Boot to a black screen

[thorn hatch]

I have dual boot with Windows and Mint on separate SSD for about a two weeks and now sometimes the PC is booting to a black screen or has delay. Worked fine initially, but it happens sometimes now and I have to shut down and start again from the start button on the PC, maybe 2-3 times. I suspect Windows maybe the issue or is else, is there a fix for this? Secure boot in BIOS is disabled also fast startboot on Windows when installing.

[sturdy meteor]

when this happens, reboot until it works and run journalctl -k -b -1 > jctl and send the file

[maiden burrow]

Yes it is a common Windows issue. Let me find some terminal code that may fix it. First, can you still get into Linux?

[thorn hatch]

Yes, I boot into Linux, but sometimes from 2nd or 3rd time, sometimes works fine from the first boot.

[thorn hatch]

Doesn't show anything int the terminal

[maiden burrow]

Try these commands. sudo apt update

Then sudo apt install boot-repair -y

boot-repair

First option. Recommended Repair.

Additional options in the BIOS. Disable Fast Boot, disable Secure Boot.

[thorn hatch]

I disabled them before installing Linux, as recommended.

[maiden burrow]

Were you able to run Boot repair?

[thorn hatch]

Give me a moment to create restore point, don't want to mess something, I'm new to these things 🙂

[maiden burrow]

kk. Boot repair will try and restore your boot back to working. There are other options that are risky.

[thorn hatch]

Ok

[maiden burrow]

Windows likes to us TPM to override the grub boot loader. Often when it gets updates. This is a 2025 thing. It was not a thing a few years ago. Linux is working on patching this exploit out. In the meantime Win11 especially does not like sharing any other OS on the same motherboard.

[thorn hatch]

It is Windows 10, I didn't update to 11 🙂

[maiden burrow]

Same thing. 10/11.

Are you dual booting on two different drives or the same drive?

[thorn hatch]

Different SSD

[maiden burrow]

First option.

It'll look for any errors and restore it back to defaults for the grub loader.

[thorn hatch]

Which to choose?

[maiden burrow]

Yes.

That way if it didn't work or found an error. It'll post the info.

[sturdy meteor]

send the file it created

in your home directory

[thorn hatch]

Seems OK

[maiden burrow]

See if that fixes it. Also as it stated. Set the SSD with Linux as the only drive to boot from in your BIOS.

[thorn hatch]

I reordered the boot in the BIOS to boot first in Linux after the installation.

[maiden burrow]

Don't even have Windows as an option. Dual boot will take care of that choice.

[thorn hatch]

OK

[maiden burrow]

Two ways it can do the black screen. Randomly or if you don't immediately select an OS in the first few seconds.

[thorn hatch]

Seems to work, I will see if happens again. But now the Windows boot is missing when starting.

[maiden burrow]

Worst case scenario. You can tell it to start from Windows in your BIOS boot order.

Also be VERY careful not to check your Windows Partition Manager. It likes to brick grub, as some sort of virus on the Linux partition. Yes MS is actively hostile to Linux.

Hit us back up if it comes back. (:

[thorn hatch]

It is like 14GB

[maiden burrow]

There should be a mini version. Like a text file.

The 14gb sounds more like Timeshift.

[thorn hatch]

Looks like a text file, but can't drop it in discord, strange.

[maiden burrow]

Try opening it in XED or another text editor? Then copy paste the data?

[thorn hatch]

Hm, how bad is it. So I have to reorder the boot sequence to Windows first?

[maiden burrow]

Windows will always try and take priority. Effectively destroying dual boot. It's common in Win10/11.

This is not exclusive to Linux issues. It will do this with a Win7/10 dual boot too.

[thorn hatch]

Copied in new text file.

[maiden burrow]

@/usr/lib/libTem/temmie.so will review it.

Does it only log you into Linux or does it give you the dual boot screen now?

[thorn hatch]

No, only Linux. On restart also.

[thorn hatch]

Th Windows boot was below the Linux before.

[maiden burrow]

You can reenable dual boot or leave it as is. By doing a manual boot in the BIOS every time in your BIOS. It's only a few extra seconds and remember to mash the F12 or Del key.

[sturdy meteor]

it just stops there? no error or anything? wtf

Can you update your BIOS?

[thorn hatch]

Maybe this? Tried the command again.

The first file.

Maybe something with the upload got wrong.

[thorn hatch]

Yeah, it happened again. I had to force shutdown from the PC, booted normally the second time. But now I lost the dual boot also.

[thorn hatch]

I did restore point from yesterday and the Windows boot is showing again, but there are now two-one is showing on the Linux ssd.

[maiden burrow]

Window's is taking priority and trying to push out Linux. ):

[calm kiln]

you may want to boot into Linux Mint and install GParted

and take a look at how the partitions look

[maiden burrow]

There's a jctl file above too.

[thorn hatch]

Could the second Windows entry be removed? This is what efibootmgr shows.

[thorn hatch]

Ok, I managed to remove the second Windows entry, now is only the nvme Windows boot. I hope it will work fine.

[maiden burrow]

I definitely want to know if it resolved the issue. I have another person with a similar problem.

Mine is Boot Order 0002, 0000 (Windblows).

Windows MBR instead of GPT.

[thorn hatch]

Now after shutdown it is showing the sdb2 disk, I'm pretty sure it was showing the nvme before. We are discussing this on the Linux Mint forum also: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2708261#p2708261

[thorn hatch]

I mean it works fine booting in Linux and Windows, but is strange. I will leave it for now, will see if it will make problems. I guess the boot repair tool messed something.

[maiden burrow]

The boot repair tool fixes any boot errors. Windows will take priority over the motherboard, ergo the boot process. It will regard any additional OSes as a mistake and try remove, or block them from the BIOS.