Toshiba dualboot install: Windows not here, and other worries...

[pit38]

Hi from France (sorry for my poor English).
I performed a search to find if there was already a similar situation described but nothing found except some for which only Windows starts, the opposite of the problem.
The machine is a Toshiba Portege R930 L, 64 bits, purchased in 2012 or 2013, with Windows 8 Pro installed in UEFI GPT mode on a unique drive 128 Gb SSD (RAM 8 Gb).
Two years ago he replaced the SSD by a new one with 500 Gb and upgraded to Windows 10

Hereafter the chronological story.
Thru the phone, I helped a friend of mine to install Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon alongside Windows 10 (with manual definition of the partitions), I hung up the phone after the installer began the slide show.
But he called me back later because, after removing the USB tick, at restart, he got a BIOS message, displayed in the middle of a blank screen, in a sort of boot loop with something like ‘reset …….. ‘ (exact message not written down).
Panicked, he had pressed several keys on the keyboard (maybe Esc? He doesn't remember), the loop stopped, and he saw a line offering to launch Ubuntu which he agreed to.
Then Linux Mint started and it works, he could connect to the net and run several programs !
But after shutdown and restart, no Grub menu showed up, so no possibility to select Windows. instead he got a message saying "system boot order not found, init ... etc ...." and after awhile, Linux Mint 20 was here again and he was able to use it, connect to the internet, etc.

Today he tried to start from the USB live stick = no way, getting a msg ‘system boot order not found’ and Linux Mint, the one from the SSD, started.
As I was not in front of the screen during the install I certainly missed one point !

Last time I installed a manual Linux dual boot was with Linux Mint 18.

I asked him to install GParted in order to view the partitions with this tool : every thing looks OK, Windows, Linux and EFI are displayed normally, with EFI marked as boot esp.
Then I asked him to install boot-info from the yannubuntu PPA repository, to perform a sudo boot-info and to email me the report.
Here after the report.

Code: Select all

boot-info-4ppa130                                              [20211206_1607]

============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================

 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
 => No known boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb.

sda1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 

sda2: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /boot/bcd

sda3: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /efi/Boot/bootx64.efi /efi/Boot/fbx64.efi 
                       /efi/Boot/mmx64.efi /efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi 
                       /efi/ubuntu/mmx64.efi /efi/ubuntu/shimx64.efi 
                       /efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg /efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi 
                       /efi/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi 
                       /efi/Microsoft/Boot/memtest.efi 
                       /efi/toshiba/Boot/bootmgfw.efi 
                       /efi/toshiba/Boot/bootmgr.efi 
                       /efi/toshiba/Boot/memtest.efi

sda4: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  Windows 8 or 10
    Boot files:        /bootmgr /Windows/System32/winload.exe

sda5: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda6: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ntfs
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: NTFS
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        

sda8: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Operating System:  Linux Mint 20.2
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /etc/default/grub

sdb1: __________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  Windows 8/2012: FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /boot/grub/grub.cfg /syslinux.cfg 
                       /efi/BOOT/grubx64.efi /efi/BOOT/mmx64.efi


================================ 2 OS detected =================================

OS#1:   L'OS actuellement utilisé - Linux Mint 20.2 CurrentSession on sda8
OS#2:   Windows 8 or 10 on sda4

============================ Architecture/Host Info ============================

CPU architecture: 64-bit
BOOT_IMAGE of the installed session in use:
/boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-74-generic root=UUID=6565bd7f-6b9d-4035-bd5c-68ebab3ae43f ro quiet splash


===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS is EFI-compatible, and is setup in EFI-mode for this installed-session.
SecureBoot disabled.

efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0006,0000,0007,0004,0002,0001
Boot0000* HDD/SSD	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Ata(0,0,0)
Boot0001* ODD	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Ata(0,1,0)
Boot0002* Réseau2	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x19,0x0)/MAC(b86b2306df14,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)
Boot0003* LAN1	BBS(128,pÿ,0x0)........................A..............................................
Boot0004* Réseau1	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x19,0x0)/MAC(b86b2306df14,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)
Boot0005* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,a105763d-548e-11e6-be05-e1656dea53c8,0xe1800,0x82000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot0006* ubuntu	HD(3,GPT,f92ac982-a7dc-4215-a4e2-4d1f0300aeef,0x121800,0x82000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0007* Mémoire USB	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(0,0)

78415fb8fb9b909f8029858113f1335f   sda3/Boot/bootx64.efi
2895d47544fd587b26c7e29be1295c27   sda3/Boot/fbx64.efi
dc3c47be2f78a78e5e57d097ae6c5c84   sda3/Boot/mmx64.efi
fa1bf1a7f90a852abe0bdbd089b7f1b0   sda3/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
dc3c47be2f78a78e5e57d097ae6c5c84   sda3/ubuntu/mmx64.efi
78415fb8fb9b909f8029858113f1335f   sda3/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
5ea2a8de5988cfe6e71dfad0cffc76d5   sda3/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
740724df8ea1e0442c21b4d7da939632   sda3/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgr.efi
dbed1f7ed9e19e53bfc7f43122ce3d83   sda3/toshiba/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
f7823e3314dc3c4d83fc44abef7f0046   sda3/toshiba/Boot/bootmgr.efi
96a59e7186f7ab840bdc92ba47b89947   sdb1/BOOT/grubx64.efi
4487628005555bfd4a4c0a47211e0700   sdb1/BOOT/mmx64.efi
f7a57b08bc7c1c85417ae4cea582d1d4   sdb1/BOOT/BOOTx64.efi


============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

sda	: is-GPT,	no-BIOSboot,	has---ESP, 	not-usb,	not-mmc, has-os,	34 sectors * 512 bytes
sdb	: is-GPT,	no-BIOSboot,	has-noESP, 	liveusb,	not-mmc, no-os,	2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

sda8	: is-os,	64, apt-get,	signed grub-pc grub-efi ,	grub2,	grub-install,	grubenv-ok,	update-grub,	farbios
sda2	: no-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	not-far
sda3	: no-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	not-far
sda4	: is-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	farbios
sda5	: no-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	farbios
sda6	: no-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	farbios
sdb1	: no-os,	32, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	not-far

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

sda8	: isnotESP,	fstab-has-goodEFI,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot
sda2	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	recovery-or-hidden,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot
sda3	: is---ESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot
sda4	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	haswinload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	bootmgr,	notwinboot
sda5	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	recovery-or-hidden,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot
sda6	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	recovery-or-hidden,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot
sdb1	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

sda8	: not-sepboot,	with-boot,	fstab-without-boot,	not-sep-usr,	with--usr,	fstab-without-usr,	std-grub.d,	sda
sda2	: not-sepboot,	no-boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	std-grub.d,	sda
sda3	: not-sepboot,	no-boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	std-grub.d,	sda
sda4	: not-sepboot,	no-boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	std-grub.d,	sda
sda5	: not-sepboot,	no-boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	std-grub.d,	sda
sda6	: not-sepboot,	no-boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	std-grub.d,	sda
sdb1	: not-sepboot,	no-kernel,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	std-grub.d,	sdb

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk sda: 447.13 GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Disk identifier: 7A5F383D-35C2-4C38-87D7-7266F1101735
          Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
sda1         34    262177    262144   128M Microsoft reserved
sda2     264192   1185791    921600   450M Windows recovery environment
sda3    1185792   1718271    532480   260M EFI System
sda4    1718272 375791615 374073344 178.4G Microsoft basic data
sda5  905547776 906686463   1138688   556M Windows recovery environment
sda6  907094016 929304575  22210560  10.6G Windows recovery environment
sda8  375791616 502745087 126953472  60.5G Linux filesystem
Partition table entries are not in disk order.
Disk sdb: 30 GiB, 32212254720 bytes, 62914560 sectors
Disk identifier: 476F8565-0D79-41CC-A1DE-D946AE5C967A
      Start      End  Sectors Size Type
sdb1   2048 62914526 62912479  30G Microsoft basic data

