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**SteveRiley** · May 25, 2013, 05:04 PM

Boot the computer from the USB drive and choose "Try Kubuntu." Once the desktop appears, open a console window and type:

Code:

sudo modprobe efivars

sudo efibootmgr -v

Take a photograph of the resulting output, upload it someplace (www.imgur.com is good), and reply here with the URL. I have a hunch that the NVRAM variable for the bootloader is missing.

**foosterh** · May 26, 2013, 03:56 AM

Steve

Thanks for your attention to my problem. I think I got the info you asked for.

Let me know if you need other/more from me.

Kind regards
Fred

1. sudo modprobe efivars
does not produce any (visible) output

Searching the forum I concluded that you maybe asking for the following data

Code:

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ cd ..
kubuntu@kubuntu:/home$ ls
kubuntu
kubuntu@kubuntu:/home$ cd ..
kubuntu@kubuntu:/$ ls
bin    dev   initrd.img      lib64  opt   root  selinux  tmp  vmlinuz
boot   etc   initrd.img.old  media  proc  run   srv      usr  vmlinuz.old
cdrom  home  lib             mnt    rofs  sbin  sys      var
kubuntu@kubuntu:/$ cd sys
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys$ ls
block  class  devices   fs          kernel  power
bus    dev    firmware  hypervisor  module
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys$ cd firmware
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys/firmware$ ls
acpi  efi  memmap
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys/firmware$ cd efi
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys/firmware/efi$ ls
efivars  systab  vars
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys/firmware/efi$ cd efivars
kubuntu@kubuntu:/sys/firmware/efi/efivars$ ls
AcpiGlobalVariable-c020489e-6db2-4ef2-9aa5-ca06fc11d36a
AdministerSecureBoot-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
AgesaMemorySaveData-575e7fc3-e067-47d1-8341-7b8f1c28b005
AmdAcpiVar-79941ecd-ed36-49d0-8124-e4c31ac75cd4
AuthVarKeyDatabase-515fa686-b06e-4550-9112-382bf1067bfb
AzaliaPolicyVariable-e197be68-9ae2-448e-ac56-a470825fd8d8
BackupPlatformLang-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
Boot0000-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Boot0001-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Boot0002-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Boot2001-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Boot2002-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Boot3000-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Boot3001-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
BootCurrent-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
BootOrder-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
BootPrevious-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
BootPreviousData-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
certdb-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
ConIn-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
ConInCandidateDev-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
ConInDev-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
ConnectAll-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
ConOut-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
ConOutCandidateDev-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
ConOutDev-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
Custom-a04a27f4-df00-4d42-b552-39511302113d
CustomSecurity-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
dbDefault-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
dbx-d719b2cb-3d3a-4596-a3bc-dad00e67656f
dbxDefault-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
dump-type0-10-1369416735-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-11-1369416735-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-1-1369416734-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-2-1369416734-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-3-1369416734-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-4-1369416734-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-5-1369416734-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-6-1369416735-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-7-1369416735-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-8-1369416735-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
dump-type0-9-1369416735-cfc8fc79-be2e-4ddc-97f0-9f98bfe298a0
ErrOutDev-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
HBL-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HBS-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HCA-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HEBT-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HMUTD-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HPBV-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HPS-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
HWSIG-30fef3a5-ba29-4767-9f11-7c7fd606ffa6
IrsiInfo-5bce4c83-6a97-444b-63b4-672c014742ff
KEKDefault-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
MemCeil.-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
MTC-eb704011-1402-11d3-8e77-00a0c969723b
OsIndications-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
OsIndicationsSupported-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
PhysicalBootOrder-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
PKDefault-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
PlatformLang-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
PlatformLangCodes-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
PlugInVgaHandles-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
RestoreFactoryDefault-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
S3SmmVariable-f96f5d2a-9cd4-4dac-b48b-1d8490d87bf5
SecureBoot-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
SecureBootEnforce-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
Setup-a04a27f4-df00-4d42-b552-39511302113d
SetupMode-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
SignatureSupport-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c
SmartBoot-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
SmbiosPolicy-41a3ee4e-6d57-418b-8f8e-c366a5b70c4b
SysDiagsBiosData2010-14090d43-63e6-4aa6-8269-df5b8b8c4ce4
SysDiagsBiosData2010-e090f249-2355-48fc-9bee-9b1ef9b16eb1
SysDiagsBiosData-5e1affe6-e52f-4c15-960a-8f87405004b6
TargetHddDevPath-59d1c24f-50f1-401a-b101-f33e0daed443
Timeout-8be4df61-93ca-11d2-aa0d-00e098032b8c

