EFI partition question

[GerardV]

I have 2 nvme's and 4 distros installed as per screenshots. Kubuntu 24.10, MX23 and Deepin 23 on nvme0 and Kubuntu 24.04 on nvme1 Both drives have EFI partitions with entrees on them and the efibootmgr command shows identical entrees in each distro, but not on which drive. Is there any way to check what is on the EFI partitions?

[claydoh]

efibootmgr command shows identical entrees in each distro

What does this mean? You can paste the contentds of the command here;

Here is one of my setups, It is on purpose very very messy, but that is not relevant for your question. I have colored and highlighted relevant info as examples.

$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 000B <--this is what is currently booted
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 000B,0007,000A,0003,0008,0005,0006,0000,0004,0001, 0002
Boot0000* Neon HD(1,GPT,2462ca2c-fa91-3946-bc5d-a6218533217f,0x800,0x96800)/File(\EFI\neon\shimx64
.efi)
Boot0001* SAMSUNG MZVLB256HAHQ-000H1-S425NX1M352478 BBS(HD,SAMSUNG MZVLB256HAHQ-000H1-S425NX1M3
52478,0x400)/PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-25-38-83-91-B4-3D-27)0100100000004
9535048
Boot0002* Intel Corporation: IBA CL Slot 00FE v0112 BBS(Network,Intel Corporation: IBA CL Slot
00FE v0112,0x0)/PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x6)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)15001000000049535048
Boot0003 USB: PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a522c59b20b800 00049535048
Boot0004 USB: BBS(65535,,0x0)/PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)ffff0b80000049535048
Boot0005* IPV6 Network - Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (5) I219-LM PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x6)/
MAC(c46516138e98,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a522c59b2000000004953 5048
Boot0006* IPV4 Network - Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (5) I219-LM PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x6)/
MAC(c46516138e98,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a52 2c59b20000000049535048
Boot0007* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,2462ca2c-fa91-3946-bc5d-a6218533217f,0x800,0x96800)/File(\EFI\neon
\shimx64.efi) File(.)
Boot0008* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,f353cb7c-6cc1-46a0-9cf1-093f8f57eab4,0x800,0x32000)/File(\
EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)57494e444f57530001 00000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a00450
0430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002 d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d00610063
00630031002d00660033003200620033003400340064003400 3700390035007d0000004d000100000010000000040000007
fff04001400000049535048
Boot0009 PHIYO USBTB3-12 123456789010 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(20,0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21
a522c59b21180000049535048
Boot000A* Ubuntu HD(1,GPT,f353cb7c-6cc1-46a0-9cf1-093f8f57eab4,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\ubun
tu\shimx64.efi)
Boot000B* Linux Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,2462ca2c-fa91-3946-bc5d-a6218533217f,0x800,0x96800)/File(\
EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi)

Note the lines with 'HD" in them. The long string after "GPT" is the uuid for the partition, You view this from Partition Manager or Gparted, or using the blkid command to see what is where.
I have highlighted the relevant content to match with the output of efibootmgr

$ blkid
/dev/nvme0n1p3: UUID="d8a3682a-2564-4a62-916f-c11ee7c220d7" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="3e5e658e-8c1c-c04
4-94f4-16cd3cc0ea60"
/dev/nvme0n1p1: UUID="CD12-878E" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="2462ca2c-fa91-3946-bc5d-a62
18533217f"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: LABEL="neon" UUID="63a67de9-25de-489a-b2d5-911658a1989e" UUID_SUB="0d15c1ff-ecf7-41
9f-bb9e-ebd51f5ec916" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="btrfs" PARTUUID="4c4a6c94-b608-404f-a090-8e1de3d169b6
"
/dev/sda4: BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="F0F8EF32F8EEF62E" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="9b82ebce-9c16-4368-ac99-5
05434a60e3c"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="Extras" UUID="089b4984-5d9a-4ba3-997e-678770a884eb" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
PARTUUID="82a908ff-7df2-104c-b88a-a3022501c53d"
/dev/sda5: UUID="93ff5210-582d-480b-b775-091343340ab2" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="256d4f6d-bfea-3d4b-850
a-875a2042dfbd"
/dev/sda3: BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="5E9C92C79C92995B" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PA
RTUUID="dc2b947b-d084-4daf-ade4-78619e4e8005"
/dev/sda1: UUID="D88D-886C" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID=
"f353cb7c-6cc1-46a0-9cf1-093f8f57eab4"
/dev/sda6: LABEL="kubuntu_2404" UUID="ad707c84-9f29-4dbe-a24a-1ca1153fee4c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE=
"ext4" PARTLABEL="kubuntu_2404" PARTUUID="5b8b73fc-7195-4cd9-83a4-0f655ac027f6"