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:480GB:scsi:512:512:gpt:ATA KINGSTON SA400S3:;
1:17.4kB:134MB:134MB:::msftres;
2:135MB:607MB:472MB:ntfs::diag;
3:607MB:880MB:273MB:fat32::boot, esp;
4:880MB:192GB:192GB:ntfs::msftdata;
8:192GB:257GB:65.0GB:ext4::;
5:464GB:464GB:583MB:ntfs::diag;
6:464GB:476GB:11.4GB:ntfs::diag;
sdb:32.2GB:scsi:512:512:gpt:Generic Flash Disk:;
1:1049kB:32.2GB:32.2GB:fat32:Main Data Partition:msftdata;

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME   FSTYPE UUID                                 PARTUUID                             LABEL       PARTLABEL
sda                                                                                                 
├─sda1                                             c97e2ae7-43a8-440d-9ac8-c97e01095cb7             
├─sda2 ntfs   032E318C9FE9854E                     1e1e6b36-66fa-4e76-97f6-338392898763 System      
├─sda3 vfat   D208-8CFA                            f92ac982-a7dc-4215-a4e2-4d1f0300aeef (I)         
├─sda4 ntfs   764C076AE3B81E8D                     02f3f33d-4e00-4d07-aa3d-4f31fccc7ab7 TI31052500B 
├─sda5 ntfs   B66515F81F491787                     e55e679e-44eb-4626-8e3a-d30998f7ff20             
├─sda6 ntfs   CD682501C5D8E244                     ca83028c-f912-46a8-a128-62067e7567a9 Recovery    
└─sda8 ext4   6565bd7f-6b9d-4035-bd5c-68ebab3ae43f a0370ae3-983c-4e3b-b2f2-9883ffbff7ea             
sdb                                                                                                 
└─sdb1 vfat   AAC1-F9B8                            13b24319-3f2b-4390-87a2-9876cfcbe629 LINUX MINT  Main Data Partition

df (filtered): _________________________________________________________________

       Avail Use% Mounted on
sda2   103.3M  77% /mnt/boot-sav/sda2
sda4    49.1G  72% /mnt/boot-sav/sda4
sda5    1004K 100% /mnt/boot-sav/sda5
sda6   649.3M  94% /mnt/boot-sav/sda6
sda8    46.9G  16% /
sdb1      28G   7% /mnt/boot-sav/sdb1

Mount options: __________________________________________________________________

sda2   rw,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096
sda4   rw,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096
sda5   rw,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096
sda6   rw,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,allow_other,blksize=4096
sda8   rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro
sdb1   rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro

===================== sda3/efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

search.fs_uuid 6565bd7f-6b9d-4035-bd5c-68ebab3ae43f root hd0,gpt8 
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg

====================== sda8/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon   6565bd7f-6b9d-4035-bd5c-68ebab3ae43f
Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon, with Linux 5.4.0-74-generic   6565bd7f-6b9d-4035-bd5c-68ebab3ae43f
Windows Boot Manager (on sda3)   osprober-efi-D208-8CFA
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
UEFI Firmware Settings   uefi-firmware
### END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware ###

========================== sda8/etc/fstab (filtered) ===========================

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda8 during installation
UUID=6565bd7f-6b9d-4035-bd5c-68ebab3ae43f /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=D208-8CFA  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

======================= sda8/etc/default/grub (filtered) =======================

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
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=""

