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(I am a slow reader and am presently working my way through many threads that Search and/or Google found. While I am reading, I am going to ask the following question in the hopes someone might shorten my reading time.)

Problem: Ubuntu 16.04 will not boot on a dual-boot Dell Precision m5510 with Windows 7 already installed.

Background:

  1. Hardware: Dell Precision m5510 laptop; 32GB RAM; 1TB Samsung 970 EVO+ NVMe SSD. Presently configured to boot UEFI/GPT with Legacy BIOS ROMs disabled.

  2. System was previously dual-booted with Windows 7 Pro x64 & Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (64-bit)) on a Samsung 960 512GB NVMe SSD (Note: hard drive was NOT the standard /dev/sdX format; was something like //dev/nvme0n1[p1,p2,p3 etc].) Previous dual-boot may have been an BIOS/GPT configuration.

  3. I upgraded to a Samsung 970 EVO 1TB NVMe SSD. This entailed putting the old 512GB NVMe SSD in an external USB enclosure, partitioning the new 1TB NVMe with identical partition numbers and sizes, then copying each partition one-by-one over to the new NVMe SSD using 'dd' whilst booted into SystemRescueCD (or something similar) off a USB thumb drive.

  4. I then re-sized the partitions using, if memory serves, EaseUS or Mini-Partition-Wizard.

  5. When all was said and done, I could boot Windows 7, but any option for booting Ubuntu was gone. Originally I think I had Grub configured so I could interrupt the boot sequence and boot Ubuntu, otherwise it defaulted to Windows (cuz I spend most of my time in Autodesk Civil3D / other land surveying software).

  6. My Ubuntu partition was identically sized as from before, and I have copied the contents from the old 512GB NVMe SSD Ubuntu partition to the new one using 'dd', so the OS should be there. In fact, I have mounted it whilst booted off a live USB and poked around. So the Ubuntu OS is there.

  7. I have tried boot-repair, manually running 'grub-install /dev/nvme0n1', and simply doing a re-install of Ubuntu to no avail. boot-repair and re-install just end in a spinning-icon on the window and the boot-repair or install program appears to be unresponsive after a go-get-coffee-come-back-still-spinning-go-to-the-store-come-back-still-spinning interminable wait of many minutes. If memory serves, after manually running 'grub-install', Windows 7 would not boot anymore. I may have chosen the wrong argument for the nvme device, specifying the wrong partition etc.

I do not have partition information at present. AFter posting this, I will re-boot from a live USB, get the partition information and update this thread.

I'd prefer to avoid re-installing Ubuntu for the simple fact that I would like to save the time of re-installing all the other packages I had previously installed (and cannot recall exactly what additional what they were, so I'd have to figure that out first.)

Any ideas what is wrong? If you could post a simple set of instructions, that would be great. Or links to threads what will save me lots and lots of reading (I am a slow reader) would be greatly appreciated.

TIA.

Edited to Add:

[Am presently live-Booted (UEFI mode) via a Ubuntu 16.04 image (on a Yumi created USB thumb drive). Is there a reason this is sooooo slow at times? Firefox keeps "timing out / greying out / freezing." If it is using the flash drive like a hard drive, I could see it... but when live booted off a USB, aren't all the "drives" essentally RAM drives, which should be blazingly fast?"]

Here are the particulars from this present system:

