Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer · 2022-11-03 16:45:10

Hi,
from some former experimenting fucking up, I have 5 Boot entry's in my Bios.
I tried removing them with

efibootmgr -v
sudo efibootmgr -b 0000 -B

and running

efibootmgr -v

afterwards didn't show the entry's anymore, but after rebooting and checking the BIOS, they were still there.
I need to remove them because I can't add any, and I want to move my boot partition, because the one I currently use is the one Windows set up (I'm dual booting), and it is too small.
I removed the CMOS Battery, and it reset the BIOS, but it kept the Boot entry's anyways.

Any help is welcome, thank you in advance!

V1del · 2022-11-03 16:46:57

Your UEFI will have options to adjust/remove them in that case.

Slithery · 2022-11-03 16:51:20

BIOS firmware has no concept of 'boot entries'.
Did you mean your UEFI firmware?

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer · 2022-11-03 16:55:31

Slithery wrote:

BIOS firmware has no concept of 'boot entries'.
Did you mean your UEFI firmware?

Yes, my bad, the UEFI firmware does not have any options to remove the boot entry's. Its pretty locked down as I am on a laptop.
I can add EFI files for execution when I turn on Secure Boot, but theres no way to remove them when added.

darash · 2022-11-03 17:13:15

boot from archlinux iso and entry >> UEFI SHELL >>

# example:
$ bcfg boot dump
$ bcfg boot rm 2

maybe this option will work?

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer · 2022-11-03 17:26:15

darash wrote:

boot from archlinux iso and entry
# example:
$ bcfg boot dump
$ bcfg boot rm 2

I tried it out, and it resulted in the same thing where if i do

bcfg boot dump

again, it doesn't show the entry's, but when I reboot, they reappear?
I have no clue whats going on here, maybe it doesn't write changes to storage or something?

V1del · 2022-11-03 18:26:45

Which actual entries are you talking about and why do you think you can't "add any" anymore? Post the output of

efibootmgr -uv

there's a certain set of default entries the firmware will contain and generate regardless like CD/DVD/USB EFI fallback points, these should be dynamic and not account towards your actual available efivar space.

Last edited by V1del (2022-11-03 18:27:58)

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer · 2022-11-03 20:31:20

This is the output:

BootCurrent: 0004
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0004,0006,0001,0002,2001,0003,2002,2003
Boot0001* grub	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,0a5fc172-44d3-48b5-8a54-b14469fbc8aa,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)ぁ‱급
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 17 / 03 12 0a 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 72 c1 5f 0a d3 44 b5 48 8a 54 b1 44 69 fb c8 aa 02 02 / 04 04 34 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 75 00 62 00 75 00 6e 00 74 00 75 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
    data: 41 30 31 20 09 ae
Boot0002* archgrub	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,0a5fc172-44d3-48b5-8a54-b14469fbc8aa,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\EFI\arch_grub_uefi\grubx64.efi)ぁ‱긙
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 17 / 03 12 0a 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 72 c1 5f 0a d3 44 b5 48 8a 54 b1 44 69 fb c8 aa 02 02 / 04 04 4c 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 61 00 72 00 63 00 68 00 5f 00 67 00 72 00 75 00 62 00 5f 00 75 00 65 00 66 00 69 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
    data: 41 30 31 20 19 ae
Boot0003* newgrub	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,0a5fc172-44d3-48b5-8a54-b14469fbc8aa,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\new_grub\grubx64.efi)ぁ‱긹
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 17 / 03 12 0a 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 72 c1 5f 0a d3 44 b5 48 8a 54 b1 44 69 fb c8 aa 02 02 / 04 04 38 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 6e 00 65 00 77 00 5f 00 67 00 72 00 75 00 62 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
    data: 41 30 31 20 39 ae
Boot0004* newnewgrub	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x17,0x0)/Sata(2,0,0)/HD(1,GPT,0a5fc172-44d3-48b5-8a54-b14469fbc8aa,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\newnewgrub\grubx64.efi)ぁ‱깉
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 17 / 03 12 0a 00 02 00 00 00 00 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 72 c1 5f 0a d3 44 b5 48 8a 54 b1 44 69 fb c8 aa 02 02 / 04 04 3c 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 6e 00 65 00 77 00 6e 00 65 00 77 00 67 00 72 00 75 00 62 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
    data: 41 30 31 20 49 ae
Boot0006* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,0a5fc172-44d3-48b5-8a54-b14469fbc8aa,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)䥗䑎坏S
      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 72 c1 5f 0a d3 44 b5 48 8a 54 b1 44 69 fb c8 aa 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: 57 49 4e 44 4f 57 53 00 01 00 00 00 88 00 00 00 78 00 00 00 42 00 43 00 44 00 4f 00 42 00 4a 00 45 00 43 00 54 00 3d 00 7b 00 39 00 64 00 65 00 61 00 38 00 36 00 32 00 63 00 2d 00 35 00 63 00 64 00 64 00 2d 00 34 00 65 00 37 00 30 00 2d 00 61 00 63 00 63 00 31 00 2d 00 66 00 33 00 32 00 62 00 33 00 34 00 34 00 64 00 34 00 37 00 39 00 35 00 7d 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 7f ff 04 00
Boot0008* usbgrubarch	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(12,0)/HD(2,MBR,0x710655a9,0x3754000,0x1f4000)/File(\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi)ぁ‱긩
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 14 / 03 05 06 00 0c 00 / 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 00 40 75 03 00 00 00 00 00 40 1f 00 00 00 00 00 a9 55 06 71 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 47 00 52 00 55 00 42 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
    data: 41 30 31 20 29 ae
Boot2001* EFI USB Device	䍒
      dp: 7f ff 04 00
    data: 52 43
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM	䍒
      dp: 7f ff 04 00
    data: 52 43
Boot2003* EFI Network	䍒
      dp: 7f ff 04 00
    data: 52 43