==================== sda8: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)
 213.422611237 = 229.160783872  boot/grub/grub.cfg                             1
 184.092987061 = 197.668339712  boot/vmlinuz                                   1
 184.092987061 = 197.668339712  boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-74-generic                  1
 184.319183350 = 197.911216128  boot/initrd.img                                3
 184.319183350 = 197.911216128  boot/initrd.img-5.4.0-74-generic               3
 184.319183350 = 197.911216128  boot/initrd.img.old                            3

===================== sda8: ls -l /etc/grub.d/ (filtered) ======================

-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 17622 mai   20  2021 10_linux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 42359 mai   20  2021 10_linux_zfs
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12894 mai   20  2021 20_linux_xen
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12059 mai   20  2021 30_os-prober
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  1424 mai   20  2021 30_uefi-firmware
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   214 mai   20  2021 40_custom
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   216 mai   20  2021 41_custom

====================== sdb1/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================

Start Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon 64-bit
Start Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon 64-bit (compatibility mode)
OEM install (for manufacturers)
Check the integrity of the medium

========================= sdb1/syslinux.cfg (filtered) =========================

DEFAULT loadconfig

LABEL loadconfig
  CONFIG /isolinux/isolinux.cfg
  APPEND /isolinux/

==================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)
            ?? = ??             boot/grub/grub.cfg                             1

================== sdb1: Location of files loaded by Syslinux ==================

           GiB - GB             File                                 Fragment(s)
            ?? = ??             syslinux.cfg                                   1


======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =========================

Unknown MBR on /dev/sdb

00000000  41 4b 45 4f fc 31 c0 fa  8e d0 bc 00 7c fb 8e d8  |AKEO.1......|...|
00000010  bb 13 04 8b 07 83 e8 04  89 07 c1 e0 06 8e c0 b7  |................|
00000020  07 b8 7f 00 cd 10 31 db  31 c9 ba 4f 18 b8 00 06  |......1.1..O....|
00000030  cd 10 31 d2 b4 02 cd 10  b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 72  |..1......A..U..r|
00000040  27 81 fb 55 aa 75 21 f7  c1 01 00 74 1b 66 31 c0  |'..U.u!....t.f1.|
00000050  66 50 6a 22 06 66 50 6a  08 6a 10 89 e6 b4 42 cd  |fPj".fPj.j....B.|
00000060  13 9f 83 c4 10 9e eb 0d  b8 08 02 b9 23 00 ba 80  |............#...|
00000070  00 31 db cd 13 bb 07 00  72 0b 31 f6 8c c0 8e d8  |.1......r.1.....|
00000080  e8 3f 00 eb 06 be 17 7d  e8 37 00 31 c0 8e d8 be  |.?.....}.7.1....|
00000090  63 7d e8 2d 00 e8 1d 00  b4 01 cd 16 75 08 b4 02  |c}.-........u...|
000000a0  cd 16 24 04 74 f2 31 c0  8e d8 b8 34 12 a3 73 04  |..$.t.1....4..s.|
000000b0  ea 00 00 ff ff b4 01 cd  16 74 06 b4 00 cd 16 e2  |.........t......|
000000c0  f4 c3 ac 3c 00 74 4f 3c  0d 74 f7 3c 0a 75 10 53  |...<.tO<.t.<.u.S|
000000d0  b4 03 cd 10 fe c6 b2 00  b4 02 cd 10 5b eb e3 3c  |............[..<|
000000e0  5c 75 1c b1 02 ac 3c 46  7f d8 2c 30 3c 09 7e 02  |\u....<F..,0<.~.|
000000f0  2c 07 c0 e3 04 24 0f 08  c3 fe c9 75 e8 eb c3 b9  |,....$.....u....|
00000100  01 00 b4 09 cd 10 53 31  db b4 03 cd 10 fe c2 b4  |......S1........|
00000110  02 cd 10 5b eb ac c3 0d  0a 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |...[.....       |
00000120  20 20 20 20 20 20 5c 30  34 2a 2a 2a 20 45 52 52  |      \04*** ERR|
00000130  4f 52 3a 20 54 48 49 53  20 4d 45 44 49 41 20 43  |OR: THIS MEDIA C|
00000140  41 4e 4e 4f 54 20 42 4f  4f 54 20 49 4e 20 4c 45  |ANNOT BOOT IN LE|
00000150  47 41 43 59 20 4d 4f 44  45 20 2a 2a 2a 5c 30 37  |GACY MODE ***\07|
00000160  0d 0a 00 0d 0a 0d 0a 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  |.......         |
00000170  20 20 20 20 5c 37 30 50  6c 65 61 73 65 20 72 65  |    \70Please re|
00000180  6d 6f 76 65 20 74 68 69  73 20 6d 65 64 69 61 20  |move this media |
00000190  61 6e 64 20 70 72 65 73  73 20 61 6e 79 20 6b 65  |and press any ke|
000001a0  79 20 74 6f 20 72 65 62  6f 6f 74 5c 30 37 00 00  |y to reboot\07..|
000001b0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001c0  02 00 ee fe ff 4b 01 00  00 00 ff ff ff ff 00 00  |.....K..........|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001e0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200


