Terry, That's normal for a UEFI system. The entries vary with different firmware. I assume you have studied LVM in the last day or so. As a beginner you don't need that sort of complexity and I'm afraid a fresh Mint install (same method used recently) is the way to have normal Linux partitions. Better to do this now rather than next year.
Thanks François, With a MBR system, grub can be installed to /dev/sda or /dev/sdaX With a UEFI system, grub is installed to the EFI System Partition. The info I have is...
H Brian K Thanks to both you and fblais for your help. I have learnt a lot, but it's never enough! Now it's decision time. I don't fancy reinstalling Grub particularly since you are signposting a Mint reinstall as the way forward. This I will do, probably Sunday. The real problem is I have an Epson SX400 Printer Scanner and whilst the Printer works the Scanner is problematic with the Epson Linux drivers available. There are reams and reams of Ubuntu and Mint forum space expended trying to find a solution over a number of years. I got mine working. God knows how but I did. That is why I am so reluctant to reinstall Mint. This is the problem with Linux, the search for innovation instead of reducing complexity. Still I haven't had to spend £100 on Windows £10. Thanks again Terry
Hi Brian K They say persistence is a virtue?! There appears to be a solution to the problem of this boot delay. I got this from the Linux forums, also I post the links: Could you cat your professional eye over it and let me know what you think? ps in the threads noted hereunder it is mentioned about NOT ticking LVM. Re: Grub2 Timeout 30 seconds after today's update Quote Post by gm10 » Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:07 pm blueocean wrote: ⤴ Thu Jan 31, 2019 8:38 pm Any fix for this?In a terminal window run: CODE: SELECT ALL sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header followed by CODE: SELECT ALL sudo update-grub The reason for the change is that the maintainer at Ubuntu doesn't know when to press Shift during boot and only know to bring up the menu via Ctrl+Alt+Del, which won't work with GRUB installed to an LVM partition, so they thought they'd just force 30 seconds of menu on everyone using EFI + LVM. Genius...! forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=287372 forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=287026 Thanks Terry
Terry, interesting find. I tried it on one of my Linux multi-boots with a 10 second timeout (non LVM). The grub boot screen was still present on subsequent boots. But you should try it. That page refers to an earlier grub version to the one we have. Do you have a 10 or 30 second timeout? When you installed Mint last week, were you connected to the internet by an ethernet cable?
Hi Brian K 30 sec timeout. Wireless, normally ethernet, but I was in a different room building my Mint new PC. Terry
Terry, for today's install use an ethernet cable so you can download updates during the install. But not essential. 30 seconds. Yes, try the advice from your post above.
Hi Brian K Interesting results!! I tried inserting> sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header This removed the various options on the black screen, BUT the black screen remained for about 30 seconds before the Mint logo started. At this stage a promising start. Using your earlier tutorial I changed to this: GRUB_TIMEOUT=0.1 After saving and rebooting there are now about 12 seconds of black screen before the Mint logo appears. In all a 40 second boot time on an SSD from pressing the button to the password screen. 1) Would you regard this as acceptable? 2) When I looked in the default grub window I could not see the line which had inputted : sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header So how do I get rid of this and go back to the previous config should I need to in the future? Thanks again Terry
Hi Brian K The boot time from pressing the button to login screen is consistently achieving about 58 seconds not the 40 I recorded earlier. Seems a bit slow to me what do you think? Thanks Terry
FWIW, on a clean install of Mate on my under-powered machine with a SSD it takes roughly 30 to sign-in screen.
Terry, are you seeing the grub boot menu? If so, does it disappear if you press Enter? I'm not familiar with... sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header What is it for? After I click Boot (for Mint) I see a black screen for 11 seconds and then the Mint logo flashes briefly and 3 seconds later (14 seconds total) I see the Mint desktop. (I auto-login, password not needed) You are measuring time from power on which is not what I'm doing. I suggest power on, bring up the BIOS Boot Menu and click your Mint item. Start timing from here. What are your times? Any SSD should be around 15 seconds. What is your CPU? How much RAM is installed? Are there any OS on your 1 TB HD?
