Ubuntu Version:
Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
Desktop Environment (if applicable):
Gnome
Problem Description:
I cannot boot Ubuntu neither in UEFI nor Legacy mode.
The EFI partition is absent.
I would like solving this problem without reinstalling the OS and losing all the data.
Relevant System Information:
DELL Precision 5820 Tower
Screenshots or Error Messages:
What I’ve Tried:
We ran boot-repair, here’s the log:
boot-info-4ppa2081 [20250305_1035]
============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================
=> No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda.
sda3: __________________________________________________________________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System: Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS
Boot files: /boot/grub/grub.cfg /etc/fstab /etc/default/grub
sdb: ___________________________________________________________________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files:
sdc: ___________________________________________________________________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files:
sdd: ___________________________________________________________________________
File system: ext4
Boot sector type: -
Boot sector info:
Operating System:
Boot files:
sdf: ___________________________________________________________________________
File system: iso9660
Boot sector type: Grub2 (v1.99-2.00)
Boot sector info: Grub2 (v1.99-2.00) is installed in the boot sector of
sdf and looks at sector 0 of the same hard drive for
core.img, but core.img can not be found at this
location.
Mounting failed: mount: /mnt/BootInfo/FD/sdf: /dev/sdf already mounted or mount point busy.
dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.
================================ 1 OS detected =================================
OS#1 (linux): Ubuntu 20.04.6 LTS on sda3
================================ Host/Hardware =================================
CPU architecture: 64-bit
Video: TU117GL [T1000 8GB] TU117GLM [Quadro T400 Mobile] from NVIDIA Corporation NVIDIA Corporation
Live-session OS is Ubuntu 64-bit (Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS, noble, x86_64)
===================================== UEFI =====================================
BIOS/UEFI firmware: 2.13.1(2.13) from Dell Inc.
The firmware is EFI-compatible, and is set in EFI-mode for this live-session.
SecureBoot disabled (confirmed by mokutil).
BootCurrent: 0009
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0002,0003,0004,0005,0006,0007,0008,0000,0009
Boot0000* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,78406ed5-118c-4358-85e7-929d4ff897b9,0x800,0x19c800)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0001* Diskette Drive BBS(Floppy,Diskette Drive,0x0)0000424f
Boot0002* P0: Micron 1300 SATA 512GB BBS(HD,P0: Micron 1300 SATA 512GB,0x0)0000424f
Boot0003* P1: ST12000NM002J-2TY133 BBS(HD,P1: ST12000NM002J-2TY133,0x0)0000424f
Boot0004* P2: ST8000NM012A-2KE131 BBS(HD,P2: ST8000NM012A-2KE131,0x0)0000424f
Boot0005* P3: ST8000NM012A-2KE131 BBS(HD,P3: ST8000NM012A-2KE131,0x0)0000424f
Boot0006* USB Storage Device BBS(USB,Lexar USB Flash Drive 1100,0x0)0000424f
Boot0007* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive BBS(CDROM,CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive,0x0)0000424f
Boot0008 Onboard NIC BBS(Network,IBA CL Slot 00FE v0110,0x0)0000424f
Boot0009* UEFI: Lexar USB Flash Drive 1100 PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(25,0)/USB(1,0)/HD(2,GPT,b0ef6ca3-60d1-4a21-98db-17c385a8b6f8,0xbce0b4,0x27a0)0000424f
============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================
Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________
sda : is-GPT, no-BIOSboot, has-noESP, not-usb, not-mmc, has-os, no-wind, 2048 sectors * 512 bytes
Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________
sda3 : is-os, 64, apt-get, signed grub-pc grub-efi , grub2, grub-install, grubenv-ok, update-grub, end-after-100GB
sdb : no-os, 64, nopakmgr, no-docgrub, nogrub, nogrubinstall, no-grubenv, noupdategrub, not-far
sdc : no-os, 64, nopakmgr, no-docgrub, nogrub, nogrubinstall, no-grubenv, noupdategrub, not-far
sdd : no-os, 64, nopakmgr, no-docgrub, nogrub, nogrubinstall, no-grubenv, noupdategrub, not-far
Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________
sda3 : isnotESP, fstab-has-bad-efi, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot, ext4
sdb : isnotESP, part-has-no-fstab, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot, ext4
