Manjaro not booting – Suspected issue with /boot/efi

[soundofthunder]

@werdennwohl

Could you help clarify why the bootloader needs to be reinstalled if the system is able to show the kernels and allow selection?

The information given loosely explains how to install rEFInd to the $ESP on a fixed disk rather than a USB device. It was purely informational, after seeing comments that rEFInd is installed to a USB device, and also;

@Wollie

I’m not familiar with rEFInd but I would expect you have to restore the boot loader
…

@Wollie

In your case I would try to install your system on an integrated gpt formatted disk.

With the last comment I am in agreement. The information provided seems inconsistent. Nonetheless, I’ll add more information that might be useful.

@werdennwohl

I have replaced GRUB with the rEFInd bootloader, and it was installed on the external hard drive. Nevertheless, the problem with mounting the EFI partition persists.

If you did indeed replace GRUB with rEFInd, that is another issue in itself. Plus, as far as I’m aware, booting from a USB device isn’t a supported scenario.

Usually rEFInd is fully capable of chainloading most other boot loaders in your system, including GRUB, so, the typical scenario is to allow rEFInd to do just that.

If you have actually removed/replaced GRUB with rEFInd, it cannot.

@werdennwohl

I suspect there might be an issue with the partitioning or the mount options for /boot/efi, as this partition seems to fail to mount.

What specifically makes you think that? I ask because it could just as easily be an issue with GRUB.

@werdennwohl

As you can see, /boot/efi is located on /dev/sdb1

For the sake of clarity, /boot/efi is a mountpoint to the EFI System Partition (ESP) ($ESP/EFI) and not the partition itself. Call it the ESP… because, that’s what it is.

@werdennwohl

You mentioned restoring the boot loader, which is a possibility, but since I’m using rEFInd instead of GRUB, I wasn’t sure whether this applies in the same way.

This only enhances the reasoning for giving the information you queried; whether you use it, or not, is immaterial.

@werdennwohl

BootCurrent: 0008
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0007,0002,0001,0000,0008,0009,0003,0004
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,32c5a3c8-fbf0-4ee6-a298-957aaa8a5053,0xc8800,0x32000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d0000006f000100000010000000040000007fff0400
Boot0001* manjaro	HD(1,GPT,92ee68f5-5982-4269-8f18-930cc57625d8,0x28,0x64000)/\EFI\manjaro\grubx64.efi
Boot0002* rEFInd Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,92ee68f5-5982-4269-8f18-930cc57625d8,0x28,0x64000)/\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi
Boot0003* Onboard NIC(IPV4)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(a4bb6d53e03e,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.0,0,DHCP,0.0.0.0,0.0.0.0,0.0.0.0)0000424f
Boot0004* Onboard NIC(IPV6)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(a4bb6d53e03e,0)/IPv6([::],0,Static,[::],[::],64)0000424f
Boot0007* rEFInd	HD(1,GPT,92ee68f5-5982-4269-8f18-930cc57625d8,0x28,0x64000)/\EFI\refind\refind.efi
Boot0008* UEFI: SanDisk	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/CDROM(1,0x743260,0x8000)0000424f
Boot0009* UEFI: SanDisk	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/HD(2,MBR,0x0,0x743260,0x2000)0000424f

You appear to have two entries for rEFInd, and neither appear to be on the $ESP of a USB device, as you claim. Which of these instances is working?

Judging by the file names, one is 64bit, and the other isn’t; of the two, the 64bit entry (specifying refind_x64.efi) should be used. If working, this should be set as the default bootloader in your BIOS.

@werdennwohl

Boot0009* UEFI: SanDisk	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(1,0)/HD(2,MBR,0x0,0x743260,0x2000)0000424f

This Sandisk USB has an MBR partition scheme, so it would be unable to boot a UEFI boot loader such as rEFInd in any case.

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Additional;

MANJARO-REFIND-INSTALLER

A special Manjaro GUI application exists called manjaro-refind-installer which allows to specify the default kernel to use when booting from rEFInd:

sudo pacman -S manjaro-refind-installer

Despite it’s name, this package doesn’t actually install rEFInd, but it does offer a convenient GUI method to choose the kernel that rEFInd should reference to boot Manjaro via the kernel stub.

This may or may not be useful to you.

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Overall, my opinion is that a fresh install might be in order. Please see links (below) in case they are useful.

Regards.

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