struggling to boot into my mint usb | Linux Mint Community🍵 | Page 1

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 8:48 PM

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hi! running a framework laptop and the mint installation i have on one of my usb cards is not booting, so i thought i'd try to boot into a live environment and run boot-repair on it. on the mint cinnamon 22.3 iso, i'm having trouble installing the ppa:yannubuntu/boot-repair because trying to add the apt repository is saying that "this PPA does not support noble" even though on the ubuntu site (https://launchpad.net/~yannubuntu/+archive/ubuntu/boot-repair) it clearly does. what should i do?

Launchpad

Boot-Repair : YannUbuntu

Simple tool to repair frequent boot problems.

Website: https://sourceforge.net/p/boot-repair/home

low whale May 4, 2026, 8:52 PM

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undone jetty hi! running a framework laptop and the mint installation i have on one of my usb...

Boot repair is already on the Mint ISO, don't allow it to attempt to update as ppa.launchpad.net doesn't seem to respond now

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 8:52 PM

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oh!! i see it! thank you!

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ive not used this before - what should i expect to see or do after running it?

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might i still have to resort to updating grub via mounting the drive in the live iso?

low whale May 4, 2026, 8:53 PM

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You could use it to create a summary report and post the URL here

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You installed Mint to a USB drive?

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 8:54 PM

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i'll post the url when it's done updating/running!

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i did, yes - one of these https://frame.work/ca/en/products/storage-expansion-card-2nd-gen

Framework

Storage (2nd Gen) Expansion Card

Ultra high speed storage, available in two capacities. With a USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, both the 1TB (2nd Gen) and 250GB (2nd Gen) cards reach 1000 MB/s read and 800 MB/s write speeds. Both are fast enough to run apps and even boot an operating system from, and you can plug them into other computers

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 8:56 PM

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undone jetty i'll post the url when it's done updating/running!

run lsblk -f while you're at it , in terminal, and show result. make sure terminal is wide first

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 8:56 PM

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low whale You could use it to create a summary report and post the URL here

https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/Kr2wcsbD6t

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 8:58 PM

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or lsblk -o name,model,label,fstype,size,partuuid,mountpoint

low whale May 4, 2026, 8:58 PM

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The USB may be dead

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 8:58 PM

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cedar smelt run `lsblk -f` while you're at it , in terminal, and show result. make sure term...

oh dear - my live media froze LOL but it's sda1 as ext4

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for real? it's fairly new too...

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 8:58 PM

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show full result. reboot to live or real OS if needed

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if your real OS is Linux, anyway

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 8:58 PM

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let me pull it up on nobara

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 8:59 PM

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cedar smelt or `lsblk -o name,model,label,fstype,size,partuuid,mountpoint`

yeah, show this one.

low whale May 4, 2026, 8:59 PM

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cedar smelt show full result. reboot to live or real OS if needed

If you want to see the boot repair summary https://dpaste.com/94GBG72MZ

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 8:59 PM

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ensure your modular cardreader this is firmly plugged in, and wit card in it

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 8:59 PM

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cedar smelt yeah, show this one.

@undone jetty

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thanks jeremy

low whale May 4, 2026, 9:01 PM

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All I see is a NVME with Nobara/Fedora and Windows and the other drive is most likely the Mint ISO

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:01 PM

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guessing sda is the Nobara drive

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:01 PM

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it is not

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:02 PM

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anyway the report is very cluttered and i dont feel like sifting.

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so show the line I put. i just edited it

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:02 PM

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cedar smelt or `lsblk -o name,model,label,fstype,size,partuuid,mountpoint`

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undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:03 PM

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yep yep, just a sec

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NAME        MODEL             FSTYPE   SIZE PARTUUID                             MOUNTPOINT
sda         250GB Card               232.9G                                      
├─sda1                        ext4   203.1G f0bea170-01                          
├─sda2                                   1K f0bea170-02                          
└─sda5                        swap    29.8G f0bea170-05                          
zram0                         swap       8G                                      [SWAP]
nvme0n1     WD Blue SN570 1TB        931.5G                                      
├─nvme0n1p1                   vfat     100M b4918bb4-6de7-417b-acd1-5a2d12894a52 /boot/efi
├─nvme0n1p2                             16M 79a725f8-0580-4db3-89e9-35e9c8d4022a 
├─nvme0n1p3                   ntfs   306.6G e89edb75-eaf9-46df-a18a-9aef539a73ff 
├─nvme0n1p4                   ntfs     746M 4703c6c8-3435-42c7-a9ae-e7d215b01bbd 
├─nvme0n1p5                   ext4       2G 0cbd406a-8e69-438c-9ce2-397ae8df9370 /boot
└─nvme0n1p6                   btrfs  622.1G 8a599c4f-b57f-4032-a201-b11a12385e77 /home```

