Update completely destroy my entire setup

[Kluenet]

I was using Kubuntu for a year or so, I did a major update once without too much issue. This time I had a notification of the new update Ubuntu 22.10. I accepted, it finished with some error and the computer was acting strange. During update, it asked about changing grub, I said no as I have installed Refind. It asked to replace another file (I don't remember which) content look quite empty and I didn't remember modifiying so I said yes.
After a reboot it failed to boot with some errors and after investigating everything was destroyed.
Refind is gone on the sata SSD.
Kubuntu on the sata SSD is gone.
Windows on a second drive (M2)

All I have is a grub with Ubuntu as only option (beside the standard ones, recovery and UEFI settings).

I went into UEFI settings and I see that Ubuntu is on the M2 drive of Windows (this should have never been touched!). Windows was still listed, I tried to boot it but it failed.
The worst is that it's even showing an OpenSuse partition that should be gone long time ago.

Nothing boot, I have no idea what to do next, I'm desperate.

Any last resort solution before a complete reinstall of Windows + Kubuntu from zero?

[Schwarzer Kater]

Does Windows still boot?
Then you will just have to reinstall Kubuntu (best to use the Kubuntu 22.10 installation ISO directly if you really want to use this interim-version)…
- (or you could boot from an USB stick, remove all the unnecessary "remains" of former systems and Refind from the EFI partitions by hand, clean up the NVRAM of the UEFI with efibootmgr, and reinstall the grub bootloader into the according EFI partition - but this is no trivial process and you should know what you are doing(!)…)

Why use Refind at all if you are just dual-booting with two systems (a Debian/Ubuntu based one and Windows)?

PS: If you use two different drives for the two different operating systems I strongly advise you to use an own EFI partition on each drive exclusively for the system on this drive. This will be easier to handle/maintain if something goes wrong again in the future.

[oshunluvr]

Welcome to the forum.

When you say "gone" do you mean "not available in the boot menu" or "the partition has been erased".

BTW, "Kubuntu" shows as "Ubuntu" in GRUB because that's who provides the operating system. The "K" just means you're using the KDE "flavor" of Ubuntu. I can't speak about what it might normally look like in Refind because I've never used it or tried to.

Before you do anything, I recommend booting to a Live USB Kubuntu, mount all the partitions, and explore what's actually on them. If you have files you need to back up now would be the time to do it.

It seems likely the distro upgrade to 22.10 mucked your Refind. I find it impossible to believe it would have moved the install to some other partition or file system. If you're still booting windows and Kubuntu is still on the second drive, a simple grub re-install to the Kubuntu drive should fix it. You might need to manually navigate to the kernel the first time you boot into Kubuntu,. Good news is there's 100's of How-To's on the web to recover or re-install GRUB and manually boot a linux kernel. There may even be a way to re-install Refind from a live USB session, but again - no knowledge here about that. As far as Refind; as it was pointed out, there's really no need for it in most cases.

Frankly, if your data is backed up somewhere, re-installing would be faster. Assuming Windows partition is intact and you have enough space on it, you could actually boot to a Live Kubuntu 22.10 USB, copy your home folder from the failed upgrade over to the windows partition, do a new install of 22.10, then copy the home folder back.

As far as the OpenSuse partition - I'm unclear on what that actually means. What makes it an "OpenSuse" partition? Is it a partition with OpenSuse on it or a partition/file system labeled "OpenSuse." Regardless, once you're running Linux again, look into it and delete if you don't want it.

Free advice (worth every penny, lol) - actually just some suggestions:

1. If you reinstall Kubuntu, don't bother with Refind unless there some over-riding reason why you need it. It just adds a layer if complication, which it seems you have discovered.
2. Use BTRFS as your file system for the re-install. It has built-in and very simple snapshot capability which can save you from a bad upgrade (not GRUB failures though).
3. Spend some time cleaning up your system - like unwanted partitions for example.
4. Depending on your goal of using Linux and your experience level, you might consider not doing the "upgrade every six months" rotation. Consider installing 22.04 and sticking with it until 24.04 comes out.

Re #4: There's not always a need to always have the latest and greatest version. It really means you're wading through new bugs and re-learning things every six months. If you're not familiar, the even year April releases are LTS (Long Term Support) and good for 3 years of support and updates. That means you only must distro upgrade every 2-3 years instead of twice a year.

[claydoh]

I went into UEFI settings and I see that Ubuntu is on the M2 drive of Windows (this should have never been touched!). Windows was still listed, I tried to boot it but it failed.
The worst is that it's even showing an OpenSuse partition that should be gone long time ago.

As far as the OpenSuse partition - I'm unclear on what that actually means. What makes it an "OpenSuse" partition? Is it a partition with OpenSuse on it or a partition/file system labeled "OpenSuse." Regardless, once you're running Linux again, look into it and delete if you don't want it.

My first guess, as there are multiple drives, is that each one has its own efi partition, which is perfectly fine to have. Or, the *buntu boot files are simply on the existing efi partition on the m.2 (also completely normal, standard practice, and OK) The old install of Suse that does not exist any longer? That one is easy, the OS partitions are long gone, but some boot files are still in one of those EFI locations, and the BIOS firmware is seeing that. I have seen this sort of thing myself.

Also, I am guessing refind may occasionally need to be updated when something resets the bootloader ordering in the bios. Windows is usually the culprit, though I imagine a grub updating kernel and OS entries after an distro upgrade might, somehow, though I am unsure of how.

But Refind has copious documentation
https://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/bootcoup.html