VirtualBox boots only in UEFI Interactive shell

Question

I installed Ubuntu 14.10 in VirtualBox with UEFI. But now I have rebooted this OS and now it boots into a UEFI Interactive Shell v2.0. How can I boot normally into Grub again?

Answer 1

I encountered the same problem and found that if I issue following command in the interactive shell, the virtual machine would boot into Ubuntu:

fs0:\efi\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

(Use backslash, forward slash does not work. Commands in UEFI interactive shell are case insensitive.)

My VirtualBox version is 4.3.20 r96997, Ubuntu version is 14.10 AMD64. I do not know why this happens and how to solve it. Just found this not elegant and still a little bit troublesome workaround.

Update 1:

I read this, tracked down to a bug report and found a better workaround.

Update 2:

Workaround in Update 1 failed. I turned off the virtual machine, launched it. And it booted into UEFI Interactive shell again. According to this, the problem was probably cause by a VirtualBox bug. I am still looking for further solution to this.

Update 3:

Finally found an solution. According to this, you need to create a startup.nsh script manually. Except for the method in mentioned post, you can also do this:

$ sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
$ cd /mnt
$ sudo sh -c "echo '\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi' > startup.nsh"

Answer 2

I had the same problem (with the EFI enabled because I couldn't get it to run otherwise). Strange; although installation of Ubuntu 14.04.2 got no error, installing Kubuntu 15.04 failed to finalize. It froze at the very end when asked to remove DVD. After reset, it booted fine but after power down it brought up shell.

So, to avoid shell type:

fs0:
edit startup.nsh

and on the opened window add these 2 lines:

FS0:
\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

press Ctrl + s and Enter to save and Ctrl + q to quit. Then restart VM.

Alternatively, you can always use these 2 lines to exit shell and boot OS. But second time you restart you will be in a shell again and to avoid it edit startup.nsh.

Answer 3

Another option is to un-check the Extended Features option called 'Enable EFI' under 'Motherboard' for your VM.

Had this issue come up for Gnome Ubuntu 12.04.2 amd64bit installation.

Discovered this after having to change settings for hardware acceleration. I was left with having VT-x/AMD-V, Nested Paging enabled. My VM has 2 CPUs, 8GB RAM for reference.

After un-checking the issue is completely by-passed Gnome Ubuntu boots up no issues. Running Virtual Box 4.3.18 r96516 on Windows 7 64-bit Host.

Answer 4

Copy grubx64.efi to /EFI/boot/bootx64.EFI
VirtualBox use that bootx64.efi to boot.
Ref.: Archlinux Virtualbox wiki

Answer 5

I could solve this issue by changing the cdrom device within virtualbox from IDE to SATA. I removed the standard mapping of the virtual cdrom drive within the device configuration.

Simply add a cdrom device to the existing SATA Controller which is to be used for your installation media.

Et voila, no further problems with EFI.

Answer 6

for this you need to write it like the following:

fs0:
cd EFI
cd ubuntu
grubx64

this is how i got it to work if you write it any other way it wont work.

Answer 7

I recently encountered this problem. Please check your virtual OS settings. Right click on virtual os-> system->Extended features-> Enable EFI(uncheck this).

Answer 8

After installing Kubuntu15.10 in VirtualBox5 with UEFI, the reboot of the VM fails.

Adding the line

FS0:\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

in the UEFI-Shell doesn't help.

And the solution with creating a new startup.nsh file in Kubuntu15.10 in the chroot environment with

sudo echo '\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi' > startup.nsh 

gives also no improvement.

I found the solution:

The problem was, that the directory /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu with the file grubx64.efi doesn't exist.

After booting a Live-CD and changing to the chroot environment, I installed the missing packets and create the needed NVRAM entry with:

sudo apt-get install grub-efi-amd64-signed shim-signed
sudo update-grub

Answer 9

Another work around:

In the uefi shell, boot temporarily in to ubuntu using:

fs0:
cd EFI
cd ubuntu
grubx64

Then, inside ubuntu, edit startup.nsh file like below:

Open terminal Ctrl+Alt+T.

Type:

sudo nano /boot/efi/startup.nsh

Enter your password.

Now delete all that is in there using del or backspace key.

Then type this exactly: (FS0- that is the numeral 0, not the alphabet O)

FS0:
\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi

Now press Ctrl+O (That is alphabet O).

Then, Alt+D (To change text to msdos format).

Then press Enter.

Then Ctrl+X.

Now reboot.

sudo reboot

Everything should be fine now.