17.10 update "bricks" laptop - Booting help requested

Support & Help Requests
1

Evening all,
My normally functioning UM laptop has effectively bricked itself after the updates from earlier this week were installed. Perhaps "bricked" is a little dramatic but read on. I am stuck.

Laptop: ACER Aspire F5-571 (v1.31 system BIOS), secure boot disabled and UEFI made enabled.

Issue: Updated today and it needed a reboot. Once I rebooted the following messages are received on bootup.

"Failed to open \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\grubx64.efi - Not Found
Failed to load image \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\grubx64.efi: Not Found
start_image() returned not found

System Bootorder not found initialising defaults
Creating boot entry "boott003D" with label "ubuntu" for file \EFI\ubuntu\shlmx64.efi

Reset System"

Then the laptop reboots, repeating the above in a loop.

Lots of searching online, even using rescatux does not change anything. Rescatux tells me it repairs the grub and windowns UEFI files but not change. The only time I made a change is manually copying over the grubx64.efi file from the EFI...ubuntu\Boot directory to the EFI...Microsoft\Boot directory, and in this case a @no bootable media@ message results. I can of course boot using the CDROM.

I do not dual book, only ubunti on the system although there are 2 partitions, sda1 (EFI, Fat32, boot) and sdb1 (1TB main partition with OS)

I would normally just blow the disk (format) and start again but there is 1 file not backed up in my home directory, which is encrypted (ecryptfs) that I need. I cannot seem to be able to ecryptfs-recover-private as "permission denied". Hence wanting to get in, get the file, then I'll start again.

It looks like somehow UEFI has been screwed up totally. Googling and trying the various suggestions has produced no results.

Any help/suggestions very welcome indeed. stuck now.

Thanks

Andy

2

Hi Andy,

do a fresh install and DON’T format your home folder.

Install Ubuntu (Mate) using "Something else" method :smiley:

2 Likes
3

Hallo

Using UEFI has plus and minus points. Some people choose to stick with BIOS. I believe the chocolate factory are working on an alternative to UEFI.

I set my machines up as per wolfman’s guide. You can trust it. :slight_smile:

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4

Hi WM, thanks for this, to be fair I did look at this part but as I only have the two partitions I didn't think I could reinstall but leave the home directory alone. Maybe operating from a CDROM yesterday wasn't the most efficient :slight_smile:

here is a screengrab from the sparky linux I'm running from a CD

image.png778Ă—534 38.7 KB

So just for clarity, I set and format the boot partition as the existing EFI and set / for the other partition but do not format it, correct? I cannot see how it would preserve the existing home directory (not a home partition) (yes I know I should have a home parition, but a while ago I just let UM do its thing and I used what I got - there is no swap partition either, refer to previous posts of mine)

Before I get into it, can you clarify please? (I want to check before acting)

Andy

5

Hi @alpinejohn thanks, yes I’m thinking that once I recover what I need to, a totally fresh approach, not using UEFI, i.e. go through WM’s guide in detail which we shold all do in hindsight.
Andy

6

If you wish to first try fixing GRUB2 (the bootloader) yourself, you’ll want to look up along the lines of “re-installing GRUB2 ubuntu EFI”

For your system - once booted into an Ubuntu MATE live CD/USB in EFI mode (important!), run these commands in a terminal:

sudo mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
for i in /dev /dev/pts /proc /sys /run; do sudo mount -B $i /mnt$i; done
sudo chroot /mnt
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi /dev/sda 
update-grub

With a bit of luck, you should see:

Installation finished. No error reported.

And even more luck, might allow your system to be bootable again. :ok_hand:

2 Likes
7

Thanks Luke, I tried the procedure and all looked great until I rebooted then “no bootable” device is all I get now. (unless I have a bootable cd in the drive)

The BIOS recognises that there is a HDD but the boot manger clearly does not. Something is definitely blown away on the system (sda1) after the UM update, very odd indeed.

I hate UEFI.

I will carry on reading but any other thoughts? Looks like a reinstall may be the only option.

Andy

8

Hi Andy,

another option is to choose to re-install Ubuntu, you may not see it exactly from this pic but it would be the top option I would think?:

choose-reinstall.jpg800Ă—602 85.9 KB
:smiley:

9

Hi WM, delayed in responding due to work. Unfortunately I don’t get a “reinstall” option. :frowning:

I’m continuing to go through the guide but it looks like it will overwrite my home directory. I’ll see if I can get anything from the ecryptfs.recover process…

10

Hi again, so I have progressed and regressed.

I tried the "something else" as per your instructions - no change
A new UM ISO from the website gave me the reinstall option - tried - "no bootable media" on restart.
I tried a full erase and install Ubuntu, trashed everything, gave up on recovering my 1 file (it's my Evolution file) and I am now back exactly to where I started after updating my working Ubuntu 17.10. On boot I get

in a constant loop. I can boot from other media but not my HDD. Any thoughts/help/ideas please?

Andy

11

Hi Andy,

what is your UEFI partition setup like?, it may be due to that but I really don't know?. If you have nothing on the drive now, re-do all your partitions and create a (at least) root and home partition, that way if you need to do a fresh install, your home partition will be intact!. :smiley:

Take a look at the partition guide and in particular the bits about UEFI partitions!:

12

Hi WM, so I tried many times and many routes for the UEFI installation, all with the same result. Erasing the disk and partition table and recreating everything didn't work. What I have done now, after some time reading and re learning stuff I forgot years ago, I have now set my laptop into legacy BIOS mode boot-up, installed UM in BIOS mode, reset the disk (erase and create a GPT partition table). I read many instructions from people and your help and superb tutorials together with the notes from here (https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tutorials/legacy-mode-installation-using-gpt-partitions/) I have now got a working system again.

Clearly something got messed up with my UEFI following the last Ubuntu update as it was all good until then. I have lost 6 months of email but I'll live with that - my Evolution file was the only one not backed up (good ole megasync) but I'm going to chalk that down to a learning experience and live with those consequences.

For reference my gparted sda now looks like this

image.png776Ă—340 52.5 KB

I also have to remember what some of my customisations are but thats part of the fun isn't it! This also solves the long standing inefficiency I had through having an issue with my swapfile.

Thanks for the help WM, we all appreciate you in this community, me especially as you gave me some hope when I had lost a lot!

Andy

1 Like
13

Nice one Andy, now at least if you ever do a fresh install, you can use the “Something Else Method” and keep all your files and data intact!. :smiley:

1 Like