Lost BIOS EndeavourOS boot entry

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 4:09pm

That’s good news!

Hmmm … I honestly doubt that with your setup (partition scheme and installation mode) you would have a bootable system at all if that setting was disabled.

See my post here for an explanation for how/why you may have ended up with such an install to begin with.

If you have a working system, I would leave it that. As it is now. There is nothing wrong with the setup.

If by normal you mean to have a system booting on UEFI mode, then there is a little bit more involved to make it happen.

Not impossible but it would require a few additional steps than just a grub-install.

ricklinux · February 27, 2024, 4:18pm

Normally on a system that is UEFI you would have CSM disabled as well as secure boot so that the live ISO doesn’t boot in bios mode. Otherwise the install is in Bios mode.

Also there are two ways to install in Bios mode. One using Mbr on Bios and the other using GUID partition or GPT disk.

@pebcak provided the link that explains this.

ricklinux · February 27, 2024, 4:21pm

Yes i see it only shows the user profiles. You can just set the ram clock speed manually to accomplish the same thing as XMP. You just need to know the speed your system supports for the ram.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 4:26pm

There is a very good chance that I am wrong and there is some setting that removes this new screen that asks me to boot from my SSD before grub (The default boot is set to the correct drive).

I agree that for now I should leave well enough alone at least until the EOD. I would like to get my system to boot on UEFI mode. I think I understood what happened with the initial install by your link. Now is there a ‘mutable’ process for getting to boot on UEFI mode or is it recommended to do it ‘immutably’ by backing up, reinstalling, then restoring the previous backup?

@ricklinux
After that I can reattempt updating the BIOS to get XMP to show up. Thought I should mention that when I go into the DRAM tweaker there is an XMP profile there. I just dont know how to get the BIOS to use it.

ricklinux · February 27, 2024, 4:32pm

Probably try clicking on it to highlight it maybe and or does it open another submenu? But anyway if you can update the UEFI Firmware (Bios) that would be a good thing. Being installed in bios mode is okay as far as the computer working but there are advantages to using UEFI.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 4:34pm

Figured this one out, it was the boot manager under Tool/Boot Manager. I have since disabled it. Now things as far as I can tell operate as before.

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 4:35pm

It depends on what you want.

You could backup all your personal data and configurations and do a new install in UEFI mode, this time making sure to disable legacy/csm beforehand for the live usb to boot up in UEFI mode.

Or, we could help you to convert your current system to boot in UEFI mode.
Let us know when the time comes.

ricklinux · February 27, 2024, 4:36pm

@Dihedric
If you boot the live ISO in bios mode it looks like this.

If it’s booted in UEFI mode it will look like this.

In order to boot in UEFI CSM should be disabled and also secure boot.

Edit: I’ll let @pebcak help you if you decide you want to convert it.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 8:48pm

Just like to start by saying thank you, @pebcak and @ricklinux for all your help. I definitely would have just kept digging my grave trying to use efibootmgr to fix my issue.

@ricklinux I definitely remember it looking like the BIOS boot image -_-.

@pebcak I think doing the conversion from MBR to UEFI would be best as I will learn a lot along the way. I’m just uploading a cloud backup of important files on my /home drive in case the worst happens.

ricklinux · February 27, 2024, 9:07pm

Yes efibootmgr is very helpful if installed in UEFI mode.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 9:46pm

I just realized I will probably need to wipe out /dev/sda3 as some how/reason formatted it as ext4 even though it was intended to be my EFI partition. Is is still possible to complete the conversion if I need to reformat the partition to fat32?

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 9:58pm

@Dihedric

Are you using an archiso or an EnOS iso?
If the former, could you interact with the forum on another device?

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 10:09pm

I currently have an archiso. Right now I am using a second device to use the forum.

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 10:11pm

Yes, we can reformat that in the live session to be used as your new ESP.

Before that, in your running session do the following:

sudo mkdir /boot/efi

sudo mkdir /boot.new

sudo cp -rav /boot/ /boot.new/

Now, go into your firmware setting and disable CSM.
Boot up your live usb in UEFI mode.

Let me know when you are in the live session.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 10:16pm

done

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 10:23pm

Now we can reformat the current boot partition as fat32 to be used as future ESP

Please double check if I’ve got the right device to be formatted

sudo mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/sda3

(reformatting your current /boot partition as FAT32 to be used as your new ESP)

After this command you will get an interactive prompt: (parted)

Type print followed by enter to list your partitions.

Identify the number of the fat32 partition: N

Set boot,esp flag on the ESP. Replace N with the actual number

set N boot on
set N esp on

when done type q followed by enter to quit (parted)

sudo mount /dev/sda4 /mnt

sudo mv /mnt/boot.new /mnt/boot

Replace N in the following with the actual number of the new ESP:

sudo mount /dev/sdaN /mnt/boot/efi

Check with lsblk -f to see if the right partition is mounted at right location.

Let me know when you are done.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 10:31pm

partition formatted, flags are set, files moved, /dev/sda3 is at /mnt/boot/efi

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 10:41pm

Great! Let’s get chrooted!

sudo arch-chroot /mnt

Now in chroot, first of all we can fix the ESP entry in the /etc/fstab.

Get the UUID of the new ESP by for example lsblk -f

Now edit your /etc/fstab.

nano /etc/fstab

Remove

UUID=c879197e-a773-4612-a02c-d0f810265621 /boot  ext4  defaults,noatime 0 2

Put in (replace WXYZ with the actual UUID of the new ESP)

UUID=WXYZ /boot/efi vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077 0 2

Tell when you are done so we can move to the next step.

Dihedric · February 27, 2024, 10:46pm

Had to use blkid to get the uuid as lsblk -f didnt have it for some reason. Just saved and closed the file.

pebcak · February 27, 2024, 10:51pm

Nice!

Now we can install the Grub’s bootloader to ESP:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=endeavouros

Check with

efibootmgr

to see that a new efi boot entry (endeavouros) has effectively been created.

Regenerate your grub.cfg

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

If everything is fine, you can type exit to quit chroot.

Cross your fingers and reboot.