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  • Solus lost booting ability due to dual booting with another Linux

elfprince including lots of skipped checks. So, something is wrong.

Pretty sure some skipped checks are normal in a chroot environment. Not 100% sure about this though.

elfprince By the way, is Virtual Box an essential/vital part of Solus OS? Why is it mentioned??

VirtualBox service configuration is a part of usysconf's functions. Since running usysconf run -f forces ALL actions to execute, even those that aren't indicated necessary by the usual checks, it of course also executes the VirtualBox action.

My partitioning was GPT for the entire disc, and so, following the Solus Help advice, I did not install via UEFI method.

Were does it say that in the Solus Help Center? The only similar info I'm aware of is the following:
"Legacy (BIOS) must use MBR partition table while Unified EFI (UEFI) must use GPT partition table."
which is almost the exact opposite advice.
Or do you just mean the step of creating a FAT32 EFI partition? (which of course you already have according to your first screenshot) Edit: Nevermind, those were just the labels set by you.

elfprince I wish the UEFI disk partitioning procedure was automated by the SOLUS Team, it is not for the casual/average home user to play with GParted.

Just to be clear, when you install Solus on the whole disk that process is entirely automated.

elfprince Specifying boot order in bios, or using F10 (boot order) does not help.

So selecting the disc with Solus on it just does nothing and it continues to boot from the Ubuntu disk, is that right?

elfprince Your command gave me an error:
/usr/sbin/grub-mkconfig: 275: cannot create /boot/grub2/grub.cfg.new: Directory nonexistent

Under Ubuntu you should be able to simply run sudo update-grub, which should find the right files and directories automatically.

              Staudey Thank you for the detailed breakdown.
              Here is a shot from your help page:
              UEFI​
              If you are using a system with UEFI, you may need to create a EFI System Partition, also referred to as an ESP. This is not necessary if you are enabling Solus to install onto the entire disk.
              That is what I have done in my previous installs. But when another os got installed on the second internal ssd, I lost access to Solus.

              I have installed Solus using UEFI just now, and typing from it. A strange thing happened during the install partitioning:

              1. Originally my Ubuntu lived on the /dev/sda disk and Solus on the /dev/sdb disk.
              2. I have partitioned the /dev/sdb using the Solus LIve cd, to prepare it for UEFI install. I made a
              3. 512M fat32, esp-boot UEFI partition
              4. 3G swap
              5. 100G ext4 as root
                During the install the installer switched the device labels, ie sda became sdb, and sdb became sda. I was lucky to have caught it.
                Furthermore, the installer specified /dev/sdb2 (now the Ubuntu disk) as the ESP partition, not the Solus /dev/sda2.

              Nevertheless, I went ahead and proceeded with the installation. I will see later if this locked me out from accessing Ubuntu or not. As long as Solus is working, I am happy. 🥰

                Staudey Pretty sure some skipped checks are normal in a chroot environment. Not 100% sure about this though.

                I've seen this in chroot updates before [skipped].

                Staudey Under Ubuntu you should be able to simply run sudo update-grub, which should find the right files and directories automatically.

                thanks for finding the debian version, I could not

                    Staudey That I tried as first step, and it didn't work. It listed Solus among other things, but never displayed it in the grub boot list.

                      Anyway, since I have a new Solus install now, this thread should be CLOSED and SOLVED, I guess.

                      Just to follow up. I am now also able to access the Ubuntu (Linux LIte) os. In addition to Solus. 💗
                      The Solus bootloader --> 'Default UEFI whatever', --> Ubuntu's grub loader --> Ubuntu

                        elfprince sorry it came to that. hope you were able to salvage your stuff.
                        I reinstall due to my bull-in-china-shop mentality more than I want to admit.
                        LOVE: kinda reinstalling and revisiting, re-tweaking, re-enjoying the stock setup and adding my own flourish to it
                        HATE: then reinstalling every damn thing you had before in a frenzy til you remember them all in a 4 hour haze of re-creation
                        🙂

                        edit: to me it's crucial to have that F10 boot menu at startup. Did you get it back?

                            brent HATE: then reinstalling every damn thing you had before in a frenzy til you remember them all in a 4 hour haze of re-creation

                            I keep a text file with the programs I want in a sudo eopkg it command. Copy pasta is the way

                              Hi all!
                              Been reading this post too late.
                              My 2 cents:
                              1.Solus installer has a flaw: it will always select the first EFI partition it sees. Not the one on the disk where you install the OS. Two solutions: unplug other disks or use gparted to temporarily flag other EFI partitions to something different from boot/esp (and restore the flag after solus is installed).
                              2.Grub does grub things and doesn't know about systemd/bootctl which are in use with Solus. These are two very different boot methods.

