SOLVED Windows ate my grub-efi

[Rob2D]

So, Windows, in it's neverending quest to outdo itself at causing hardship, decided to wreck my grub-efi from a completely separate drive. I booted to Windows yesterday and when I turned my back for a second it started "checking disks". Sure enough I was unable to get back into my Linux drive afterwards.

https://imgur.com/cY7wnvn

I managed to fix the problem after reading around but just wanted to post here to make sure I did everything right. Also because I'm not sure what exactly I did to change it (and also maybe because I'm proud I was able to fix a Linux problem by myself).

I pretty much followed this guide here:

https://wiki.debian.org/GrubEFIReinstall

I got rEFInder and it picked up my Debian no problem and I was able to get back in.

https://imgur.com/uHyyikV
https://imgur.com/NF5mxN9

I had a look around and to my eyes (keep in mind that I am an idiot) everything looked to be in the right place as far as I understand it:

https://imgur.com/Yztz6UB
https://imgur.com/StsX7C4

I finished the guide anyway and did the grub-efi reinstall and now everything is back to normal:

https://imgur.com/eIVrzd3

Hurrah.

I guess my question is, was it just as simple as a reinstall or could I have fixed it another way? AND, more importantly, is there anything I can do to guard against this happening again in the future??? (short of the poetic justice that would be throwing my Windows drive out a window)

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Please replace your oversized images with URLs, we have forum users with limited bandwidth and this thread will cost them dear as it is now. TIA.

could I have fixed it another way?

Make a new NVRAM boot entry for Debian by running this command from a live ISO image (booted in UEFI mode):

Code: Select all

# efibootmgr --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --create --label "Debian" --loader /EFI/Debian/shimx64.efi

^ That presumes Debian's EFI system partition is /dev/sda1 (which is actually the default so the --disk & --part arguments can be omitted for that configuration).

[Rob2D]

Please replace your oversized images with URLs, we have forum users with limited bandwidth and this thread will cost them dear as it is now. TIA.

Yeah I can do that. I actually almost made them bigger at the time

Make a new NVRAM boot entry for Debian by running this command from a live ISO image (booted in UEFI mode):

Code: Select all

# efibootmgr --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --create --label "Debian" --loader /EFI/Debian/shimx64.efi

^ That presumes Debian's EFI system partition is /dev/sda1 (which is actually the default so the --disk & --part arguments can be omitted for that configuration).

Yeah that's what I was after. I'll make a note of it.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

You could also try running the grub-install command with the --removable option, which should allow the drive to be booted even without an NVRAM entry but Windows' bootmgfw.efi loader might take preference.

See https://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloade ... ive-naming for more on this.

[Rob2D]

Oh my god it happened again! This is ridiculous.

Micro$oft you absolute shower of scumbags!