root@ubuntu:~# uname -a
Linux ubuntu 4.10.0-28-generic #32~16.04.2-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jul 20 10:19:48 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
root@ubuntu:~# pwd
/root
root@ubuntu:~# 
root@ubuntu:~# df -mT
Filesystem     Type     1M-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs     15996     0     15996   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs         3203    10      3193   1% /run
/dev/sda1      vfat         14779  4146     10634  29% /isodevice
/dev/loop0     iso9660       1515  1515         0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop2     squashfs      1462  1462         0 100% /rofs
aufs           aufs           992   130       811  14% /
tmpfs          tmpfs        16012     1     16011   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs            5     1         5   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs        16012     0     16012   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs          tmpfs        16012     1     16012   1% /tmp
tmpfs          tmpfs         3203     1      3203   1% /run/user/999
/dev/nvme0n1p2 vfat           341    38       303  12% /mnt/part2
/dev/nvme0n1p7 ext4        100666 56644     39158  60% /mnt/ubuntu
root@ubuntu:~# cd /mnt/ubuntu/etc
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# cat lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=16.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=xenial
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS"
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# cat fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=ad9fa119-e32d-4ff5-896b-4847a0497736 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# /boot/efi was on /dev/sda2 during installation
#UUID=BC31-1F62  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# 1TB Samsung NVME SSD
UUID=BCA8-1D30  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1
# swap was on /dev/sda8 during installation
#UUID=e692f61d-4eab-49c9-b788-74bcb16445aa none            swap    sw              0       0
# UUID=4a738184-9b10-4f54-bb20-2d5416f57b3c none            swap    sw              0       0
LABEL=swap  none    swap    sw  0   0
#LABEL=usr2 /usr2   ext4    errors=remount-ro   0   2
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# 
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# grep " / " fstab
# / was on /dev/sda7 during installation
UUID=ad9fa119-e32d-4ff5-896b-4847a0497736 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# 
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# blkid -U ad9fa119-e32d-4ff5-896b-4847a0497736
/dev/nvme0n1p7
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# lsblk -f
NAME        FSTYPE   LABEL                    UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
loop1       ext2     casper-rw                4491aa81-55b9-704e-84e4-7b11541870fd 
loop2       squashfs                                                               /rofs
loop0       iso9660  Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS amd64 2017-08-01-11-51-33-00               /cdrom
sda                                                                                
└─sda1      vfat     MULTIBOOT                B81B-8510                            /isodevice
nvme0n1                                                                            
├─nvme0n1p5 ntfs     Home                     01D58384E9AD5430                     
├─nvme0n1p3                                                                        
├─nvme0n1p1                                                                        
├─nvme0n1p8 ntfs     Winretools               01D583863CA106E0                     
├─nvme0n1p6 swap     swap                     be8f90c3-e70f-4dee-932b-8c9804ced0f8 
├─nvme0n1p4 ntfs                              01D5838383354B00                     
├─nvme0n1p2 vfat                              BCA8-1D30                            /mnt/part2
└─nvme0n1p7 ext4                              ad9fa119-e32d-4ff5-896b-4847a0497736 /mnt/ubuntu
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop1         7:1    0     1G  0 loop 
loop2         7:2    0   1.4G  1 loop /rofs
loop0         7:0    0   1.5G  0 loop /cdrom
sda           8:0    1  14.5G  0 disk 
└─sda1        8:1    1  14.5G  0 part /isodevice
nvme0n1     259:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p5 259:5    0 540.9G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0   128M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   500M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p8 259:8    0   7.2G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p6 259:6    0  32.5G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0   250G  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   342M  0 part /mnt/part2
└─nvme0n1p7 259:7    0   100G  0 part /mnt/ubuntu
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 1.5 GiB, 1587609600 bytes, 3100800 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0d66cd15

Device       Boot   Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/loop0p1 *          0 3100799 3100800  1.5G  0 Empty
/dev/loop0p2      3006684 3011355    4672  2.3M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/loop1: 1 GiB, 1073741824 bytes, 2097152 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/loop2: 1.4 GiB, 1532116992 bytes, 2992416 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 1C72AE00-0703-03AB-80AB-1CC7C0C1EA00

Device              Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1       2048    1026047    1024000   500M Windows recovery environment
/dev/nvme0n1p2    1026048    1726463     700416   342M EFI System
/dev/nvme0n1p3    1726464    1988607     262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/nvme0n1p4    1988608  526276607  524288000   250G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p5  526276608 1660538879 1134262272 540.9G Microsoft basic data
/dev/nvme0n1p6 1660540928 1728698367   68157440  32.5G Linux swap
/dev/nvme0n1p7 1728698368 1938413567  209715200   100G Linux filesystem
/dev/nvme0n1p8 1938413568 1953519615   15106048   7.2G Windows recovery environment


Disk /dev/sda: 14.5 GiB, 15514730496 bytes, 30302208 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0ad28251