2. sudo efibootmgr -v

I needed to install this program

Code:

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo apt-get install efibootmgr
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  efibootmgr
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/32.5 kB of archives.
After this operation, 103 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package efibootmgr.
(Reading database ... 102064 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking efibootmgr (from .../efibootmgr_0.5.4-4ubuntu1_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up efibootmgr (0.5.4-4ubuntu1) ...

kubuntu@kubuntu:~$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 2001,3000,3001,2002
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,800,2f000,69f7bbb3-237e-4110-8f69-0233efd1bd49)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RC
Boot0001* Ubuntu        HD(1,800,2f000,69f7bbb3-237e-4110-8f69-0233efd1bd49)File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)RC
Boot0002* USB Hard Drive (UEFI) - SanDisk SDDR-113      ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(10,1)USB(2,0)HD(1,2000,75a000,000a4060)RC
Boot2001* USB Drive (UEFI)      RC
Boot2002* Internal CD/DVD ROM Drive (UEFI)      RC
Boot3000* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk        RC
Boot3001* Internal Hard Disk or Solid State Disk        RC

**SteveRiley** · May 26, 2013, 09:14 PM

modprobe doesn't issue any output unless there's a problem. I should have mentioned that.

It's necessary to load that module in certain cases so that the efibootmgr can read the UEFI NVRAM variables. When I look at the output, I see that your UEFI knows about two operating systems:

* Windows, which loads from \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
* Ubuntu -- or, more correctly, GRUB -- which loads from \EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

The output from your Boot Info script shows some weird stuff -- for example, os_prober has listed the installation on /dev/sda2 multiple times.

There is a problem with the current version of the 3.8 kernels -- they can't properly create NVRAM variables. This is supposed to be fixed soon and backported to 3.8, but the Kubuntu images appear not to be updated yet (they're still dated from April).

You have both an \EFI\kubuntu subdirectory and an \EFI\ubuntu subdirectory on /dev/sda1 but only a single NVRAM variable. You have two copies of GRUB installed, one on /dev/sda2 and another on /dev/sda4. The second one never seems to get properly configured.

/dev/sda2 contains 12.04.2 of something -- is it Ubuntu or Kubuntu? /dev/sda4 contains your apparently not-working 13.04 installation. Before I can suggest where to go next, please explain in more detail what's installed and what you want to have installed. It's difficult to guess everything just by looking at the output from Boot Info.

**foosterh** · May 27, 2013, 12:45 AM

Steve

This is the sequence of events that led to the boot issue>

1. I purchased the PC with W8 preinstalled. W8 caused me several issues for which it seemed no quick solution was available
2. I thus decided to try Linux
3. I installed ubuntu 12.04.2 alongside W8.
4. Then I decided to drop W8 and resintall Ubuntu 12.04.2 as the only OS
5. Ubuntu had some audio issues when using Skype. So I tried Kubuntu
6. I had Ubuntu and Kubuntu installed alongside.
7. Kubuntu 12.04.2 together with pavucontrol solved the issue with Skype
8. I then decided to reinstall Kubuntu 12.04.2 as the only OS

Then last week one day I shut down the PC normally. Next day it tried to boot Kubuntu and it was stuck at the very first screen where yoou have the Kubuntu symbol and the five dots below it.

From here I did trial and error of several releases – I do not remember the exact sequence but I think it is the following

Kubuntu 13.04
Ubuntu 13.04
Kubuntu 12.04.2
Ubuntu 12.04.2

They all fail due to the installation error related to grub-efi subject of this thread.

I hope the info above would give you some clue as to why certain info is in the efivars.

That said
- I am not interested in W8
- I would try Kubuntu 13.04
- I need a setup which allows me to use Skype. I notice that on www.skype.com there seems to be no version for Kubuntu 13.04 …..
- If indeed there would be no skype for 13.04 then I need to go with 12.04.2 I guess.

