Linux Boot option disappears from my system boot manager

[ryk]

I’ve installed EndeavourOS on a 2 TB WD MyPassport external HDdrive and use the system boot (F11) from my AMD Ryzen 9 system. on the internal HD I have windows 11.
I got endeavour to work am loving it using both Plasma and Gnome DEs.

I had hoped to eventually get away from windows all together.
But this is the second time that my Linux Boot option has disappeared leaving me only the windows boot option
The first time it happened I reinstalled the complete EndeavourOS
loosing all the installed software I installed afterwards and also a months work

Before I do that again, I read in the forum that I may be able to fix my EFI partition so it is recognized again by using my EndeavourOS installation USB and “chrooting” ?
Now I am a total Newbie to Linux (just a couple of months) and would need to be walked thru the process step by step.

I hope that is not too big an ask. I really want to get Endeavour to work reliably before I dump Windows for good
added later …
Just noticed the Wiki https://discovery.endeavouros.com/system-rescue/arch-chroot/2022/12/
Hopefully that will help. I just hope that this won’t become a regular occurrence.

[Stephane]

can you report

sudo parted -l
inxi -Fza 
sudo efibootmgr 

[thefrog]

@ryk

I just hope that this won’t become a regular occurrence.

This is Microsoft. They have no care or concern about your other OS’s they actually don’t care that you have to do all kinds of crazy crap to get it back. I never recommend dual booting do to the fact that Windows will always always destroy your boot whenever it updates its boot. Again Microsoft doesn’t care to change this behavior its why they haven’t in over 30 years.

@ryk

I reinstalled the complete EndeavourOS
loosing all the installed software I installed afterwards and also a months work

Realizing your a Newbie I would like to help you understand how to keep this from happening. First and foremost BACKUP is your friend. You should always have multiple backups or you don’t have backups.

Something for the future.
You can get a list of all apps installed with arch with this command
pacman -Qqe > packages.text
You can install all your apps from a list with a simple command.
sudo pacman -S --needed < packages.text

note using the above will not restore any programs from the AUR. you will need to remove those from the list.

[ryk]

Thanks for your quick replies, I did do a backup of my working files with Kbackup that ships with Plasma, it gave me a 638 GB Tar file, still got to get used to Tar files too it’s all the AI models and my Blender files I tried a full system backup, but I must have done something wrong since it just hung on 54% I looked into rsync and blocksync but, am struggling a bit with that (at the moment)
It was also suggested that I might be able to create an image with “Disks” utility, and selecting my Arch USB, find the “Create Disk Image” menu option. The resulting .img file would then allow me to restore my drive,

Back to the boot up question,

[quote= thefrog]
This is Microsoft. They have no care or concern about your other OS’s they actually don’t care that you have to do all kinds of crazy crap to get it back. I never recommend dual booting do to the fact that Windows will always always destroy your boot whenever it updates its boot. Again Microsoft doesn’t care to change this behavior its why they haven’t in over 30 years.[/quote]

But isn’t it the bios that takes care of the boot process, how would windows affect that?
if it’s an evil Microsoft plot do you think that booting with Grub would help my problem?

[pebcak]

grub-install has this option:

–removable
the installation device is removable. This option is only available on EFI.

From: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB

My friend says:

The --removable option in the grub-install command copies GRUB’s core.img (grubx64.efi) to the location used by live USB sticks and similar devices. It provides the additional capability of booting from the drive if EFI variables are reset or the drive is moved to another computer. This can be useful when dual-booting with Windows or installing GRUB on a Mac, as it serves as a potential fallback strategy if a UEFI update deletes the existing UEFI boot entries.

I don’t know if systemd-boot supports installing on external disks, if any similar option is available for it or even necessary and if anything I said has any bearing on the issue.

[SCORPION2000]

“ryk:
But isn’t it the bios that takes care of the boot process, how would windows affect that?
if it’s an evil Microsoft plot do you think that booting with Grub would help my problem?.”

Well… EFI is what control the boot and Windows destroys other OS boots in an update this is why I gave up on dual boot(with Windows! Other Linux distros work fine! But why would you use any thing else then EndeavourOS?!)

[thefrog]

@ryk

I did do a backup of my working files with Kbackup that ships with Plasma, it gave me a 638 GB Tar file, still got to get used to Tar files too it’s all the AI models and my Blender files I tried a full system backup, but I must have done something wrong since it just hung on 54% I looked into rsync and blocksync but, am struggling a bit with that (at the moment)

Never heard of Kbackup but I don’t use KDE either. I had it on for about a month but really just didn’t like it at all. I’ll stick with Openbox

If you want a “System Backup” solution I would look into using the BTRFS filesystem with its snapshots. I never backup the system since its already backed up on an ISO. I just backup my own /home folder. This is really all one needs to save.
A very simple command to backup your home is
cp ~ /Destination/of/Backup

@ryk

do you think that booting with Grub would help my problem?

No. Removing Windows will solve your problem.

