Can't boot into Ubuntu after Lenovo repair

[vonHumboldtFleischer]

Hello,

I have a ThinkPad laptop which is/was dual boot configured with Ubuntu and Windows, with a Grub screen allowing me to choose the OS at startup.
I shipped it back to Lenovo to repair broken USB ports. Despite me telling them to not touch the installation, the laptop will only boot into Windows now. 🤬
The Ubuntu installation still exists, but it is not reachable; no option to boot it even from the UEFI menu.
I ran diagnostics with BootRepair and asked it to make repairs, but they seem to have failed, with errors that mean little to me. See the logs under the links.
Thanks in advance for advice. This should be easy, but I don't have the required expertise.

MK

[currentshaft]

Cy

[vonHumboldtFleischer]

Does the BIOS have an option to disable secure boot, or use Legacy/CSM boot mode?

Secure boot is disabled but there is no option use legacy BIOS.

[tea for one]

Access your UEFI settings
Disable any/all of the following (if present)

Fast Boot
Secure Boot
TPM (Trusted Platform Module)
PTT (Platform Trust Technology)
FTPM (Firmware Trusted Platform Module)
TPT (Trust Platform Technology)
Device Guard (some Lenovo devices)
OS Optimised Defaults (some Lenovo devices)
Lock UEFI BIOS Settings
Boot Order Lock

[vonHumboldtFleischer]

I went through UEFI settings and disabled all of those and others that looked similar, but it did not help.

[tea for one]

Line 285 - 1:1049kB:274MB:273MB:fat32:EFI system partition:boot, hidden, esp, no_automount;

Boot into a "Try Ubuntu" live session.
Open gparted
Select your ESP nvme0n1p1
Remove the hidden flag and the no_automount flag

May help, may not - just a guess at the moment

[vonHumboldtFleischer]

Didn't work but thank you for trying.

How bad would it be to reinstall GRUB to the EFI partition, as explained for example in this article?

Also, I am confused by a few things in these logs. What even is /dev/sda and why is it bootable? This computer has a single 4TB drive as far as I know. And why the mismatch of sector numbers for the 4th partition of /dev/nvme0n1? By looking at the disk info under Windows, this is likely a "Windows Recovery" partitition, which may or may not have existed before the update. Could Lenovo have added it during repairs and confused things?

[tea for one]

The article is for Legacy Grub, you have Windows and Ubuntu in UEFI mode.
/dev/sda in the boot-repair output is your live usb (Kingston DataTraveler)

Here is a link for instructions to re-install Grub via a live session to a UEFI installation.
You have to be careful and choose the correct disk nomenclature for your PC - please do not blindly follow the guide.
i.e. you have an nvme internal disk
https://techbit.ca/2018/09/repair-grub2-efi-boot/

[dragonfly41]

In Windows there is an app EasyUEFI (search for it) and you have some time in free trial to inspect from Windows side. Whether you retain it is up to you but you should gain some insights during trial term. Other than that I would install rEFInd and in BIOS (F2 or F10 or whatever when starting up) select that as your primary boot option. It does not replace Grub. They sit side by side as boot options in BIOS. I always use rEFInd.

[vonHumboldtFleischer]

Thank you all for helping.

I tried reinstalling Grub using the tutorial. In the process I got:

grub-install: warning: EFI variables cannot be set on this system.
grub-install: warning: You will have to complete the GRUB setup manually.

This message was also in the Boot-Repair logs. I completed the process but nothing changed. The computer boots into Windows and there are no additional boot options available.

I'm not sure what to do with EasyUEFI, but it showed me that the contents of the EFI partition is

- $RECYCLE.BIN
  desktop.ini
- BOOT
  BOOT.SDI
- EFI
  - Boot
  - Microsoft
  - ubuntu
- System Volume Information
  IndexerVolumeGuid
  WPSettings.dat

which looks like Windowsy crap potentially interfering with a normal setup? The tutorial only had the EFI subdirectory here. Should I boot back with a live USB and delete everything except EFI?

I migt try rEFind next but curious if any of this information helps with diagnosis.