Arch Linux

etiennec78

Member

Registered: 2024-06-01

Posts: 8

uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

Hello !
Two days ago, my system crashed, and after rebooting it could only boot into windows.
So I tried to boot onto my arch live iso to run uefibootmgr with the same command I used before, then verified the order, and rebooted.
However, when entering my UEFI, the archlinux entry was not there !
I know that I have updated my motherboard firmware a month ago, but I don't know if this could be related. It is an Asrock B550M PG4

I tried clearing CMOS onto my motherboard, reflashing my motherboard, reinstalling the kernel from an arch-chroot, using efibootmgr on an old ubuntu live iso, but none of these worked...

Does anyone have any idea why the entry disappears after a reboot ?
Maybe the solution is obvious, but I have to admit that I haven't used efibootmgr in a while...

Funny0facer

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2022-12-03

Posts: 158

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

I have no actual clue why your efi entry keeps disappearing, but if you are using grub, you could try to use grub-install with the --removable option as a fallback.

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zse

Member

Registered: 2024-05-28

Posts: 21

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

Have you checked that secure boot did not get accidentally re-enabled? That's all I can think of, good luck!

etiennec78

Member

Registered: 2024-06-01

Posts: 8

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

I'm not currently using grub, only efibootmgr to directly boot Linux without a bootloader. If I don't find any solution, maybe I'll give grub a try !

Concerning secure boot, it is disabled by default on this model, and I have never enabled it.

I'll try to downgrade my BIOS to see if this can help

Funny0facer

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2022-12-03

Posts: 158

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

My experience is that with every motherboard update, the efi entries are deleted (I am on a Gigabyte motherboard), so having a universal EFI file (like on live images) might be necessary if you plan to update your motherboard without using efibootmgr.

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etiennec78

Member

Registered: 2024-06-01

Posts: 8

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

I just downgraded my bios but same thing : after using uefibootmgr again, the entry did not stay in my UEFI after a reboot...

I will try adding a universal EFI file later, but my uefibootmgr solution was working great before.
I don't know what this suddenly doesn't work.
I even had my uefibootmgr saved in a text file, so I'm sure this is the correct one...

Last edited by etiennec78 (2024-06-02 10:08:28)

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 951

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

Any luck following one of these?:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unifie … up_in_UEFI
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unifie … ly_removed

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finnblue8

Member

Registered: 2022-01-30

Posts: 24

Re: uefiboomgr entry gets removed when rebooting

I've got the same problem - made a topic without seeing this one was already made.

From my experience troubleshooting this - it isn't likely to be caused by a motherboard update because I've got this issue on a Lenovo G50-45 from 2014 which hasn't had a mobo update in a decade.

Secure boot isn't enabled on my machine and stays disabled after this problem occurs.

I never had this problem either until after updating and rebooting to run updated kernel on morning EST of 23 May.

I've still got my pacman logs from last month - here's what I updated on the 23rd:

[2024-05-23T10:20:34-0400] [ALPM] upgraded gcc-libs (14.1.1+r1+g43b730b9134-1 -> 14.1.1+r58+gfc9fb69ad62-1)
[2024-05-23T10:20:34-0400] [ALPM] installed gtest (1.14.0-1)
[2024-05-23T10:20:34-0400] [ALPM] upgraded abseil-cpp (20240116.2-1 -> 20240116.2-2)
[2024-05-23T10:20:34-0400] [ALPM] upgraded e2fsprogs (1.47.0-2 -> 1.47.1-2)
[2024-05-23T10:20:34-0400] [ALPM] upgraded curl (8.7.1-6 -> 8.8.0-1)
[2024-05-23T10:20:36-0400] [ALPM] upgraded gcc (14.1.1+r1+g43b730b9134-1 -> 14.1.1+r58+gfc9fb69ad62-1)
[2024-05-23T10:20:39-0400] [ALPM] upgraded linux (6.9.1.arch1-1 -> 6.9.1.arch1-2)
[2024-05-23T10:20:44-0400] [ALPM] upgraded linux-headers (6.9.1.arch1-1 -> 6.9.1.arch1-2)
[2024-05-23T10:20:44-0400] [ALPM] upgraded python-trove-classifiers (2024.5.17-1 -> 2024.5.22-1)

What do you use for a boot loader? GRUB?

Copy of my other post for reference:

I have a Lenovo G50-45 laptop that I use as a home server.

About a week ago I rebooted after updating and found the machine unable to boot from my EFISTUB entry. Booting an ISO and running the efibootmgr command with my kernel parameters to re-install the entry, then reboot fixes the problem every time - but it seems to come back every couple days. This behavior seems to coincide with updates to the kernel if I recall right, but I'm not convinced the kernel is the problem here.

This machine only runs Arch and has no other boot entries in it except EFISTUB for Arch and the on-board network boot/USB boot (if enabled). I've been using the same EFISTUB entry for a year and have rebooted hundreds of times without fail.

What's puzzling to me about this is that using efibootmgr to re-write the boot entry to the NVRAM fixes the issue even after powering off and pulling the AC adapter. I suspected the CMOS battery might be going bad, but UEFI is still keeping time and date correctly, and the newly-written UEFI entry survives total loss of power, which I wouldn't expect if the CMOS battery were having problems keeping NVRAM alive. Maybe it still is going bad, just at a slow rate? Hopefully not because changing the CMOS on this thing is a royal pain.

I don't have any problems at all once the initramfs is loaded. The machine can run unattended practically indefinitely unless I issue "sudo reboot" - after that somehow my boot entry is gone, repeatedly and independently after multiple cycles of updates and reboots.

Never experienced behavior like this. I've ran fsck on all partitions on this disk already to no avail.

Does anyone know what might be causing this besides a bad CMOS battery?

Last edited by finnblue8 (2024-06-04 02:26:07)