Here you can see the UUIDs, where i have highlighted what they refer to, matching the examples I highlighted in the first section.

/dev/blah_blah are not not normally usedm as these can change. UUIDs do not.

[GerardV]

What does this mean? You can paste the contentds of the command here;

This is what was displayed with that command:

gerard@gerard-b760:~$ sudo efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0005,0004,0006
Boot0002* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,e2ea1f3b-3808-4d02-8af1-1635a576a8d6,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0004* deepin HD(1,GPT,604cdb67-a0a3-44aa-8cba-f3249d5d7f0c,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\deepin\shimx64.efi)
Boot0005* UEFI OS HD(1,GPT,e2ea1f3b-3808-4d02-8af1-1635a576a8d6,0x800,0x80000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)0000424f
Boot0006* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,604cdb67-a0a3-44aa-8cba-f3249d5d7f0c,0x1000,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi) File(.)

[claydoh]

So, One is Deepin (obvious)
I will guess that that the one that labelled itself as "UEFI OS" is MX.

And you have 2 Ubuntu installs -- Kubuntu IS Ubuntu as an OS it is not a separate distro, it is just a respin.
There is no separate Kubuntu/Xubuntu/Lubuntu/Ubuntu Mate at the bootup level. You don't really get to 'kubuntu' until you log in to Plasma.
Which one is which is found from the UUID to see which EFI partiton is used to hold its bootloader files.
(right click on on in Partiton Manager, and look at "properties" to see the UUID, or use blkid)

[Qqmike]

I will guess that that the one that labelled itself as "UEFI OS" is MX.

Yes, My guess, too.
\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI refers (I think) to the Default boot loader installed on the system.
But ... in practice, almost anything often gets assigned to that "bootloader entry" in the EFI folder.
Looks like MX got assigned to that spot.

There are two 'ubuntu' entries, so that corresponds to the story, 24.10 and 24.04.
Claydoh tells you how to identify those NVME drives to see which is which and where.

My how-to's show how to change those labels you see when you run efibootmgr.
In your case, you have 4 such labels: ubuntu, deepin, UEFI OS, ubuntu.
But it's such a small setup, that you can also just remember to identify those two drives by UUID.
(Edit, added: BTW, you can not just simply edit those labels that you see listed.
You must create a new entry (that is identical to the old entry), but give it a new label name,
and then delete the old BOOT entry (that has the old label). My how-to shows how to.)

Footnote, I need to check this when I have time ...

UUID or GUID? Can't remember which shows up in efibootmgr.

sudo blkid I thought is supposed to give BOTH.

Or,
GUIDs: ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid
UUIDs: ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

[Qqmike]

I did a very quick note in the How-to's about the matter of UUID vs GUID.
See Posts 1 & 2.

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/...ns-filesystems

[Qqmike]

Useful:

You can see all partition unique GUIDs this way:
ls -al /dev/disk/by-partuuid

[GerardV]

Thank claydoh and Qqmike, that help me find out where the entries where. The reason i asked is because 24.10 had become unbootable with all kinds of errors and i removed it. I just w