Cannot get my Lenovo H520S to boot to Ubuntu Server 20 LTS

[cakebaker67985]

Hello there,

I have been stuck on this for months, I recived an old computer for free and I wanted to install ubuntu server on it.

The computer is a Lenovo H520S, and the bios date is 05/08/2012.

I have installed ubuntu server on its hard drive, it previously had windows on it which worked just fine, and all I get is a message saying no OS could be found, however I can boot off the drive in my main PC. I ran the boot repair tool: http://paste.ubuntu.com/p/5kpfc7bd4d/

This didn't fix the issue, I have no idea where to go from here, any help is appreciated.

[MAFoElffen]

And it will boot from a USB Key, such as an Ubuntu 20.0.04.3 Desktop LiveCD (USB)?

I looked at your report... And saw it error'ed out bad.

I see that it is UEFI... and I belive that it may have UEFI firmware updates for it, if you want to check that.It could use them. It was early UEFI.

Next, I see that you still have SafeBoot turned on, because it is trying to install grub-efi-amd64-signed... That should be okay with 20.04. But make sure to turn off the fastboot setting in the BIOS.

It is erroring out on the other drives? What is on the other drives you have in that machine? Especially this one:

Boot0003* WDC WD5000AAKX-083CA1	BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO

[cakebaker67985]

It will boot from a USB key, its booted off every live distro I have tried no problems there,

Interestingly when I installed ubuntu server 18.04 LTS the restart after the installation went fine, and the OS worked perfectly, however when I turned the tower off and back on it came back with the OS not found error.

Is safeboot something I should turn off? if so how would I go about that? in the BIOS quickboot is disabled, im guessing thats the fastboot your referring to.

So that drive is the only drive in the system the WDC WD5000AAKX, its a 500Gb western digital hard drive that came with the pc. I haven't tried any other drives in the machine but I could pull an empty SSD out my main computer if it would help.

[MAFoElffen]

No.Wait. Trying to get an idea of what is there... You said

So that drive is the only drive in the system

But I see more drives in this system (in that report) than just that one...

===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS is EFI-compatible, and is setup in EFI-mode for this live-session.

efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0005,0003,0004
Boot0000* ubuntu    HD(1,GPT,867f021e-bde0-4ba6-9bf3-780f6f7899ed,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0001* proxmox    HD(2,GPT,aebc9c90-0c59-4729-9178-84b8bade1696,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\proxmox\grubx64.efi)
Boot0003* WDC WD5000AAKX-083CA1    BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0004* SanDisk    BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0005* UEFI: SanDisk    PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/USB(1,0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x2c534026,0x3c4,0x1340)AMBO
This session has been detected as 'live' because /proc/cmdline contains (boot=casper)
This session has been detected as 'live' because df -Th / contains overlay

In most of it, I see sda and sdb, where sda is the wdc hdd that you installed Ubuntu to... with 3 partitions... sda1 is the EFI. sda2 is the /boot. sda3 is the root partition with LVM. SDB is the USB LiveCD you booted from.

I see two big problems. sdc is a mystery... Because there is no "sdc" and for some reason sometimes it thinks there is... Look at lines 403-405, and intermitterntly from Lines 102-153. That will cause problems, but it not the problem stopping you from booting... I'll go over that one after I go over resolving your main problem first, because I think that one is a really easy fix and is an additional/sideline issue....

*** The main problem is sort of two-fold. It looks as if the Server previously... Maybe before you had it, had Promox installed 'somewhere'. It no longer exists 'anywhere', except for the UEFI boot menu file in the EFI partition.

# Snip from lines 208-213
BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0000,0005,0003,0004
Boot0001* proxmox    HD(2,GPT,aebc9c90-0c59-4729-9178-84b8bade1696,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\proxmox\grubx64.efi)

That EFI memu item is still there, and your UEFI BIOS Firmware is still set to boot the orphaned menu item to boot from...Instead of booting from your Ubuntu UEFI menu entry

Boot0000* ubuntu    HD(1,GPT,867f021e-bde0-4ba6-9bf3-780f6f7899ed,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

Recommendation:

1. A soon as you get into your UEFI BIOS, on BIOS post, it should see that it only has one drive connected, and resolve thinking that it has anohter drive connected...
2. Go to the UEFI boot order and select the Ubuntu EFI menut item as the first in the order.
3. Turn off FastBoot. That will skip over most of the POST boot order chacks, which makes the booting faster... But has a big drawback, that it will disable the keyboard and mouse until POST is over... Sometimes "you need" that input interaction to do things on boot.
4. For now, leave SecureBoot enabled. That is how you installed 20.04 and should be working with that. If you still had 18.04 installed, I would tell you to turn it off. (That didn't support that yet.)
5. Then save, and reboot. It should boot.

Afterwards... Delete that promox efi menu item file and remove it from the EFI menu, using 'efibootmgr'. it has no place there anymore. You could delete this whole directory and files recursively: /dev/sda1/EFI/proxmox/.

With that, you should be running again in a matter of minutes.

[cakebaker67985]

So that proxmox was my installation, I installed it on the WD hard drive. There used to be a CD drive in the system but I've taken it out for now just for easy access to the hard drive.

So unfortunately before I saw your message I installed windows back on the machine, to try and run some lenovo UEFI diagnosis software, windows installed just fine and worked perfectly, unfortunately I couldn't get the diagnosis software to work.

Next I booted the computer into a live Kali and used Gparted to delete all the partitions on the hard drive, then reflashed a USB with Ubuntu server 20.04 LTS installer and installed that, it didn't boot again so I ran another boot repair https://pastebin.ubuntu.com/p/cX6MX7SjQ8/.

That sdc drive is still there, and for some reason the windows boot manager is still in the boot order bit, I went into the BIOS and updated by boot order so its now: USB, SATA1: WD drive, And nothing else.

For some reason it still isn't booting.

[MAFoElffen]

I'll talk you through it.

Boot from a USB LiveCD...

Please post the results of

sudo efibootmgr

I see you are online. I will check this to get you through changing the order after I see what it returns...

[cakebaker67985]

Thank you,

Sorry for the wait I had to flash a new USB, I booted into a live ubuntu 20.04 desktop, ran the command and got

sudo: efibootmgr: command not found

EDIT:

Sorry I realised you have to install it, so after installing it I get

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000, 0002, 0005, 0003, 0004
Boot0000* ubuntu
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0003* WDC WD5000AAKX-08CA1
Boot0004* KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000
Boot0005* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000

[MAFoElffen]

While still running the LiveCD, just install it...

sudo apt install efibootmgr

Trying to jump between doing a cert for work, release a Script for the Forum, and you...

[cakebaker67985]

So I ran it and it came back with this:

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000, 0002, 0005, 0003, 0004
Boot0000* ubuntu
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0003* WDC WD5000AAKX-08CA1
Boot0004* KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000
Boot0005* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000

Thank you, I really appreciate this

[MAFoElffen]

So I ran it and it came back with this:

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000, 0002, 0005, 0003, 0004
Boot0000* ubuntu
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0003* WDC WD5000AAKX-08CA1
Boot0004* KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000
Boot0005* UEFI: KingstonDataTraveler 3.00000

It says it's pointing to the right Menu file now... It does not boot?

If not.... Get into your UEFI firmware and just try it with Secureboot disabled, and see if that makes a change...