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I run a laptop with a Windows installation and an Ubuntu installation, each on a separate drive. I decided to reformat the Windows SSD and reinstall Windows on it, but that seemed to have removed my ability to select my Ubuntu SSD from the bios as the boot option. I’ve ensured that I installed Windows on the correct drive (they are different brands and sizes).

Why would this happen? Can I resolve this without having to reinstall Ubuntu on the SSD, perhaps using a live usb?

Edit: I used a live USB to boot into a live Ubuntu session so I can run grub-install, running fdisk -l, I was able to see the Ubuntu SSD and it’s partitions intact. However, there is no EFI System partition on the Ubuntu SSD; the parition does however appear on the Windows SSD.

Thanks

LostCoder
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  • (1) According to your comments in an answer below you're using Ubuntu 21.04 which is EOL therefore off-topic here. Probably the reason why you can't install Boot Repair... (2) Although you can have additional ESPs (one per drive) usually there's only one and you deleted when reinstalling Windows. The correct approach would have been to format the Windows system partition and install there, leaving the ESP alone. – ChanganAuto May 21 '22 at 04:56
  • Hi & welcome to the community! When you say you can't choose Ubuntu, is it because Ubuntu isn't showing up on the grub list, or is the grub menu not showing up at all? – n3xtd00rpanda May 21 '22 at 02:43
  • The grub menu isn’t showing up and the laptop boots straight into Windows. Also, I can’t choose the Ubuntu SSD as a boot option when I boot into the bios screen, only the SSD with Windows installed shows up. – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 03:00
  • That did it! Thanks! – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 11:38
  • Does this answer your question? Can't boot into Ubuntu in Windows 10 / Ubuntu dual boot – karel May 22 '22 at 06:31

1 Answers1

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Following up on your comment:

I'd suggest trying to boot through a Live Ubuntu CD (USB), and using that to repair GRUB, sounds like something got messed up when you reinstalled Windows. Make sure you have a supported version of Ubuntu wrt. boot-repair.

Make a live Ubuntu installation disk, then, on the Live version, install Boot-Repair.

sudo apt install boot-repair

Run that command, choose the 'recommended repair' option, and it (hopefully!) should fix grub for you. This is of course assuming nothing has happened to the SSD physically (I'm assuming it's all plugged in and not damaged or anything like that).

EDIT: If you're not too comfy using the terminal and commands like that, you can flash a Ubuntu live disk that runs Boot-Repair automatically: https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair-cd/home/Home/

n3xtd00rpanda
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  • Unable to locate boot-repair, do I need to add a repo? – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 03:29
  • Most likely, yes. Try using sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair then re-run the apt install command. – n3xtd00rpanda May 21 '22 at 03:31
  • Even after adding ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair, no luck – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 03:33
  • Hmm.. and this is on a live Ubuntu CD? Try this first: sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) universe" (this should get the latest repos from the ubuntu archive for your version of Ubuntu) then run sudo apt update (this should update the repos) then the add-apt-repository command from earlier, then do sudo apt install boot-repair. Any luck? – n3xtd00rpanda May 21 '22 at 03:34
  • It did not unfortunately. I can clearly see the ppa when I call apt update: Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/yannubuntu/boot-repair/ubuntu hirsute InRelease, but still can't install boot-repair – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 03:42
  • That is odd. Try running sudo apt upgradejust for good measure. – n3xtd00rpanda May 21 '22 at 03:50
  • Also no luck. Is there a way to try this fix with grub-install? The only issue I have it seems is that my linux partitions are on "/dev/sda" and the only EFI System partition is on "/dev/sdb2", the one with the Windows install. All instructions I've found say to mount root dir partition in /dev/sda to /mnt and the EFI System partition to /mnt/boot/efi, but that sounds weird to me because they're on separate drives. Would that work? – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 03:52
  • Hmm.. I think grub-install could help in this case. To be honest, I don't think mounting them like that would work, since, like you said, they are two separate drives. Have you checked if it's recognized by Ubuntu at all using fdisk -l? Only other thing I can think of is that maybe your BIOS settings were modified somehow & it's not detecting your Ubuntu installation since it's looking for UEFI/NTFS. Try checking your BIOS (as that may be the case sometimes, though I doubt it). – n3xtd00rpanda May 21 '22 at 03:56
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 11:38
  • After creating a live usb with a more recent Ubuntu version, I was able to install boot-repair and it fixed my problem! I’ll accept the answer. Could you please add that you need to have a supported Ubuntu version to the answer? – LostCoder May 21 '22 at 11:40
  • Done, added that to the original reply. Happy I could help! :) – n3xtd00rpanda May 21 '22 at 16:10