22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS Upgrade - Removed OS Boot Load Choice

[vector3]

I just upgraded my dual boot laptop from 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS and lost the ability to select my OS. This laptop has been dual boot for an extended period of time and I have always updated it in the manner I chose this morning. That is with Ubuntu loaded I choose to upgrade to the new LTS. My drive appears fine but I have lost the ability to boot into Windows 7 Pro.

Can anyone help me diagnose and resolve this issue?

[yancek]

Are both Ubuntu and Windows installed in Legacy mode, meaning Grub boot code in the MBR? Or is either in UEFI mode? Run either command below to see if you have an EFI partition to determine if it is a Legacy or EFI install as either will list partitions.

sudo parted -l
sudo fdisk -l

Since you can boot Ubuntu, do that and run sudo update-grub and wath the output to see if there is a windows entry.

[vector3]

yancek - Lenovo X201 w/Legacy bios. I just installed and ran Boot-Repair. Here is the url it provided:

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/XkYZgQgpRJ/

Suggested repair: __________________________________________________ ____________



The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would reinstall the grub2 of

sda5 into the MBR of sda.

Grub-efi would not be selected by default because no ESP detected.

Additional repair would be performed: unhide-bootmenu-10s



sudo update-grub gave: Found Windows 7 on /dev/sda1

[yancek]

Boot repair shows Grub code in the MBR pointing to the Ubuntu partition where the other Grub files are so I don't see how reinstalling Grub would help. Did you run sudo update-grub? What were the results? Did you watch the output to see if there was an entry shown for windows? Did you check the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file to see if there is an entry there for windows?

[vector3]

I ran sudo update-grub and the results are shown in my post #3 above. This command found the following:

1 - linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-6.8.0-47-generic
2 - initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-6.8.0-47-generic
3 - linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-122-generic
4 - initird image: /boot/initird.img-5.15.0-122-generic
5 - memtest86+x64.bin
Warning: os-prober will be executed to detect bootable binaries on them and create new boot entries.
6 - Windows 7 on /dev/sda1
Adding boot menu entry for UEFI Firmware Settings...

That's it.

Note the answer for one of your earlier questions is as follows: sudo parted -l
1) 1049kB 324GB 324GB primary ntfs boot
2) 324GB 324GB 538MB primary fat32
3) 324GB 500GB 176GB extended
4) 324GB 500GB 176GB logical ext4


Question - Is 'Boot Info Script' useful in this situation?

[yancek]

The information you have posted including post 5, indicate that you have a standard Legacy/CSM install of windows 7 and you have an EFI install of Ubuntu on the same drive. If you have both Ubuntu and windows installed on the same physical drive as appears to be your case, they both need to be Legacy or they both need to be EFI. I can see this happening with a new install but it is surprising with an update/upgrade.

In post 3 you show: Grub-efi would not be selected by default because no ESP detected but your last post shows an EFI partition. If you can access your BIOS, check to see if Legacy/CSM is enabled. Your boot repair shows you do not have a GPT drive so if you enable Legacy/CSM, it should boot as boot repair also shows Grub in the MBR. If you can then boot with Legacy/CSM enabled, you don't need the EFI partition (sda2).

[oldfred]

The Boot info script is now part of Boot-Repair and Yann has updated & fixed some issues. The only advantage of bootinfoscript is that it can run in a terminal, but does not include as much info especially on newer systems as the report from Boot-Repair.

One disadvantage of the old BIOS boot mode is that you only have one MBR for boot. And Windows is not dual boot, so grub must be in MBR. But grub only boots working Windows, so you may need a Windows repair/recovery flash drive to temporarily restore the Windows boot loader to MBR & make repairs. Then use Boot-Repair to restore a BIOS grub to MBR.

Newer UEFI systems can always boot systems from UEFI one time boot menu, so when grub does not boot Windows you may be able to boot Windows & get into its internal repair console. Still best to have repair flash drives for current versions of all installed systems.

And good backups always required.

[vector3]

My BIOS is definitely Legacy (v 1.37) so I need not be concerned about it being UEFI. The difficulty with answering the Legacy/CSM enabled question is that neither of these options are listed in my version of the BIOS. I will also look into the Windows repair flash drive and its usage before posting again. Sorry for the slow progress but there are greater priorities for me presently.

[oldfred]

You would not have been able to install Ubuntu in UEFI mode unless system was also UEFI.
Windows 7 is very obsolete, best to not really use it.

But to dual boot, you have to have all systems in same boot mode or all BIOS/Legacy or all UEFI.
Once system starts to boot, it cannot switch. Or grub can only boot other installs in same boot mode.

You can use Boot-Repair in its advanced mode to convert UEFI install to BIOS install. Its just a reinstall of grub. You use grub-pc for BIOS and grub-efi-amd64 for UEFI boot.
How you boot install media UEFI or BIOS, for both Windows & Ubuntu is then how it installs or repairs.

While still best to have Windows repair flash drive and it would be needed if chkdsk required, but Boot-Repair can install a BIOS type boot loader (syslinux). It works like Windows boot loader in MBR to find rest of boot in partition with boot flag. Grub does not use boot flag.

[vector3]

Your point regarding the upgrade being unable to be executed in UEFI mode makes sense. I also agree I must refrain from using Windows 7. This issue has forced this but I do not like Windows 10 and my older laptops are not compatible with Windows 11 so off to Linux I will go.

I installed Boot-Repair directly to my hard disk. Probing the advanced mode displays the main options, which are both checked, to be: reinstall grub and unhide the boot menu. If this is all I need than I am all set but will wait to receive confirmation this action is correct before I implement it.Do I need to concern myself with the remaining options: Location, GRUB, MBR (disabled anyway), Other options? I'm new to this so I do not want to act prematurely.

Additionally, I prepared and attempted to use the Windows 7 repair CD but it returned a message stating the CD was a non-system disk so it did not boot, I tried a second time but it failed again so I checked here for further direction. I prepared the repair disk from a second Windows 7 machine that I was preparing for dual boot but this experience suggests that is no longer a useful consideration. Both laptops are 64-bot so the CD should have been fine. BIOS was confirmed to boot to external CD drive before I began.