Thanks
Fred

**foosterh** · May 29, 2013, 12:52 AM

Steve

do you any idea on how I could resolve this issue?

Thanks
Fred

**SteveRiley** · May 29, 2013, 10:04 PM

Since it seems like you have no need for Windows, I'd like to walk you through the steps for performing a fresh installation, beginning with wiping everything on the drive. At a high level, the procedure would be:

1. Boot a 12.10 live USB
2. Wipe the partition table from the hard drive
3. Install 12.10 with a parition layout that I'll recommend
4. Install Skype, make sure it works
5. Perform an in-place upgrade to 13.04

The reason I'm having you go this route is because the version 3.8 kernels in 13.04 are still not able to properly create NVRAM variables. This is causing all kinds of problems across Linux land, and it isn't yet fixed.

The only question mark in my mind is Skype. I do not use that program, so I can't predict what you should expect. Perhaps somone here on the forum might be able to provide advice on using Skype in 13.04.

If you are comfortable with my procedure, let me know, and I'll reply with more detail.

**foosterh** · May 30, 2013, 10:59 AM

Steve

your approach is fine with me.
I will download the kubuntu 12.10 and make a bootable USB. Download is slow here this time of day so I will not be ready before tomorrow europe time

It would be great if you could detail the various steps during your daytime. Please make sure you well document steps 2 and 3 as I am unfamiliar with those things.

Then I will let yo how things run including Skype .... even if Skype would not run nicely please note that by now many of my contacts have Google Hangout by now so it could be right moment to switch off Skype :-)

Kind regards
Fred

**foosterh** · Jun 11, 2013, 01:12 AM

Steve

I still wait for your help on how to wipe the HD partition table and what partition to use for the 12.10 installation as by your indications.

I hope you can help me out soon.

Regards
Fred

**SteveRiley** · Jun 11, 2013, 10:04 PM

Oops! Your thread slipped my mind. I apologize.

Boot from the 12.10 Live USB and choose "Try Kubuntu." When the desktop appears, open a console window. Then run each of these commands:

Code:

sudo apt-get install gdisk efibootmgr

sudo efibootmgr -v

The first command may report that one (or both) are already installed. I forget right now, and I'm not on my Kubuntu PC at the moment.

The output of the second command will contain some entries that point to a file. For example:

Code:

Boot0019* rEFInd Boot Manager   HD(1,28,100000,35a3de7a-7015-4855-b882-1c8e9432b8fe)File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot001A* Windows {blah blah I forget}   HD(1,28,100000,35a3de7a-7015-4855-b882-1c8e9432b8fe)File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)

Delete every entry that points to a file:

Code:

sudo efibootmgr -b [i]NNNN[/i] -B

where NNNN is the matching "boot" number. In the samples above, I would run it twice, once each for 0019 and 001A.

Next, wipe the partitions on your drive. Begin with:

Code:

sudo gdisk /dev/sda

Here is a sample dialog. Answer the questions as I've indicated:

Code:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.6

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): [B][COLOR="#FF0000"]x[/COLOR][/B]

Expert command (? for help): [B][COLOR="#FF0000"]z[/COLOR][/B]
About to wipe out GPT on /dev/sda. Proceed? (Y/N): [B][COLOR="#FF0000"]y[/COLOR][/B]
GPT data structures destroyed! You may now partition the disk using fdisk or
other utilities.
Blank out MBR? (Y/N): [B][COLOR="#FF0000"]y[/COLOR][/B]

gdisk will automatically exit after this. That's fine. Close the console window.

Restart the computer, still with the USB drive inserted. This time, during boot, choose "Install Kubuntu." It should go smoothly, especially because you have what amounts to a blank hard disk. I would recommend the following partition scheme:

/dev/sda1 -- FAT32, 512 MB, mounted on /boot/efi
/dev/sda2 -- swap, size equal to amount of RAM
/dev/sda3 -- EXT4, all remaining space, mounted on /

Let me know once you get 12.10 up and running, then we can do the upgrade.

Announcement

Kubuntu 13.04 Installation aborted

Kubuntu 13.04 Installation aborted

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