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:05 PM

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low whale May 4, 2026, 9:05 PM

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/dev/sda must be where Mint was

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:05 PM

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that lines up with my understanding, yes

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:05 PM

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ya model says 250 GB Card

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however, there's no EFI partition on it

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open up kde partition manager.

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select sda

low whale May 4, 2026, 9:06 PM

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sudo parted -l

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:06 PM

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shit i dont have spectacle/screenshot program on this install

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:06 PM

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best way to fix this is either turn off the nvme port in BIOS, or unplug the card. or fix the module on a different pc with easily unpluggable other drives

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boot live stick, and after having made an efi partition on the 250 gig, u run boot repair

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:07 PM

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low whale `sudo parted -l`

this should be the relevant data:

Disk /dev/sda: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size    Type      File system     Flags
 1      1049kB  218GB  218GB   primary   ext4
 2      218GB   250GB  32.0GB  extended                  lba
 5      218GB   250GB  32.0GB  logical   linux-swap(v1)  swap```

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:08 PM

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there's no efi

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:08 PM

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yeah... i wonder what happened to it ?_?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:08 PM

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either boot thing thing in legacy mode (if framework has CSM) or redo the install or move stuff around

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:08 PM

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oh. i know what probably happened

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:08 PM

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undone jetty yeah... i wonder what happened to it ?_?

the mint loader is lying on your source computer

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wherever u made it.

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SURPRISE!!!

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:09 PM

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when i installed mint on the drive, it probably put everything it needed for booting on my nvme

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i wiped my nvme recently

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:09 PM

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i'd say give this a shot with kde partition manager

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and get spectacle

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:09 PM

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which is not how i expected that install to work

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let me grab it really quick

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:11 PM

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Boot0000* Fedora    HD(1,GPT,b4918bb4-6de7-417b-acd1-5a2d12894a52,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\fedora\shim.efi) File(.䍒)
Boot0001* Fedora    HD(1,GPT,b4918bb4-6de7-417b-acd1-5a2d12894a52,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\fedora\shimx64.efi)
Boot0002* Windows Boot Manager    HD(1,GPT,b4918bb4-6de7-417b-acd1-5a2d12894a52,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)57494```

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:12 PM

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cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:12 PM

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those three entries, and only those three, boot from the nvme ESP currently

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:12 PM

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makes sense

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the entry for mint was lost when i wiped the nvme

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:12 PM

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do you want to redo or take time to move a partition on this card?

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:13 PM

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i'd like to not lose what i have on the drive

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so we can try to resize partition and stuff as necessary on the drive?

low whale May 4, 2026, 9:13 PM

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29.8G of swap?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:13 PM

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I suggest a 200 MiB EFI System partition (fat32) at the start of this drive (250 gig drive)

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:13 PM

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yeah i have no idea lol

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that's just what it auto-set up

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:14 PM

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unmount sda1

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then run swapon -s to be sure only nvme swap is in play, if any at all

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:15 PM

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is it umount /dev/sda1 to unmount?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:15 PM

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u can just r-click in the kde ptn mgr

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should have unmount option. r-click the lock icon

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:15 PM

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gotcha, unmounted

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Filename                Type        Size        Used        Priority
/dev/zram0                              partition    8388604        0        100```

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:16 PM

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delete the swap inside the extended partition

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:16 PM

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okie, it's unallocated

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:16 PM

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delete the extended partition

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:16 PM

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done

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:17 PM

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right click sda1 and choose move.

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then show the dialog box

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:17 PM

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i should just drag it over to the end of the space?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:17 PM

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u couild but id rather see it first, untouched

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:17 PM

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cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:18 PM

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put in the 'free space before' 300 MiB

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and press Tab once

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then hit ok, and show pic

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:19 PM

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cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:19 PM

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looks proper. now find the apply button and let it work

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

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cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

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may take a while since over 50 MiB of data has to shift.

