Systemd-boot - Only windows as boot option

[YayL]

Hello,

A few days ago I realized that I was no longer able to boot into my endeavouros install. (Let me just append that this occured after I stupidly updated my BIOS after going to Windows for the first time since I installed linux on this computer) The systemd-boot option was not available in my BIOS to change BootOrder. I search it up on google and found some stuff about efibootmgr and I created a new entry which successfully got me to the systemd-boot menu but I only had Windows as an option. I stumbled upon other people with seemingly similar problems namely ¿corrupt kernel? and someone with the opposite problem.

So far I have tried chroot-ing after mouting my file system partition and trying to figure out which ESP is the correct one. I seem to have two, which I have a vague memory of configuring or if that was the default when I setup endeavour.

sudo fdisk -l result:

Device             Start        End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1      2048     534527    532480   260M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p2    534528     567295     32768    16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p3    567296  262115327 261548032 124.7G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p4 996118528 1000214527   4096000     2G Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p5 264212480  314544127  50331648    24G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p6 314544128  996118527 681574400   325G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p7 262115328  264212479   2097152     1G EFI System

Then ones I am confused about are 1 and 7. I have tried mounting either with 6 and then running bootctl install and then reinstall-kernels to no avail. Something that might be important is that when I run bootctl it gives a warning about random-seed and now when I tried to run bootctl it gave me an input/output error for “/boot/loader/keys” like the post that I refered to as “¿corrupt kernel?” got and when I ls the file I get questionmarks.

Please feel free to ask about anything, I am not very proficient so I apologize if I got any vocabulary wrong or am just misunderstanding parts of the system. Thank you in advance!

[keescase]

Not sure this will help you at all but as far as i know the systemd boot partition is 1G (in this case nvmeon1p7) and the other one is from windows. I guess you followed the wiki about chrooting ?

[YayL]

Indeed I did find that article and tried to follow it

[YayL]

I see, well I have mostly tried things on the 1G partition because when I try to run reinstall-kernels on the other I get an error saying that there is not enough space on the disk.

[YayL]

I should perhaps also mention, if it points to anything, that my /boot/EFI/Linux/ directory is empty. It was stated in the “opposite problem” topic I linked to that systemd looks for bootable efi files there

[keescase]

Maybe this topic will help

Installed windows on a new drive, it wiped systemd-boot

Hi, In the title of this thread pretty much explains the problem. Installed windows on a new drive, it wiped systemd. However, a drive that I did not attempt to install windows on did end up losing systemd on the drive - it seems. (when go into bios to boot various drives it shows that drive as a windows boot drive) In short, I’d assume all I need to do is reinstall systemd on that drive…however, I’m not quite sure how to do that. Ideally the end result is that I have 2 drives, each with …

[YayL]

Thank you, I will try that again to make sure but it feels like I’ve done exactly those steps:

1. Mount fs partition at /mnt and boot partition /mnt/boot
2. Run bootctl install
3. Run reinstall-kernels
4. Restart

However, now when I read arch-chroot it says that I should mount ESP at /efi or /boot/efi and not just /boot so this might be the issue. Give me a minute, thanks!

[YayL]

Okay, I am now not able to run bootctl install as I get the error Failed to create "/efi/loader/keys": Input/output error

[cactux]

@YayL

Mount fs partition at /mnt and boot partition /mnt/boot

The mountpoint for the standard EOS installation with systemd-boot is /efi and not /boot.

Post:

cat /etc/fstab
sudo blkid

[YayL]

[root@EndeavourOS /]# cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a device; this may
# be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices that works even if
# disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system>             <mount point>  <type>  <options>  <dump>  <pass>
UUID=EE28-7B9D                            /efi           vfat    fmask=0137,dmask=0027 0 2
UUID=a2ed8b85-6f1d-4f43-90de-a68230a0ce0e swap           swap    defaults   0 0
UUID=2cdce447-6d2e-4472-baf5-0b092c7a09e9 /              ext4    noatime    0 1
tmpfs                                     /tmp           tmpfs   defaults,noatime,mode=1777 0 0

[root@EndeavourOS /]# sudo blkid
/dev/nvme0n1p7: UUID="EE28-7B9D" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="565fcf39-f107-49cc-84b1-7b77a24935d3"
/dev/nvme0n1p5: UUID="a2ed8b85-6f1d-4f43-90de-a68230a0ce0e" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="419e9eec-3cdf-4f16-a8ca-0b4dd5bb016f"
/dev/nvme0n1p3: LABEL="Windows-SSD 2024-12-11" UUID="ebd239c9-b289-4d4a-bf69-859d2314571e" TYPE="BitLocker" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="07b4a808-993a-466b-9bbf-b3bc6a7950a3"
/dev/nvme0n1p1: LABEL="SYSTEM_DRV" UUID="9838-53B1" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="bb04dc7d-9d80-4e50-97fe-947bddf047d3"
/dev/nvme0n1p6: UUID="2cdce447-6d2e-4472-baf5-0b092c7a09e9" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="def2e3cc-70e4-46ce-a5e7-fc1aa20d2379"
/dev/nvme0n1p4: LABEL="WINRE_DRV" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="7C58397158392AF2" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="a45d6b3a-714c-43d4-a85d-b695d75be6e7"
/dev/nvme0n1p2: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="86620045-f244-423a-b5ac-6e3fd7af3e00"
/dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE="1048576" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sda2: LABEL_FATBOOT="ARCHISO_EFI" LABEL="ARCHISO_EFI" UUID="66EF-F55D" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="4a514722-02"
/dev/sda1: BLOCK_SIZE="2048" UUID="2024-09-22-10-45-49-00" LABEL="EOS_202409" TYPE="iso9660" PARTUUID="4a514722-01"