I added 1, 2,3,4 and 8. My UEFI firmware only allows 5 custom boot entry's.
In the UEFI firmware I can add new entry's by

> setting a Supervisor password
> enabeling Secure Boot
> Selecting an efi file
> turning off Secure Boot
> removing the supervisor password

at least that's how I've been doing it.
But when i go to do that now, I'm told "max 5 entries are allowed".
The autogenerated entry's are there and they don't count towards the efivar space, but i messed up 4 times.

stingA0815 · 2022-11-03 20:46:27

If you are talking about the entries in the boot menu, you can normally delete these in the bios. Of course, you can also edit them on any operating system. These are stored on the ESP.

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer · 2022-11-03 20:53:58

stingA0815 wrote:

If you are talking about the entries in the boot menu, you can normally delete these in the bios. Of course, you can also edit them on any operating system. These are stored on the ESP.

Unfortunately there are no options in the UEFI Firmware allowing me to delete them, and trying to edit them from any OS, or the EFI Shell doesn't save the changes.

Grüße nach Löffingen.

Slithery · 2022-11-03 21:16:34

stingA0815 wrote:

These are stored on the ESP.

The entries that the bootloader uses are stored in it's configuration files, this may or may not be on the ESP.
The boot entries that the firmware uses are stored in the NVRAM on the motherboard, not in the EFI partition.

kevinmchapman · 2022-11-04 13:45:09

I recall this with a recent installation. Drop the leading zeroes for the row number in your original efibootmgr command. The man page clearly shows that, but the error reporting is sadly lacking and who looks at the man page when it initially seems to have worked...?

V1del · 2022-11-04 14:02:13

If he has the shit tier Acer UEFI implementation then it is very possible that efibootmgr can't actually manipulate the entries.

I do a similar raindance but only ever added (... one ...) entry. The "canonical" way of getting rid of these entries is to remove the disk (i.e. disconnect it and then start the system) though I'm almost certain there must be a firmware option to clean those out.

Alternatively just keep the entries and designate one of your failed attempts as the one true entry. i.e. What is preventing you from declaring archgrub as your entry and simply using that?

d.ALT · 2022-11-04 14:40:01

V1del wrote:

If he has the shit tier Acer UEFI implementation then it is very possible that efibootmgr can't actually manipulate the entries.

"implementation"

cfr · 2022-11-04 21:28:39

V1del wrote:

Alternatively just keep the entries and designate one of your failed attempts as the one true entry. i.e. What is preventing you from declaring archgrub as your entry and simply using that?

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer wrote:

I need to remove them because I can't add any, and I want to move my boot partition, because the one I currently use is the one Windows set up (I'm dual booting), and it is too small.

V1del · 2022-11-04 22:59:57

It's the ESP you can just mount that away from /boot remove the kernel images that are on it, and reinstall GRUB with the same id like you've already messed with, so the underlying payload will change and logically refer to the "new" /boot whether that is a new or your existing root partition. That will fix it, free up space on your ESP and work properly.

