Been running Ubuntu on my main PC for a while but due to some error with snap I couldn’t update the version. So after installing a childhood PC-game and then being unable to boot into Ubuntu I decided (using Rufus) to create a new bootable USB with Ubundu 24.04.01 and overwrite my current SSD and start from scratch (I have two additional HDDs for media and personal file storage).
After the first few attempts at installing, I even tried unplugging both my HDDs just in case they were causing some problem.
As it is, currently when I boot up my PC, after the “Press F2 to enter BIOS” screen, quickly “GRUB loading. Welcome to GRUB!” flashes for half a second after which the boot menu for the bootable usb comes up “Try or Install Ubuntu. Ubuntu (safe graphics). Test memory”. Removing the bootable usb will case the PC to go straight into the BIOS upon boot, without needing to press F2, and without flashing “GRUB loading…”.
Done my best to google my way out of this but to no avail. Hopefully I can get some guidance here.
I saw that officially Ubuntu suggests balenaEtcher to create a bootable USB. Haven’t tried that one so far though since when first trying out Linux a guide I found suggested Rufus and it worked then, I decided to use that now.
That isn’t helpful. Did you try reinstalling to the same partition(s) used previously without formatting? Did you try with formatting ? What specific output did you see that led you to think it was a bootloader problem? As far as running boot repair, their page generally recommends NOT to do repairs but to use the Creat BootInfo Summary option so you can post it here or elsewhere to get help.
You ran boot repair 5 times and have posted links here without indicating their order. How is that going to help someone help you? Run it one time and post the output so we know the current status. One boot repair shows you have a boot partition at the end of the drive and others don’t show any boot partition. You show a GPT drive but you have a Legacy/MBR install when it is generally more practical to use UEFI on a GPT drive. Why?
I did firstly try what previously worked, erasing the whole disk and installing. I started trying to format after running the boot-repair and seeing “The boot files of [sdXY (end>100GB)] are far from the start of the disk. Your BIOS may not detect them.” and googling for a solution.
After the first attempt at installation, upon booting up I was seeing a message that said something like “BOOTMGR IS MISSING”. Which through googling to the best o my abilities lead me to a possible GRUB-issue (and GRUB would be one bootloader, correct?).
I have run the installation anew (erasing disk and installing). The BootInfo summary of that is now (without running a repair as of yet on this installation): https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/p7B73xtNSs/
I apologize for the multiple links. I have never read these outputs before today so I wouldn’t know if multiples of these links would give separate info that might help in troubleshooting this specific problem. I am still very much a novice in these matters (that has to google acronyms regularly), so if anything seems wrong or fishy, please assume that it is not an informed decision on my part, but more likely a mistake due to poor understanding of software/hardware. Much like your question about GPT drive using Legacy/MBR. I don’t know why the GPT drive would have the more impractical alternative, and at the same time don’t know when the error would have started, or if it is hardware-based. I’m an idiot, but trying to learn.
The boot-repair report from post 3 shows that you have booted the live session in legacy mode Line 60: This live-session is in Legacy/BIOS/CSM mode (not in EFI mode).
In my BIOS, my Boot Device Control is set to “UEFI and Legacy OPROM”.
But all Boot from Network Devices/Boot from storage devices/Boot from PCI-E/PCI expansion devices are set to “Legacy OPROM first”.
Boot Device control is now set to UEFI only
Boot from network Devices is now set to UEFI driver first
Boot from Storage Devices is now set to UEFI driver first
Boot from network Devices is now set to UEFI driver first
Running the following line inside the installer [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ] && echo "UEFI" || echo "Legacy"
returns UEFI.
Worth another attempt at the installation in UEFI mode now.
Erase disk and install as you have your data on a separate disk
Allow the installer to nominate the partitions
That did the trick.
In the reviewing of your choices before installation began the following partitions were chosen:
partition sda1 formatted as fat32 used for /boot/efi
partition sda2 formatted as ext4 used for /
The fat32 one I hadn’t seen before.
I also reconnected the remaining HDDs and haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary so far. Will install all my remaining software on a later date, but I’ll mark this ticket down as solved!