24.04 fails to boot after fresh install on Lenovo Thinkpad X220?

[jay-7]

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad X220 that was running 22.04 perfectly fine. I couldn't upgrade because my /boot partition was too small, so I burnt a DVD of 24.04 and did a full fresh install (wipe everything, no other OS, using LVM and encryption disk setup option).

The 24.04 installer appears to run/work perfectly. It created a /dev/sda1 for grub, /dev/sda2 for a boot partition, and the rest for an encrypted LVM/main partition.

However, when I removed the install media and hit enter for the initial bootup, it does not boot. BIOS acts like there is no boot partition on the drive, but offers network booting and I can boot off of my external USB DVD drive.
I'm using the latest BIOS firmware for the X220 laptop. boot-repair complained that I didn't have an "EFI" partition.

I tried again, resetting all laptop bios settings to their default values before the install, but same errors.

Question: Why isn't the 24.04 installer doing the right thing and just working? How to fix it and make it bootable?

[I'm considering burning a 22.04 image, using THAT to install (but with a bigger boot partition) and then dist-upgrading to 24.04.....but really, there isn't any good reason the 24.04 installer is failing here...]

Jay

[jay-7]

As an update / workaround, 22.04 LTS installed an EFI partition, a 1.8GB swap partition (larger than the original 750MB? swap that had kept me from being able to just do an in place upgrade before), and LUKS/LVM partitions which properly booted, and I'm in the process of upgrading it to 24.04 in-place now.

So it appears that the default boot system on the 24.04 installer just isn't supported by the Thinkpad X220 bios (it's not EFI, I vaguely remember the partition saying something like grub boot core or something). I didn't attempt to use the "super manual" install to see if there was an option to set up an EFI boot system vs whatever the default is as my 22.04 install worked, but hopefully that is an option deep down in the super manual part of the installer, otherwise an X220 owner with only a 24.04 install image is SOL.

[yancek]

Most newer computers (build since 2012) are UEFI capable and have options on boot to boot your install media (usb) in UEFI mode or Legacy mode and the way you boot is the way it installs or tries to install. You don't specifically say so, but after the install and removing the usb, you did change the boot options to the HD, correct? sda1 was probably an EFI partition and you mention sda2 as a separate boot with the rest on another LVM partition.

If UEFI isn't supported it is likely pretty old and you may have problems with a full Ubuntu install unless you have upgraded hardware but only time will tell.

[oldfred]

Default specs say that is an early model i-series Intel based system. That would be UEFI.
But some with early UEFI needed UEFI firmware updates & some Linux work arounds that are now in Ubuntu.
And some users preferred old BIOS installs back then.
In addition to boot mode of installer, you then have to have UEFI/BIOS set to boot in the default mode you used to install.

You must be consistent on how you boot, always UEFI or always old BIOS/CSM/Legacy.
CSM - UEFI Compatibility Support Module (CSM), which emulates a BIOS mode, only available with secure boot off.

Please copy & paste the pastebin link to the BootInfo summary report ( do not post report), do not run the auto fix till reviewed. Use often updated ppa version with your USB installer or any working install over somewhat older ISO.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair &
https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home/Home/

Specs also say default was 4GB of RAM. While Ubuntu may run in that, better to use a lightweight flavor.
https://ubuntu.com/download/flavours
Light weight flavors:
Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Budgie
Flavors of Ubuntu only come with three years of supported life (five years applies to Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server but not flavors)
I use Kubuntu which has worked on old system & newer systems. It is more mid-weight but lighter than full Ubuntu.

[jay-7]

It supports UEFI (but it was one of the earliest Lenovo's to do so). I messed around with the BIOS boot options a LOT after the first install to try and get it to boot. [This is why I reset the BIOS to defaults before trying the 2nd time, and didn't touch it between the boot from DVD to install and the attempt to boot from the HDD after the install. (I used the F12 temporarily pick a new boot device option to boot from the USB external DVD drive, but did also try selecting the hard drive manually after that, it still didn't boot.]

I have 16GB of ram installed, and the latest firmware update provided by Lenovo for this laptop. The 22.04 installer "just worked" with the same setup, and I was able to successfully do a dist upgrade from there to 24.04 so I'm working now.