Device     Boot Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 30302207 30300160 14.5G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# sgdisk -p /dev/nvme0n1
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 1C72AE00-0703-03AB-80AB-1CC7C0C1EA00
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 9581 sectors (4.7 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         1026047   500.0 MiB   2700  Basic data partition
   2         1026048         1726463   342.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3         1726464         1988607   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved ...
   4         1988608       526276607   250.0 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   5       526276608      1660538879   540.9 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   6      1660540928      1728698367   32.5 GiB    8200  
   7      1728698368      1938413567   100.0 GiB   8300  Ubuntu
   8      1938413568      1953519615   7.2 GiB     2700  Basic data partition
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# df -mT
Filesystem     Type     1M-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev           devtmpfs     15996     0     15996   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs         3203    10      3193   1% /run
/dev/sda1      vfat         14779  4146     10634  29% /isodevice
/dev/loop0     iso9660       1515  1515         0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop2     squashfs      1462  1462         0 100% /rofs
aufs           aufs           992   130       811  14% /
tmpfs          tmpfs        16012     1     16011   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs            5     1         5   1% /run/lock
tmpfs          tmpfs        16012     0     16012   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs          tmpfs        16012     1     16012   1% /tmp
tmpfs          tmpfs         3203     1      3203   1% /run/user/999
/dev/nvme0n1p2 vfat           341    38       303  12% /mnt/part2
/dev/nvme0n1p7 ext4        100666 56644     39158  60% /mnt/ubuntu
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# ls -l /mnt/part2
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 2048 Jan 24 16:33 EFI
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 May 15  2018 PRELOAD
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    0 Mar 15  2018 ST18568.23404
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    0 Mar 20  2018 ST26043.18321
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    0 Mar 18  2018 ST30169.24228
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# !!/EFI
ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 Dec 18  2017 Boot
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 2048 Jan 24 16:33 Dell
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 Dec 18  2017 Microsoft
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 Dec 18  2017 ubuntu
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# !!/Boot
ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Boot
total 722
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 737512 Aug 26 21:44 bootx64.efi
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# ^Boot^Dell
ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Dell
total 6
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 2048 May 15  2019 Bios
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 24 16:33 logs
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# !!/Bios
ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Dell/Bios
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 2048 May 15  2019 Recovery
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# !!/Recovery
ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Dell/Bios/Recovery
total 19056
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9771708 May 15  2019 BIOS_CUR.RCV
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 9738450 Oct 22  2018 BIOS_PRE.rcv
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Microsoft/
total 2
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 2048 Dec 18  2017 Boot
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# !!/Boot
ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Microsoft//Boot
total 2358
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  57344 Jan 24 14:45 BCD
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  36864 Jan 30  2018 BCD.Backup.0001
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  54272 Jan 24 14:45 BCD.LOG
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Dec 18  2017 BCD.LOG1
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root      0 Dec 18  2017 BCD.LOG2
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 737512 Aug 26 21:44 bootmgfw.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 733928 Aug 26 21:44 bootmgr.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  65536 Dec 18  2017 BOOTSTAT.DAT
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 cs-CZ
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 da-DK
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 de-DE
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 el-GR
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 en-US
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 es-ES
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 fi-FI
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 Fonts
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 fr-FR
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 hu-HU
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 it-IT
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 ja-JP
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 ko-KR
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 675048 Jun 12  2019 memtest.efi
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 nb-NO
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 nl-NL
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 pl-PL
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 pt-BR
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 pt-PT
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 ru-RU
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 sv-SE
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 tr-TR
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 zh-CN
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 zh-HK
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root   2048 Dec 18  2017 zh-TW
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# ls -l /mnt/part2/EFI/Ubuntu
total 1176
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    2048 Dec 18  2017 fw
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   64352 Dec 18  2017 fwupx64.efi
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root     117 Apr 19  2018 grub.cfg
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1133432 Apr 19  2018 grubx64.efi
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# 
root@ubuntu:/mnt/ubuntu/etc# cat !$/grub.cfg
cat /mnt/part2/EFI/Ubuntu/grub.cfg
search.fs_uuid ad9fa119-e32d-4ff5-896b-4847a0497736 root 
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg

Additional information from 'gdisk':

root@ubuntu:~# gdisk /dev/nvme0n1
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 1953525168 sectors, 931.5 GiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 1C72AE00-0703-03AB-80AB-1CC7C0C1EA00
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1953525134
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 9581 sectors (4.7 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         1026047   500.0 MiB   2700  Basic data partition
   2         1026048         1726463   342.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3         1726464         1988607   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved ...
   4         1988608       526276607   250.0 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   5       526276608      1660538879   540.9 GiB   0700  Basic data partition
   6      1660540928      1728698367   32.5 GiB    8200  
   7      1728698368      1938413567   100.0 GiB   8300  Ubuntu
   8      1938413568      1953519615   7.2 GiB     2700  Basic data partition

