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I have an HP ProBook G1 with Windows 8.1 OEM on which I installed Ubuntu 14.04 LTS in dualboot. This laptop has a BIOS that makes it difficult to change the default boot loader called at hardware boot, and I guess that is why HP came with an update for its BIOS, allowing new EFI entries to be added :

ENHANCEMENTS:

  • Provides support for third party encryption software to add new UEFI boot entries.

So I would like to update my BIOS, but I also would like to know the precautions I should take before doing it, because I have read topics dealing with issues after BIOS updates on other machines, such as :

  • superuser.com/questions/376470/how-to-reinstall-grub2-efi
  • superuser.com/questions/372962/why-would-an-efi-bios-update-break-the-efi-boot-manager

    "After successfully updating my bios, something went wrong and I ended up with a blinking cursor on the top left corner of a black screen. No errors, no nothing. The bios now only listed a SATA: boot option in place of the usual UEFI ubuntu one."

  • www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Restore_Ubuntu_UEFI_Boot_Entries_after_BIOS_Update

    When updating the BIOS of a Supermicro X9SCM-F motherboard (from BIOS Version 1.x to 2.x), these boot entries will be lost and Ubuntu will no longer boot afterwards. The problem can also occur alongside a BIOS or Grub update.

So is there a way to make sure I will not mess up my system when updating the BIOS?

Sorry for bad links, I haven't got enough reputation to post more than two...

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  • It should not. But if are concerned and do not have a really good reason to upgrade, just don't do it.
    – Pilot6
    May 29, 2015 at 9:31
  • My "good" reason is each time I boot, I'd like it to default to GRUB rather than Windows bootloader, as I scarcely ever use Windows.
    – hdl
    May 29, 2015 at 9:45
  • This is unclear. If you current bios allows to create Ubuntu entry, then just set it first in boot sequence. If it does not, that what are you concerned of? If there is no Ubuntu entry in UEFI, then why are you afraid that it is removed?
    – Pilot6
    May 29, 2015 at 9:48
  • The problem is I have to enter a sort of HP BIOS menu (with F9) and then select the Ubuntu entry to launch Grub manually at each boot, which I want to automate as I use Ubuntu 99% of the time.
    – hdl
    May 29, 2015 at 10:08

1 Answer 1

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You don't need to reinstall grub because it will not be deleted.

What could happen is that the NVRAM entry in the EFI/BIOS pointing to grub could be deleted.

So you will certainly need to recreate it after the BIOS upgrade. For that boot into a Live CD/USB, and run a command like

sudo apt-get install efibootmgr
sudo efibootmgr -c -L Grub -l /EFI/ubuntu/grubx64.efi

or if you use Secure boot

sudo efibootmgr -c -L Grub -l /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
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  • FWIW, I've seen EFI firmware updates wipe out NVRAM entries, and I've seen such updates not wipe out NVRAM entries. Because of this uncertainty, being prepared with an emergency recovery plan such as you outline is worthwhile. (There are several other ways to do it, too, but your method is likely to work.)
    – Rod Smith
    May 29, 2015 at 13:08
  • Note that sometimes it's necessary to include the -d (disk) and/or -p (partition) options to efibootmgr, too, as in sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdb -p 2 -L Grub -l /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi to identify /dev/sdb2 as the location of the ESP.
    – Rod Smith
    Jul 24, 2017 at 13:50

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