Arch Linux

MAYBL8

Member

Registered: 2022-01-14

Posts: 310

[SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

I am having an issue that Grub disappears every time windows runs and then I go back to Arch.

I end up having to reinstall grub and update grub to get grub back.
The I can boot to Arch.

What I noticed when in Arch is this :

[demo@arch-linux ~]$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda      8:0    0 447.1G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0    10M  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0   500M  0 part /boot/efi
│                                /boot
└─sda3   8:3    0 446.6G  0 part /
sdb      8:16   0   1.8T  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0    16M  0 part 
├─sdb2   8:18   0   1.8T  0 part 
└─sdb3   8:19   0   658M  0 part 
sdc      8:32   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdc1   8:33   0 931.5G  0 part 
sdd      8:48   1     0B  0 disk 
sde      8:64   1     0B  0 disk 
sdf      8:80   1     0B  0 disk 
sdg      8:96   1     0B  0 disk 
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  

I don't know why sda2 says   /boot/efi
                                                    /boot
Maybe that is the issue but I don't know how to fix this.
What other info is needed?
Thanks

Last edited by MAYBL8 (2025-03-14 03:54:15)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,369

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

please provide your /etc/fstab

MAYBL8

Member

Registered: 2022-01-14

Posts: 310

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

[demo@arch-linux ~]$ cat /etc/fstab
# /dev/sda3
UUID=814bb721-ca31-4b87-906c-cacf67eb0097       /               ext4            rw,noatime      0 1

# /dev/sda2
#UUID=E97B-4F96         /boot           vfat            rw,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro        0 2

UUID=E97B-4F96  /boot       vfat    defaults      0       2
UUID=E97B-4F96  /boot/efi       vfat    defaults      0       1

Ah 2 entries for boot partition

Now which one do I use.  I assume the one that only says /boot

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,369

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

use the first one with the comment right above it as that's the one generated by genfstab durin install
what happend (and what's different to the other topic hence I recommended to open a new topic yourself) by multi-mount (however that's even possible) you messed up your ESP
most uefi implementations check wether an entry is still valid and just remove them if something fails - hence your uefi auto-removed your grub entry

MAYBL8

Member

Registered: 2022-01-14

Posts: 310

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

There must be something more to do.
I changed the fstab as you suggested.

Booted into Windows , then rebooted and no grub still. Computer went straight into Windows.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,369

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

well, as you likely have messed up grub: boot an arch install media, mount correctly, chroot and reinstall grub and the kernel

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,524

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

If Windows keeps removing your Grub entry, you can try to grub-install twice, with and without --removable. Then at least it should still be available through your bios quick boot menu. That way you can skip the live cd chroot steps.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,839

Website

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

I think Windows might be hijacking bootx64.efi these days. They got the idea from the systemd-boot devs...

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,524

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

Oh, I see. You're right, there is a Microsoft bootx64.

It works for me but I have separate EFI partitions for Windows and Linux. So Grub bootx64 is on the Linux one (and survives, so far). Just that booting Windows somehow removes boot entries for it, not every single time but on a regular basis, since the last Windows update.

Last edited by frostschutz (2025-03-12 09:04:04)

MAYBL8

Member

Registered: 2022-01-14

Posts: 310

Re: [SOLVED] GRUB Entry Removed Every Time Windows 11 Boots

OK guys I appreciate the help and the knowledge.
I will admit I don't understand all of this grub stuff and how it interacts with Windows.
I know we all hate Windows here but I still need it.

I am not getting anywhere here with all of these things I have done with your instructions.
So here is what I want to do.

This system has 3 drives in it.
Based on what you guys have said it sounds like I can have grub for linux installed on one drive, and Windows boot loader installed on a separate drive thereby eliminating this removing grub problem.

I need some help doing this .

Let's start by showing you my disks and you guys tell me what I need to do next.

[demo@arch-linux ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for demo: 
Disk /dev/sda: 447.13 GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Disk model: KINGSTON SKC300S
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 53A2AAD4-63B9-4D19-8350-13FD25FB9CBF

Device       Start       End   Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1     2048     22527     20480    10M BIOS boot
/dev/sda2    22528   1046527   1024000   500M EFI System
/dev/sda3  1046528 937703054 936656527 446.6G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk model: ST2000DM001-9YN1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: DCCAA20D-3045-412E-B7BD-8177D8B7E7EA

Device          Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdb1        2048      34815      32768   16M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sdb2       34816 3905679359 3905644544  1.8T Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb3  3905679360 3907026943    1347584  658M Windows recovery environment


Disk /dev/sdc: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EACS-00Z
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 6428AE99-6C3D-46D0-A31A-CE65E26F6D9A

Device     Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sdc1     63 1953520064 1953520002 931.5G Microsoft basic data

The kingston drive should have Arch on it.
One of the other drives has Windows on it if that helps.

Ok I solved the issue.
What I had to do was 2 things.
Not sure that the first thing did anything but what that was disable Fast boot in Windows.
That alone did not solve the issue.
The next thing I had to do was go into Windows and run this command at the command prompt.

bcdedit /set {bootmgr} path \EFI\grub\grubx64.efi

I then rebooted and the grub menu was still there.

Thanks for all the help.

Last edited by MAYBL8 (2025-03-14 03:53:50)