(SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

jocheem67 · 2022-10-14 14:26:47

Hi all,

Pretty new motherboard: 2021. Dual booting Windows -Arch.

System Information
	Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
	Product Name: B550 AORUS PRO AC

Until recently, using ReFind as boot manager, no problems whatsoever. Lately, some months, 2 things happen:
- boot order changes
- linux boot entry vanishes completely
- both seemingly random, reboots go well for a week, then every reboot bootloader linux is gone

Surely I' ve done my best:
- no secure boot, no fast boot in Win 10
- updated bios, downgraded bios to see if this is the culprit
- switched to Grub from ReFind to rule out thde actual bootloader being the cause
- efibootmgr in use to reallign boot entries, this just doesn't stick, which I find a bit weird
- ofcourse the boot order in Bios is set correctly, whenever the GRUB entry is actually available

Workaround 'till now:
- having an Arch disk ready, mount the relevant partitions and chroot to fix GRUB from there.

What I' ve done today: created a stratup script in Win 10 that will set the right boot order every time that I boot Windows. Comes from the Arch UEFI wiki.
So yeah, I should see how this works out, but do have two questions:

Could this be something that point to a faulty motherboard? NVRAM? I have no knowledge of this..
And: is it "normal" that Linux boot entries are thrown away? Anyone with experience in this?

Last edited by jocheem67 (2022-10-23 14:24:14)

cfr · 2022-10-16 05:26:36

It is not normal, no. But buggy UEFI implementations are not uncommon. It would be a bit odd for one to work fine for months and suddenly go buggy, if that's what you're saying?

Is it the grub boot entry which disappears? Or does the linux entry disappear from grub?

jocheem67 · 2022-10-16 15:54:59

Hi, thanks for your reply. Answer to your questions:
Yes, things have been working flawlessly for a couple of years, I used ReFind which was always available. Then I upgraded my bios a couple of times, and using Win 10 I did regular updates of that OS. Then, ReFind as a whole disappeared as boot loader/manager. Not sure what the exact moment was. Calling it back I could with ¨refind-install" from chroot. Just to see that after a random period it just went to ¨boot loader heaven¨.
Just a couple of days ago I decided to really tackle the problem:

- downgraded Bios version to what I think was working before
- changed ReFind for Grub
- of course always checking my bios settings for secure boot settings and Win 10 for fast boot settings, which are fine.

And indeed the complete Linux boot loader entry is the one that disappears.
I'm sorry that I never recorded the exact moment that that happened, which could lead me to pinpoint the issue. Makes it hard to tackle this problem.

Having said all this: I created a startup script in Win 10 that sets GRUB as default bootloader. It's only a couple of days, but I'm greeted with GRUB now seemingly consistently.

If ok, Id like to keep this open for a couple of days. I will upgrade my bios again to the latest version again and see if that goes fine.

linerman · 2022-10-17 05:56:59

Hi,

I have upgraded my motherboard a month ago

 Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
	Product Name: B660 DS3H DDR4

and have got the same problem.
I have Arch as a default in Bios, but if I boot Ubuntu 3-4 times in a row using keyboard F12 bootmanager, then the default boot in bios is changed to Ubuntu.
I wrote to Gigabyte support, but did not receive any answer. (Firmware of motherboard is F4)

cfr · 2022-10-17 08:09:12

You can try putting refind or grub or whatever into the "fallback" position so you get something usable even if the boot entries get wiped. For example, I have a file /boot/EFI/boot/bootx64.efi which is just a copy of the current (or older, if I forget) refind_x64.efi. Not all firmware will respect this and Windows may overwrite it, but it can work. If a firmware update wipes my boot entries, for example, I can still boot via a slightly more scenic route.

jocheem67 · 2022-10-17 09:30:04

(Sorry....) Win 10 uefi boot settings:

This is after running a startup script to set -in my case- GRUB as default. Seems to work, but will have to test over a certain amount of time. So I assume that it's Win 10 that's being the cause, and will know in time.

@ CFR -> I do have

/boot/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi

Are you saying that I can overwrite this with

grubx64.efi

I maybe don´t understand your suggestion.

@linerman -> unless you are dual booting with Windows, I suspect this is not the same issue. And I'm not certain, but shouldn´t you just have one boot loader to boot all your linuxes? Maybe create a new topic...

cfr · 2022-10-17 17:05:44

Do you know what /boot/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi is? Duplicating the grub EFI there might help, but I hesitate to say just do it as I'm not a Windows user. For me, there was no such file until I copied the refind EFI there, so it couldn't really do much harm.

jocheem67 · 2022-10-21 09:44:50

Still having the problem that my bootloader (GRUB) disappears randomly from BIOS. Only thing that I found out is that this only happens after a cold boot.
I did something quite weird: I installed Ubintu alongside Arch and Win 10. I'm using the Ubuntu grub bootloader now to launch Arch and Win 10. Will report back if/when that works or not.

Last edited by jocheem67 (2022-10-21 09:45:12)

jocheem67 · 2022-10-23 14:23:43

Closing. In the end I fixed my problem with repairing the Win 10 bootloader with the help of a Win 10 iso. After that I reinstalled refind, got rid of grub and ubuntu and i' ve got no problems anymore ('till now).
I'll mark it as solved, although I never got to the root of the problem.

Arch Linux

#1 2022-10-14 14:26:47

(SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#2 2022-10-16 05:26:36

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#3 2022-10-16 15:54:59

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#4 2022-10-17 05:56:59

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#5 2022-10-17 08:09:12

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#6 2022-10-17 09:30:04

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#7 2022-10-17 17:05:44

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#8 2022-10-21 09:44:50

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

#9 2022-10-23 14:23:43

Re: (SOLVED, kind of...)UEFI troubles: changing boot order frequently

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