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I recently upgraded my old Lenovo laptop's SSD BIOS from MBR to UEFI / GPT.
It was originally dual-booting Win-10 and Ubuntu 20.04 with Grub-2. I managed to get the Win-10 converted OK and added the Win's Boot partition, but gave up trying to boot the Ubuntu partition, so I finally erased it.
Now- I have an operational Win-10 Insider-Preview partition, and its spanking new Boot partition (NOTE! This partition must be placed BEFORE the Win partition!), and the rest of the SSD drive is empty, except for that mysterious little Windows "MSFTRES" partition that appears to have an unknown file system according to GPARTED.
Now, when I attempt to re-install any Version of Ubuntu or any Linux system that needs GRUB2, the install hangs, just after the preliminary Grub-2 menu. I choose the "Ubuntu ..." item, and the system halts with just a cursor in top-left corner. I cannot even use Ctl-Alt-Del. I have to turn the machine off and on.
But the Win-10 (on SSD) and GPARTED (booted from USB) work just fine.
I'm guessing somehow the GRUB2 cannot write on the SSD. .

aqk
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  • Can you explain in detail what you did to update the SSD BIOS. I've never heard of that. – Brian Dec 09 '21 at 23:00
  • You may have updated the SSD's firmware, drives have no "BIOS" and in any case that has nothing to do with partitioning types (MBR or GPT). I'm guessing somehow the GRUB2 cannot write on the SSD your guess is incorrect. Please check how you made the installation media. If using Rufus you must set the options (GPT/UEFI) prior to writing the ISO. And, if you want to install a dual-boot then you must (1) disable Fast Startup in Windows and shutdown properly and (2) use Windows tools to shrink one or more Windows partitions in order to make unallocated space for the second OS (Ubuntu). – ChanganAuto Dec 09 '21 at 23:29
  • Is Windows fast startup off? Or does your UEFI have a setting to lock or protect ESP - efi system partition so grub cannot write into it? May have this or similar? The Device Guard BIOS setting locks down the boot order to internal HDD/SSD only. – oldfred Dec 10 '21 at 04:56
  • @brian Never heard of that? See https://www.diskgenius.com/how-to/mbr-vs-gpt.php#Convert_disk_between_MBR_and_GPT_without_data_loss – aqk Dec 10 '21 at 22:26
  • Both the SSD and the USB are using UEFI only. The Ubuntu ISO was loaded onto the USB drive using Rufus, with the GPT/UEFI format. All appears OK now! I suspect my problem was in the BIOS setup where I had it set to "UEFI only". But the next line had CSM support set to "no'. Once the CSM support was changed to YES, the Ubuntu install USB worked satisfactorily! (MYBAD?) – aqk Dec 10 '21 at 23:16
  • Addendum- what does Windows "fast Startup" have to do with booting a Linux install from a USB drive? Does "fast startup' place some sort of lock on the resident SSD? i.e. Microsoft hi-jacks your disk drive? – aqk Dec 10 '21 at 23:27
  • ADDENDUM#2 ... Not so fast! I've tried a combination of Win-fast-startup on/off and UEFI with CSM on/off, and can NO LONGER successfully get past the GRUB2 on the USB drive install. It just hangs, no matter what combination of the above that I use. Is it it possible that something is written BACK onto the USB drive being booted? I'll recreate the Ubuntu ISO on the USB, this time, using TWO USBs- one GPT/UEFI and one MBR. All this is very mysterious! And annoying. STAY TUNED! The old MBR was so simple! And always worked! – aqk Dec 11 '21 at 00:56
  • @aqk I get it, the partition table is the BIOS. I've never heard of that either. You might want to read that link you gave me. – Brian Dec 11 '21 at 04:35
  • @brian re >> I get it, the partition table is the BIOS. I've never heard of that either. << Now I'm really confused. You mean you've never heard of UEFI? – aqk Dec 12 '21 at 02:12
  • I've heard of THE UEFI, but what has that to do with the SSD BIOS and partition table? – Brian Dec 14 '21 at 02:02

2 Answers2

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After reading the comments, I have determined you changed the partition table type to gpt. Probably all that needs to add an EFI partition to the drive (about 500MB vfat or exfat format) and then reinstall grub. Sould work after that.

Grub installs itself differently for different partition table types. Since you changed that, you should reinstall grub. man grub-install should tell you exactly how to do it. Just boot from the install media and launch a ROOT SHELL.

If you're having trouble with booting the USB flash install media, try disabling safe boot UEFI Boot and enable legacy boot , all in the BIOS setup program (Hit DEL to Run Setup, or F1).

If the Unbuntu CD/DVD doesn't have a RESCUE option, download the Debian Bullseye DVD-1, and fix the system by booting from it. Same instructions as above.

I hope you get it working! I have faith in your abilities!

Brian
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  • It's a INSTALL UBUNTU 21.10 USB formatted by RUFUS as a GPT partition. As soon as it's booted, the standard GRUB2.04 menu comes up and when I choose to run Ubuntu, it hangs! This also happns with several other install USBs- Ubuntu 20.04LTS, some GRUB-repair USBs and any other USB that has a Linux Install on it! The only Linux USB I can boot from successfully is GPARTED, which thankfully does not use GRUB. – aqk Dec 12 '21 at 15:16
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PROBLEM SOLVED!
Searching further on the internet, I came across a similar problem, from Jan, 2020: see ASKUBUNTU - which gave me the answer I needed. They suggested the USB boot disk be created with MBR, not UEFI. I had already tried this several times. But in addition, it suggested creating the USB install media with Etcher, instead of Rufus. This I did, and the Ubuntu installed properly.

Alas, I can no longer boot Win-10. But this is a small problem. (I hope!)
Grub cannot find the Win-10 boot partition, and seems to have created its own. Just a matter of marrying the Grub boot and the Win boot partitions. Next - I install another flavour of Linux on the SSD as well... after I figure out how to boot the Win-10 partition!

aqk
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