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

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seems right

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

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yes click apply

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

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do we need to recreate the swap after?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:20 PM

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later, make a few gigs swap partition at the very end of drive. dont need extended partition

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:21 PM

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undone jetty do we need to recreate the swap after?

yes, and edit that sda1 OS's fstab file

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what's on sda1, Mint?

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:21 PM

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yep!

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:22 PM

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it will fail to boot if u leave the old swap UUID in there

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:22 PM

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makes sense, so just provide the fstab the new one from lsblk

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:22 PM

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so make sure to open the correct fstab.. (in /etc/ of sda1)

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and change it to the new swap's UUID of new swap partition

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you'll still need to do boot repair with manual options , to force a GRUB install onto this new EFI partition that hasn't yet been made, but will be

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once sda1 has moved, right click the 300 MiB free space and do new partition : primary, Fat32 , label: ESP_Portable

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and flag it with esp and boot flags.

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best put the flags with gparted from live environment

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:25 PM

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okay! so after this moving operation finishes

create extended partition to fill the space at the end of the drive
create linuxswap partition under that extended partition
grab the uuid from lsblk -f
edit sda1's /etc/fstab to use that new uuid for its swap
run boot repair and use the manual options to write a new grub install into that 300mb efi patition

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:26 PM

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nah i said u dont NEED an extended partition

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but if u want i guess u can

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:26 PM

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i dont really know why it's there

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like i said it was probably automatic

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:27 PM

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undone jetty okay! so after this moving operation finishes - create `extended` partition to f...

before any of this, make the Fat 32 one i mentioned

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:27 PM

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gotcha!

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:27 PM

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cedar smelt best put the flags with gparted from live environment

what do you mean by this?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:28 PM

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the live boot with the boot repair tool. it should have gparted app

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:28 PM

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undone jetty this should be the relevant data: ```Model: FRMW 250GB Card (scsi) Disk /dev/sda...

and in terms of flags specifically for the swap stuff, could i just copy what it has here?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:29 PM

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no

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no flags to mess with

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:29 PM

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oh ok - just make the partitions and its good to go as a swap

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:29 PM

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just sudo blkid and get the new UUID for the new swap

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:30 PM

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undone jetty oh ok - just make the partitions and its good to go as a swap

you must choose 'linux swap' as a formatting option

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you may want to consider turning off the NVME in the UEFI storage/advanced settings. before booting live

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so that the grub repair ONLY sees linux mint

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:32 PM

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yeah i can try that! the moving process just finished so let me create the EFI partition

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:33 PM

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cedar smelt once sda1 has moved, right click the 300 MiB free space and do new partition : ...

ESP_Portable is one character too long for the naming field, but it's just a label so it shouldn't matter, right?

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cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:35 PM

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yes

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:36 PM

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and now i can make an extended linuxswap partition at the end and set the new uuid in fstab

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and then restart into the live environment for the grub repair

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does only root have permissions for the extended partition or does everyone?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:37 PM

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BIOS: nvme off
liv: esp and boot flag for new esp
boot repair:advanced> grub location

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 9:38 PM

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i would assume only root, right?

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 9:38 PM

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g2g

undone jetty May 4, 2026, 10:00 PM

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cedar smelt g2g

https://dpaste.com/8GMULMFLH this is the output of boot repair, it says it was successful (also "Locked-NVram detected, please do not forget to make your UEFI firmware boot on the sda2/efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi")

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but it seems successful!! i booted without my nvme in and it went into GRUB, and although it's misnamed ("Ubuntu" instead of Linux Mint Xia whatever) it booted into the install!! thank you so mnuch @cedar smelt 🩷

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and thank you @low whale as well for earlier diagnostics!!

low whale May 4, 2026, 10:06 PM

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Good to see it works again

cedar smelt May 4, 2026, 10:31 PM

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undone jetty https://dpaste.com/8GMULMFLH this is the output of boot repair, it says it was s...

good, if you're in mint now on sda, then check that swap is active there. swapon -s

undone jetty May 5, 2026, 9:19 PM

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cedar smelt good, if you're in mint now on sda, then check that swap is active there. `swa...

seems to be detected at least - the command lists the correct partition with the correct size, used 0 priority -2

cedar smelt May 5, 2026, 9:20 PM

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good.

undone jetty May 5, 2026, 9:21 PM

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thanks so much for all y'alls help!

#struggling to boot into my mint usb