On Tue 15 Feb 2022 at 10:37:52 (+0100), Sébastien Kalt wrote:
>
> I'm experiencing something weird on my ASUS PN50 : I have a dual boot,
> windows and Sid.
>
> CPU: 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 4700U with Radeon Graphics (-MCP-)
> speed/min/max: 2514/1400/2000 MHz Kernel: 5.15.0-3-amd64 x86_64 Up: 3h 1m
> Mem: 9300.6/15483.7 MiB (60.1%) Storage: 238.47 GiB (66.6% used) Procs: 386
> Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.12
>
> Some time ago (say one month), I noticed that if I reboot my Sid (with KDE
> menu or reboot from a console) the computer goes to the BIOS, loosing the
> partition start order.
>
> If I choose my Debian partition first, everything returns to normal,
> booting to grub, letting me choosing between Debian and Windows.
>
> If I stop the computer (shutdown -h now or with KDE menu) it boots
> normally to grub when powered on.
>
> I don't really know when it starts, I rarely reboot my system, last time
> might be last november.
>
> I don't really know where to look to find what might goes wrong during
> reboot.
>
> Does anyone experienced this problem ?
>
> Any clue as where to look to find what is dysfunctionning ?
It sounds as if you've accidentally set your system to boot with
an unsatisfactory default, but are using a one-shot scheme to
override it.
With BIOS systems, you can set up Grub to boot by default any
particular menu entry (rather than 0, the first). Your default
is written to /boot/grub/grubenv.
However, if before you close down you run grub-reboot, a
single-shot override value is written to grubenv, meaning that
when the system powers up, Grub will read grubenv and
automatically boot with the override, but will also clear
the override setting from grubenv.
EFI systems have a similar scheme that obviously runs before
Grub is given control. (The grubenv scheme can still operate
afterwards as well.)
$ efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0006,0001,0002,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* debian
Boot0001* Diskette Drive
Boot0002* ST500LX025-123456
Boot0003* USB Storage Device
Boot0004* CD/DVD/CD-RW Drive
Boot0005 Onboard NIC
Boot0006* UEFI: ST500LX025-123456
$
This gives the default order when, for example, you force closedown
and then boot up (ie preempting any configuration being set up).
Ctrl-Alt-Del usually does the same sort of thing. I imagine that
you have a bad default choice here, accidentally set up a while back.
When you close down in the manner you have hinted at,¹
I again imagine that something in the bowels of your KDE
is using the efibootmgr --bootnext facility to set up
a more pleasing choice, but /for one-time only/.
man 8 efibootmgr has copious examples to help you.
¹ You wrote "If I choose my Debian partition first" but
you don't say how you made that choice. We are also
left to guess whether it's affecting what's reported in
the previous paragraph ("if I reboot my Sid …")
or the next one ("If I stop the computer …").
Cheers,
David.
