Dual boot Ubuntu-Manjaro: cannot boot manjaro after motherboard change

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1

Hi everyone,

My work laptop is a Dell Precision 7680, that came preinstalled with Ubuntu. I installed a Manjaro as a dual boot and worked with it for the past year without an issue, booting on Manjaro’s grub. Last week, my motherboard malfunctioned and was changed by my work’s IT. I got the laptop today again but cannot access Manjaro anymore.

Here are the details:

-I boot with efi
-by default, the laptop boots on ubuntu (which works perfectly fine).
-I deactivated the secure boot
-the manjaro option does not appear in the boot configuration

My partitions:

removed screenshot

and the output of:

sudo fdisk -l
Device             Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048    1824767    1822720   890M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2   1824768   26990591   25165824    12G Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3  26990592  532404223  505413632   241G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p4 533452800  537647103    4194304     2G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p5 537647104 2000409230 1462762127 697,5G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p6 532404224  533452799    1048576   512M EFI System

With the last three being the Manjaro ones.

Following other topics, I mounted them:

sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p5 /mnt
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p6 /mnt/boot/efi

and then Manjaro appears in os-prober:

sudo os-prober
/dev/nvme0n1p5:Manjaro Linux (25.0.0):ManjaroLinux:linux

but the following commands, also found in other topics, give me an “/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.” error:

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/oem-flavour.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-49-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-49-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-1025-oem
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-1025-oem
Memtest86+ needs a 16-bit boot, that is not available on EFI, exiting
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.
Found Manjaro Linux (25.0.0) on /dev/nvme0n1p5
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

sudo update-grub                                   
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/init-select.cfg'
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub.d/oem-flavour.cfg'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-49-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-49-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.5.0-1025-oem
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.5.0-1025-oem
Memtest86+ needs a 16-bit boot, that is not available on EFI, exiting
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Its output will be used to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.
Found Manjaro Linux (25.0.0) on /dev/nvme0n1p5
/usr/sbin/grub-probe: error: unknown filesystem.
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings ...
done

Looking at the ubuntu grub menu, I now have ‘Manjaro Linux (25.0.0) (on /dev/nvme0n1p5)’ option, and the ‘Advanced options for Manjaro Linux (25.0.0) (on /dev/nvme0n1p5)’, but selecting it gives me:

error: file /boot/vmlinuz-6.12-x86_64' not found.
error: you need to load the kernel first.

I have seen in some topics that this might come from an aborted update (even though it would surprise me, since it would mean that IT tried to update while they had the laptop, which I don’t believe), and can be fixed with a bootable medium. Nonetheless, I cannot access a bootable USB for a few more days, and (maybe it is naive) but the incriminated file is indeed in /mnt/boot.

ls /mnt/boot
amd-ucode.img  efi  grub  initramfs-6.12-x86_64-fallback.img  initramfs-6.12-x86_64.img  intel-ucode.img  linux612-x86_64.kver	memtest86+  vmlinuz-6.12-x86_64

Thus my question is: could this come from the change of motherboard, and could be fixed without a bootable usb? I apologize if my questions are naive, I am far from an expert :slight_smile:

I thank you for the time you took to read that message and wish you a pleasant day. I will of course provide any extra info that you need!

2

Please see [root tip] [recovery] Basic Manjaro Linux Recovery

As your efforts has provided an entry in the efi firmware - I would try using the boot override key - I don’t know with Dell but F12 or F7 is often used.

2 Likes
3

Dear linux-aarhus, thank you for your quick answer!

The link you sent requires a bootable iso, so I can only try it in a few days when I can get my hands on one. Regarding the boot override, I managed to get into the “one time boot settings” using F12. I ran the diagnostics which found no issue, and while Manjaro appears here, “launching” it sends me straight to the ubuntu grub (same as if I put manjaro higher than ubuntu in the boot order of the bios).

Is there anything else I can try without a bootable USB?

Thanks again for you assistance, and have a nice day!

4

It should be possible to chroot into your Manjaro system from your working Ubuntu one. See:

Then run pacman -Syu from there; hopefully that should take care of the kernel issue. — If it doesn’t, try re-installing the kernel (just add linux612 to the previous command).

1 Like
5

Hi BG405, thank you for that answer and link!

I followed the tutorial, and was able to chroot into manjaro and run pacman. it ultimately did not work, this was some progress. Here is what happened exactly:

-at step 2, running fdisk -o Device,Size,Type -l /dev/nvme0n1p5 yields:

fdisk -o Device,Size,Type -l /dev/nvme0n1p5
Disk /dev/nvme0n1p5: 697,5 GiB, 748934209024 bytes, 1462762127 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

so it does not give me the boot partition (which I assumed to be /dev/nvme0n1p6, which I then mounted in /chroot/boot/efi).

-at step 3: I had to use “rbind” instead of “bind” or I would get sudo: unable to allocate pty: No such device when trying to pacman.

-while chrooting inside manjaro, the terminal prompt of zsh (my default terminal) looks “corrupted” (i.e. a bunch of corrupted characters), while for bash it looks “normal”.

removed screenshots of text

I ran pacman -Syu wirthout an issue, then with ‘sudo pacman -Syu linux612’ and got the following results:

removed screenshots of text

From research after that, it seems that the “firmware” warnings are irrelevant, but there are other errors. Then when restarting, the problem persists (i.e.

error: file /boot/vmlinuz-6.12-x86_64' not found.
error: you need to load the kernel first.

when trying to boot on manjaro from the ubuntu grub.

sudo update-grub has the exact same output as before.

6

You should have used the whole device, not a partition on it.
fdisk -o Device,Size,Type -l /dev/nvme0n1
probably
lsblk -f
is probably sufficient to identify which partition needs to be mounted where and in which order

Here is the Arch wiki explanation how to do it:

chroot - ArchWiki

specify the shell in the chroot command:
chroot /chroot /bin/bash

pacman -S linux612 (or another one)
mkinitcpio -P to force the creation of the initrds for all installed kernels
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg to update the grub configuration

1 Like
7

Hi Nachlese,

The last two commands seemed to do the trick! I am currently working on a (hopefully) fixed Manjaro.

Thanks to all three of you for your very quick and precise help :slight_smile: I will mark this topic as solved, and I wish you all a great day!

1 Like
8

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