[Boot-Repair] Graphical tool to repair the PC boot in one click

[sebastien_vigneau]

@oldfred

Sorry for not getting back earlier.

I am puzzled too, but have made some little progress. Here is what I did:

• Booted from a Windows recovery usb stick.
• In the command prompt, typed in "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", "bootrec /scanos", then followed these instructions.
• At that point, I realized that in "EFI/Windows/Boot", the "BCD" file was missing but a backup file ("BCD.Backup.0001") had been made on the day when my computer stopped booting. So I copied the backup file to "BCD".

Following these steps, I could see the Windows and Ubuntu drives after entering the EFI bootloader (typing "F12" at startup). However, Windows wouldn't start and either stayed on the Dell screen indefinitely (with secure mode ON) or asked to be repaired (with secure mode OFF). Nevertheless, selecting the Ubuntu drive gave me access to the Grub, from which I could start Ubuntu normally (but the Windows entry wouldn't start).

Puzzlingly, when I restarted my computer, the Windows and Ubuntu options were not visible anymore in the EFI bootloader and the "EFI/Windows/Boot/BCD" was no longer present but had been backuped (this time as "BCD.Backup.0002"). After iterating the same repairs, I could again access Ubuntu (but not Windows). Here is the boot-repair report at this time.

Do you have any suggestion to move on (making the boot stable and restoring Windows)?

Thanks for your help,

Sebastien

@Sebastien
Not sure what to suggest. Some systems may auto restore or auto boot only Windows (see comments above). That is why Boot-Repair offers the renaming of files. But I thought Dell was one that worked.

[sebastien_vigneau]

@oldfred

I am not sure what I did differently, but after going again through a repair cycle following these instructions, the UEFI entries remain in place in the boot loader.

Also, for what is of booting Windows, I noticed that the Windows partition had been flagged again as "boot", which is the reason why Windows couldn't start. After removing the flag using gparted, Windows can now boot again.

So, it seems my computer is fully functional again, although I am confused about what happened.

Thank you again for your help,

Sebastien

EDIT

One thing that has changed in my system: I used to be able to boot both Windows and Ubuntu with secure mode ON; whereas now, I need to turn the secure mode OFF, otherwise Windows will boot when selecting Ubuntu.

@oldfred

Sorry for not getting back earlier.

I am puzzled too, but have made some little progress. Here is what I did:

• Booted from a Windows recovery usb stick.
• In the command prompt, typed in "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", "bootrec /scanos", then followed these instructions.
• At that point, I realized that in "EFI/Windows/Boot", the "BCD" file was missing but a backup file ("BCD.Backup.0001") had been made on the day when my computer stopped booting. So I copied the backup file to "BCD".

Following these steps, I could see the Windows and Ubuntu drives after entering the EFI bootloader (typing "F12" at startup). However, Windows wouldn't start and either stayed on the Dell screen indefinitely (with secure mode ON) or asked to be repaired (with secure mode OFF). Nevertheless, selecting the Ubuntu drive gave me access to the Grub, from which I could start Ubuntu normally (but the Windows entry wouldn't start).

Puzzlingly, when I restarted my computer, the Windows and Ubuntu options were not visible anymore in the EFI bootloader and the "EFI/Windows/Boot/BCD" was no longer present but had been backuped (this time as "BCD.Backup.0002"). After iterating the same repairs, I could again access Ubuntu (but not Windows). Here is the boot-repair report at this time.

Do you have any suggestion to move on (making the boot stable and restoring Windows)?

Thanks for your help,

Sebastien

[oldfred]

I do not know enough of the details of Windows booting with UEFI. And it seems every vendor's UEFI does some things differently. Or you may have some virus software that sees a difference and restores Windows files.

I think you used a Windows BIOS based repair to fix your Windows. That installs Windows into MBR and puts boot flag on Windows main partition. But that is not correct for UEFI Windows.

Windows 8 UEFI repair USB must be FAT32
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials...ndows-8-a.html
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/For...-166dddf32205/
http://www.ghacks.net/2012/11/01/how...m-repair-disc/

You may have to have the shim as the Windows boot file? Or is that the file Windows somehow keeps overwriting with its standard efi boot loader.

Boot-Repair - Updated Jan 1, 2013 to not rename first time, but rename if first time Windows does not boot. Post 706 and 711
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...769482&page=71
Boot-Repair copied /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi to /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi (in case the BIOS is hard-coded to boot into /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi or secure boot
signed GRUB file shimx64.efi.

