[GRUB] Confused about grub partitions

[joneall]

I'm actually using Neon:

$ uname -a
Linux jon-neon 4.4.0-112-generic #135-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jan 19 11:48:36 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

I have several levels installed:

$ ls /boot/vml*
/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-32-generic             /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-116-generic
/boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-36-generic             /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-116-generic.efi.signed
/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic             /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-77-generic
/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic.efi.signed  /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-77-generic.efi.signed

And grub seems to find them all:

$ sudo update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /boot/grub/themes/breeze/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-36-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-36-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-32-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-32-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-116-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-116-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-112-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-77-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-77-generic
Found Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS (16.04) on /dev/sda3
Found Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (16.04) on /dev/sda6
Found Debian GNU/Linux (8.2) on /dev/sdb1
Found Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (14.04) on /dev/sdc3
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

Don't know what breeze theme bit is about. That's not my problem right now.

When I boot and select advanced options for Neon on /dev/sda5 (my only Neon system and my default), it only sees a subset of these, clear evidence that grub is not writing this disk. These are shown in the first attachment.

I have tried doing

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

but that changes nothing. Here is my partition config:

$ df
Filesystem     1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             4009736         0   4009736   0% /dev
tmpfs             806220     10036    796184   2% /run
/dev/sda5       61796348  22016564  36617672  38% /
tmpfs            4031092    349496   3681596   9% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120         4      5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            4031092         0   4031092   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda1         245996      9078    236919   4% /boot/efi
/dev/sdc6       51475068  29885992  18951252  62% /samba-transfer
/dev/sdb2      897816032 724926168 127260424  86% /mnt/areca-bak
/dev/sdc4      361112164 221117840 121627860  65% /home/jon/our-pix
/dev/sdc5      206293688 125076680  70714864  64% /home/jon/music-mp3
/dev/sda4      206293688 118768256  77023288  61% /home/jon/jon-files
tmpfs             806220        20    806200   1% /run/user/1000

so I'm using EFI. When I boot and try to select the partition to boot, I see the mess in the 2nd and 3rd attachments. This is the second part of my problem: I have little idea what all that means. What are P0 and P1, e.g.? I will settle, tho, for getting my grub to write to the same place I boot from, by modifying either the former or the latter.

Thanks in advance.

[mr_raider]

How many OSes do you have installed?

What are the outputs of:

sudo efibootmgr -v

and

sudo parted -l

and

[FONT=monospace]sudo cat /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg

[/FONT]

[joneall]

How many OSes do you have installed?

Five, I think. 3 on sda, 1 each on sdb and sdc, which are both way out of date. They are just there for emergencies. I would delete one of the ones on sda if I knew how. Is it enough to erase/format the partition?

$ sudo efibootmgr -v
[sudo] password for jon: 
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,0000,0002,0006,0007,0009,000A,0004,0005,000B,0001
Boot0000* ubuntu        HD(1,GPT,9334e04f-d435-4913-b2ea-b3da699d73be,0x800,0x7a000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0001  rEFInd Boot Manager   HD(1,GPT,9334e04f-d435-4913-b2ea-b3da699d73be,0x800,0x7a000)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot0002* debian        HD(1,GPT,9334e04f-d435-4913-b2ea-b3da699d73be,0x800,0x7a000)/File(\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi)
Boot0003* neon  HD(1,GPT,9334e04f-d435-4913-b2ea-b3da699d73be,0x800,0x7a000)/File(\EFI\neon\shimx64.efi)
Boot0004* CD/DVD Drive  BBS(CDROM,,0x0)AMGOAMNO...o.T.S.S.T.c.o.r.p. .C.D.D.V.D.W. .S.H.-.2.2.4.F.B...A...>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.1.S.S.6.Y.6.G.A.0.9.H.1.7.S. . . . . . ...AMBO
Boot0005* Hard Drive    BBS(HD,,0x0)AMGOAMNO...o.K.I.N.G.S.T.O.N. .S.V.3.0.0.S.3.7.A.4.8.0.G...A...>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.0.5.2.0.B.6.2.7.A.5.9.0.F.0.6.A.

. . . ...AMBOAMNO...o.H.i.t.a.c.h.i. .H.D.S.7.2.1.0.1.0.C.L.A.3.3.0...A...>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L. . . . . .

.P.J.9.S.0.3.1.N.4.2.P.A.L.X...AMBOAMNO...o.S.T.1.0.0.0.D.M.0.0.3.-.1.C.H.1.6.2...A...>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L. . . . . . . . . .

