efi system partition problem while upgrading distribution

Question

I have dual boot win10/ubuntu-linux. i want to upgrade my Ubuntu 20.04 to 20.10. but in process, i am getting an error that says:

Efi System Partition (ESP) not usable

I've tried:

sudo mount /boot/efi

after that i got this error:

mount: /boot/efi: can't find UUID=0A0E-A110

but my linux is on sda7 with different UUID. so i got the UUID of the sda7 by:

sudo blkid /dev/sda7

Output:

/dev/sda7: UUID="fa092601-bef2-441e-92d4-2871f05e4a55" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="59087783-8cca-4a70-af2f-1472267b442c" the fstab file content now:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda9 during installation
UUID=fa092601-bef2-441e-92d4-2871f05e4a55 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=0A0E-A110  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

so i've addded this line to my /etc/fstab:

UUID=fa092601-bef2-441e-92d4-2871f05e4a55  /boot/efi       ext4    umask=0077      0       1

after that the fstab content:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda9 during installation
UUID=fa092601-bef2-441e-92d4-2871f05e4a55 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
UUID=0A0E-A110  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
UUID=fa092601-bef2-441e-92d4-2871f05e4a55  /boot/efi       ext4    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

I also commented UUID=0A0E-A110.

but i keep get the same error!

(Note: after some play with fstab file, got damaged and my linux boot up broke! so i logged in with a live linux and restored fstab!)

UPDATE the output of this command:

sudo parted -l

is:

Model: ATA ST1000LM014-SSHD (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  106MB   105MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot, esp
 2      106MB   123MB   16.8MB               Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 3      123MB   157GB   157GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 4      157GB   157GB   522MB   ntfs                                       hidden, diag
 5      157GB   438GB   281GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 6      438GB   732GB   294GB   ntfs         Basic data partition          msftdata
 7      732GB   1000GB  268GB   ext4

The EFI System Partition (ESP) is not the Ubuntu system partition. They don't have the same UUID. — user68186, May 03 '21 at 13:18
Undo your changes to fstab. Plus you can only have mount to a location like /boot/efi once and it must the FAT32 partition. Post this: sudo parted -l and lsblk -f UUID of FAT32 (vfat) should be UUID in fstab. If issues it may need chkdsk from Windows or dosfsck from Ubuntu. https://askubuntu.com/questions/862724/grub2-failed-to-install/86587z682#865872 — oldfred, May 03 '21 at 14:21
thanks @oldfred. chaning the UUID in fatab to the FAT32 one fixed my problem. — Pooya Behravesh, May 04 '21 at 09:46

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered May 04 '21 at 09:50

Thanks to @oldfred.

the problem was difference between UUID of vfat (FAT32) in fstab file and the real FAT32 partition of my system. so i got the UUID of real vfat partition by:

lsblk -f

there wa this line in the output:

├─sda1 vfat     FAT32          2457-E435

so changed the fstab vfat partition UUID to this 2457-E435 that i got above(changed the line before the last one. UUID part) :

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda9 during installation
UUID=fa092601-bef2-441e-92d4-2871f05e4a55 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation 0A0E-A110
UUID=2457-E435  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
/swapfile                                 none            swap    sw              0       0

and problem solved.

Welcome to Ask Ubuntu. I am happy that you found the answer to your question. Mark your answer as the correct solution by clicking on the gray check mark ✔ next to your answer and turn it green ✅. This will mark the problem as solved and will help others. — user68186, May 04 '21 at 18:25

efi system partition problem while upgrading distribution

1 Answers1