting the f12 key immediately upon reboot would get you into the boot menu, that allows you to choose Windows boot manager, rEFInd or ( if installed properly another one that is ubuntu or linuxmint or whatever your future linux distros installed in UEFI mode).
if you can always get this to work, you can then by OK to boot into your choiced OS.

How do I go about checking to see if windows is or is not fully shutting down? I did disable quick boot before installing Mint though. Now what you said about f12 is correct, but again my issue is that if I boot into windows at all, any other uefi boot options disappear. In-fact there is only ever 1 option, either windows boot manager or Ubuntu or the Refined boot manager...never 2 options unless I have the Refined usb stick mounted. Once I boot into Mint, I can run Refined or the Ubuntu boot repair tool and the Refined or Grub menu will appear automatically on a reboot giving me the normal boot options (Ubuntu, Ubuntu safe mode, bios, or windows boot manager). Staying with Linux booting, everything works as it should, but as soon as I run windows, I loose all available options other than "windows boot manager". The only way for me to boot Linux is either by using the Refined usb, or by booting the mint Live usb and installing Refined (again), or by running the Ubuntu boot repair tool (again). No matter what I do, if I run windows at all it becomes the default boot, without any other option other than what I just described. I am definitely not familiar with efi booting or what I need to fix to have a grub menu or Refined menu appear automatically without manually hitting f12 and using the usb stick to boot refined or the live disk.

[mr_raider]

Simply put you have a half baked uefi implementation. Your motherboard doesn't store the boot priorities properly, and reverts back to windows whenever it can.

I'm not aware of any simple solution to the problem. Perhaps try posting in the uefi thread where the creator of refind can maybe help you.

He will most certainly want to see the results of the efibootmgr command above. Just install it using

sudo apt-get install efibootmgr

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[mr_raider]

Oh by the way, what is your motherboard? The maker deserves a big L on their forehead.

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[Annoyingduck]

Oh by the way, what is your motherboard? The maker deserves a big L on their forehead.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Ha, a big yes to that!! Not sure on the exact motherboard, but a search shows that it shipped originally with an intel B75 panther point chipset. My processor is a pentium. I'll definitely get that info and post over in his thread.

[srs5694]

I agree with mr_raider: Your firmware implementation is buggy. I suggest you try the following, in more-or-less the following order:

1. Look for a firmware update from your manufacturer. (They'll probably call it a "BIOS update" even though it's not really a BIOS.) If you find one, install it. Note that this may require using "efibootmgr" to reset a default boot program.
2. In Windows, open an Administrator Command Prompt window and type "bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi" (or change the pathname as necessary, or change "refind_x64.efi" to "shimx64.efi" if you're booting with Secure Boot active via shim).
3. If the computer is new enough and neither of the above works, return it to the store for a refund. It's defective and should be treated as such.
4. You could try renaming your preferred boot program (GRUB or rEFInd) as if it were the Windows boot loader. I describe this for rEFInd specifically here, but the principles hold for other boot loaders. Boot Repair has an option to do this on its Advanced page.
5. Convert from EFI-mode to BIOS-mode booting. This will require converting the disk from GPT to MBR and re-installing at least the boot loaders for both OSes. (If you're unfamiliar with such operations, re-installing the OSes may be easier than dealing with their boot loaders.)

[Annoyingduck]

I agree with mr_raider: Your firmware implementation is buggy. I suggest you try the following, in more-or-less the following order:

1. Look for a firmware update from your manufacturer. (They'll probably call it a "BIOS update" even though it's not really a BIOS.) If you find one, install it. Note that this may require using "efibootmgr" to reset a default boot program.
2. In Windows, open an Administrator Command Prompt window and type "bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi" (or change the pathname as necessary, or change "refind_x64.efi" to "shimx64.efi" if you're booting with Secure Boot active via shim).
3. If the computer is new enough and neither of the above works, return it to the store for a refund. It's defective and should be treated as such.
4. You could try renaming your preferred boot program (GRUB or rEFInd) as if it were the Windows boot loader. I describe this for rEFInd specifically here, but the principles hold for other boot loaders. Boot Repair has an option to do this on its Advanced page.
5. Convert from EFI-mode to BIOS-mode booting. This will require converting the disk from GPT to MBR and re-installing at least the boot loaders for both OSes. (If you're unfamiliar with such operations, re-installing the OSes may be easier than dealing with their boot loaders.)

In my bios setup screen I was able to change the uefi default boot to the Refind usb drive and the option is sticking (as opposed to the efi installed version). This is currenty working perfectly as long as the drive is connected. Booting windows, or Linux does not wipe this setting. So essentially Refined is working as it "should", just through the usb drive. Are there any reasons for me to get into what you just described or are there any negatives that could cause issues from me just using the usb installed Refind? The computer is also 3 years old, so a return is out of the question. I'll look into the firmware update in the meantime.

[Annoyingduck]

Also it does look like I have a bios/firmware update available. If I boot into Windows and install the updates (there are several including wifi/usb/graphics/bios/and full firmware) will I lose my ability to boot into linux or run the risk of losing my current linux set up? Or will I just lose my Linux boot ability, not the full os?