19.10 grub-efi-amd64-signed dual boot installation error

[ogola89]

Hello,

I have a HP laptop on which I have Windows 10 installed on an SSD, and I have a USB on which Ubuntu is installed. I was previously able to select which OS to boot to, but since upgrading to Ubuntu 19.10, I couldn't choose any more and could either boot to windows or Ubuntu using the boot menu in the BIOS. However, now I cannot seem to boot to Windows and don't have the option anymore in boot menu.

The main problem seems to be grub, although I am not sure exactly how to navigate the problem as I have limited experience with Ubuntu. I ran a boot repair yesterday and had the following report:
https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/c5MQd932dp/

I tried running the boot repair again today, which gave me the following code to enter in terminal and it seems to be a problem it is having even though I have tried a few workarounds:



(base) ogola89@Tom-Ubuntu:~$ sudo dpkg --configure -a
Setting up grub-efi-amd64-signed (1.128.1+2.04-1ubuntu12.1) ...
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: efivarfs_get_variable: open(/sys/firmware/efi/efivars/blk0-47c7b225-c42a-11d2-8e57-00a0c969723b): No such file or directory.
grub-install: warning: efi_get_variable: ops->get_variable failed: No such file or directory.
grub-install: warning: parse_sas: could not stat /sys/class/scsi_host/host3/host_sas_address: No such file or directory.
grub-install: warning: parse_sas: could not stat /sys/class/sas_host/host3: No such file or directory.
grub-install: warning: is_gpt_valid: GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: be5608740128e852 != 5452415020494645: Invalid argument.
grub-install: warning: is_gpt_valid: GUID Partition Table Header signature is wrong: 0 != 5452415020494645: Invalid argument.
grub-install: warning: msdos_disk_get_extended_partition_info: extended partition info is not supported: Function not implemented.
grub-install: warning: msdos_disk_get_partition_info: could not get extended partition info: Function not implemented.
grub-install: warning: get_partition_info: neither MBR nor GPT is valid: Function not implemented.
grub-install: warning: make_hd_dn: could not get partition info: Function not implemented.
grub-install: warning: efi_va_generate_file_device_path_from_esp: could not make HD() DP node: Function not implemented.
grub-install: warning: efi_generate_file_device_path_from_esp: could not generate File DP from ESP: Function not implemented.
grub-install: error: failed to register the EFI boot entry: Function not implemented.
dpkg: error processing package grub-efi-amd64-signed (--configure):
installed grub-efi-amd64-signed package post-installation script subprocess returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
grub-efi-amd64-signed



I have exhausted my googling options and so would request help from this forum in solving this persistent problem.

Please let me know if you require any further info, thanks!

[ogola89]

Bump.

I have tried using lilo and syslinux to restore MBR but without avail. Could anyone please let me know where to head next?

[oldfred]

Are you running an old copy of Boot-Repair, you show 2017 version?
Mine shows this:

Boot Info Script 0.79 [12 February 2019]

Best to use Ubuntu live installer and download latest Boot-Repair using ppa.
May be best to see details, use ppa version with your live installer (2nd option) or any working install, not older Boot-Repair ISO:
Please copy & paste link to the Boot-info summary report ( do not post report), the auto fix sometimes can create more issues.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair

You seem to have mixed BIOS & UEFI.
Windows requires BIOS boot from MBR partitioned drives.
And boot flag on the primary NTFS boot partition. You now show sda1 as FAT, not NTFS. I would just change to NTFS. You may want to backup as you do not want to erase data, just change partition type.
But you also have boot files in sda2 (Boot-Repair normally copies them), so you could also move boot flag from sda1 to sda2.
Then Windows should boot.

Your sdb drive shows MBR partitioning which is used with BIOS boot, but an ESP as sdb7. That can work, but much better to use gpt if you want UEFI boot. Boto-Repair can convert UEFI install to BIOS boot just by total uninstall of grub & reinstall of BIOS version of grub. Boot live installer in BIOS mode & add Boot-Repair.
But since Windows is BIOS boot, you really should have Ubuntu in BIOS boot mode.

Or you can totally reinstall Windows in UEFI boot mode, since system is UEFI.
Microsoft has required vendors to install Windows in UEFI boot mode to gpt partitioned drives since 2012 and release of Windows 8. The offer BIOS boot mostly for larger customers that still had Windows 7 and wanted all systems either BIOS or all UEFI.

[ogola89]

Thanks for the information here. What I had to do was a bit of an extended repair involving reformatting my windows drive from mbr to gpt and re-installing with UEFI, but it has worked thus far, thanks to the suggestion from your answer.