Install Ubuntu, Mint, Kali and Qubes in external ssd
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Install Ubuntu, Mint, Kali and Qubes in external ssd
Hello!
I have a Mac book pro 15'' mid 2015
In the native disk I have installed Mac OS, Windows 10 and Ubuntu.
I tried yesterday to install Ubuntu, Mint, Kali and Qubes in external ssd.
I partitioned the drive creating 9 partitions, one for / and one for /home (for each OS) and one for swap.
I installed Ubuntu first so it would create an efi partition for the boot menu and chose the external ssd for the efi partition.
After installing I noticed that to boot in windows and the previous Ubuntu in the native ssd I had to plug in the external drive.
I also installed Mint without a problem, it appeared in the boot menu.
I installed Kali but it won't appear in boot menu.
For Qubes I tried but I could not create the installation USB.
One more problem was that in each OS I can see the partitions of the other OS.
I thought it would be easy to install all these distros in one drive and boot whichever I want through a boot menu but that appears not to be the case.
Has anyone done this?
Your help would be much appreciated...
Installation of a same name distro more than once in the same GPT/UEFI computer is an invitation for bootloader headaches in absence of appropriate measures taken in advance. Every release of Ubuntu, and all of its derivatives I've been exposed to, use the same name ESP directory: ubuntu. To avoid this requires editing /etc/default/grub, and applying it with a grub update, on the installed version before installing another, to make the value for GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR= a quoted unique string, so that its ESP directory will never be confused with that of another installation. In theory, if the two installations are on separate disks with separate ESP partitions, this shouldn't be important, but UEFI BIOS have a poor record of dealing with duplication of anything. This actually goes for any distribution. It just seems to occur more often with Ubuntu because of the commonality of people installing both Ubuntu and one or more of its derivatives. Every Linux installation should own a unique ESP directory.
Matters are further complicated by the quirkiness of Mac firmware. IME it does a really lousy job of dealing with external disks when they contain anything other than MacOS or purely data.
To start an attempt to resolve your situation, complete input/output as displayed in your terminal, enclosed in code tags, from the following should be provided, done with the external disk attached:
The reason for one of the problems you are having is explained in post 2. Check your EFI partitions to see what names are there.
Quote:
After installing I noticed that to boot in windows and the previous Ubuntu in the native ssd I had to plug in the external drive.
Which release of Ubuntu are you using? The Ubuntu installer installs EFI files to the first EFI partition it finds and in all likelihood, wrote the EFI files to the internal drive overwriting the ubuntu directory and contents for your internal Ubuntu. So when you boot, the Ubuntu EFI is pointing to the Grub files on the external disk which is not connected. This changed with Ubuntu but I'm not sure which release changed it. Mint used to create an EFI directory named 'ubuntu' also but I"m not sure that is still the case.
I don't know anything about Qubes and as for Kali, if you want to experiment or learn penetration testing, I would suggest putting it on a USB as suggested at their site.
If you are unable to resolve this problem, you might go to the site below while booted into Ubuntu and download and run the boot repair script using the 2nd option explained on that page. I would highly recommend that you not do any repairs but select the option to Create BootInfo Summary and review the output or post the link to the output you are given here.
Installation of a same name distro more than once in the same GPT/UEFI computer is an invitation for bootloader headaches in absence of appropriate measures taken in advance. Every release of Ubuntu, and all of its derivatives I've been exposed to, use the same name ESP directory: ubuntu. To avoid this requires editing /etc/default/grub, and applying it with a grub update, on the installed version before installing another, to make the value for GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR= a quoted unique string, so that its ESP directory will never be confused with that of another installation. In theory, if the two installations are on separate disks with separate ESP partitions, this shouldn't be important, but UEFI BIOS have a poor record of dealing with duplication of anything. This actually goes for any distribution. It just seems to occur more often with Ubuntu because of the commonality of people installing both Ubuntu and one or more of its derivatives. Every Linux installation should own a unique ESP directory.
