On Sat, 11 Apr 2026 10:16:30 +0700 Max Nikulin <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 10/04/2026 8:13 pm, Joe wrote: > > I have an Acer laptop about eight years old. Its UEFI implementation > > leaves a bit to be desired, it implements NewxtBook but not > > DefaultBoot, and it resets the UEFI boot order if I change it. > > > > The history: > > Frankly speaking, I am lost in the description of previous > configurations. My impression is that UEFI implementation may work > with shim+grub. When the upgrade from Stretch to Buster didn't boot, I spent a while copying and renaming stuff in /boot/efi according to various Google results, but nothing worked then. > > Can you boot at least live image from a USB drive? Yes, USB boots anything with no problem. I've always been able to boot the installer to try to fix things, and the installer at the moment lives in a Ventoy micro SD card. My first investigative step was to run Knoppix 9.1, which is a few years old but so is the laptop. > > My suggestion is to look into (and maybe post output of) > > efibootmgr -v > lsblk --fs This is from a clean install of Trixie to /dev/mmcblk0p2. efibootmgr: BootNext: 0002 BootCurrent: 0002 Timeout: 0 seconds BootOrder: 0000,2001,2002,2003 Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,0b9f6d3b-b061-4f42-940c-a51fd53fc9c1,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RC Boot0002* debian HD(1,GPT,0b9f6d3b-b061-4f42-940c-a51fd53fc9c1,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\debian\shimx64.efi) Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC Boot2003* EFI Network RC I have previously added 0002 to the boot order list several times but it doesn't seem to stay there. Wretched Acer. efibootmgr -v: BootNext: 0002 BootCurrent: 0002 Timeout: 0 seconds BootOrder: 0000,2001,2002,2003 Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,0b9f6d3b-b061-4f42-940c-a51fd53fc9c1,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RC dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 3b 6d 9f 0b 61 b0 42 4f 94 0c a5 1f d5 3f c9 c1 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: 52 43 Boot0002* debian HD(1,GPT,0b9f6d3b-b061-4f42-940c-a51fd53fc9c1,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\debian\shimx64.efi) dp: 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 03 00 00 00 00 00 3b 6d 9f 0b 61 b0 42 4f 94 0c a5 1f d5 3f c9 c1 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 Boot2001* EFI USB Device RC dp: 7f ff 04 00 data: 52 43 Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM RC dp: 7f ff 04 00 data: 52 43 Boot2003* EFI Network RC dp: 7f ff 04 00 data: 52 43 lsblk (sdb is a USB stick): NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS sda 8:0 0 223.6G 0 disk ├─sda1 8:1 0 97.7G 0 part └─sda2 8:2 0 125.9G 0 part sdb 8:16 1 7.2G 0 disk ├─sdb1 8:17 1 4.7G 0 part /media/joe/37720218-ecdd-4e63-a839-f66190c8de43 └─sdb2 8:18 1 2.5G 0 part mmcblk0 179:0 0 29.1G 0 disk ├─mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 100M 0 part /boot/efi └─mmcblk0p2 179:2 0 29G 0 part / mmcblk0boot0 179:256 0 4M 1 disk mmcblk0boot1 179:512 0 4M 1 disk > > and inspect list of files on every partition that resembles EFI > System Partition. grub.cfg there may contain a hint where the "wrong" > version resides. When I have time, I was intending to do that. Just experimented with removing NextBoot, the grub version is grub 2.06-3-deb11u6. > > Is there an option in the firmware to select EFI file to boot from? > Yes, but it only shows the Windows Boot Manager from a cold start. I'm assuming that with NextBoot set, the menu must contain the Debian entry or it wouldn't know where to find it. After the upgrade attempt, when I was dropped to the hardware setup, the EFI boot menu was completely empty. I'm assuming the Windows Boot Manager no longer exists, and it certainly never produces its normal menu. When I change the boot order with efibootmgr, the next boot always resets the first entry to the Windows one and removes the Debian one. I won't be buying another Acer computer, but I suppose most brands do that kind of thing. -- Joe