Hi Brian K 1) "Terry, are you seeing the grub boot menu?" - No it has gone because I used this: sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header 2) "If so, does it disappear if you press Enter?" not relevant because I am not seeing it now. 3) "I'm not familiar with... sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header What is it for? It is from post #30 Your reply in post #31 was "Terry, interesting find. I tried it on one of my Linux multi-boots with a 10 second timeout (non LVM). The grub boot screen was still present on subsequent boots. But you should try it. 4) I will re time it will be from the end of the Gigabyte screen that gives options to enter boot screen or Bios because after that is a black screen say for 12 seconds then the pulsing Mint logo (quite a long time) I will revert with some times in a bit. Thanks Terry
Hi Brian K This is what I did: 1) On Boot I pressed the F12 key to get the Gigabyte Boot Devices screen. Then I clicked on Patriot Scorch to boot up. This the point from which I measured to the Password Screen. 2) 45 seconds From Patriot Scorch to Password screen 3) 15 seconds from Patriot Scorch to start of logo (all black screen) 4) 30 seconds of logo until Password Screen arrives Thanks Terry
Terry, Thanks. So after Mint was installed you saw the grub boot screen and it persisted on subsequent boots? Something is wrong. Your 45 seconds should be 15 seconds. You have a NVMe SSD. In my test computer I have 2 NVMe and 4 standard SSD. Mint boots faster from a NVMe than a standard SSDs (few seconds faster). My CPU is only an i3. RAM is 8 GB. I'd do another install. Yesterday I did several Mint installs. 4 minutes if not connected to the internet. 7 minutes if connected to the internet. That's faster than a Windows install. But for the install I'd like you to disconnect your 1 TB HD and disconnect your Card Reader if that is possible. Also, do the install with the Ethernet cable unplugged and don't reconnect the Ethernet cable or use WiFi until you are getting reasonable boot up times. Don't do any Terminal edits for the time being. Leave the 1 TB HD and Card Readers disconnected. Let's discuss your situation prior to proceeding with edits. If the grub screen is present, press Enter and you should progress immediately. Is it a 10 or 30 second timeout? If you don't get 15 second boot up times I suggest downloading another Mint 19.1 ISO (from a different Mirror), making a new USB flash drive and re-installing. Does this make boot up times any better? (assuming you had to do this)
Terry, before reinstalling, try this.... https://askubuntu.com/questions/103...ery-slow-boot-on-ubuntu-18-04/1031667#1031667
Hi Brian K Many thanks again for your help 1) "Thanks. So after Mint was installed you saw the grub boot screen and it persisted on subsequent boots?" That is correct! That is until I applied this fix: "sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header" After this the items on the Grub Screen were no longer there, but there was still a black screen until the logo started, roughly 30 seconds. I then modified the Grub config to "GRUB_TIMEOUT=0.1" as you showed me in a previous post. This then reduced the 30 secs to about 12 before the logo showed. 2) I think you are right, a reinstall is looking likely. Your final suggestion in post #41 I will try. I have seen this on my previous trawls through the Mint forums. The problem is that there are so many different suggestions that is hard to workout which are the right ones. Even if I have to reinstall and even if the saga continues after such install, I have had a serious crash course in Mint and I cannot thank you enough. Competent, no. But I now only need one and a half crutches. Thanks again for your patience. Terry nb. I will revert on my findings with your last suggestion
Hi Brian K I said I would let you know how I went on using "quiet splash noresume". BINGO!!! From the end of the Gigabyte Screen where you can choose to enter Bios or Boot Menu by pressing F12 etc to full boot up no log in screen = 18 seconds A vast improvement, I await your observations with interest. Terry
Terry, that's great. Phew. I'll leave continuing with Mint to you. Please let us know if you have any questions. I hope the scanner setup is easy this time.
Hi Brian K Just to be Belt & Braces I did an image using Macrium Reflect from a memory stick. Seemed to go OK I noticed on one of the partitions it said unformatted (within MReflect screen). Do you have any experience imaging a Linux system with M/Reflect? I am doing this before I reinstall Mint, so I can determine if the boot up can be improved further. Do you think it might work? Thanks Terry
Terry, A reinstall is a good idea. It won't take long and who knows what will happen to the boot time. I just checked my last test Mint install. The Timeout was 30 seconds. In the grub file I saw... GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 I changed this to... GRUB_TIMEOUT=0.1 ...and the boot screen disappeared. I'd avoid using... sudo sed -i "/recordfail_broken=/{s/1/0/}" /etc/grub.d/00_header I did a Google search and nothing comes up. That is concerning. But you will probably also need... GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash noresume" Regarding your Macrium image. I assume both partitions are backed up. Yes, it will restore your system if needed. I just tested an image/restore. The first boot of the restored system had to be from the BIOS Boot Menu. Just pressing the power button brought up a grub prompt. Edit... I looked at my partitions in Macrium. Neither said unformatted. I had a FAT32 partition and a ext Primary partition. Edit... I just did another Mint install and this time, no grub boot screen. Never the same twice. In "Disks" the second partition shows... Filesystem Partition 2 119 GB Ext4 In the grub file.... GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 As I didn't have a grub boot screen I left the above line alone.
Terry, Perhaps next year you might be interested in installing another Linux distro. Or perhaps not. For anyone interested in having a second or third distro (or a distro with Windows) on their GPT disk (UEFI boot)... Use partitioning software to resize your Linux (or Windows) partition smaller to make space for the future new Linux partition. For a test Linux you only need 8 GB of Free Space. Ubuntu based distros (that includes Mint) are easy to install but the other distros can be more convoluted. The following steps might not exactly apply to non-Ubuntu based distros. Boot your Linux media Install Linux Mint Click Continue on the next 3 screens Installation type... Something else Identify the Free Space on your disk and double click it Type in your desired partition Size Primary Beginning of this space Ext4 journaling file system For Mount point choose / OK Device for boot loader installation... choose the efi partition Install Now, Continue Where are you? Who are you? (I prefer Log in automatically) Time out for a beer while the install is running When you reboot you will see a boot menu containing your various Linux OS and if Windows is present, Windows Boot Manager.
Hi Brian K Thanks very much for your comments in post #48. Certainly I would be interested when I progress sufficiently. I am on a steep learning curve at the moment. There is a question I want to ask you: I installed Ubuntu Kernel Update Utility and I note that it tells me that I am using v4.15.0-47.50 (ubuntu) and that there are two other less recent kernels installed. More importantly, it shows many potential kernel updates beyond the one I am using, including the latest of 5.0.8 Can I just update to this one? and why has my system not been updated to any of the more recent updates? Thanks Terry
