[ale] [EXTERNAL] Re: UEFI/NVME system won't boot after dead CMOS battery

Horkan Smith ale at horkan.net
Sun Mar 20 10:38:44 EDT 2022 

I'd start w/ efibootmgr as Bryan suggests.

Boot from your openSUSE disk and select the option to boot your hard disk linux copy.

Run "efibootmgr -v" as root

Check the boot order, and defined boot options.  It *should* have the boot option and boot order to run your openSUSE install, but if not it may be fixable from here.  Feel free to share it w/ me or the list if you'd like.

Here's one from my Dell laptop:

[horkan at fiben towingguides]$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0003,0008,0001,0004,0005,0000,0002,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* Network	BBS(128,,0x0).......................................................................
Boot0001* ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,01e52874-fb1e-4d50-ad82-3558e0062f5b,0xfa000,0x31800)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0002* Hard Drive	BBS(HD,,0x500)................-......................................................
Boot0003* rEFInd Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,01e52874-fb1e-4d50-ad82-3558e0062f5b,0xfa000,0x31800)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot0004* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,01e52874-fb1e-4d50-ad82-3558e0062f5b,0xfa000,0x31800)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot0005* Ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,01e52874-fb1e-4d50-ad82-3558e0062f5b,0xfa000,0x31800)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)RC
Boot0006* USB Storage Device	BBS(HD,,0x500).......................................................................
Boot0007* USB1-1 (SanDisk)	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(10,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x0,0x4fb984,0x2000)RC
Boot0008* Manjaro	HD(2,GPT,01e52874-fb1e-4d50-ad82-3558e0062f5b,0xfa000,0x31800)/File(\EFI\Manjaro\grubx64.efi)
Boot2001* EFI USB Device	RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM	RC
Boot2003* EFI Network	RC

I boot rEFInd (a boot manager) first, then if that fails for some reason it'll drop back to Manjaro.

I'd also look at the contents of your EFI partion - it's usually /boot/efi/EFI on my Arch* and Ubuntu, not sure for openSUSE.  I'm also not sure if openSUSE makes their own directory like Arch* and Ubuntu do... I'd compare it against a known running openSUSE w/ a similar release to check.

[horkan at fiben towingguides]$ sudo ls -al /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu
total 3732
drwx------ 3 root root    1024 Apr  6  2019 .
drwx------ 8 root root    1024 Feb 10  2020 ..
-rwx------ 1 root root     108 Nov 14  2020 BOOTX64.CSV
drwx------ 2 root root    1024 Mar 14  2019 fw
-rwx------ 1 root root   75992 Apr  6  2019 fwupx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root     126 Nov 14  2020 grub.cfg
-rwx------ 1 root root 1119104 Nov 14  2020 grubx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1277024 Nov 14  2020 mmx64.efi
-rwx------ 1 root root 1341560 Nov 14  2020 shimx64.efi
[horkan at fiben towingguides]$ sudo ls -al /boot/efi/EFI/arch
ls: cannot access '/boot/efi/EFI/arch': No such file or directory
[horkan at fiben towingguides]$ sudo ls -al /boot/efi/EFI/Manjaro
total 134
drwx------ 2 root root   1024 Feb 10  2020 .
drwx------ 8 root root   1024 Feb 10  2020 ..
-rwx------ 1 root root 135168 Feb 10  2020 grubx64.efi
[horkan at fiben towingguides]$ 


You *could* go the route I do w/ rEFInd as well - once it boots, it'll let you load the linux kernel, etc from the other partitions - but we should be able to make your existing install work w/out that.

later!
   horkan


On Sun, Mar 20, 2022 at 06:52:13AM -0400, Bryan L. Gay via Ale wrote:
>Sounds like the boot entry for your Linux install was a custom entry
>in the efivars which got wiped out when you removed the battery.
>UEFI boots from the ESP a default entry that references this file:
>EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
>
>This is the file that is typically going to boot Windows, but if
>you're not dual-booting, then it won't exist unless you happened to
>install and used the --removeable flag with the Grub installer.
>
>I'd suggest looking at efibootmgr to re-create the proper entry.
>
>On Sat, Mar 19, 2022 at 2:29 PM Allen Beddingfield via Ale <ale at ale.org> wrote:
>>
>> That was also my first thought, but secure boot is disabled.
>>
>> --
>> Allen Beddingfield
>> Systems Engineer
>> Office of Information Technology
>> The University of Alabama
>> Office 205-348-2251
>> allen at ua.edu
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Ale <ale-bounces at ale.org> on behalf of Boris Borisov via Ale <ale at ale.org>
>> Sent: Saturday, March 19, 2022 9:01 AM
>> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
>> Cc: Boris Borisov
>> Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [ale] UEFI/NVME system won't boot after dead CMOS battery
>>
>> Got to be some security feature I think. Some BRAND name motherboards have options to whitelist boot devices.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 22:57 DJPfulio--- via Ale <ale at ale.org<mailto:ale at ale.org>> wrote:
>> NVMe isn't true or false.  Sometimes there are odd issues. Checking that the firmware is current, the current BIOS sees and can use it, and the OS works are 3 moving parts.
>>
>> On really new systems, these are the first things to validate if there are any issues.
>>
>> On 3/18/22 22:30, SpaXpert, Inc. via Ale wrote:
>> > I'm not getting this. So it boots if you use cd boot and direct it to
>> > load linux os from hd, and it works.  If nvme firmware was an issue,
>> > would the opensuse boot disc still work?
>> >
>> > As previously suggested.. but why don't you have access to update the
>> > mbr on the drive after getting it up and running with your
>> > alternative boot method (cd)?  This is weird. Scratching head...
>> > Doug.
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-- 
Horkan Smith
678-777-3263 cell, ale at horkan.net

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