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I was trying to install Pidgin on my Ubuntu 16.04 by following instructions I found on a website, with lots of dependencies; when it didn’t work, I logged out and shut down the PC for the night. This morning, Ubuntu wouldn’t boot. (So I can’t even recover what website that was...)

After running Boot-Repair from a pendrive (which oddly only works when I plug in both the Boot-Repair pendrive and a Ubuntu LiveUSB, and choose the 2nd at BBS), I get a choice of boots at GNU GRUB. Attempts to run the Ubuntu option result in a black screen at the top of which I some times get the following:

/dev/sda2: clean, {some big number}/{some big number} files, {some big number}/{some big number} blocks

[938323] libvirt-guests.sh[1226]: Running guests on default URI: no running guests.

(Numbers between square brackets vary.)

(I may have shut down the PC while a virtual machine was running in virt-manager; I can’t remember.)

The other GNU GRUB choices are:

Advanced options for Ubuntu (after “Recovery Mode”, no help)
EFI/ubuntu/fwupx64 (goes immediately back to GNU GRUB)
EFI/ubuntu/MokManager (I have no idea how to work with this)

Boot-repair tells me I can reboot through shimx64.efi, but this option does not show at GRUB. Also, my Aptio BIOS setup (2012) has no option to enable or disable secure boot, which I’ve read is needed for shimx64.efi to show.

Boot-Repair Info

I’m unsure how to proceed. Should I go deeper into “recovery mode”? Should I try other options inside Boot-Repair?

Could anyone here help me fix it?

Pabzum
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  • You only have Ubuntu installed, but show UEFI boot files & an install of grub to MBR. Make sure you never boot in BIOS mode as that grub will not work. It looks like grub installed shim version. You must have setting for Secure boot in UEFI, required by Microsoft. But it may be called "Windows" and "other". Fine print may say if installing Windows 7 use "other" as Windows 7 does not support secure boot. – oldfred Nov 10 '16 at 18:51

1 Answers1

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It looks like it should be working. Some observations and comments:

  • Your Boot Repair output indicates that you have both BIOS and EFI versions of GRUB installed, but you seem to be using the EFI version, and the BIOS version is broken. This isn't really a problem, but it could be confusing. It probably indicates a previous BIOS-mode installation or an attempt to repair the problem with BIOS-mode tools.
  • The shimx64.efi binary is more-or-less required to boot Ubuntu with Secure Boot, but shimx64.efi can be used to boot with or without Secure Boot enabled. The EFI boot manager entry to boot with shimx64.efi is likely to show up as ubuntu in the boot menu. (Some people have two ubuntu entries, one of which launches shimx64.efi and the other of which launches grubx64.efi directly.) When launched, shimx64.efi launches grubx64.efi, which presents the boot menu and boots the kernel.
  • The fwup64 entry you see launches a firmware-updating tool. It will be useful only if you download a firmware update from your computer/motherboard manufacturer and install it on the ESP -- and then only if the computer's EFI supports the protocols used by fwup64, which most do not (yet). In other words, you can ignore this option.
  • The MokManager entry enables you to manages Machine Owner Keys (MOKs), which are used by Shim to enable third-party binaries and kernels to launch. This entry is very unlikely to be helpful in your current situation, so you can ignore it.

There's a slim chance that your problem is being caused by Secure Boot, so you might try disabling it. To do so, you'll need to enter your firmware setup utility (by hitting Esc, Enter, or a function key soon after you power on the computer -- the details vary from one system to another so I can't provide exact instructions). How to disable Secure Boot once you've entered the setup utility also varies greatly from one system to another. For some examples, see this page of mine.

It's more likely that your problem is caused by something further along the boot process -- clearly, your kernel is loading, but something else is failing. This may be related to video drivers -- it could be that your system is running normally except for the X (GUI) display. There's a rather massive question and answers here on AskUbuntu about this type of problem, so maybe you'll find something useful there. It could also be related to virtualization in some way, given the last message you see; or perhaps some random but critical file has been damaged or is missing.

I'm sorry to not have a better answer -- but with any luck this answer will be helpful in preventing you from going on a wild goose chase concerning fwup64, MokManager, or Shim.

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Rod Smith
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