Manjaro boot partition not found after bios update/revert

Support
1

It happened to me.

Updated bios and suddenly manjaro /boot is not found, only windows boot partition.

I have reverted back to the old bios firmware but it did not help.

I have backups (well, I have 2 and one is from right before the bios update so that is probably worthless) of the partition (and full disk for that matter) I can try, but I don’t think that will change anything for me since nothing was changed on the drive, it worked right before!

I chrooted into my installation mounted the boot and ran an update/grub and it worked perfectly, so it doesn’t seem to be any problems with the boot partition or filesystem.

Still marked with boot flag in partition manager.

This is the output from the live session I am in right now. sda5 is my manjaro boot.

NAME    FSTYPE FSVER LABEL             UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0   squash 4.0                                                                0   100% /run/miso/sfs/livefs
loop1   squash 4.0                                                                0   100% /run/miso/sfs/mhwdfs
loop2   squash 4.0                                                                0   100% /run/miso/sfs/desktopfs
loop3   squash 4.0                                                                0   100% /run/miso/sfs/rootfs
sda                                                                                        
├─sda1  vfat   FAT32 WIN-BOOT          5483-0EFB                                           
├─sda2                                                                                     
├─sda3  ntfs         windows           6654845D5484323B                                    
├─sda4  ntfs         windows-extra     E61A49731A4941B3                                    
├─sda5  vfat   FAT32                   AC73-C072                                           
├─sda6  swap   1                       5ae8fbf5-a704-41ea-be6d-bf26b38325ed                
├─sda7  btrfs                          700d034d-b99a-482b-880b-9060acf3a6b3                
└─sda8  btrfs                          2a875645-5701-4450-bd08-adf1f966a07c                
sdb                                                                                        
├─sdb1                                                                                     
├─sdb2  ntfs         Lilla Fil-fitt disken
│                                      CE8C0EC38C0EA655                                    
└─sdb3  ext4   1.0   MISO              bd6e3634-1f2f-405f-87a1-5115bda000de                
sdc                                                                                        
├─sdc1  exfat  1.0   Ventoy            19E1-C0B4                                           
│ └─ventoy
│       iso966 Jolie MANJARO_KDE_2210  2023-04-21-10-04-39-00                     0   100% /run/miso/bootmnt
└─sdc2  vfat   FAT16 VTOYEFI           1E1C-88C8                                           
nvme0n1                                                                                    
├─nvme0n1p1
│                                                                                          
├─nvme0n1p2
│       ntfs         Games             68A4C531A4C50294                                    
├─nvme0n1p3
│       ext4   1.0   backup            2b1e42bb-fe37-4fa1-991e-aab694b6b16f                
└─nvme0n1p4
        ext4   1.0   Games             ccfef3ee-65e0-45e4-aac2-4604ad2e696d

What the heck do I do?!?

edit
Just to make clear I am using efi not anything else.

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda                                                                         ✔ 
Disk /dev/sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 860 
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: AA9D4D47-282A-4A7F-AAB9-C46C81E52DDC

Device         Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048    206847    204800   100M EFI System
/dev/sda2     206848    239615     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3     239616 419670015 419430400   200G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  419670016 420966399   1296384   633M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda5  420966400 422014975   1048576   512M EFI System
/dev/sda6  422014976 501706751  79691776    38G Linux swap
/dev/sda7  501706752 757559295 255852544   122G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda8  757559296 976773134 219213839 104.5G Linux filesystem
2

What shows efibootmgr -v ?

3

We is not surprised, Preciousss. :stuck_out_tongue:

Did you also set it back to all the same settings as before, including disabling Secure Boot and Fast Boot? :wink:

Indeed. The problem is located in the NVRAM of your UEFI firmware. :wink:

Thou shalt Read the Fine Manual of the magical tool efibootmgr and subsequently free thyself from the evil curse of MickeySoft™. :wink:

man efibootmgr
4

I have reinstalled grub as per manjaro wiki but have not restarted yet, but this is of now:

from chroot:

BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002
Boot0000* manjaro       HD(5,GPT,3a0a9571-9df2-1c46-a547-9468e01607ac,0x19177000,0x100000)/File(\EFI\manjaro\grubx64.efi)
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 05 00 00 00 00 70 17 19 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 71 95 0a 3a f2 9d 46 1c a5 47 94 68 e0 16 07 ac 02 02 / 04 04 36 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 6d 00 61 00 6e 00 6a 00 61 00 72 00 6f 00 5c 00 67 00 72 00 75 00 62 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
Boot0001* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,472a11de-c3b9-4acc-b41a-bb9fb810d35d,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)0000424f
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 de 11 2a 47 b9 c3 cc 4a b4 1a bb 9f b8 10 d3 5d 02 02 / 04 04 46 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 4d 00 69 00 63 00 72 00 6f 00 73 00 6f 00 66 00 74 00 5c 00 42 00 6f 00 6f 00 74 00 5c 00 62 00 6f 00 6f 00 74 00 6d 00 67 00 66 00 77 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 00 00 42 4f
Boot0002* UEFI OS       HD(2,MBR,0xa4b0058,0x7730ab0,0x10000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)0000424f
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 b0 0a 73 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 58 00 4b 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 04 04 30 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 42 00 4f 00 4f 00 54 00 5c 00 42 00 4f 00 4f 00 54 00 58 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 00 00 42 4f

from live:

BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002
Boot0000* manjaro       HD(5,GPT,3a0a9571-9df2-1c46-a547-9468e01607ac,0x19177000,0x100000)/File(\EFI\manjaro\grubx64.efi)
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 05 00 00 00 00 70 17 19 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 71 95 0a 3a f2 9d 46 1c a5 47 94 68 e0 16 07 ac 02 02 / 04 04 36 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 6d 00 61 00 6e 00 6a 00 61 00 72 00 6f 00 5c 00 67 00 72 00 75 00 62 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
Boot0001* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,472a11de-c3b9-4acc-b41a-bb9fb810d35d,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)0000424f
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 de 11 2a 47 b9 c3 cc 4a b4 1a bb 9f b8 10 d3 5d 02 02 / 04 04 46 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 4d 00 69 00 63 00 72 00 6f 00 73 00 6f 00 66 00 74 00 5c 00 42 00 6f 00 6f 00 74 00 5c 00 62 00 6f 00 6f 00 74 00 6d 00 67 00 66 00 77 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 00 00 42 4f
Boot0002* UEFI OS       HD(2,MBR,0xa4b0058,0x7730ab0,0x10000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)0000424f
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 b0 0a 73 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 58 00 4b 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 04 04 30 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 42 00 4f 00 4f 00 54 00 5c 00 42 00 4f 00 4f 00 54 00 58 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 00 00 42 4f

100%, no, I’m 1000% sure.

And that means?
As I said, i reverted back to the exact same bios firmware to the EXACT same settings. (I have dual bios)

Don’t really see that as a linux sollution, sounds more like a windows thing to force what I should have on my computer. :frowning:

Things that might be of interest

  • CSM support is disabled
  • fast boot is disabled
  • secure boot has never been deactivated, but it is also not used (says so in bios)

I will reboot now and see if the reinstall changed anything.

5

PHEW!!

A REINSTALL (update-grub is not enough) fixed it for me.

So:

Thanks anyway though, this time I was actually nervous I had to reinstall or some bs.

All is well again!

6

The NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random Access Memory) is the battery backed memory that holds your UEFI settings. It relies on the same battery as your hardware clock.

Um, no, it’s a way to add, edit or delete the entries of the UEFI boot manager menu.

On UEFI systems, grub-install does indeed also add the EFI variable back to your EFI boot manager. :man_shrugging:

7

Pretty sure that was not the problem, I reverted back to the bios I had before by forcing a reset to the second bios, I wanted to be absolutely sure I went back to how it exactly was before it broke.
It’s almost a brand new mb too. It’s very strange tbh. But then again, its Gigabyte…

Oh, yeah, I mean, I will read up on it, didn’t really take notice on that comment as my add brain was already preoccupied with rebooting, sorry. Did not mean any disrespect.

I meant the “stop using ms” witch I kinda agree with, but I want to choose when, and I don’t feel 100% confident. I have been close, but still want to keep it a little longer (there are a few games releasing soon that i want to play with friends and windows might be the only way to make that happen at the moment f ex. I don’t want to be that guy that crashes and leaves the game constantly because “I use arch btw”. /joke)

But I don’t think it would have mattered if ms was installed or not in this instance.

8

You don’t even need to boot to live USB, use the live USB to detect your boot loader, boot to your real system, reinstall/update GRUB. This is well known that updating BIOS will 99% of the time lead to that issue (I have seen ONCE on a PC that it would still know Manjaro boot loader after BIOS update). Many results if you search about it.

9

Never experienced this on 6.1 LTS, have done at least 5 bios updates on that kernel.

This was the first with 6.3 so that might be a reason, no idea.

Oh, will keep that in mind if it happens again.
That didn’t even cross my mind, thank you for the tip.

Now you know of 6. xD
I have NEVER experienced any trouble updating my bios before.

I did search for it, but nothing that appeared like this, I have dual boot so I could not 100% relate to most of the hits, but it seemed like a reinstall of grub was the solution to most cases, so I did that after writing the post.