=============================== StdErr Messages ================================

File descriptor 63 (pipe:[64595]) leaked on lvs invocation. Parent PID 17374: /bin/bash

Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of
sda8,
using the following options:        sda3/boot/efi,
Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s win-legacy-basic-fix use-standard-efi-file    

Final advice in case of suggested repair: ______________________________________


Please do not forget to make your UEFI firmware boot on the L'OS actuellement utilisé - Linux Mint 20.2 CurrentSession entry (sda3/efi/****/shim****.efi (**** will be updated in the final message) file) !
If your computer reboots directly into Windows, try to change the boot order in your UEFI firmware.

If your UEFI firmware does not allow to change the boot order, change the default boot entry of the Windows bootloader.
For example you can boot into Windows, then type the following command in an admin command prompt:
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\****\shim****.efi (**** will be updated in the final message)

What I discovered in the UEFI section is :
the Boot current is 0000 = HDD/SSDPciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Ata(0,0,0) which I find strange as the system booted on is Linux Mint.
Also the boot identifier for Windows is 0005 and is not included in the boot order list.
Repair steps suggested by the report is to reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of sda8, using the following options: sda3/boot/efi,
and also to unhide-bootmenu-10s win-legacy-basic-fix use-standard-efi-file

I am not an expert in Linux and in computers, I would like to have some input from you all before I tell him to run boot-repair which will perhaps add more junk.
Looks like as if there was a problem with the boot loader install ?
If yes what can be done ??
Thank you for any advice.

[acerimusdux]

Well it sounds like it is failing when it attempts to boot from /dev/sda, from the efi partition there /sda3, but then the next option is sdb, and it is finding an efi boot sector there and booting Mint from there.

It sound like the Boot Repair utility is going to do what I would do manually for the Linux portion. Basically, I'd boot into Mint the way he is now. I'd make sure it was using/sda8 as /. I'd mount /sda3 somewhere, probably /mnt. Then I'd run sudo update-grub. And then install with /dev/sda3 explicitly indicated as the EFI directory.

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo update-grub
sudo grub-install --efi-directory=/mnt  --root-directory=/  /dev/sda

And I wouldn't know how to fix the windows boot, I'd be hoping update-grub would find it and include it in the menu. But it seems maybe the Boot-Repair knows how to fix that too.

I guess the other thing I would do is to check the firmware settings. It should be setup for EFI boot. Sometimes there is an option which allows it to boot either EFI or MBR, and I've seen where that could cause something like this too. I thought at first reading this that it might be trying to boot MBR first, and failing because there is no MBR, then falling back to EFI.

[Pierre]

try again, without the usb Live Media stick being used,
and to see if he can still get into the Installed LinuxMint System,
& if so, then run sudo update-grub, from an Terminal.

if that doesn't work out, then also with the Grub Boot Repair Tool,
as suggested by acerimusdux to see if that will work, or not.