sdc : isnotESP, part-has-no-fstab, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot, ext4
sdd : isnotESP, part-has-no-fstab, no-nt, no-winload, no-recov-nor-hid, no-bmgr, notwinboot, ext4
Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________
sda3 : not–sepboot, with-boot, fstab-without-boot, not-sep-usr, with–usr, fstab-without-usr, std-grub.d, sda
sdb : maybesepboot, no—boot, part-has-no-fstab, not-sep-usr, no—usr, part-has-no-fstab, no–grub.d, sda
sdc : maybesepboot, no—boot, part-has-no-fstab, not-sep-usr, no—usr, part-has-no-fstab, no–grub.d, sda
sdd : maybesepboot, no—boot, part-has-no-fstab, not-sep-usr, no—usr, part-has-no-fstab, no–grub.d, sda
fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________
Disk sda: 476.94 GiB, 512110190592 bytes, 1000215216 sectors
Disk identifier: E5C21F45-1230-45E7-B1BE-64A15B19C36C
Start End Sectors Size Type
sda3 18468864 1000214527 981745664 468.1G Linux filesystem
Disk sdb: 10.91 TiB, 12000138625024 bytes, 23437770752 sectors
Disk sdc: 7.28 TiB, 8001563222016 bytes, 15628053168 sectors
Disk sdd: 7.28 TiB, 8001563222016 bytes, 15628053168 sectors
Disk sdf: 28.91 GiB, 31037849600 bytes, 60620800 sectors
Disk identifier: B0EF6CA3-60D1-4A21-98D9-17C385A8B6F8
Start End Sectors Size Type
sdf1 64 12378291 12378228 5.9G Microsoft basic data
sdf2 12378292 12388435 10144 5M EFI System
sdf3 12388436 12389035 600 300K Microsoft basic data
sdf4 12390400 60618751 48228352 23G Linux filesystem
parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________
sda:512GB:scsi:512:4096:gpt:ATA Micron 1300 SATA:;
3:9456MB:512GB:503GB:ext4::;
sdb:12.0TB:scsi:512:4096:loop:ATA ST12000NM002J-2T:;
1:0.00B:12.0TB:12.0TB:ext4::;
sdc:8002GB:scsi:512:4096:loop:ATA ST8000NM012A-2KE:;
1:0.00B:8002GB:8002GB:ext4::;
sdd:8002GB:scsi:512:4096:loop:ATA ST8000NM012A-2KE:;
1:0.00B:8002GB:8002GB:ext4::;
sdf:31.0GB:scsi:512:512:gpt:Lexar USB Flash Drive:;
1:32.8kB:6338MB:6338MB::ISO9660:hidden, msftdata;
2:6338MB:6343MB:5194kB::Appended2:boot, esp;
3:6343MB:6343MB:307kB::Gap1:hidden, msftdata;
4:6344MB:31.0GB:24.7GB:ext4::;
Free space >10MiB: ______________________________________________________________
sda: 0.02MiB:9018MiB:9018MiB
blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________
NAME FSTYPE UUID PARTUUID LABEL PARTLABEL
sda
└─sda3 ext4 4c3be97c-20d6-4967-af37-7bcefba8d324 2c2b0d4f-ff92-4ef9-b70a-f2099d69e2f6 UBUNTU
sdb ext4 100d43dc-0458-4fb1-add6-fe5fc641ec44 data3
sdc ext4 ec9b1373-6dbf-4f1b-b90d-5c2a90b0ed4f data2
sdd ext4 2c5429bc-022c-4f39-b9b2-22330a891bf7 data1
sde
sdf iso9660 2025-02-15-09-15-26-00 Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS amd64
├─sdf1 iso9660 2025-02-15-09-15-26-00 b0ef6ca3-60d1-4a21-98d8-17c385a8b6f8 Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS amd64 ISO9660
├─sdf2 vfat B5A5-8010 b0ef6ca3-60d1-4a21-98db-17c385a8b6f8 ESP Appended2
├─sdf3 b0ef6ca3-60d1-4a21-98da-17c385a8b6f8 Gap1
└─sdf4 ext4 05f00136-e00a-4dc9-a447-66914b32ae43 108e3ee1-33e1-4a9f-b697-8b57acaed04b writable
Mount points (filtered): _______________________________________________________
Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda3 85G 76% /media/ubuntu/UBUNTU
/dev/sdb 591.5G 90% /mnt/boot-sav/sdb
/dev/sdc 417.1G 89% /mnt/boot-sav/sdc
/dev/sdd 2T 68% /media/ubuntu/data1
/dev/sdf1 0 100% /cdrom
efivarfs 414.3K 18% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
Mount options (filtered): ______________________________________________________
/dev/sda3 ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,errors=remount-ro
/dev/sdb ext4 rw,relatime
/dev/sdc ext4 rw,relatime
/dev/sdd ext4 rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,errors=remount-ro
/dev/sdf1 iso9660 ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048,iocharset=utf8
====================== sda3/boot/grub/grub.cfg (filtered) ======================
Ubuntu 4c3be97c-20d6-4967-af37-7bcefba8d324
END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober
UEFI Firmware Settings uefi-firmware
END /etc/grub.d/30_uefi-firmware
Restore OS to factory state
========================== sda3/etc/fstab (filtered) ===========================
/ was on /dev/sda3 during installation
UUID=4c3be97c-20d6-4967-af37-7bcefba8d324 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/boot/efi was on /dev/sda1 during installation
UUID=6CEF-8018 /boot/efi vfat umask=0077 0 1
/swapfile none swap sw 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/2c5429bc-022c-4f39-b9b2-22330a891bf7 /data1 auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/ec9b1373-6dbf-4f1b-b90d-5c2a90b0ed4f /data2 auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0