. . .1.W.4.D.7.M.D.Y...AMBO
Boot0006* UEFI: Hitachi HDS721010CLA330 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(1,65535,0)/HD(3,GPT,c50972c3-65c4-4695-8c45-7a0b7168f5e7,0x800,0x64000)AMBO
Boot0007* UEFI: ST1000DM003-1CH162      PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(5,65535,0)/HD(1,GPT,461d80f1-3d02-44da-9ef5-cc1d2c446e7e,0x800,0x64000)AMBO
Boot0009* UEFI OS       HD(2,GPT,d8e5b8ea-426c-46d8-850d-ac460ef8417d,0x7a800,0x6400000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)
Boot000A* UEFI: KINGSTON SV300S37A480G  PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(0,65535,0)/HD(2,GPT,d8e5b8ea-426c-46d8-850d-ac460ef8417d,0x7a800,0x6400000)/HD(1,MBR,0x120,0x29c,0x1280)AMBO
Boot000B* ubuntu        HD(1,GPT,9334e04f-d435-4913-b2ea-b3da699d73be,0x800,0x7a000)/File(\EFI\Ubuntu\grubx64.efi)

$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA KINGSTON SV300S3 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 480GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name        Flags
1      1049kB  257MB   256MB   fat32        EFI System  boot, esp
2      257MB   53.9GB  53.7GB
3      53.9GB  108GB   53.7GB  ext4
4      108GB   322GB   215GB   ext4
5      322GB   387GB   64.4GB  ext4                     msftdata
6      429GB   480GB   51.2GB  ext4

Model: ATA Hitachi HDS72101 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name              Flags
3      1049kB  211MB   210MB   fat32        EFI System        boot, esp
6      211MB   262MB   51.4MB  ext4
1      262MB   53.7GB  53.4GB  ext4         Deb-82
4      53.7GB  64.4GB  10.7GB  ext4         Linux filesystem
2      64.4GB  999GB   934GB   ext4         Linux filesystem

Model: ATA ST1000DM003-1CH1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name              Flags
1      1049kB  211MB   210MB   fat32           EFI System        boot, esp
3      211MB   53.7GB  53.5GB  ext4
4      268GB   644GB   376GB   ext4            Linux filesystem
5      644GB   859GB   215GB   ext4            Linux filesystem
6      859GB   913GB   53.7GB  ext4            Linux filesystem
7      913GB   923GB   10.7GB  linux-swap(v1)  Linux swap

Warning: Unable to open /dev/sr0 read-write (Read-only file system). /dev/sr0
has been opened read-only.
Error: /dev/sr0: unrecognised disk label
Model: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-224FB (scsi)                                    
Disk /dev/sr0: 677MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: unknown
Disk Flags:

$ sudo cat /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg
search.fs_uuid 5bab455f-c534-46a2-aaff-7b5810bfa518 root hd0,gpt3 
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg

[Rod J]

Wow! Three EFI partitions. I'm not certain, but I believe it's not a good idea to have more than one on a system. You sure have a complicated mess to sort out.

Yes, erasing or formatting a partition is enough to wipe a Linux system off a hard drive. You will need to execute a sudo update-grub from the install that has control of grub to remove the superfluous boot entries after removing the Linux install.

[Qqmike]

Hi Rod J: actually, you can have multiple ESPs -- assuming you did it by design for dual-booting (and there is a precise procedure for constructing the ESPs)!
And, yes, it sure looks like a mess.
And it is Neon, which I'm told deals with GRUB differently ( ? ) , I know nothing about it, so ...

[joneall]

Yeah. Where does grub want to write his file: to /dev/sda or to /dev/sdax? If the latter, is it to the EFI partition?

I certainly do NOT want to mess that up. In other words, where should the following command point?

sudo grub-install /dev/sda

sudo grub-install /dev/sda1

or elsewhere?

[mr_raider]

Ok. You have a mess. I'll give you general advice:

1. You can have multiple EFI partitions, one on each disk. But you MUST use the BIOS/firmware bootorder to select which EFI partition boots.

2. If you install an ubuntu derivative OS (kubuntu, neon, mint) on a system with an existing EFI partition, it will re-use it even if you recreate a new EFI partition.

3. Multiple ubuntu derived installs can not exist in EFI mode using the same EFI partition. The grub2/ubuntu loader will always like for EFI/ubuntu. Even you are pointing to EFI/neon, EFI/ubuntu will be used. So your neon and ubuntu may be using the same EFI partition.

My advice:

1. Create a refind iso disk or USB. You clearly know how refind works.

2. Physically disconnect all drives except for the one that has neon installed on it.

3. Boot the disk. If it fails, boot the refind disk/USB and then use that to boot the disk.

4. When you succeed, update the OS, run update-grub and see if it has restored your problems.

[joneall]

Ok. You have a mess. I'll give you general advice:

3. Multiple ubuntu derived installs can not exist in EFI mode using the same EFI partition. The grub2/ubuntu loader will always like for EFI/ubuntu. Even you are pointing to EFI/neon, EFI/ubuntu will be used. So your neon and ubuntu may be using the same EFI partition.

Really? That would mean only one Ubuntu per disk? I find that quite odd, since grub2 allows several. Is there a way to look at the EFI partition to see what is on it? It seems to me from way back when I installed it, there was, tho I've completely forgot since.