[pit38]

Thank you Pierre and acerimusdux for the replies.

What I believe is that during installation the device for boot loader was not changed in order to be the EFI partition, it took the default value, certainly the Boot0000* HDD/SSD PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Ata(0,0,0) ?
The BIOS UEFI on this Toshiba is a bit old, my friend didn't find any way to select a system to be booted on, the only thing that is available is the choice of the device : HDD / SSD, USB, ODD, ...
This UEFI BIOS is certainly capable to boot from a MBR (CSM) but there is no field where to select UEFI or MBR.

What I read from the boot-info is that the Ubuntu launched is :
Boot0006* ubuntu HD(3,GPT,f92ac982-a7dc-4215-a4e2-4d1f0300aeef,0x121800,0x82000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi) and this is on the
sda3 vfat D208-8CFA f92ac982-a7dc-4215-a4e2-4d1f0300aeef
SDA3 is the one with the EFI files.

When trying to boot on the USB live stick, he got the message '‘system boot order not found" and Linux Mint, the one from the SSD, started.

I have no opportunity to visit my friend IRL.
So I will certainly ask him to run boot-repair from the Mint system on the SSD and we will see if this will add Boot0005 Windows in the boot order

Code: Select all

Boot0005* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,a105763d-548e-11e6-be05-e1656dea53c8,0xe1800,0x82000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................

Boot repair suggested : ______________________________________________________________
"The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of
sda8, using the following options: sda3/boot/efi,
Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s win-legacy-basic-fix use-standard-efi-file"

It also mentionned 'Final advice in case of suggested repair: ______________________________________
Please do not forget to make your UEFI firmware boot on the L'OS actuellement utilisé - Linux Mint 20.2 CurrentSession entry (sda3/efi/****/shim****.efi (**** will be updated in the final message) file) !
If your computer reboots directly into Windows, try to change the boot order in your UEFI firmware."

But there is no possibility to change the UEFI firmware settings and select a specific system, the only thing that can be entered is HDD/SSD, USB, ODD, ...etc... there is no option which allows it to boot either EFI or MBR, and I agree with acerimusdux : "it might be trying to boot MBR first, and failing because there is no MBR, then falling back to EFI"

My friend and I will be in contact thru phone this week-end, so if in the meantime you have some ideas, I would appreciate more advices !!

[acerimusdux]

What I believe is that during installation the device for boot loader was not changed in order to be the EFI partition, it took the default value

But you don't want the bootloader installed to the efi partition. You want it installed to /dev/sda, which should be the default, but none was installed there.

The commands I suggested:

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo grub-install --efi-directory=/mnt  --root-directory=/  /dev/sda

installs it to /dev/sda, tells it to boot the OS on /sda8 (I was assuming he already booted into it, so /dev/sda8 is /), and sets the efi directory option to /dev/sda3. I believe that is what the repair tool is saying it will do here:

the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub-efi-amd64-signed of
sda8, using the following options: sda3/boot/efi

If not booting into the working /dev/sda8, but installing instead from an external live boot usb, you would then have to also manually mount the /dev/sda8 somewhere. So it would be like this doing it manually that way:

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda8 /opt
sudo grub-install --efi-directory=/mnt  --root-directory=/opt  /dev/sda

For the options in this command, you need to specify mount points, not the /dev location. If no root directory option is specified, it will default to the current root directory (so the current system that was booted). So you need this option if installing from an external USB drive. If no efi directory is specified, I believe it just uses the first one it finds, which is usually OK. But I thought it best to specify it here, especially since there is some evidence of efi stuff there also on sbd1. The last part there is where the bootloader is installed, it should never be a partition, just /dev/sda, not any number.

Again, the repair tool will probably work. But in case you do have to help your friend do it manually, it will help if you understand the mount command and the grub-install command. You can learn about them through the man command, using the commands "man mount", and "man grub-install".