/dev/disk/by-uuid/100d43dc-0458-4fb1-add6-fe5fc641ec44 /data3 auto nosuid,nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show,x-udisks-auth 0 0
======================= sda3/etc/default/grub (filtered) =======================
GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“quiet splash”
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=“”
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=true
==================== sda3: Location of files loaded by Grub ====================
GiB - GB File Fragment(s)
406.948131561 = 436.957229056 boot/grub/grub.cfg 2
404.715854645 = 434.560339968 boot/vmlinuz 1
409.786163330 = 440.004542464 boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-124-generic 2
404.715854645 = 434.560339968 boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-131-generic 1
409.786163330 = 440.004542464 boot/vmlinuz.old 2
36.014137268 = 38.669885440 boot/initrd.img 4
163.986324310 = 176.078974976 boot/initrd.img-5.15.0-124-generic 14
36.014137268 = 38.669885440 boot/initrd.img-5.15.0-131-generic 4
163.986324310 = 176.078974976 boot/initrd.img.old 14
===================== sda3: ls -l /etc/grub.d/ (filtered) ======================
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18224 Jan 11 2022 10_linux
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 42359 Feb 24 2021 10_linux_zfs
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13101 Dec 18 2022 20_linux_xen
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12059 Apr 15 2020 30_os-prober
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1424 Apr 15 2020 30_uefi-firmware
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 700 Feb 21 2022 35_fwupd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 214 Apr 15 2020 40_custom
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 216 Apr 15 2020 41_custom
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1362 May 10 2022 99_dell_recovery
================= sda3/etc/grub.d/99_dell_recovery (filtered) ==================
#!/bin/bash -e
source /usr/lib/grub/grub-mkconfig_lib
cat << EOF
menuentry “Restore OS to factory state” {
search --no-floppy --hint ‘(hd0,gpt2)’ --set --fs-uuid 6C06-3F40
set uuid_options=“uuid=6C06-3F40”
if [ -s /factory/common.cfg ]; then
source /factory/common.cfg
else
set options=“boot=casper automatic-ubiquity noprompt quiet splash nomodeset nopersistent”
fi
if [ -s /factory/post-rts-gfx.cfg ]; then
source /factory/post-rts-gfx.cfg
fi
if [ -s /factory/post-rts-wlan.cfg ]; then
source /factory/post-rts-wlan.cfg
fi
#Support starting from a loopback mount (Only support ubuntu.iso for filename)
if [ -f /ubuntu.iso ]; then
loopback loop /ubuntu.iso
set root=(loop)
set options=“iso-scan/filename=/ubuntu.iso $options”
fi
if [ -n “${lang}” ]; then
set options=“locale=$lang $options”
fi
if [ -s /factory/dual_enable ]; then
set options=“dell-recovery/dual_boot=true $options”
fi
kernel=/casper/vmlinuz
if [ ! -f $kernel ]; then
kernel=/casper/vmlinuz.efi
fi
linux $kernel dell-recovery/recovery_type=hdd $uuid_options $options
initrd /casper/initrd
}
EOF
Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________
The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would purge (in order to remove grub-efi) and reinstall the grub2 of
sda3 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
Blockers in case of suggested repair: __________________________________________
GPT detected. Please create a BIOS-Boot partition (>1MB, unformatted filesystem, bios_grub flag). This can be performed via tools such as Gparted. Then try again.
Confirmation request before suggested repair: __________________________________
The boot of your PC is in EFI mode, but no ESP partition was detected. You may want to retry after creating a ESP partition (FAT32, 100MB~250MB, start of the disk, boot flag).
Are you sure you want to continue anyway?
Final advice in case of suggested repair: ______________________________________
The boot files of [sda3 (end>100GB)] are far from the start of the disk. Your BIOS may not detect them. You may want to retry after creating a /boot partition (EXT4, >200MB, start of the disk). This can be performed via tools such as gParted. Then select this partition via the [Separate /boot partition:] option of [Boot-Repair]. (BootPartition - Community Help Wiki)The boot of your PC is in UEFI mode. You may want to retry after changing it to BIOS-compatibility/CSM/Legacy mode.
