Trouble Booting Linux

User discussion and information resource forum for BootIt Bare Metal and BootIt UEFI
Post Reply
bDerek
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:14 pm

Trouble Booting Linux

Post by bDerek »

I am using BootIT UEFI (BIU) and have two operating systems, Windows installed on one SSD, Ubuntu on another separate SSD.
Each SSD has its own EFI System Partition (ESP), and prior to using BIU I selected the operating system to boot through the BIOS.

In BIU I can edit a menu item and it boots Windows fine. But I cannot get it to boot Ubuntu, unless I go to direct boot and then "ubuntu" appears and on selecting that it will boot.

I have looked in the ESP where Windows is, and there is no listing or directory related to Ubuntu. I have tried using the ESP on the SSD where Ubuntu is, but when I try to browse and to find an efi to select, I get a "Unable to mount the filesystem" error message. I have loaded into the menu an item for starting Ubuntu by going to the drives /boot/grub/x86-64-efi/grub.efi or core.efi and both those fail to start Ubuntu.

What are my options here? Is there a way for BIU to read my ubuntu based SSD's EFI System Partition? Alternatively, I could reinstall Ubuntu onto the Windows SSD - but if I install grub to the Windows SSD's ESP, will it destroy my windows boot up?

Thanks.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Trouble Booting Linux

Post by Brian K »

bDerek,

Having more than one ESP can present problems, especially when you try to install a second Windows OS.

I suggest you delete all partitions on the Linux SSD and install Ubuntu similar to this BIBM guide...

https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=279

Except you will install the bootloader into the ESP instead of the partition. (If you choose the partition your choice will be ignored and grub will go into the ESP) BIU is designed to have multiple booting files in the same ESP. Your grub will be in a folder, probably called ubuntu.001. BIU will create the boot item for you. It is very straight forward.

Edit... You can have both OS on the same SSD or on two SSDs. Your choice.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: Trouble Booting Linux

Post by TeraByte Support »

That would be the issue, presume the EFI System is FAT32 as the spec
says it should be. Clean that up for whatever is causing the mounting
issue and then should be able to use it (ntfs, ext2/3/4 also mountable).
You could also manually make a copy of whats there over to a new
directory on the other drive and use it.


On 6/1/2020 6:02 PM, bDerek wrote:
>tried using the ESP on the SSD where Ubuntu is, but when I try to browse and to find an efi to select, I get a "Unable to mount the filesystem" error message.


bDerek
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Sep 27, 2014 7:14 pm

Re: Trouble Booting Linux

Post by bDerek »

Thanks for the replies. I went with BrianK's suggestion as I saw that first and that worked out well.
Post Reply