Last edited by V1del (2022-11-04 23:06:08)

xmonad_and_dnb_enjoyer · 2022-11-05 12:09:05

kevinmchapman wrote:

I recall this with a recent installation. Drop the leading zeroes for the row number in your original efibootmgr command. The man page clearly shows that, but the error reporting is sadly lacking and who looks at the man page when it initially seems to have worked...?

This didn't work for me sadly.

V1del wrote:

If he has the shit tier Acer UEFI implementation then it is very possible that efibootmgr can't actually manipulate the entries.
I do a similar raindance but only ever added (... one ...) entry. The "canonical" way of getting rid of these entries is to remove the disk (i.e. disconnect it and then start the system) though I'm almost certain there must be a firmware option to clean those out.
Alternatively just keep the entries and designate one of your failed attempts as the one true entry. i.e. What is preventing you from declaring archgrub as your entry and simply using that?

I am on an Acer Laptop indeed, there is no firmware option, and booting with drives disconnected didn't remove the custom entries.

I think I'll just move the partitions to make room for the boot partition, but thank y'all for you help.

V1del · 2022-11-06 01:04:27

I'll check on my laptop (though I'm not on that all too often) whether I can't find something, I faintly remember having added and removed an entry once, but that might also just have been due to it being a USB stick that I haven't used since.

sam68 · 2023-08-19 15:05:06

For me it was the EFI/ directory in one of my ESP; I had this entry for a long time, now it is gone. Just as OP describes, it gets deleted only from the list (efibootmgr or bcfg in Uefi shell), but then reappears in BIOS. I sort of even reactivated it by deleting, because it landed in first place when it got read in again.

Only docs I can find right now is about EFI/boot/boot64.efi - like on USB sticks. But I really think a UEFI BIOS scans the ESPs for .efi programs in the EFI top dir. BTW it was Clearlinux who not only created a second ESP, but also that EFI directory.

FuzzySPb · 2024-06-21 13:36:17

Hi there.
Ok, I know that it is a bit of necroposting but I struggled several hours with the same problem on Acer Swift 3 and I think I need to put some info here that might be useful.
First, I have a dualboot and I don't know why but Windows Restore activated and destroyed my boot manager completely. It was not very difficult to fix by GRUB restoration (but you need to remember that disc should be in AHCI mode, otherwise it won't be visible from USB boot).
Next, I booted into Arch successfully, but... I found that my NumLock and Fn keys are reversed. So I wanted to change default settings in BIOS and... it was stuck on Acer logo after F2.
I googled a bit, found this thread and noticed that I have 2 "GRUB" entries in my boot menu. Later it was proven to be a right suspicion.
I tried to fix it with efibootmgr as there were indeed 2 different entries for Grub. I deleted one or another, but it resurrected after system restart. I was not able to remove 2nd "GRUB" from BIOS boot menu.
Finally, I solved it this way:
1. Booted from arch live usb
2. Mounted usb drive and EFI disk partition
3. Moved grub-related files and folders from EFI partition to usb disk (startup.nsh and grub-related folders inside EFI folder - there were two of them: Boot and GRUB)
4. Unmounted and rebooted the system.
5. Now I was able to enter BIOS by F2 key. There was only 1 "GRUB" entry in boot menu now, but of course system failed to boot when I selected it.
6. I booted again from arch live usb, mounted usb drive and EFI partition.
7. I moved back to EFI partition startup.nsh and one EFI-folder for GRUB that I saved in item #3 (I chosen the one created today by grub restoration, but it seems both of them were ok and working).
8. Unmounted partitions and rebooted.
9. Voila, there are only one "GRUB" in boot menu, system boots and BIOS works.

Last edited by FuzzySPb (2024-06-21 15:34:55)

Arch Linux

#1 2022-11-03 16:45:10

Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#2 2022-11-03 16:46:57

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#3 2022-11-03 16:51:20

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#4 2022-11-03 16:55:31

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#5 2022-11-03 17:13:15

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#6 2022-11-03 17:26:15

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#7 2022-11-03 18:26:45

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#8 2022-11-03 20:31:20

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#9 2022-11-03 20:46:27

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#10 2022-11-03 20:53:58

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#11 2022-11-03 21:16:34

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#12 2022-11-04 13:45:09

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#13 2022-11-04 14:02:13

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#14 2022-11-04 14:40:01

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#15 2022-11-04 21:28:39

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#16 2022-11-04 22:59:57

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#17 2022-11-05 12:09:05

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#18 2022-11-06 01:04:27

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#19 2023-08-19 15:05:06

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

#20 2024-06-21 13:36:17

Re: Deleting BIOS Boot entrys

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