My advice:

1. Create a refind iso disk or USB. You clearly know how refind works

2. Physically disconnect all drives except for the one that has neon installed on it.

3. Boot the disk. If it fails, boot the refind disk/USB and then use that to boot the disk..

Can't see why it would fail, since it's the disk I am booting on now.

4. When you succeed, update the OS, run update-grub and see if it has restored your problems.

I can boot the system just fine. It's just that update-grub is writing to a partition different from the one I am booting from and I don't know which one.

Thanks for your suggestions. Guess I have to dig back into EFI functioning. Sigh.

[joneall]

I found out how to look at /boot/efi (root).

root@jon-neon:/boot/efi/EFI# ll
total 4
drwx------ 7 root root  512 févr. 19  2017 ./
drwx------ 3 root root  512 janv. 1  1970 ../
drwx------ 2 root root  512 déc. 17  2015 debian/
drwx------ 2 root root  512 juin  17  2017 neon/
drwx------ 5 root root  512 déc. 20  2015 refind/
drwx------ 2 root root  512 déc. 20  2015 tools/
drwx------ 3 root root 1024 févr. 2 18:02 ubuntu/

I re-ran update-grub.

$ sudo update-grub
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found theme: /boot/grub/themes/breeze/theme.txt
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-36-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-36-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.13.0-32-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.13.0-32-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-116-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-116-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-112-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-112-generic
Found Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS (16.04) on /dev/sda3
Found Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (16.04) on /dev/sda6
Found Debian GNU/Linux (8.2) on /dev/sdb1
Found Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS (14.04) on /dev/sdc3
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

It clear from the dates that it did NOT write the efi partition, at least not this one. I mounted the efi partitions on the other two disks and they are completely empty. So grub2 is not writing to them. Then where the hell IS it writing?

This is most perplexing. Is there no way to get grub to indicate where is writing? I took a quick look at /usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig, but a quick look is not enough.

[mr_raider]

You have to understand how grub boots in EFI mode.

1. The firmware locates the EFI partition and finds EFI/Ubuntu/grubx64.efi

2. Grub boots using the parameters in the Ubuntu folder.

4. It looks for EFI/Ubuntu/grub.cfg which points to the UUID of the partition holding /boot

5. The next stage of grub finds initrd

For step 1, all Ubuntu derivatives will look for the same location. Whether you call the folder neon or linuxmint or Ubuntu it will look for grub.cfg in Ubuntu.

Grub.cfg can only point to one UUID. It does not matter if you have multiple /boot partitions in multiple installs. The EFI bootloader will only pass control of the boot process to the UUID listed in grub.cfg.

Note that once the next stage of grub loads from /boot partition, it can then boot any Linux distro it finds on the disk and lists in the boot menu. That's what update-grub does. This gives you the illusion of EFI multibooting.

But the firmware can only pass control to a single bootloader (grub or Windows) at any time.

In the case of the OP he has a mismatch between the grub he is updating and the one that is controlling the boot process.

Refind allows you to bypass grub and directly boot a Linux kernel. The OP would be best served with one refind install than configuring it to recognize all his /boot partitions and boot the kernel directly.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[Qqmike]

Really? That would mean only one Ubuntu per disk?

No, you can have as many as you want. But, what mr_raider says is also correct: in the ESP, you would see only the label ubuntu to describe any Ubuntu derivative (Kubuntu, Ubuntu, etc.). OK, look, you do have quite a lot going on with your setup, for sure, and you are dealing with Neon and UEFI ... all I can offer, time-wise right now, is my how-to, which covers ALL your options for dual booting, UEFI, multiple Ubuntu's, and multiple ESPs:

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post379977

Fact is, IF you really study these principles and methods, you could--no doubt--get this sorted out; BUT ... you may have to do some re-installing and/or re-building (of, say, ESPs) to pull it off. Again, a BUT: I would try to cook up a way to do it as per mr_raider's approach -- try to simply fix what you have going on, as is.

[Qqmike]

(We are cross-posting :-) ) Refind sounds good to me.

[mr_raider]

To see which EFI partition is in control do:

cat /etc/fstab

That will show you the UUID of the EFI that this install is using.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Tapatalk

[joneall]

Thanks, all. I will read Qqmike's document grub2 et al. I still have one point of confusion, but it is perhaps explained in that document. I will ask anyway. As I said, in the efi partition, I see:

$ sudo ls -l efi/EFI
total 3
drwx------ 2 root root  512 déc. 17  2015 debian
drwx------ 2 root root  512 juin  17  2017 neon
drwx------ 5 root root  512 déc. 20  2015 refind
drwx------ 2 root root  512 déc. 20  2015 tools
drwx------ 3 root root 1024 févr. 2 18:02 ubuntu

From what you say, all my systems will use ubuntu for booting. Even neon? If not, why is the neon one there? Surely, one can have a multi-boot system with xubuntu, neon, windoze and even macOS. Is each one going to use a different subdirectoryof efi/EFI? If so, will they find each other without my having to loop thru all those systems to run grub2?

[joneall]

AND, how will the refind configuration be updated when I run apt-dist-upgrade?