1

You'll have to forgive my ignorance - even after some reading the suject elludes me a bit.

I have the following installed and was booting them all successfully using rEFInd:

  • Windows 10
  • Antergos (Arch based)
  • Arch Labs
  • Kali

All worked hunkydory but the refind menu was often filled with extra entries that failed to boot.

Unfortunately yesterday only Windows and Arch Labs runs.

Ideally does anyone know of a bootable USB rescue drive I can burn that could rescue my EFI situation?

The only viable software I've found that even mentions EFI boot fixing is called Rescatux. Is it worth trying? Does anyone know a better way?

I look forward to your replies.

Improve this question
2
  • Also, please read this, and switch from Kali to some other distro (e.g. a Debian based one). Kali is for penetration testing (you put it on an USB stick, walk into a building to hack their machines). It's not "what the experts use" (no matter what you read on some forums), it's not for daily usage, it's not for learning Linux, and you can "hack" (use all the tools it has) equally well with another distro.
    – dirkt
    Oct 11, 2018 at 5:36
  • I'll take your comments into consideration as condescending as they are. I'm well aware of what Kali is and knew it all the way back to BT5. I'm practicing daily with various netsec classes so it helps having an small install which I can keep some notes on. Do I get your permission now to have it? Thanks.
    – RustyFluff
    Oct 11, 2018 at 11:53

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

Try boot-repair, it should work for any Debian-based distro (like Ubuntu or anything in it's derived family). The link above has instructions, the basics are:

    • Boot any Debian-based live ISO
      Then install Boot-Repair in it, either via PPA for Ubuntu/Mint, or DEBs for Debian.

    • Or boot a Boot-Repair-Disk

  2. USE BOOT-REPAIR:

    Launch Boot-Repair, then click the "Recommended repair" button. When repair is finished, note the URL (paste.ubuntu.com/XXXXX) that appears on a paper, then reboot and check if you recovered access to your OSs. If the repair did not succeed, indicate the URL to people who help you by email or forum.

    Warning: the default settings of the Advanced Options are the ones used by the "Recommended Repair". Changing them may worsen your problem. Don't modify them before asking advice.

Also see the Ubuntu Community Help Wiki for Boot Repair

Improve this answer
5
  • This sounds promising, thanks - would this work with the Arch-based distros on there? Do you think it may be worth me scrapping everything and installing all my distros using oldschool MBR method for all distros including windows?
    – RustyFluff
    Oct 11, 2018 at 11:54
  • MBR? No, definitely not. UEFI is the standard now, very easy to understand and it has many advantages over the Legacy mode especially for dual or multi boot situations.
    – user931000
    Oct 11, 2018 at 17:29
  • @GabrielaGarcia MBR and GPT are disk partition layouts, UEFI is an "interface standard," you can still use MBR with UEFI if you wanted, and I think the computer hardware decides if it uses UEFI or BIOS so you don't really have a choice with those. But how does installing/booting with legacy mode vs UEFI affect hardware usage? Ubuntu wiki UEFI says "Some hardware devices work better in one mode or the other. (Usually BIOS mode is better supported)" or that's old?
    – Xen2050
    Oct 11, 2018 at 18:34
  • @Xen2050 Yes, I know that but not sure if the OP does so I tried to keep it simple yet strongly suggesting GPT/UEFI instead of using the proper terminology. Windows in this equation is what limits the options - Linux can be installed in a MBR drive with UEFI or Legacy in a GPT drive with an additional bios_grub partition - because Windows strictly requires GPT for UEFI and MBR for Legacy. The point is, of course, UEFI is always preferable for any modern hardware and/or any Windows 8 or newer or even any modern (desktop) Linux distro.
    – user931000
    Oct 11, 2018 at 18:40
  • @RustyFluff Looking through the boot repair homepage it looks a lot more Ubuntu oriented, but apparently there's only one version of the .deb files (the same for Trusty, Xenail through Artful) and seem to install OK in a debian stable based system... Sticking with a Ubuntu looks best, but it looks like a lot of bash scripts that might run on anything, but checking dependencies may not be easy. Anyway, I wouldn't want to reinstall everything, just installing grub might work great too
    – Xen2050
    Oct 11, 2018 at 19:31

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.