On Mon, Nov 04, 2024 at 05:34:49AM -0500, Felix Miata wrote: > Chris Green composed on 2024-11-04 10:03 (UTC): > > > I just tried to install Debain 12 onto my Fujitsu Esprimo Q957 system > > (was running xubuntu previously). I have installed Debian 12 using > > the same USB stick on two other systems so the installation media are > > OK. > > > The whole installation ran without any problems but it simply fails to > > boot, I just get a blank black screen with a prompt at the top left > > cormer. > > What kind of prompt? > Sorry, just a cursor, not a prompt.
> > I'm attempting to re-install the boot loader using the graphical > > rescue from the USB stick but it's not at all clear which partition I > > should be installing it on. > > "Re-installing" bootloader has a different meaning with UEFI booting. One > does not > normally grub-install /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1 on UEFI systems. > > > The system has two SSD drives - /dev/nvme0 and /dev/sda. I'm > > installing Debian on /dev/nvme0. > > > When I go to re-install the boot loader I'm offered /dev/nvme0n1p1, > > /dev/nvme0n1p2 or /dev/nvme0n1p3 (plus /dev/sda of course but I don't > > want it there) but there's no indication which one of these I should > > put the boot loader on. > > > On one of the systems where I have installed Debian 12 without > > problems it has:- > > > Filesystem Type 1M-blocks Used Avail Use% Mounted on > > /dev/mapper/t470--vg-root ext4 936644 197158 691835 23% / > > /dev/nvme0n1p2 ext2 456 121 311 29% /boot > > /dev/nvme0n1p1 vfat 511 6 506 2% /boot/efi > > The UEFI BIOS initiates boot by loading one or more files from the VFAT > filesystem, termed ESP, which mounts to /boot/efi/. > Ah, that doesn't seem to have happened with this install. Presumably that's the problem. How do I fix it ? > > Presumably the new/failed install will have a similar configuration > > > The xubuntu installation worked fine from /dev/nvme0 so I don't think > > there's can be anything fundamentally wrong. Are there any BIOS > > settings I should check? > > It's usually a good idea to disable CSM support (legacy/MBR booting), by > whatever > term your particular UEFI BIOS labels it. > > > Thanks for any/all help. > > Boot installation or rescue media in UEFI mode and provide us output from > parted > -l, lsblk -f and efibootmgr -v, plus content of fstab. When I boot from the installation USB stick in UEFI mode I just get a 'grub>' prompt so I can't run commands there. Just going to non-UEFI rescue mode I can get to a shell, then:- 'parted -l' shows 3 partitions for /dev/nvme0n1:- 1 primary ext2 2 exgtended 5 logical lvm /etc/fstab has:- /dev/mapper/q957--vg-root / ext4 /dev/mapper/q957--vg-swap_1 none swap lsblk -f shows a tree with all the right bits of nvme0n1 on it, much too difficult to manually copy to here. I can't find efibootmgr anywhere. -- Chris Green
