New PC build; bootloader not showing up

rockzombie2 · 2024-09-13 01:55:08

Hello. So for some context, I had my old PC dual booting Windows and Arch linux. I used rEFInd as my bootloader, which then loaded ZFSBootMenu to load my Arch linux installation on ZFS. I followed this guide to get that all set up: https://florianesser.ch/posts/20220714- … stall-zbm/

For some reason, a few weeks ago, my motherboard crapped out and I couldn't access my BIOS. When booted up, nothing would show on screen where there would normally be the BIOS splash screen and I assume the bootloader would show up but I just couldn't see it. I managed to blindly select Windows at this point, so I've been booting into Windows ever since.

I didn't bother trying to figure out what was going on with the motherboard since I was planning on upgrading my PC soon anyway. I was buying practically a whole new PC, except for the graphics card and SSDs/NVMEs, so I figured this would fix my BIOS issue.

Well now I've managed to turn on my PC, and going into the BIOS, it looks like the only boot option available is the Windows I have installed on an NVME. It detects all my other SSDs and other NVME, but not as a bootable option.

So my question is, how do I go about recovering the MBR (I believe) so that it boots into rEFInd and ideally the rest of my Arch OS off of ZFS? Hopefully there is a simple solution to this to get this to work, but if I have to reinstall rEFInd, I hope to be able to do so while keeping my ZFS data intact. Sorry my system is so complicated, I'm kind of a noob who just followed a guide.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2024-09-13 06:01:30

You just need to make a new NVRAM boot entry that points to rEFInd; efibootmgr(8) can be used for that.

I've never actually used rEFInd myself but it looks like running refind-install(8) again might do the trick.

rockzombie2 · 2024-09-13 20:02:58

So I assume I would need to make another Arch linux bootable usb device to be able to run these commands. The thing is, I'm not sure which SSD the rEFInd installation was on. Will efibootmgr or refind-install be able to detect that?

But assuming I can find that, you think just running refind-install again would fix it.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2024-09-13 21:06:08

It is possible to create new boot entries from Windows with bcdedit but we would need to know the location of the rEFInd bootloader.

The loader should be on the EFI system partition, which will be FAT-formatted and probably ~100MiB if Windows created it. I am presuming you shared the ESP between both operating systems, which is the recommended approach.

rockzombie2 · 2024-09-14 18:52:33

This is the output of the bcdedit command. It doesn't look like it sees anything other than the Windows bootloader. Is there a way I can inspect the hard drives to look for partitions on them? From windows?

C:\Windows\System32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {0533fd35-14e5-11ef-bbe5-f9d09fd1a990}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 11
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {0533fd37-14e5-11ef-bbe5-f9d09fd1a990}
displaymessageoverride Recovery
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {0533fd35-14e5-11ef-bbe5-f9d09fd1a990}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

Head_on_a_Stick · 2024-09-14 21:10:18

The plain bcdedit command only shows the extant boot entries, as the linked documentation indicates (did you read that?).

To view the contents of the EFI system partition under Windows use the diskpart utility to mount the partition: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troub … resolution

rockzombie2 · 2024-09-22 20:11:22

I finally got some time to try to work on this. I did read the documentation but perhaps I didn't realize that.

I tried to use the diskpart utility, but I can't seem to locate which volume the EFI partition is on.

When I type LIST DISK, I see:

DISKPART> LIST DISK

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 3    Online         3726 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 4    Online         3726 GB  3726 GB

And when I select LIST VOLUME, I see:

DISKPART> LIST VOLUME

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     C                NTFS   Partition   3725 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 1         EFI          FAT32  Partition   1024 MB  Healthy    System

So it looks like the only EFI system it detects is the on next to the C: drive.

Looking at the guide you posted, it tells me to select the disk and then select the partition for the EFI partition, but this already appears to be working, since I can boot into windows. I'm trying to find the other EFI partition I had on my other drives. I think it may have been damaged or formatted incorrectly or something. Google tells me to restart the computer with installation media and select Repair Your Computer, but would be the fix for Windows. I assume I would need to create a bootable usb for linux to fix the EFI partition, but I'm not sure how to do so.

rockzombie2 · 2024-09-22 20:36:20

Can I just reinstall rEFInd over the existing EFI entry and then add the entry for ZFSBootMenu as per https://florianesser.ch/posts/20220714- … fsbootmenu ?

Arch Linux

#1 2024-09-13 01:55:08

New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#2 2024-09-13 06:01:30

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#3 2024-09-13 20:02:58

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#4 2024-09-13 21:06:08

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#5 2024-09-14 18:52:33

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#6 2024-09-14 21:10:18

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#7 2024-09-22 20:11:22

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

#8 2024-09-22 20:36:20

Re: New PC build; bootloader not showing up

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