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I have installed Ubuntu 20.04 (sdb3) on a Separate Disk from Windows EFI (sda2) and I think I messed up the installation and now when reboot is going straight into Ubuntu.

I tried so far: re-start with (right) Shift to go into the Grub start up but not working, recommended repairs from boot-repair but no luck this is the feedback https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/D5ShBq39hb/, on boot-repair advanced Grub location I tried to change the boot default to Windows (via sdb3 menu) and un-clicked the Separate efi from sda2, but it says a GPT is detected, and I am not sure how to create a BIOS-Boot partition with Gparted.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

MarianD
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Mcavalca
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  • You have an UEFI Windows boot on sda and a legacy boot on sdb. How were you booting Windows? Ubuntu should have been installed in the same mode. Grub has trouble reading the sda partitions, could they be "dynamic" partitions instead of "basic"? You should still be able to boot Win with the EFI menu, (some key at power-up to allow selection of OS or disk to boot). – ubfan1 Mar 08 '21 at 16:34
  • thx Ubfan1, before the install there was only windows10 and I created the dual boot but somehow the Grub end up in a diff place from EFI sba2. I currently can only re-start Ubuntu, I tried F10 (which is the instruction for Bios Disk Selection from HP for Elite Desktop), I tried (right) Shift to try and stop the Ubuntu boot, but neither are working. Is there a way via Terminal to force boot into Bios disk selection? Or force Ubuntu reboot into the Installation USB stick( at this point I would be happy to re-install everything if that works) – Mcavalca Mar 08 '21 at 16:58
  • BIOS/UEFI settings determine how the machine boots, and those are machine specific. The device boot default (bootx64.efi) was changed to grub, but the Windows boot entry (0003) is still present, and should work if you can get to the EFI menu to select it. – ubfan1 Mar 08 '21 at 17:11
  • the other thing I tried and did not work was to physically disconnect the second ssd (sdb3), on the hope that on reboot the computer would look for the only disk available and find the Windows boot, but it simply did not start, but thx for the replies so far. I will focus in try to crack into the Disk Selection Boot – Mcavalca Mar 08 '21 at 17:19
  • As ubfan1 mentioned, you have dynamic partitions, seen as "LDM metadata partition". Not sure why Windows would convert to LDM with gpt partitioning. It used to be that Linux did not see LDM at all, but now sees them, but does not fully work with them. https://askubuntu.com/questions/482768/changing-windows-dynamic-disk-partition-to-basic-partition-and-not-the-full-driv It looks like Windows entry in UEFI should directly boot Windows, unless it has other errors, then you need your Windows repair/recovery flash drive. – oldfred Mar 08 '21 at 18:06
  • I managed to go to windows boot, turns out that the Nvidia GPU was messing up the EFI and not allowing it to start up on disk selection using the F10, many thanks ubfan and oldfred for the help and pointing me in the correct direction, much appreciated – Mcavalca Mar 09 '21 at 19:28

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Open the terminal and edit the grub file:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub

Modify the file with this line: GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false, save the changes and exit using Ctrl+o followed by Enter and Ctrl+x.

sudo update-grub

Then reboot.

Kevin Bowen
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Tosha Tumanov
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I managed to get into the BIOS/EFI, turns out that the Nvidia NS 310 GPU really messed up the functioning of the EFI, once removed, with a simple F10 I managed to switch the order of the Disk and Boot with Windows, and delete the Ubuntu install and start again. As a post morten the mistakes were: 1) the Ubuntu 20.04 I had put in the USD Stick was Bios Legacy/MBR instead of EFI/GPT, i should have paid attention on the formatting on Rufus 2) Do not try to be to cute on the installation let Ubuntu install it on the same drive of Windows if possible otherwise things get messy really quickly. Many thanks ubfan, oldfred amd Tosha, great to see that people take interest in helping.

Mcavalca
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