[ryk]

@thefrog since my Linux is on an external removable drive, wouldn’t making sure that drive is never connected when booting into windows, then Linux and Windows would never meet and remain completely separate.
Wouldn’t that work?

[pebcak]

Try Grub (grub-install with --removable option). See above for more info.

Also, you were requested to provide more info:

@Stephane

can you report

sudo parted -l
inxi -Fza 
sudo efibootgr 

You didn’t. If you need help to fix your issue, since you asked, you will have to respond to the people offering help.

Good Luck!

[ryk]

I would but as I still haven’t fixed my problem I can’t provide the asked for information, I’m totally not ignoring anyone that’s kind enough to respond
I’m actually talking to you all on my old windows 10 clunker while I experiment with various solutions on my new baby

[anon93652015]

Like others have said, this is not something that regularly happens when/if you only have Linux installed. When you only have Linux installed and this happens, it’s probably user error or a rare bug specific to the user’s setup.

Even if you had multiple Linux distros installed, this probably wouldn’t happen. I have EndeavourOS on a 1 TB external HDD, and Archcraft and Ubuntu Studio on my internal HDD. No booting issues, and I didn’t do anything special or technical. They all just work. I am using Grub, though.

[pebcak]

@ryk

I would but as I still haven’t fixed my problem I can’t provide the asked for information

You could use your live usb. Connect your external disk and provide the information asked for.

Note that there is a typo there somewhere. It should be efibootmgr and not efibootgr.

[ryk]

@Stephane Sorry to have taken so long with the info, I didn’t think to use my installation live usb, thanks @pebcak for the heads up

It’s fairly verbose, how would you like me to present the info? I have it as a text file right now.

[pebcak]

Make sure you have internet connection in the live session.

In a terminal:

sudo parted -l | eos-sendlog

and post the URL you’ll get.

Do the same for the other commands.

[ryk]

@Stephane @pebcak Okay, here ya go
sudo parted -l
https://0x0.st/Xb9q.txt
inxi -Fza
https://0x0.st/Xb9T.txt
sudo efibootmgr
https://0x0.st/Xb9m.txt

Maybe I should point out the drive that’s not seen by my sys boot manager, or is that as plain as the nose on my face? to seasoned veterans

Model: WD My Passport 2627 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 2000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:

Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 4296MB 4295MB fat32 boot, esp
2 4296MB 2000GB 1996GB

[pebcak]

In the live session, open a terminal and run:

sudo mount /dev/sdc1 /mnt

Then post the output of:

tree /mnt

If tree is not installed, install it: sudo pacman -S tree

Copy the terminal output as text, paste it into your reply, highlight it and press Ctrl-E to format.

Also what is the filesystem on /dev/sdc2 ? It doesn’t show in the output you have posted.

[ryk]

@pebcak here it is
filesystem on /dev/sdc2 is ext4 Encrypted

tree /mnt
http://0x0.st/XbfN.txt
/mnt
├── 1a7c2433239a4119bcc034a5a659248e
│ ├── 6.6.32-1-lts
│ │ ├── initrd
│ │ ├── initrd-fallback
│ │ └── linux
│ └── 6.9.3-arch1-1
│ ├── initrd
│ ├── initrd-fallback
│ └── linux
├── EFI
│ ├── BOOT
│ │ └── BOOTX64.EFI
│ ├── Linux
│ ├── Microsoft
│ │ ├── Boot
│ │ │ ├── BCD
│ │ │ ├── BCD.LOG
│ │ │ ├── BCD.LOG1
│ │ │ ├── BCD.LOG2
│ │ │ ├── bg-BG
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi
│ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi
│ │ │ ├── BOOTSTAT.DAT
│ │ │ ├── boot.stl
│ │ │ ├── CIPolicies
│ │ │ │ └── Active
│ │ │ │ ├── {5DAC656C-21AD-4A02-AB49-649917162E70}.cip
│ │ │ │ ├── {82443e1e-8a39-4b4a-96a8-f40ddc00b9f3}.cip
│ │ │ │ └── {CDD5CB55-DB68-4D71-AA38-3DF2B6473A52}.cip
│ │ │ ├── cs-CZ
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── da-DK
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── de-DE
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── el-GR
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── en-GB
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── en-US
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── es-ES
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── es-MX
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── et-EE
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── fi-FI
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── Fonts
│ │ │ │ ├── chs_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── cht_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── jpn_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── kor_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── malgun_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── malgunn_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── meiryo_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── meiryon_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── msjh_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── msjhn_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── msyh_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── msyhn_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── segmono_boot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── segoen_slboot.ttf
│ │ │ │ ├── segoe_slboot.ttf
│ │ │ │ └── wgl4_boot.ttf
│ │ │ ├── fr-CA
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── fr-FR
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── hr-HR
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── hu-HU
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── it-IT
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── ja-JP
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_10df.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_10ec.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_1137.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_14e4.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_15b3.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_1969.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_19a2.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_1af4.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_02_8086.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_07_1415.dll
│ │ │ ├── kd_0C_8086.dll
│ │ │ ├── kdnet_uart16550.dll
│ │ │ ├── kdstub.dll
│ │ │ ├── ko-KR
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── lt-LT
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── lv-LV
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── memtest.efi
│ │ │ ├── nb-NO
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── nl-NL
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── pl-PL
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── pt-BR
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── pt-PT
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── qps-ploc
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── Resources
│ │ │ │ ├── bootres.dll
│ │ │ │ ├── en-US
│ │ │ │ │ └── bootres.dll.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── es-ES
│ │ │ │ │ └── bootres.dll.mui
│ │ │ │ └── fr-FR
│ │ │ │ └── bootres.dll.mui
│ │ │ ├── ro-RO
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── ru-RU
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── SecureBootRecovery.efi
│ │ │ ├── sk-SK
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── sl-SI
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── sr-Latn-RS
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── sv-SE
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── tr-TR
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── uk-UA
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── winsipolicy.p7b
│ │ │ ├── zh-CN
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ │ └── zh-TW
│ │ │ ├── bootmgfw.efi.mui
│ │ │ ├── bootmgr.efi.mui
│ │ │ └── memtest.efi.mui
│ │ └── Recovery
│ │ ├── BCD
│ │ ├── BCD.LOG
│ │ ├── BCD.LOG1
│ │ └── BCD.LOG2
│ └── systemd
│ └── systemd-bootx64.efi
└── loader
├── entries
│ ├── 1a7c2433239a4119bcc034a5a659248e-6.6.32-1-lts.conf
│ ├── 1a7c2433239a4119bcc034a5a659248e-6.6.32-1-lts-fallback.conf
│ ├── 1a7c2433239a4119bcc034a5a659248e-6.9.3-arch1-1.conf
│ └── 1a7c2433239a4119bcc034a5a659248e-6.9.3-arch1-1-fallback.conf
├── entries.srel
├── loader.conf
└── random-seed

