Package: grub-efi-amd64 (or grub2) Version: 2.14-3 Severity: important
System
Distribution: Debian testing Architecture: amd64 Firmware: UEFI Machine:
HP ZBook 17 G5 Root filesystem: LUKS + LVM
Description
After a normal apt dist-upgrade on Debian testing, the machine became
unbootable.
GRUB menu was displayed correctly, but booting Debian always failed
with:
error: cannot load image
The error appeared immediately after selecting the Debian menu entry.
What was verified
The following checks were performed from a Debian Live/Ubuntu Live
environment:
- /boot/vmlinuz-7.1.3+deb14-amd64 exists.
- /boot/initrd.img-7.1.3+deb14-amd64 exists.
- GRUB can read both files from the GRUB command line.
- lsinitramfs successfully lists the initramfs contents.
- Reinstalling the kernel did not help.
- Rebuilding initramfs did not help.
- Reinstalling Debian GRUB packages did not help.
- Changing initramfs compression from zstd to gzip did not help.
- Secure Boot is disabled.
Manual GRUB test
From the GRUB command line:
linux /vmlinuz-7.1.3+deb14-amd64 root=/dev/mapper/Linux-root ro
initrd /initrd.img-7.1.3+deb14-amd64
boot
The linux and initrd commands succeeded without errors.
The error appeared only after executing boot, which immediately
produced:
error: cannot load image
Workaround
The system became bootable again after booting from an Ubuntu
installation USB and executing only:
grub-install /dev/sda
from the Ubuntu live system.
No package installation or downgrade was performed on the Debian
installation.
After this operation the machine boots correctly again.
During boot, the GRUB banner displayed version 2.12.x (Ubuntu GRUB),
while inside the running Debian system:
grub-install --version
reports:
grub-install (GRUB) 2.14-3
This suggests that replacing the EFI bootloader binary with an older
GRUB implementation restores correct booting.
Expected result
Debian should boot normally using GRUB 2.14-3.
Actual result
GRUB reports:
error: cannot load image
and the kernel is never started.
Additional information
Unfortunately I cannot currently reproduce the problem again because the
machine has already been recovered using the Ubuntu GRUB installation.
Before recovery the problem was fully reproducible after every reboot.
Hardware:
HP ZBook 17 G5
UEFI
LUKS + LVM
Debian testing
Output from diagnostic programs:
# uname -a
grub-install --version
dpkg -l | grep '^ii' | grep grub
efibootmgr -v
Linux WZabHP 7.1.3+deb14-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 7.1.3-1
(2026-07-04) x86_64 GNU/Linux
grub-install (GRUB) 2.14-3
ii grub-common 2.14-3
amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2
(dummy package)
ii grub-efi-amd64 2.14-3
amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2
(EFI-AMD64 version)
ii grub-efi-amd64-bin 2.14-3
amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2
(EFI-AMD64 modules)
ii grub-efi-amd64-signed 1+2.14+3
amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader, version
2 (amd64 UEFI signed by Debian)
ii grub-efi-amd64-unsigned 2.14-3
amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader, version 2
(EFI-AMD64 images)
ii grub2-common 2.14-3
amd64 GRand Unified Bootloader (common
files for version 2)
BootCurrent: 0006
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0006,0005,0001,0004,0000,0002,0003
Boot0000* Misc Device
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1c,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a522c59b20800000049535048
dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 1c / 01
01 06 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 4e ac 08 81 11 9f 59 4d 85 0e e2 1a 52 2c 59 b2 08 00 00 00
49 53 50 48
Boot0001* Windows Boot Manager
HD(1,GPT,37c99d04-279a-4c78-ac66-7b0255df994f,0x800,0xb4000)/\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi57494e444f5753000100000088000000780000004200430044004f0042004a004500430054003d007b00390064006500610038003600320063002d0035006300640064002d0034006500370030002d0061006300630031002d006600330032006200330034003400640034003700390035007d0000006f000100000010000000040000007fff04001400000049535048
dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 0b 00
00 00 00 00 04 9d c9 37 9a 27 78 4c ac 66 7b 02 55 df 99 4f 02 02 / 04
04 46 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 4d 00 69 00 63 00 72 00 6f 00 73
00 6f 00 66 00 74 00 5c 00 42 00 6f 00 6f 00 74 00 5c 00 62 00 6f 00 6f
00 74 00 6d 00 67 00 66 00 77 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 57 49 4e 44 4f 57 53 00 01 00 00 00 88 00 00 00 78 00 00 00
42 00 43 00 44 00 4f 00 42 00 4a 00 45 00 43 00 54 00 3d 00 7b 00 39 00
64 00 65 00 61 00 38 00 36 00 32 00 63 00 2d 00 35 00 63 00 64 00 64 00
2d 00 34 00 65 00 37 00 30 00 2d 00 61 00 63 00 63 00 31 00 2d 00 66 00
33 00 32 00 62 00 33 00 34 00 34 00 64 00 34 00 37 00 39 00 35 00 7d 00
00 00 6f 00 01 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 7f ff 04 00 14 00 00 00
49 53 50 48
Boot0002* IPV4 Network - Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x6)/MAC(80e82c123668,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.0,0,DHCP,0.0.0.0,0.0.0.0,0.0.0.0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a522c59b20000000049535048
dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 06 1f / 03
0b 25 00 80 e8 2c 12 36 68 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 / 03 0c 1b 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 4e ac 08 81 11 9f 59 4d 85 0e e2 1a 52 2c 59 b2 00 00 00 00
49 53 50 48
Boot0003* IPV6 Network - Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-LM
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x6)/MAC(80e82c123668,0)/IPv6([::],0,Static,[::],[::],64)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a522c59b20000000049535048
dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 06 1f / 03
0b 25 00 80 e8 2c 12 36 68 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 / 03 0d 3c 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 / 7f ff 04 00
data: 4e ac 08 81 11 9f 59 4d 85 0e e2 1a 52 2c 59 b2 00 00 00 00
49 53 50 48
Boot0004 USB:
PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)4eac0881119f594d850ee21a522c59b20b80000049535048
dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 14 / 7f
ff 04 00
data: 4e ac 08 81 11 9f 59 4d 85 0e e2 1a 52 2c 59 b2 0b 80 00 00
49 53 50 48
Boot0005* debian
HD(1,GPT,37c99d04-279a-4c78-ac66-7b0255df994f,0x800,0xb4000)/\EFI\debian\shimx64.efi
dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 0b 00
00 00 00 00 04 9d c9 37 9a 27 78 4c ac 66 7b 02 55 df 99 4f 02 02 / 04
04 34 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 64 00 65 00 62 00 69 00 61 00 6e
00 5c 00 73 00 68 00 69 00 6d 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69
00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
Boot0006* Ubuntu
HD(1,GPT,37c99d04-279a-4c78-ac66-7b0255df994f,0x800,0xb4000)/\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi
dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40 0b 00
00 00 00 00 04 9d c9 37 9a 27 78 4c ac 66 7b 02 55 df 99 4f 02 02 / 04
04 34 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 75 00 62 00 75 00 6e 00 74 00 75
00 5c 00 73 00 68 00 69 00 6d 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69
00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
# dmidecode -s bios-version
Q70 Ver. 01.28.00
# dmidecode -s bios-release-date
04/16/2024
