Re: UEFI grub install fails
On Sun, 2025-08-17 at 13:46 -0700, David Christensen wrote:
On 8/17/25 12:31, Van Snyder wrote:
I upgraded the BIOS in my Dell Latitude E5470 from 1.19.3 to 1.34.3.
Before upgrading:
1. Did you run Setup and document the settings?
I didn't write down all the settings. The important one was whether booting was Legacy or UEFI.
2. Did you backup the OS configuration files?
3. Did you backup the data?
4. Did you take an image of the HDD/SSD?
I cloned the HDD onto an NVME using dd, then added the EFI boot partition and expanded /home to fill the rest of the "disk."
After upgrading:
1. Did you run Setup and reset the settings to factory defaults?
Not yet. I'll try that.
2. What is the Setup setting for the firmware mode -- e.g. BIOS/Legacy,
EFI/UEFI, etc.? What was it previously?
3. What is the Setup setting for Secure Boot -- e.g. On, off, etc.?
What was it previously?
4. What is the Setup setting for disk drive -- e.g. RAID, AHCI, etc.?
What was it previously?
5. What are the Setup boot entries and what is their order? What were
they previously?
They were previously USB, CD, HDD, PXE. After, the BIOS chose a random order which I changed to that.
What OS(s) are on the HDD/SSD? Using a Debian live distribution, rescue
shell, etc., please run the following command as root and post the
console session -- prompt, input command, and output displayed:
# lsblk
With my annotations about what each partition is used for
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 809.5M 1 loop /run/archiso/sfs/airootfs
sr0 11:0 1 898M 0 rom The systemrestore CD
nvme0n1 259:0 0 953.9G 0 disk
|-nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 350M 0 part Win 10 System
|-nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 29.6G 0 part Win 10
|-nvme0n1p3 259:3 0 1014M 0 part /boot
|-nvme0n1p4 259:4 0 1K 0 part extended
|-nvme0n1p5 259:5 0 48.8G 0 part /
|-nvme0n1p6 259:6 0 7.8G 0 part Linux swap
|-nvme0n1p7 259:7 0 4.7G 0 part /rescue
|-nvme0n1p8 259:8 0 545M 0 part /boot/efi (FAT32), marked bootable
|-nvme0n1p9 259:9 0 861.1G 0 part /home
From fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 953.87 GiB, 1024209543168 bytes, 2000409264 sectors
Disk model: SPCC M.2 PCIe SSD
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xf1177557
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 2048 718847 716800 350M 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/nvme0n1p2 718848 62795775 62076928 29.6G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/nvme0n1p3 62795776 64872447 2076672 1014M 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p4 64874494 2000408575 1935534082 922.9G 5 Extended
/dev/nvme0n1p5 64874496 167274495 102400000 48.8G 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p6 167276544 183660543 16384000 7.8G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/nvme0n1p7 183662592 193428216 9765625 4.7G 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p8 * 193429504 194545663 1116160 545M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/nvme0n1p9 194547712 2000408575 1805860864 861.1G 83 Linux
If you press the boot menu hot key during POST, can you boot the OS on
the HDD/SSD?
I could no longer boot. So I decided to upgrade from Debian 12 Bookworm
to Debian 13 Trixie.
All went well until the end when grub install failed.
Please post the console session.
All I get is a blank blue page inviting me to type grub commands.
I have an EFI partition. It's formatted for FAT32. It has an EFI tag —
I told the "partition" step to use that partition for EFI.
I found a twelve year old recommendation to run
sudo dosfsck -r /dev/sda2
but of course I can't do that if it won't boot. So I ran it in a system
rescue disk and it didn't complain.
Now when I boot grub gives me an empty screen and wants me to type in
all the commands.
STFW "grub prompt":
I found a page that says "The error has been seen when the /EFI/ubuntu
directory is corrupted (bug 1090829)." Of course, I'm trying to install
Debian but maybe there's a clue there — if only I knew where to read
about bug 1090829.
STFW "ubuntu bug 1090829":
Is there more modern advice somewhere to get Trixie installed?
Or, can I downgrade my Dell BIOS back to 1.19.3?
STFW "site:dell.com Latitude 5470 firmware downgrade":
— Van Snyder
David
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