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Topic: [SOLVED] Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry. (Read 2202 times) previous topic - next topic
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Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #15 –
Quote from: mrbrklyn – on
also GPT needs some empty space at the end of the drive.
Yeah, I didn’t have this free space so after going in and repartitioning to account for it and reinstalling everything it still has not worked unfortunately. At least it is a step in the right direction, thanks!

Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #16 –
Quote from: ####### – on
The Debian wiki suggests this including the -w flag:
https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#efibootmgr_and_efivar
efibootmgr example 3 - add a new boot entry
Create a new boot entry, pointing to a bootloader program on disk /dev/sdb, partition 1; write a new signature to the MBR if needed; call it "debian"; the bootloader program is in \EFI\debian\grubx64.efi
# efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdb -p 1 -w -L debian -l '\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi'

I installed Devuan a while ago and the installation automatically set everything to boot via Devuan grub which I didn't actually want, so they have it working somehow, although more recently yet on another machine I selected advance install for Devuan and didn't install Grub to avoid this, but then it wiped my efi partition and left it empty so nothing booted until it was fixed from an Artix iso. But on that one I added the new entry from the BIOS.

Edit:
Code: [Select]
$ sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/nvme0n1 -p 1 -w -L debian -l '\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi'
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0002
Boot0000* grub  HD(1,GPT,bfd2969f-503a-4bb5-b0aa-a43f42d9b357,0x4000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\grub\grubx64.efi)
Boot0006* Windows Boot Manager  HD(2,GPT,eef60966-cfb1-44c0-9bfc-42086db2b591,0x96800,0xfa000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)57494e444f575300010000008800000078000000
4200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d00660033003200620033003400340064003
4003700390035007d00000000720100000010000000040000007fff0400
Boot0001* debian        HD(1,GPT,bfd2969f-503a-4bb5-b0aa-a43f42d9b357,0x4000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi)
That certainly created a new entry for a non-existent debian which appeared in my BIOS uefi boot options when I tried just now. (I don't have Windows installed, that's just some relic in the BIOS from past use, or some default thing I guess.)

I tried this out and it seemingly created an entry but it is still not accessible on startup just as before.

Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #17 –
I think I read somewhere that some EFI BIOS implementations can only hold a limited number of entries and you need to delete one if there are none left - I leave it to you to consider which if any you wish to delete at your own risk, and quite likely it won't help either, after all nothing else so far has.  ;D
It might be possible to hijack an existing entry by somehow duplicating a uuid, filename and location, but I have no idea if that could work in reality...

Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #18 –
Quote from: ####### – on
I think I read somewhere that some EFI BIOS implementations can only hold a limited number of entries and you need to delete one if there are none left - I leave it to you to consider which if any you wish to delete at your own risk, and quite likely it won't help either, after all nothing else so far has.  ;D
It might be possible to hijack an existing entry by somehow duplicating a uuid, filename and location, but I have no idea if that could work in reality...

I looked into removing entries through my bios and it seems like there is no way to do that just as there was no way to add them.

Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #19 –
You should be able to do that with efibootmgr according to the man page, it gives an example of how to remove a boot entry.

Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #20 –
On my Acer ES1-732, you have to work on the "vfat" partition after installing grub. Here are my notes that might inspire you:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Re: Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #21 –
Quote from: tintin – on
On my Acer ES1-732, you have to work on the "vfat" partition after installing grub. Here are my notes that might inspire you:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
This worked, thank you so much!

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #22 –
If I'm not wrong, when grub will need to be reinstalled (doesn't usually happen but last autumn an update needed it for instance) you'll have to copy that file again. Just something to keep in mind :)

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh install, GRUB not creating a boot entry.

Reply #23 –
Quote from: Hitman – on
If I'm not wrong, when grub will need to be reinstalled (doesn't usually happen but last autumn an update needed it for instance) you'll have to copy that file again. Just something to keep in mind :)
Undoubtedly yes.
However, I have never had to do this for a few years on this Acer ES1-732.
sudo update-grub goes smoothly on that same PC.