UEFI dual-boot grub/boot menu issues

[kansasnoob]

One last question I may as well toss out here:

I'll be using that setup for testing re-installations of Ubuntu (various versions and flavors) so when replacing the existing Ubuntu install with a fresh one will I need to clean up a bunch of cruft in /boot/efi?

If so I'd appreciate knowing in advance what to plan on and how to do what I'll need to do

[sudodus]

It sounds like a good idea And share the results, so if you have something to add or clarify to the following help texts, it would be valuable: a cook-book description how to 'clean up a bunch of cruft in /boot/efi'

This wiki page about booting with UEFI, and this tutorial thread, UEFI Installing - Tips.

[kansasnoob]

It sounds like a good idea And share the results, so if you have something to add or clarify to the following help texts, it would be valuable: a cook-book description how to 'clean up a bunch of cruft in /boot/efi'

This wiki page about booting with UEFI, and this tutorial thread, UEFI Installing - Tips.

Thanks, I hadn't seen this:

UEFI menu clean up (UEFI saves entries)
If you cannot do change from UEFI menu, you can from command line with efibootmgr.
sudo apt-get install efibootmgr

You can add, change or delete UEFI entries:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/63610...bios-boot-menu
http://linux.die.net/man/8/efibootmgr

http://linux.dell.com/cgi-bin/gitweb...README;hb=HEAD

Remove Duplicate Firmware Objects in Windows BCD and NVRAM
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...=ws.10%29.aspx
UEFI NVRAM boot entries are cached in the BCD store
BCD has 1:1 mappings for some UEFI global variables
Any time {fwbootmgr} is manipulated, NVRAM is automatically updated

Our oldfred did a great job here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2147295

I'm going to mark this solved but I'd still like to know if the need for Boot Repair post-install, and the need to edit /boot/efi, are Ubuntu bugs or related to the manufacturers firmware. I'm betting on the latter and I should let them know at that bug report where I previously commented.

[oldfred]

Moved CortonaJ to his own thread. Not even sure if UEFI or not.

Best to backup efi partition. Of course oldfred has been saying that for several years, but only did his first UEFI install last fall. And soon wanted another install for testing and installed that to a second drive. I am almost positive I told grub to install to sdb, I had partitioned in advance to have a separate efi partition on sdb, but after rebooting it overwrote the (unbacked up) efi partition on sda.

One advantage of efi is that no install is required. I just copied efi partition on sda to efi partition on sdb. Then reinstalled grub on install in sda.
Only because grub may have been a slightly different version did I have to reinstall. Working install in sda is 14.04 and test install was 14.10.
But grub uses a grub.cfg in the efi partition that is really just a configfile entry to tell it where to find the correct grub.cfg in your main install. If I was sure grub was same version I could have just edited that to grub.cfg on sda.

A user filed a bug years ago that Kubuntu did not have a separate UEFI entry over his Ubuntu install. I then saw that the grub distributor setting is the name in efi folder & then UEFI.

UEFI install broken when GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR!=Ubuntu (e.g. Kubuntu/UbuntuStudio) Mostly fixed in Saucy & Trusty
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...2/+bug/1242417
grub2 installs bootloader in \EFI\${GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR} directory, where
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR is defined in /etc/default/grub.

Boot-Repair should not be required anymore for most installs. But is useful to fully document where everything is at. I use bootinfoscript as part of my rsync backup, and bootinfoscript is the first part of the Summary report from Boot-Repair. But Summary report has more info.
Before grub2's os-prober was updated to work with UEFI, Boot-Repair was essential as it was the only known work around for booting. But its method was the rename of the Windows file bootmgfw.efi to really be grub or shim. But then you could only boot Windows from grub menu and Windows updates would overwrite the grub/shim file and you had to recopy it again. Not recommended anymore.
Boot-Repairs current suggestion is the BCD entry. Vendors must then allow a ubuntu entry to work in UEFI for the one-time reboot. UEFI has the capability to create a one time boot entry.

Most systems with UEFI modified to only boot Windows will work with the hard drive entry or creating grub/shim as /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi. I do need to update the efi Tutorial to emphasize that option. And if user has an old Boot-Repair fix with renamed Windows file to undo that. I think Boot-Repair also sees that, but many users do not know what they really did, just that Boot-Repair fixed booting.

[ventrical]

100% success

I still don't 100% understand what I did but it worked.

So I guess I was not affected by the bug I thought I had been, eh?

Would it be correct to assume this was more of a firmware problem than an Ubuntu bug?

My opinion ... yes... (on your MoBo in particular you can change boot order in UEFI using efibootmgr) and I have newer UEFI BIOS and I am having a heck of a time with it.

Regards..

[kansasnoob]

My opinion ... yes... (on your MoBo in particular you can change boot order in UEFI using efibootmgr) and I have newer UEFI BIOS and I am having a heck of a time with it.

Regards..

It's quite a learning curve, but it's all good clean fun

[ventrical]

+1

[kansasnoob]

+1

And I owe it all to you

BTW I'm going to post some non-support, off-topic stuff regarding that mobo/pc build in your old thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2237765

It may be a few days but if you subscribe to that thread you'll get to see what a "Beautiful Mind" I have

[ventrical]

And I owe it all to you

BTW I'm going to post some non-support, off-topic stuff regarding that mobo/pc build in your old thread here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2237765

It may be a few days but if you subscribe to that thread you'll get to see what a "Beautiful Mind" I have

Take your time. You're on a roll. You have a much better understanding of GRuB than I. I am having some real wing-dingers with the new hdd on a newer MoBo and , yes, even some of the things mentioned in this thread so i will be trying some of the procedures you have had success at. But as that thread mentioned (some links from oldfred about TPM) TPM ver.2.0 REQUIRED for Win8 key.. or else ... BSOD ?

Iv'e got this other 'project' I have to finish so I'll be in and out for a bit.

Regards..