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

[bpb_21]

We have too many in one thread with boot issues but everyone is different. Much better to have your own thread.

@bpb_21
You are showing this:

Did you have RAID on this drive? Ubuntu did not used to install at all to drives with left over meta-data.

Oops - I sure did have this drive on a RAID array at one time. I went back and removed the meta data from this drive, then re-ran the Boot-Repair program, and everything works fine now! I should have caught that; but thanks for pointing it out! Makes me wonder how I installed the OS in the first place...

[oldfred]

@bpb_21
At least one got solved.

It used to be that Ubuntu would not install if the RAID metadata was seen. I think that the new version 12.10 may start including RAID drivers as they are doing away with the alternative installer. Not sure in 12.04 how it worked.

[YannBuntu]

@all: please each of you, create your own thread THERE, and just give us the link to your thread here.

why mess with the /EFI/Microsoft directory?

Answer is in the bottom of the post (after the "Why?") : http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=637

I ran your boot-info script as you asked; check out the results here: http://paste.ubuntu.com/1418070/

You'll see indications of both GPT and MBR behavior. Both OS X and Kubuntu are running in EFI and are GPT-aware. Windows 8 is running in BIOS and is blissfully ignorant of the GPT disk. Each operating system can be booted directly, and none of them chainload any other. I'm not using rEFIt/rEFInd but prefer to use the stock, simple Apple boot manager.

Interesting! So when booting the PC, you see the Apple bootmanager that gives you 3 choices?
--------------------> MacOS
--------------------> Windows
--------------------> grub-efi --> Ubuntu

outb 0x728 1 
outb 0x710 2 
outb 0x740 2 
outb 0x750 0

What is that for?

[oldfred]

Moved hnsilva's post to this thread since no other comment here yet.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2093437

[Shoushouwhatwhat]

We have too many in one thread with boot issues but everyone is different. Much better to have your own thread.

@Shoushouwhatwhat
Does Windows boot from UEFI menu directly?

I have opened up a new thread as requested:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...5#post12399325

@ oldfred
I actually didn't know that we could boot from UEFI menu, I thought it was just for setting changes to booting. How do we boot from UEFI menu directly?

[gfxguy]

Not going to start my own thread because the problem has been fixed - by turning off secure boot and re-running boot-repair; a bunch of new stuff was installed, and it finally worked after that. But now I have no secure boot... but I don't care.

[YannBuntu]

@all:
quick explanations about how to use Boot-Repair on UEFI systems:


First of all, try the "Recommended Repair" button.
- B-R will automatically detect if grub-pc or grub-efi (or grub Legacy) is needed
- if grub-efi is needed, it will automatically detect if a signed boot is needed or not (SecureBoot)
- by default, the "Backup and rename EFI files" option is ticked. As explained here, this option duplicates grubx64.efi in 2 places: /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi and /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi . This allos to be sure that the BIOS will boot into GRUB at next reboot, even if the BIOS doesn't allow to boot on /efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi , and by commodity this avoids the user to modify the BIOS. Of course, if these files already existed, B-R renames them first (by adding them a .bkp extension).

After the Recommended Repair, the user reboots its PC, and sees the GRUB menu with access to Ubuntu, and generally 2 additional entries:
- Windows UEFI (/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi.bkp)
- Windows Boot UEFI ( /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi.bkp)

Generally, these 2 entries boot Windows without any problem.

But on some systems, they don't boot Windows. Example: http://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic...9311#p11879311 . In this case, here is what to do:
1) if your PC has/had Windows8 preinstalled, go into the BIOS, and , if possible, disable the SecureBoot and the QuickBoot. Then redo the Recommended Repair of Boot-Repair. This often works (example: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=686 ).
If still none of the 2 Windows entries work, continue next steps.

2) restorer the bkp via Boot-Repair --> Advanced options --> untick "Backup and rename EFI files" --> tick "Restore EFI backups" --> Apply . This will restore the 2 bkp files to their original place (/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi et /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi ) , and this will update the 2 Windows entries in GRUB:
- Windows UEFI (/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi)
- Windows Boot UEFI ( /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi)

3) then reboot the PC. If the BIOS hadn't been changed (it is setup to boot on /EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi or /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi ), this will directly boot Windows.

4) then setup the BIOS so that it boots on the Ubuntu entry (/efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi) . This will make the GRUB menu appear, with access to Ubuntu and the 2 Windows entries:
- Windows UEFI (/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi)
- Windows Boot UEFI ( /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi)

5) If you can't boot Windows via these GRUB entries, but that you can boot Windows directly via the Windows entry of the BIOS, then it is probably a security of Windows that doesn't like to be booted via GRUB , in this case I can't do anything, and you need to setup your BIOS each time you want to boot another OS.


(FYI, i have just started a new job after 1 year of unemployment, so I may have less time to help FOSS users)

[Phil Riegle]

Hello,
Here is the thread with post of my problem:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...5#post12406555

I'll keep reading to see if there is something else I need to provide. Thanks for your help.

[SuperFreak]

Update manager is trying to update boot repair but failing. see image(something about no changelog)

[Rockstarever]

thanks for posting a nice share.