[arch-general] efibootmgr doesn't change boot order!

[Maarten de Vries]

Hey,

On 28-12-2020 12:12, Peter K Haokip wrote:
> thanks for the reply,
> I am able to change the boot order from the BIOS menu.  It works 
> A-okay from there, I am trying to accomplish that with efibootmgr.

If you're unlucky, maybe the motherboard firmware prevents you from 
doing that. You could fall back to adding chain-load entries for grub in 
that case, to have grub start the next bootloader.


> could you cite any link where I could read about it in details ? where 
> the bootx64.efi file will be stored if I install it in NOT IN PORTABLE 
> mode(?)?  cuz that would help me know whether the grub is installed in 
> portable or none portable mode.

You can add boot entries for any EFI executable on the EFI system 
partition, regardless of the name. These boot entries are stored on 
non-volatile storage on the motherboard. Normally, grub-install takes 
care of this, and the binary is installed as `efi/grub/grub.efi`. All 
you need to do is not pass `--removable` to grub-install.

You would install a bootloader as `efi/boot/bootx64.efi` only if you 
want to create a bootable USB stick, or if your motherboards UEFI 
implementation is so broken that that's the only thing that works.

> Also, would be nice if you could provide  any source where I can read 
> about how I make my motherboard detect regular boot entries (instead 
> of the /Efi/boot/bootx64.efi)
>
You can find everything in the specifications if you dig deep enough:

https://uefi.org/specifications

See in particular section 3.5.1.1 on "Removable Media Boot Behavior" of 
the "UEFI Specification Version 2.8":

https://uefi.org/sites/default/files/resources/UEFI%20Spec%202.8B%20May%202020.pdf


Regards,

-- Maarten

>
> thanks,
>
>
> On Mon, 28 Dec 2020, 15:45 Maarten de Vries, <maarten at de-vri.es 
> <mailto:maarten at de-vri.es>> wrote:
>
>     On 28-12-2020 10:42, Peter K Haokip via arch-general wrote:
>     > I read an forum entry from nearly 6 years ago about am
>     efibootmgr bug that
>     > Doesn't let you change the boot order on a multi OS system if
>     you have arch
>     > linux as the default OS.  Had some users report this as well in
>     other
>     > forums.
>     > Now i am facing the that problem in my system with arch ubuntu
>     and windows.
>     >
>     > when i change the boot order , it shows the change 'temporarily'
>     but when i
>     > restart it boots the default (Arch linux Grub ) and the change
>     disappears.
>     >
>     > I faced this issue last month and gave up on it since I couldn't
>     find any
>     > detailed resource on this on the net.
>     > This list may be my last hope.
>     >
>     > If anybody could give some direction , would be much appreciated.
>     >
>     > regards,
>     > khaithang39
>
>     Hey,
>
>     It could be a motherboard problem. Sadly I've seen more motherboards
>     with weird bugs in their UEFI implementation than without. You
>     could try
>     to change the boot order through the motherboard firmware interface
>     (often called "the BIOS" even if that isn't technically correct
>     anymore)
>     and see if that helps.
>
>     Another thing that may have happened is that you installed grub as
>     portable bootloader. It will be called `efi/boot/bootx64.efi` on
>     the EFI
>     system partition if that happened. A bootloader under that name is
>     auto-detected by the motherboard, even if you didn't add a boot entry
>     for it manually. Perhaps your motherboard always favors such
>     bootloaders
>     over the normal boot entries.
>
>     If this is the case, you could install grub as non-portable
>     bootloader
>     by not passing `--removable` to `grub-install`, and then delete
>     `efi/boot/bootx64.efi`. Alternatively, you might also be able to
>     configure your motherboard to prefer regular boot entries before
>     running
>     `bootx64.efi` from that partition.
>
>     I hope this helps,
>
>     -- Maarten
>