Matters are further complicated by the quirkiness of Mac firmware. IME it does a really lousy job of dealing with external disks when they contain anything other than MacOS or purely data.
To start an attempt to resolve your situation, complete input/output as displayed in your terminal, enclosed in code tags, from the following should be provided, done with the external disk attached:
The reason for one of the problems you are having is explained in post 2. Check your EFI partitions to see what names are there.
Which release of Ubuntu are you using? The Ubuntu installer installs EFI files to the first EFI partition it finds and in all likelihood, wrote the EFI files to the internal drive overwriting the ubuntu directory and contents for your internal Ubuntu. So when you boot, the Ubuntu EFI is pointing to the Grub files on the external disk which is not connected. This changed with Ubuntu but I'm not sure which release changed it. Mint used to create an EFI directory named 'ubuntu' also but I"m not sure that is still the case.
I don't know anything about Qubes and as for Kali, if you want to experiment or learn penetration testing, I would suggest putting it on a USB as suggested at their site.
If you are unable to resolve this problem, you might go to the site below while booted into Ubuntu and download and run the boot repair script using the 2nd option explained on that page. I would highly recommend that you not do any repairs but select the option to Create BootInfo Summary and review the output or post the link to the output you are given here.
Please try parted again, this time: sudo parted -l. Also redo efibootmgr: sudo efibootmgr -v, and add tree /boot/efi and the content of as many /etc/fstabs as you can locate. Command output yancek asked for wouldn't hurt either, but should be attached, not copy/pasted.
Your efibootmgr output shows an entry 'ubuntu' as Boot0001*. If you select that in the BIOS, does it boot Ubuntu or Mint? The lsblk output shows only one EFI partition so either you are using a version of Ubuntu which still writes EFI files to the first EFI partition it finds or you did not create another EFI partition on the 2nd drive (sda) during the install. It does show the 6 partitions you created for the 3 systems / and /home partitions but only the Kali ones are labelled and distinguishable.
Have you tried running boot repair. All the commands suggested above are run with boot repair. If you have not run boot repair before, the link below provides a detailed explanation on how to use it.
The reason for one of the problems you are having is explained in post 2. Check your EFI partitions to see what names are there.
Which release of Ubuntu are you using? The Ubuntu installer installs EFI files to the first EFI partition it finds and in all likelihood, wrote the EFI files to the internal drive overwriting the ubuntu directory and contents for your internal Ubuntu. So when you boot, the Ubuntu EFI is pointing to the Grub files on the external disk which is not connected. This changed with Ubuntu but I'm not sure which release changed it. Mint used to create an EFI directory named 'ubuntu' also but I"m not sure that is still the case.
I don't know anything about Qubes and as for Kali, if you want to experiment or learn penetration testing, I would suggest putting it on a USB as suggested at their site.
If you are unable to resolve this problem, you might go to the site below while booted into Ubuntu and download and run the boot repair script using the 2nd option explained on that page. I would highly recommend that you not do any repairs but select the option to Create BootInfo Summary and review the output or post the link to the output you are given here.
Please try parted again, this time: sudo parted -l. Also redo efibootmgr: sudo efibootmgr -v, and add tree /boot/efi and the content of as many /etc/fstabs as you can locate. Command output yancek asked for wouldn't hurt either, but should be attached, not copy/pasted.
Hello!
I don't understand this part: "and add tree /boot/efi and the content of as many /etc/fstabs as you can locate"
The rest of it:
Code:
nikos@nikos-MacBookPro:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: Verbatim Vi550 S3 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 512GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 1049kB 63,0GB 63,0GB ext4
2 63,0GB 127GB 64,0GB ext4
3 127GB 143GB 16,0GB linux-swap(v1) swap
4 143GB 206GB 63,0GB ext4
5 206GB 270GB 64,0GB ext4
6 270GB 332GB 62,0GB ext4
7 332GB 332GB 62,9MB ext4
Model: Aura Pro X2 (nvme)
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 480GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags:
Number Start End Size File system Name Flags
1 20,5kB 210MB 210MB fat32 EFI System Partition boot, esp
2 210MB 190GB 190GB
3 200GB 405GB 204GB ntfs msftdata
4 405GB 480GB 75,4GB ext4
nikos@nikos-MacBookPro:~$ sudo efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 5 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0080,0002,0000
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager HD(1,GPT,9a73b5e8-1e44-4a72-9114-382506f8d8b2,0x28,0x64000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...:................