56 directories, 159 files
[liveuser@eos-2024.04.20 ~]$

[dalto]

It looks like you just need to setup an arch-chroot as described in the EOS wiki and run bootctl install

[pebcak]

Thanks!

Everything is in place. It is just that your EFI (Linux Boot Manager) boot entry for some reason has been deleted.

Despite pointing the finger of blame to Windows which in some cases is really culprit of deleting boot entries, recently, some users have reported having lost their boot entries after an update or in one very odd case after shutting down the system and starting it up in the morning. I don’t think that in any of the cases the real reason for it came to be known.

At any rate, since all your boot files etc. are intact, we could try creating manually EFI boot entries for your system.

Keep your disk connected. In the live session, open a terminal and run:

sudo efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sdc --part 1 --loader '\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi' --label "Linux Boot Manager" --unicode

sudo efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sdc --part 1 --loader '\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI' --label "Boot Fallback" --unicode

The second one will create an EFI boot entry which will point to the bootloader in the fallback path. This is something that I should think would correspond to the --removable option in grub-install.

[ryk]

Okay I now have …
[liveuser@eos-2024.04.20 ~]$ sudo efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sdc --part 1 --loader ‘\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi’ --label “Linux Boot Manager” --unicode
BootCurrent: 0005
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,cf0653fb-ea6f-4fd2-807e-4141d63b1564,0x800,0x32000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi䥗䑎坏S
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,b5803f08-1ecb-472d-8eed-1dea50194a42,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,03e94edd-a055-453c-b4e3-32ae42754ac6,0x800,0x800000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
Boot0005* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000, Partition 1 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x8,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x4)/USB(3,0)/USB(2,0)/USB(0,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x7fa733,0x800,0xe6ef800)
Boot0001* Linux Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,03e94edd-a055-453c-b4e3-32ae42754ac6,0x800,0x800000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
[liveuser@eos-2024.04.20 ~]$ sudo efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sdc --part 1 --loader ‘\EFI\BOOT\BOOT64.EFI’ --label “Boot Fallback” --unicode
BootCurrent: 0005
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,0001,0000,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,cf0653fb-ea6f-4fd2-807e-4141d63b1564,0x800,0x32000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi䥗䑎坏S
Boot0001* Linux Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,03e94edd-a055-453c-b4e3-32ae42754ac6,0x800,0x800000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot0003* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,b5803f08-1ecb-472d-8eed-1dea50194a42,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,03e94edd-a055-453c-b4e3-32ae42754ac6,0x800,0x800000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
Boot0005* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000, Partition 1 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x8,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x4)/USB(3,0)/USB(2,0)/USB(0,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x7fa733,0x800,0xe6ef800)
Boot0002* Boot Fallback HD(1,GPT,03e94edd-a055-453c-b4e3-32ae42754ac6,0x800,0x800000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOT64.EFI
[liveuser@eos-2024.04.20 ~]$

Do I try to boot it now?