[cactux]

Could you post efibootmgr too?

[YayL]

Thank you, and here you go:

[root@EndeavourOS /]# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 2001,0005,0001,0004,2002,2003
Boot0000* EFI USB Device (USB2.0  Flash Disk)   UsbWwid(90c,1000,0,AA0401270001100)/CDROM(1,0x536b20,0x51040)RC
Boot0001* Windows Boot Manager  HD(7,GPT,565fcf39-f107-49cc-84b1-7b77a24935d3,0xf9f9000,0x200000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efiRC
Boot0002* EFI PXE 0 for IPv4 (40-C2-BA-81-54-56)        PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(40c2ba815456,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.0,0,DHCP,0.0.0.0,0.0.0.0,0.0.0.0)RC
Boot0003* EFI PXE 0 for IPv6 (40-C2-BA-81-54-56)        PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x1)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(40c2ba815456,0)/IPv6([::],0,Static,[::],[::],64)RC
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,bb04dc7d-9d80-4e50-97fe-947bddf047d3,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d00000000000100000010000000040000007fff0400
Boot0005* Linux systemd-boot    HD(1,GPT,bb04dc7d-9d80-4e50-97fe-947bddf047d3,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi
Boot2001* EFI USB Device        RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC
Boot2003* EFI Network   RC

[cactux]

@YayL

Boot0005* Linux systemd-boot HD(1,GPT,bb04dc7d-9d80-4e50-97fe-947bddf047d3,0x800,0x82000)/\EFI\systemd\systemd-bootx64.efi

You have already a systed-boot bootloader entry but that seems to be in

/dev/nvme0n1p1: LABEL="SYSTEM_DRV" UUID="9838-53B1" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="bb04dc7d-9d80-4e50-97fe-947bddf047d3"

and not in

/dev/nvme0n1p7: UUID="EE28-7B9D" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="565fcf39-f107-49cc-84b1-7b77a24935d3"

which according to your fstab is your Linux’ ESP.

[YayL]

Okay, i see. What would that entail? I did try to create a new one so I guess that’s why. Do you think this could be fixed by linking a efibootmgr entry to the systemd-boot bootloader that is on nvme partition 1?

[cactux]

I think for the moment we can leave that alone.

@YayL

I am now not able to run bootctl install as I get the error Failed to create "/efi/loader/keys": Input/output error

This is what you need to resolve. My guess is that I/O error may be due to full ESP partition.

If you are now properly chrooted into your system with correct partitions and correct mount points, post:

df -h /efi

lsblk -fs /dev/nvme0n1p7

[YayL]

Let me just check first. Would these be the correct mount points and partitions?

├─nvme0n1p6 259:6    0   325G  0 part /
└─nvme0n1p7 259:7    0     1G  0 part /efi

[cactux]

Please

@cactux

post:

df -h /efi

lsblk -fs /dev/nvme0n1p7

[YayL]

[root@EndeavourOS /]# df -h /efi
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p7 1022M  259M  764M  26% /efi

[root@EndeavourOS /]# lsblk -fs /dev/nvme0n1p7
NAME      FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1p7                          763.1M    25% /efi
└─nvme0n1                       

[cactux]

It is not full. So it’s not that.

It may be corrupted and therefore preventing write operation.

@YayL

lsblk -fs /dev/nvme0n1p7
NAME      FSTYPE FSVER LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1p7                          763.1M    25% /efi
└─nvme0n1                       

This should also show vfat under FSTYPE. It doesn’t.

You can do this. Inside chroot, unmount /efi

Now, in the live session, open the partitionmanager or gparted and run a filesystem check on
/dev/nvme0n1p7

Now from your terminal inside chroot: mount /efi and bootctl install

If it doesn’t work, I don’t know if there is other way to fix it than recreating your whole ESP from ground up. Maybe there are but I don’t know of them.

[YayL]

Hmm okay, I get this when I apply the fs check in partitionmanager:

Check and repair partition ‘/dev/nvme0n1p7’ (1.00 GiB, fat32) 
Job: Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme0n1p7’ 
Command: fsck.fat -a -w -v /dev/nvme0n1p7 
Check file system on partition ‘/dev/nvme0n1p7’: Error
Check and repair partition ‘/dev/nvme0n1p7’ (1.00 GiB, fat32): Error