Boot0001* ubuntu HD(1,GPT,9a73b5e8-1e44-4a72-9114-382506f8d8b2,0x28,0x64000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0002* kali HD(1,GPT,9a73b5e8-1e44-4a72-9114-382506f8d8b2,0x28,0x64000)/File(\EFI\kali\grubx64.efi)
Boot0080* Mac OS X PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(16,0)/HD(2,GPT,1ff110a5-2fc9-4330-906a-6a6b62f49154,0x64028,0xdf30b60)/VenMedia(be74fcf7-0b7c-49f3-9147-01f4042e6842,22384ca433beae43a16c5277a2b2ab91)/File(\1B957480-B816-306E-BF79-A6422AB32636\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi)
Boot0081* Mac OS X PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)//HD(2,GPT,2d115d46-674a-4bf8-a3e0-d7ac1a430952,0x64028,0x161e70f0)/VenMedia(be74fcf7-0b7c-49f3-9147-01f4042e6842,cae980b93421b14e925b4482aecaee8d)/File(\6D990D7F-79BA-483A-B049-98006231F176\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi)
BootFFFF* PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(2,GPT,58ab5139-4948-4c22-ad12-51d977faa0f9,0x64028,0x1d322330)/VenMedia(be74fcf7-0b7c-49f3-9147-01f4042e6842,013bc400a0b86a4bade13044a1071c85)/File(\360E2CF8-A29E-3411-A71D-EE56FB333C95\System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi)
I asked in my earlier post if you booted from the BIOS entry 'ubuntu' as Boot0001*, does it boot Ubuntu or Mint? You can see from boot repair that there is no entry labelled 'mint' in the efibootmgr output. So what boots when you select that entry? If it is Ubuntu, running grub-mkconfig or update-grub should show an entry in the Grub menu for Mint.
I see a lot of information on refind in your boot repair. Are you using refind or grub to boot? If you are using refind then changing grub isn't going to do anything to help. Lines 8-23 show the efi entries which include ubuntu, kali, and windows entries so those 3 should all boot.
Line 45 of boot repair shows Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS installed on nvme0n1p4 as well as 22.04 on sda1. You have Mint on sda4 and Kali on sda6. Do either/both boot from whichever bootloader you are using? If you select the ubuntu boot entry, does it boot? Which partition boots? Is it the Ubuntu on the SSD (nvme0n1p4) or the Ubuntu on sda1?
You need to first determine what boots and particularly, if choosing the Boot0001* option in the BIOS boots Ubuntu or Mint. You have 2 installs of Ubuntu on different hard drives and you have only one EFI partition so I expect that when you did the Ubuntu EFI install, it overwrote the EFI files on the internal SSD and boots to Ubuntu on sda1. If you installed Mint after Ubuntu, it may boot Mint which is why I asked if that entry (Boot0001*) boots Ubuntu or Mint. You should be able to update Grub on whichever and get proper menuentries for all.
Your first step should be to boot that entry (Boot0001*) and determine which OS it boots. If it is Mint, then you know the efibootmg entry for 'ubuntu' is actually Mint. If it boots Ubuntu, you need to run the command: df -h which will tell you the partition it is on, likely sda1 so you should see output similar to that below (size will be different):
Code:
/dev/sda1 47G 19G 27G 41% /
If you are still trying to resolve this, post the information requested as you will need to create an EFI partition on the external drive and install or copy EFI files there. I'm not familiar with Macs and have never used Refind but many others here have and if you are using it, you should get help.
Incidentally, I don't see any reference to Qubes??
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