Linux isn't booting

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hello there, in this period i retried using Grub2Win to doubleboot my current machine with Arch Linux (EndeavourOS). In the past i imported the grub config and it always worked. Now everytime i try to boot Linux it says it can't find the UUID of the disk and the other files to boot it. I tried changing distros, i tried Garuda Linux, ArcoLinux, Manjaro Linux and ArchMan Linux. I don't know why it does this because some months ago it worked fine. I already tried reinstalling Grub2Win. What could i do to reslove this? Is this problem resolvable?

[Drummer]

Hi,

I need your Grub2Win diagnostics to resolve this problem.

The diagnostics will give me information on your Grub configuration, disk UUID's etc.
I need this information to fully understand your particular issue.

Please click the blue "Diagnostics" button on the main Grub2Win screen and send them to me.

Thanks,

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hey, just exported the diagnostics file. Here it is.

[Drummer]

Hi again,

I got your diagnostics, but I need screenshots.

Please let me know when you have screenshots of the error.

Thanks again,

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Sorry for the really late response, i wasn't home, here is the error (the error is the same with EndeavourOS, i installed Manjaro to try if other distros worked)

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Sorry for the really late response, i wasn't home, here is the error

[Drummer]

Hi again, Gianberndini,

The problem here is that the configuration UUID you imported does not match the actual UUID on the disk.

The UUID's must match, or this will never work.

When you sent me the diagnostics on July 27, the actual UUID on the disk was 798774A3-423E-4CD8-9485-4644EB912D47

Now your screenshot shows a completely different UUID which ends in 50fa.

It appears that the configuration file you imported contains the incorrect UUID.

For Manjaro systems, you should not import the configuration.
Simply use Grub2Win to add the configuration as type manjaro.
Grub2Win will then ensure that the proper UUID is used.

If you import a file with bad information, you will have mismatches like this.

Please try to add the Manjaro configuration without importing, and let me know if it works.

If you still have problems, you should send me fresh diagnostics and screenshots.
The diagnostics and screenshots must be taken on the same day, to make sure they are in sync.

Please let me know.

Thanks,

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hello, for Manjaro i didn't import the Grub config file from the system. I used the predefined Manjaro menu on Grub2Win and obviously used the "xxkernset.sh" script. Still nothing. In the past i used Fedora but i had to remove the "verbose" parameter intro the grub boot parameters or it didn't work. I would like to switch back to Arch though but i cant. These are the diagnostics by the way.

[Drummer]

Hi again Gianberndini,

Current screenshots please.

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hi there, the errors are the exact same thing (even the disk UUID) of the screenshots i sent you before.

[Drummer]

Hi again Gianberndini,

OK. Now that I have all of your information, I can tell you what I think is going on.

It appears that your 1TB SSD drive is not visible to the GNU Grub kernel at boot time pre Windows.
It only shows up after the Windows drivers have been loaded.

This is the reason that the partition with UUID EFB84933-7313-4AFB-AE00-C75CBD4E50FA
is not found at boot time.

You can verify this in two ways.

1. Boot your computer. When the Grub2Win boot menu appears, select the "Boot Information And Utilies" entry.

Then select "Scan Disk Drives and Partitions"

Press enter several times to scroll through your partitions.
I suspect the GNU Grub kernel will not see your SSD drive.

1. Boot your computer. When the Grub2Win boot menu appears enter c on your keyboard.
   This will give you a GNU Grub kernel command prompt.

Enter this command
search -u EFB84933-7313-4AFB-AE00-C75CBD4E50FA

This will show whether the partition is visible to the GNU Grub kernel.

As to why the partition is not visible to the kernel, there may be several reasons:

Your BIOS is very very old, from 2012. Some older BIOS have these kinds of issues with SSD drives.

The 1 TB SSD drive is plugged into SATA port 0 of your motherboard. This is a GPT style drive which is very unusual for a non EFI system like yours.

Normally for non EFI systems, the Windows boot MBR style drive should be plugged into port 0.
Most older non EFI firmware expects the MBR boot drive in port 0.

Try switching the SATA cables so that the 119 GB Liteonit brand Windows boot drive is in SATA port 0. The other two 1TB drives should be on ports 1 and 2.

Please let me know if this works for you.
Screenshots of the GNU Grub disk scan and search commands above will be helpful.

Thanks for your patience.

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

I have changed my drives SATA port when my SSD broke some months ago so i think it could be that. I will try this ASAP. Thanks.