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 1
Partition GUID code: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC (Windows RE)
Partition unique GUID: 00003B3B-2F00-9663-818B-D50176760000
First sector: 2048 (at 1024.0 KiB)
Last sector: 1026047 (at 501.0 MiB)
Partition size: 1024000 sectors (500.0 MiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'Basic data partition'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 2
Partition GUID code: C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B (EFI System)
Partition unique GUID: A97FBDB0-8381-01D5-D80E-BDD4C0C1EA00
First sector: 1026048 (at 501.0 MiB)
Last sector: 1726463 (at 843.0 MiB)
Partition size: 700416 sectors (342.0 MiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'EFI system partition'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 3
Partition GUID code: E3C9E316-0B5C-4DB8-817D-F92DF00215AE (Microsoft reserved)
Partition unique GUID: 00013699-36E0-BCBE-81DB-DF01326D0200
First sector: 1726464 (at 843.0 MiB)
Last sector: 1988607 (at 971.0 MiB)
Partition size: 262144 sectors (128.0 MiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'Microsoft reserved partition'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 4
Partition GUID code: EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 (Microsoft basic data)
Partition unique GUID: 000CDA33-E680-8364-83DB-DF0166B41900
First sector: 1988608 (at 971.0 MiB)
Last sector: 526276607 (at 250.9 GiB)
Partition size: 524288000 sectors (250.0 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'Basic data partition'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 5
Partition GUID code: EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 (Microsoft basic data)
Partition unique GUID: 00160767-A5C0-E9DA-84DB-DF1FCE0E2C00
First sector: 526276608 (at 250.9 GiB)
Last sector: 1660538879 (at 791.8 GiB)
Partition size: 1134262272 sectors (540.9 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'Basic data partition'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 6
Partition GUID code: 0657FD6D-A4AB-43C4-84E5-0933C84B4F4F (Linux swap)
Partition unique GUID: 0018B669-E3E0-52AE-8593-FD61D26C3100
First sector: 1660540928 (at 791.8 GiB)
Last sector: 1728698367 (at 824.3 GiB)
Partition size: 68157440 sectors (32.5 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: ''

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 7
Partition GUID code: 0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 (Linux filesystem)
Partition unique GUID: 75E9BEB0-8386-01D5-58D7-140AC3C1EA00
First sector: 1728698368 (at 824.3 GiB)
Last sector: 1938413567 (at 924.3 GiB)
Partition size: 209715200 sectors (100.0 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'Ubuntu'

Command (? for help): i
Partition number (1-8): 8
Partition GUID code: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC (Windows RE)
Partition unique GUID: 001EB4C1-3160-3CCE-86DB-DD7382693D00
First sector: 1938413568 (at 924.3 GiB)
Last sector: 1953519615 (at 931.5 GiB)
Partition size: 15106048 sectors (7.2 GiB)
Attribute flags: 0000000000000000
Partition name: 'Basic data partition'
7
  • 1
    You cannot have duplicate UUIDs or GUIDs. And with gpt the GUIDs are in primary partition table, partition and backup partition table. So dd copy of a partition had old GUID but partition table as new GUID. Best to reinstall and restore from backup as you would if hard drive failed. You can export list to installed apps to make it easy to reinstall, which should be part of back up anyway.help.ubuntu.com/community/ReinstallingSamePackages
    – oldfred
    Jan 24, 2020 at 19:48
  • Is it possible to boot from live USB (e.g. SystemRescueCD) and edit the GPT partition table to reflect the correct GUID of the Ubuntu and swap partitions? Yesterday, when booted Ubuntu 16.04 off a live USB thumbdrive, I had mounted Ubuntu partition on the internal NVMe SSD to /mnt/ubuntu. I then looked at GUID's via 'lsblk -lf' (and/or blkid) and had edited mnt/ubuntu/etc/fstab to ensure that root's GUID reference was correct.
    – Steve Camp
    Jan 24, 2020 at 19:57
  • But I think partition 2 (where the GPT master partition is?) is munged. At this point, I'm willing to try a re-install, but when I attempted that before, while I was able to boot off a USB (created with yumi?) in UEFI mode and get into the install program... the install program seemed to hang...
    – Steve Camp
    Jan 24, 2020 at 20:01
  • We don't know if you've duplicated anything as you haven't provided any output yet. First need to see partitions. Boot to Live Ubuntu, run sudo parted -l and post output into question. Jan 24, 2020 at 20:44
  • Actual gpt partition tables are before first partition and at end of drive. For each drive run this also: sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda Use /dev/nvme0n1 for NVME. Gdisk may be able to rewrite gpt partition tables. GPT fdisk Tutorial rodsbooks.com/gdisk/walkthrough.html & rodsbooks.com/gdisk Similar systems: Dell Precision 5530 ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2420905 Dell 5230 with 3 m2 drives. ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2406057
    – oldfred
    Jan 24, 2020 at 23:15

0

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