                              1. When you installed Ubuntu in UEFI mode, it has written its location in your gear's EFI. And most probably overwriten Solus' one. The solution was indeed to chroot and use efibootmgr to recreate the boot stanza in EFI.
                                Something like this: sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 3 -l \EFI\SYSTEMD\SYSTEMD-BOOTX64.EFI -L Solus Linux Boot Manager (-c means create, -d for the disk and -p for the partition where EFI sits).
                                4.On the same disk, I have 2 EFI partitions and 2 linux oses. None use grub (if it was installed by default, I use bootctl to systemd-boot then purge grub). And Solus behind a windows install.
                                5.Refind is great. Never use F11 or whatsoever bios key. Takes some time to master but it's not really complicated. On the same system, I choose between Windows, Solus, Arch linux and Siduction.
                                Solus was the first popular OS to my knowledge to use EFI without grub (after clear linux maybe?) and it does simplify things!

                                brent Yes, I have all of the important data backed up elsewhere. The reinstalling everything and adding back all the 'refinements' can be tiring. Makes me think twice, no - thrice, before deciding to tinker.

                                  Mascaret I've read your post yesterday as well, somewhere else, perhaps on this forum archive.

                                  So, now that Solus has its boot loader invading and settling in Ubunut's ESP, is it worth trying to change it?
                                  Like, remove esp-boot flags from Ubuntu, run clr-boot-manager-update on Solus, reboot, and then 're-flag' Ubuntu. Would this work?
                                  Also, I see that one of the Solus disk entries in Bios Boot List actually boots Ubuntu. What a mess. I should delete that, I guess.

                                      elfprince how does it boot up right now when you press the power button on your desktop? what happens? did you get what you wanted?

                                          elfprince
                                          Make sure that your solus disk has an EFI partition. 512 Mo recommanded.
                                          The partition may be anywhere : beginning, middle or end of the disk. Only fat32 format + esp/boot flags are required.
                                          If the Solus bootloader landed on Ubuntu's ESP, it's not clean but not necessarily a mess..
                                          Ubuntu uses grub while Solus uses systemd-boot. Thus, two different methods can co-exist.
                                          So, although a unclean install, it might work.
                                          If not, create that EFI partition, chroot to solus, mount that partition to /boot/efi and finally launch sudo bootctl install.
                                          Or give a try to refind : install it from your working linux distro. During install, it will create its own EFI entry and find the entries dedicated to both Ubuntu and Solus.
                                          Anyway, I encourage you to consult the Arch linux wikis (for efibootmgr, bootctl): they are the bests out there and will help you manage multi-distros disks!

                                              BTW,
                                              Must tell you that I dumped Ubuntu a few years ago. It's very far from perfect and not "human" (Ubuntu) anymore: it's grown a mousey tail (like Mickey..).
                                              Give a try to Pop Os: it's built upon Ubuntu LTS and is far better in my opinion.
                                              Moreover, Pop OS has one of the best installers out there. It's the only one I know of which lets the user select the ESP where it will install the bootloader (no grub, no fuss).

                                              Did this here not help ? :

                                              "To change the GRUB configuration, we first edit the /etc/default/grub file. Then, we use the grub2-mkconfig command to generate a new /boot/grub2/grub. cfg file using the contents of/etc/default/grub. The -o option provides the name of the output file."

                                              And then :

                                              update-grub

                                              or

                                              sudo update-grub

                                              ?!

                                              Then reboot.

                                              Or is it :

                                              update-grub2

                                              resp.

                                              sudo update-grub2

                                              ?!

                                              brent Solus boots straight from power on, shortly after displaying its boot loader. For now, I set it for 10 secs, so I have lots of time deciding which OS to boot. Solus is in the first position as default. All is good! Thanks!

                                                  Mascaret I have created the Solus 512M ESP when partitioning before install. That is why it is puzzling why Solus grabbed the other OS's ESP instead. Glad it is not a 'total' mess. Thanks for the fixing steps, I will keep it in mind.

                                                  It is Linux Lite, based on Ubuntu.

                                                      elfprince the sister OS to Solus for me is Endeavour (Arch). Because I unplugged solus and installed Endeavour on its own disk...
                                                      ...it worked out in bios that solus boots first and I also get the bootloader on F11. Not on its own like you have. I may play with that using : @Mascaret 's tips.
                                                      Glad it worked out.

                                                          brent I do like Solus the best ! Except for the occasional challenges with package names that are different from the 'mainstream' Linux names, and the inability to install and run .deb packages.

                                                            Threads like this just intrigue me the issues people have and the amount of time they
                                                            will spend on making it work.
                                                            Also it seems the solutions are always somewhat different.
                                                            I have always installed on seperate drives and always had only one disk installed when doing so.
                                                            May not be the latest greatest thing but always works and simple.

                                                            Not sure why one would want 2 linux installed maybe program issues dunno.