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hello there, i have tested every tipe of pattern with my SSD in port 1 and 2 but Linux still doesn't boot. I've tried reinstalling EndeavourOS but it still doesn't want to boot. The error is the same as before. The disk scan found the partition but doesn't name the UUID of it and the fact that it's a EXT4 partition. Photo attached below. I've noted that the "grub.cfg" that i import on Grub2Win though my Linux disk was "hd1,gpt3" (i didn't change the ports after the install) even if the Linux partition is "hd2,gpt3". I've tried modifing the configuration to no avail. Im pretty stranded here

[Ed P]

Instead of using a UUID code create a unique named file on the drive you're trying to boot then add a search to your Grub2Win menu to find the unique named file and set the drive as root. Then remove your UUID references to the drive.

Something like this:

search -f MySSDdrv.txt --set=root

Put it after the menuentry line.

[Drummer]

Hi again Gianberndini,

Wow, this is a tough one.

The message in your photo says in Itialian "nessun file system conosciuto rileveto" which Google Translate tells me is "no known file systems detected".

This message is from the basic GNU Grub kernel, not Grub2Win.
The GNU Grub kernel can read almost any filesystem known to man.

So it seems that either the GNU grub kernel is having trouble reading the disk, or that the file system is corrupted.

You may want to try using a Linux boot disk to examine the filesystem for errors and possibly fix them.

Grub2Win relies on the GNU Grub kernel for boot time operations. So if the kernel cannot read your partition, this will not work for you.

You can also open a support ticket with the GNU Grub group to see if they can help you.

Please let me know of your progress.

Thanks,

Dave

[Drummer]

Hey Ed,

Problem is, GNU Grub doesn't know that the partition is formatted EXT4.
The kernel cannot locate files on a partition when it doesn't understand the partition format.

So it can't decode the partition format to load the vmlinuz file, even it the disk address is correctly assigned.

Likewise, the kernel will never find the MySSDdrv.txt file or any other file on that partition.

My two cents.

Dave

[Drummer]

Hi again Gianberndini,

I think I finally understand what is causing this problem.

Endeavour appears to be using a non-standard ext4 format and a pre-release version of GNU Grub. version 2.12 RC1.

I installed Endeavour on my system and encountered the same issue. The currently released GNU Grub could not read the ext4 partition.

GNU Grub version 2.12 is still in beta, so until it is released, Grub2Win will continue to have version 2.06 embedded in it.

I was able to work around this problem as follows.

Use an Ubuntu boot disk to boot into a Ubuntu environment.

Run gpartd under Ubuntu and delete all partitions on the disk where you want to install Endeavour.

Use Ubuntu gpartd to create an 8 MB partition at the front of the disk.
Leave it unformatted and flag the partition as bios_grub.
Endeavour requires this small partition to hold the grub bootcode.

Use Ubuntu gpartd to create and format the large ext4 partition where you will install Endeavour.

Now boot the Endeavour install disk and run the Endeavour install.
Make sure that the Endeavour install uses the existing partitions you created under Ubuntu!
Do not allow Endeavour to format the partitions or you will have the same problem as before!

After the Endeavour install completes, GNU Grub will find the ext4 partition properly and Grub2Win will work.
I was able to have this work on my system. No problem.

I have no idea why Endeavour is using unreleased GNU Grub or non-standard ext4.

Please let me know if this works for you.

Thanks,

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hello there,
I'm now far from home but I've read your probable fix;

I don't know if I could do that since I use Grub2win because my old BIOS doesn't recognize Grub by itself. I always installed EndeavourOS in UEFI mode because I booted it via SuperGrub2Win and as far as I remember it never booted/never found the right grub file to boot into the OS when installed in MBR mode. When I have time I will still try this solution though.
I thought about installing EndeavourOS on a BTRFS partition in hopes that the GNU Grub kernel would recognize the disk, so making it bootable.
I noted too the fact that after installing a more recent version of EndeavourOS (before I used the first revision of the latest, now I have the 3rd revision of it) had problems with Grub in general. Thanks for the help and I will try everything said by you guys when I have time :)

[Ed P]

An impressive effort Drummer.

[Drummer]

Hi Gianberndini,

As you suspected, BTRFS works properly with the current GNU Grub version 2.06.

I re-installed Endeavour making sure that the Endeavour installer formatted the main partition as BTRFS. No Ubuntu required since we're not using ext4.

Now GNU Grub and Grub2Win find the partition normally via either UUID or label.

So it works.
I still no idea why Endeavour is using non-standard ext4 and beta Grub code.

Also, please upgrade your Grub2Win to version 2.3.7.5.
I have fixed a couple of minor compatibility problems in the Linux import code.

Thanks again,

Dave

[Gianbernandini Spaccoso]

Hello there,

i can confirm EndeavourOS boots and works as needed in ext4 by partitioning the drive in Ubuntu! Sadly the BTRFS method wont' work for me, if i try booting the system it halts with an "initramfs cannot extract" error. Here attached below Linux running. Thanks!

[Drummer]

Hi again,

Glad this finally worked out for you!

The Endeavour ext4 mystery may remain a mystery.

Dave