On Tuesday, 17 September 2019 07:23:10 BST Peter Humphrey wrote: Well, it seems to be working now - mostly.
The fix was to write a new gpt label, create all the partitions and build a new system: no use of earlier packages. User data came from backups. Meanwhile, I used bootctl and efibootmgr to create and delete boot entries in the efi data until I finished up with this arrangement: # bootctl systemd-boot not installed in ESP. <---- Note 1 System: Firmware: UEFI 2.31 (American Megatrends 5.09) Secure Boot: disabled Setup Mode: user Current Boot Loader: Product: systemd-boot 243 Features: ✓ Boot counting ✓ Menu timeout control ✓ One-shot menu timeout control ✓ Default entry control ✓ One-shot entry control ✓ Support for XBOOTLDR partition ✓ Support for passing random seed to OS ESP: /dev/disk/by-partuuid/95b0a3f6-eae2-445c-b098-3c8174588948 File: └─/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI Random Seed: Passed to OS: no System Token: not set Exists: yes Available Boot Loaders on ESP: ESP: /boot (/dev/disk/by-partuuid/95b0a3f6-eae2-445c- b098-3c8174588948) File: └─/EFI/BOOT/bootX64.efi (systemd-boot 243) Boot Loaders Listed in EFI Variables: Title: EFI Stub <---- Note 2 ID: 0x0000 Status: active, boot-order Partition: /dev/disk/by-partuuid/95b0a3f6-eae2-445c-b098-3c8174588948 File: └─/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI Boot Loader Entries: $BOOT: /boot (/dev/disk/by-partuuid/95b0a3f6-eae2-445c- b098-3c8174588948) Default Boot Loader Entry: title: Gentoo Linux 4.19.72 <---- Note 3 id: 30-gentoo-4.19.72 source: /boot/loader/entries/30-gentoo-4.19.72.conf linux: /vmlinuz-4.19.72-gentoo options: root=/dev/nvme0n1p4 initrd=/intel-uc.img net.ifnames=0 Note 1: I still can't 'bootctl install' without causing the damage I've described already. The system does boot though. Note 2: I've tried to change this with 'efibootmgr -b 00 -L "Gentoo Linux"', to no avail. It does nothing I can see. Note 3: This title comes from the file named two lines later; it has nothing to do with the Title of Note 2. Furthermore, when the default entry starts, I see 'SHA256 verified' in the upper left corner of the EFI BIOS display area, until the kernel takes the terminal over. Oh, and I deleted the unused directory (by me) /boot/EFI/systemd. So: solved, mostly. I still don't know what has changed though. -- Regards, Peter.