The reason I thought a reinstall would not help was because an update-grub worked perfectly fine finding everything and giving zero errors, hence this post at all.

10

Absolutely nothing to do with the kernel, like 0%.

Updating the BIOS will reset the BIOS, if it doesn’t it is probably/maybe because it was very minor BIOS update with basically no change and no forced reset from motherboard/BIOS (or because you didn’t actually update the BIOS :P).

“No Manjaro boot” after “BIOS update” is because of the motherboard resetting BIOS to defaults after the BIOS update. Nothing to do with the installed kernel.

Maybe it is because I participated in multiple of them that I know/find them then. I don’t know. But even by doing wild search on Google not specific to Manjaro you’ll find also answers (search like “linux can not boot after bios update”).

11

I don’t know. But as stated, I have updated my bios MULTIPLE times (I honestly think it’s more than 5) and NEVER experienced this before.
I changed kernel about a week ago and the first time I update bios, boot gone.

I also reverted the bios EXACTLY by CLONING back the bios that worked before from my dual bios (emergency revert or whatever its called, it clones back the old firmware EXACTLY with settings so the computer becomes EXACTLY like it was before bios update).

I think you need to read the thread again you talk about things I have already explained. Or just read my above statement, kinda covers it all.

12

You missed the issue. Reverting back to old BIOS and settings parameters like before, will not add back the working Manjaro boot entry in the BIOS.

It’s all good, now you fixed it, and now you know.

//EDIT: also, now that I read the thread again because I didn’t at all before, you have two EFI partition on the same disk? That’s odd.

13

This happened to me too with B550I AORUS PRO AX BIOS update F16 and F17.

Solution was to boot from USB-stick, manjaro-chroot to root partition, mount /boot/efi and
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=manjaro-gnome --recheck

Hope this helps!

1 Like
14

I actually removed my 6.3 kernel, rebooted my 6.1 LTS kernel two times and then updated bios and it worked wo problems.

Will se if I have the energy to revert and redo the upgrade with 6.3 after I install it again.

BUT, thanks to @omano I got curious about “find bootloaders” on the live usb stick, never thought about that before so I plugged in the usb stick and entered the menu just for fun.
And that found TWO manjaro bootloaders. One on the correct partition, but ALSO on the windows partition!

It might gave been there all the time since I first installed manjaro for the first time a LONG time ago and making the mistake of using windows boot. I Regretted that fast, and thought, since windows doesn’t show the manjaro menu entry in the boot, it is gone and just removed the manjaro partition and reinstalled with a boot of its own.

The windows entry was apparently NOT removed, OR it has been installed there somehow again, maybe when I have been playing around with my personal menu entries in grub.

I mounted the windows boot partition and yepp, there is a manjaro directory, maybe that was what was suddenly messing things up.

I will have to do some research how to remove that bootloader from the windows partition because I suspect just deleting the partition is not advised. xD

Now I at least have something to go on.

1 Like
15

To me that makes absolutely 0 sense, I’m not saying that to be rude to you or whatever, I believe you but as you figured out you probably have an issue with your two boot partition on the same disk :wink:

16

Me neither, I become even more confused the more I read.

Also strange that it didn’t/doesn’t show with efibootmgr but the usb live detects it.
But that might become clearer when I get to read more about it, haven’t really gotten to it yet.
Haven’t tried booting from it either, I just expect my computer to explode if I do. xD

17

I have a Gigabyte B450 AORUS ELITE and from what I’ve learned is before updating bios reset the motherboard back to defaults before updating the bios.Once you update the bios reset back to defaults again then reboot and set it up the way you had it.It may break next time I update it but so far I have had no issues doing it that way.I don’t know if you used Windows to update but I also always copy the bios file to usb and update from that.

18

What??

Oh, you mean using the “gigabyte downloader” that is a setting in bios, no freaking way.
I disabled that the first time windows switched order of my boot devices (actually hadn’t noticed the setting before that), pretty sure this was the culprit for that because it has never done that again.

I have double redundancy in my thinking when updating bios. I have had pretty bad unfortunate experiences with bios updates in the past, although a LONG time ago now, but I DO NOT want to experience that again. Never bricked anything completely, but it has been close. Pushing bios via serial console is not the most fun thing to do. xD

Since I now have 2 bios:es (never had that before, its fun and SOOO convenient), I tend to use that to my advantage, never any reason to reset or reboot imo.
I save my profiles on the board and as you mention, on a usb stick but I NEVER use those to “restore” the settings in a NEW bios, always do that manually.

Since gigabyte though, the fan profiles are the most important setting to save. xD

19

This topic was automatically closed 2 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.