[bcbc]

http://paste.ubuntu.com/5590467/

WARNING: PROGRAMMING BUG IN E2FSCK!OR SOME BONEHEAD (YOU) IS CHECKING A MOUNTED (LIVE) FILESYSTEM.inode_link_info[296026] is 2, inode.i_links_count is 1. They should be the same!Inode 296026 ref count is 1, should be 1. Fix? yes

[oldfred]

@bcbc
It looks like Boot-Repair is unmounting it.

524 mount -o loop /host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /mnt/boot-sav/wubi1
...
530 umount /mnt/boot-sav/wubi1
531 fsck -f -y /host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk

So is error from e2fsck and something unique with wubi?

[bcbc]

@bcbc
It looks like Boot-Repair is unmounting it.

524 mount -o loop /host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /mnt/boot-sav/wubi1
...
530 umount /mnt/boot-sav/wubi1
531 fsck -f -y /host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk

So is error from e2fsck and something unique with wubi?

It's trying to mount it and unmount. But if the mount failed then the umount will fail too. Since this person ran bootrepair while running the Wubi install, the root.disk is already mounted and would likely have failed. The best way to check is to trap the return code - I can't see from the log whether it's successful or not, and without seeing the code wouldn't know whether it's checking.

Besides even if the mount and umount succeeded - the Wubi install is still running off the root.disk so it would still be mounted.

[oldfred]

That may then be an issue with any system. If fsck is needed you should have booted Boot-Repair from liveCD not the install that needs the fsck.

Usually I would think a system that needs fsck would not boot and you would be running from liveCD anyway?

[bcbc]

That may then be an issue with any system. If fsck is needed you should have booted Boot-Repair from liveCD not the install that needs the fsck.

Usually I would think a system that needs fsck would not boot and you would be running from liveCD anyway?

Yeah, personally I have never run boot-repair. I'm just reporting the issue.

I guess the person running it missed the warning (?) not to run it when not on a live CD. (Again I'm not sure whether there is such a warning).
Or maybe boot-repair could just enforce that since it's pretty simple to check whether you're running on a CD/USB.

Edit: actually better still, since you can mount a partition from a live CD, it should just check whether the partition is mounted before allowing fsck. For a Wubi install it's a little more complicated to see if it's mounted, but not much:

   virtualdisk=/host/ubuntu/disks/root.disk
    while read DEV MTPT FSTYPE OPTS REST; do
        case "$DEV" in
          /dev/loop/*|/dev/loop[0-9])
            loop_file=`losetup "$DEV" | sed -e "s/^[^(]*(\([^)]\+\)).*/\1/"`
            if  [ "$loop_file" = "$virtualdisk" ]; then
                # run away
            fi
          ;;
        esac
    done < /proc/mounts

Also, having the mountpoint of /host is also a clue that the Wubi install is running.

[Eric06]

@Eric06
Control of which system boots by default is controled by UEFI menu. So you need to directly go to UEFI and change boot order to ubuntu. This would be with UEFI on, and BIOS/Legacy/CHM off. Some work with secure boot on or off. All should work with secure boot on as Ubuntu's shim file has the Windows key, but some UEFI's are still not correct.
When you go into UEFI/BIOS and change to BIOS you are booting a copy of grub2's boot loader that is in the protective MBR. An efi install does not have anything in the MBR as it is not nomally used.

@Olfred : can you tell me WHERE is this UEFI menu you are describing ? (or may be where to look for it, i went to all the possible BIOS menus and I did not find it, i just have a boot option choice: LEGACY or UEFI...
Next question: if I have no UEFI menu, what should i edit in the EFI partition to boot Ubuntu ? (i did not find precise literature on this when searching so far)
Thank you

[oldfred]

@eric06
With UEFI on, and secure boot off if that is separate, you should have choices to boot. Every system is different. In BIOS there were one or two choices. One was which device - hard drive, CD/DVD, floppy, etc. Some then had another entry for which hard drive or a sub menu under boot device hard drive.
With UEFI it adds to the choices the specific entries in the efi partition. It saves those so if one gets deleted you often have to manually maintain from the UEFI menu, not just the efi partition.

If not sure use camera to take pictures of UEFI menu, shink photos to smaller size similar to screen shot, and from advanced edit use the paperclip icon to attach your screen shots of UEFI menu.

Some examples of others, but I do not have one showing Ubuntu.