[RESOLVED] Two Kubuntu locations?

[Don]

My box has been booting very slowly, even though I have it set to ultrafast boot. I've done some poking around and found some one thing to make grub faster (setting one line to "quiet"). When I updated grub2, I got what seem to me to be strange lines on the output:

Found Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (22.04) on /dev/nvme0n1p3
Found Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS (22.04) on /dev/sda5

Shouldn't 22.04 be in only one place? Are there two installations somehow fighting with each other? I don't know what I'm looking at, and I'm sure there is additional information that I should furnish. Would someone please let me know what I should do/provide at this point?

Thanks.

[jglen490]

DO you have two drives? Maybe an NVME and an SSD? Ppost the contents of your /etc/fstab.

[Don]

I do, but the OS shouldn't be on both. Here's /etc/fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name de
vices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass
>
# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=d6cc9de0-f209-45bb-b0b8-68a75ef42e3e / ext4 err
ors=remount-ro 0 1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p2 during installation
UUID=38BA-F449 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
# /home was on /dev/sda4 during installation
UUID=f9cc9e42-b1df-4619-8287-de078eb92257 /home ext4 def
aults 0 2
# swap was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=0e6d0318-717f-475b-8706-8e971e4a894d none swap sw
0 0

I see it, but I don't know how to decipher it.

[claydoh]

Actually we need to see the actual partitions on both drioves, irrespective of what is in the fstab
I am betting that both drives have an EFI directory, and can I assume that you have installed Kubuntu on each in the past?
Another possibility is that the bios simply hasn't forgotten an old install, maybe?

Normally, it just reads info from all the EFI partitions to list the OS choices, but each bios is different in how it manages things.

sudo fdisk -l will show details about both drives

[Don]

Here's the output of fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/loop0: 4 KiB, 4096 bytes, 8 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop1: 63.45 MiB, 66531328 bytes, 129944 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop2: 63.46 MiB, 66547712 bytes, 129976 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop3: 73.9 MiB, 77492224 bytes, 151352 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop4: 236.85 MiB, 248352768 bytes, 485064 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop5: 236.91 MiB, 248418304 bytes, 485192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop6: 346.33 MiB, 363151360 bytes, 709280 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop7: 349.7 MiB, 366682112 bytes, 716176 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 2TB
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 130E7A97-AC5E-4DC4-A9D1-13F0E734167A

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 4095 2048 1M Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p2 4096 1054719 1050624 513M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p3 1054720 3907028991 3905974272 1.8T Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sda: 2.73 TiB, 3000588754432 bytes, 5860524911 sectors
Disk model: ST3000DM001-1ER1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 877D9D28-96A8-4D2E-B94B-38B7D3800FFA

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 194559 192512 94M EFI System
/dev/sda2 194560 58796031 58601472 27.9G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 5704273920 5860524031 156250112 74.5G Linux swap
/dev/sda4 58796032 3130677091 3071881060 1.4T Linux filesystem
/dev/sda5 3130677248 5704273919 2573596672 1.2T Linux filesystem

Partition table entries are not in disk order.


Disk /dev/sdb: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD5000HHTZ-0
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0001982e

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1 2048 976771071 976769024 465.8G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/loop8: 485.52 MiB, 509100032 bytes, 994336 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop9: 91.69 MiB, 96141312 bytes, 187776 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop10: 40.84 MiB, 42827776 bytes, 83648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop11: 40.84 MiB, 42827776 bytes, 83648 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

_________________________________________________ __
When I look in QParted, /dev/nvme0n1p3 shows an EFI system partition. No other dev does.

[claydoh]

/dev/nvme0n1p2 4096 1054719 1050624 513M EFI System

and

/dev/sda1 2048 194559 192512 94M EFI System

I imagine you can nuke and pave over the the one you don't need, I am guessing sda1?

[Don]

I think it's sda5; that's the one showing the "extra" installation. /dev/nvme0n1p3 should have it. Do I need to redo the entire box, or can I just redo sda5? If the latter, will I need to modify/update grub?

[claydoh]

I think it's sda5

No that is not an EFI partition, which is where bootloaders are kept.
They are usually a few hundred Mb in size max, not Gb or Tb

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sda1 2048 194559 192512 94M EFI System
/dev/sda2 194560 58796031 58601472 27.9G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3 5704273920 5860524031 156250112 74.5G Linux swap
/dev/sda4 58796032 3130677091 3071881060 1.4T Linux filesystem
/dev/sda5 3130677248 5704273919 2573596672 1.2T Linux filesystem

Do I need to redo the entire box, or can I just redo sda5?

You can do whatever you want, but you don't need to 'redo' sda5, which seems to have an OS install on it, which is being pointed to from one of your BIOS boot options.

But looking at your fstab again, your OS root is installed to /dev/sda2

# / was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=d6cc9de0-f209-45bb-b0b8-68a75ef42e3e / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

And your /home is on /dev/sda4

# /home was on /dev/sda4 during installation
UUID=f9cc9e42-b1df-4619-8287-de078eb92257 /home ext4 defaults 0 2​

With the EFI (bootloader files for this OS install) being on the nvme drive.

# /boot/efi was on /dev/nvme0n1p2 during installation
UUID=38BA-F449 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1

So the bootlaoder files are on the nvme, but the OS is on the sda drive, or rather the OS you were booted to when you copied your fstab is.

So, I am a bit confused, not knowing what you have versus what you want. You have numerous partitions, so I don't want to muck something up.

if you want the OS "/" and /home to be on the nvme, I think I's suggest starting over from scratch, in a sense.
Since the SATA drive has your current /home, that can be used as a backup to restore your user configs and data files.
I'd unplug the sata drive, reinstall Kubuntu, which will have all the partitions on the same drive. Then reconnect the sata drive, and copy the content of the /home/username on /dev/sda4 (after verifying that it is the correct one!) over to the new /home/username on the NVME. You can do this from a live session, or the installed OS.

So, I can't really suggest what to really do here, and hoping others with less tired eyes can add useful stuff, or clarify what is muddy.

[Don]

I took claydoh's advice, backed up /Home with all my data, and redid the machine. I'm back in business, with a single installation, /Home on a separate partition from the OS, and a separate backup drive for /Home. No data loss. Thanks to all.