Qubes 4.2 error: Failed to remove old efi boot entry.

[ale...@magenta.de]

In my fresh install of 4.2 this error appeared.

> The following error occurred while installing the boot loader. The
system will not be bootable.
> Would you like to ignore this and continue with installation?
> Failed to remove old efi boot entry. This is most likely a kernel or
firmware bug.

I ignored this and I was able to boot 4.2 with rEFInd so I have no
problem. But it would be nice to understand why this happens and how to
fix it.

[Neil du Preez]

You might have a setting in your BIOS that prevents boot entries from
being removed.

I once had the opposite error where the installer failed to create the
entry. Adding an entry manually with efibootmgr didn't work initially
either, I had to clear the CMOS before I could add an entry. It also
turned out that the efibootmgr command in this section of the docs is
outdated:

https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/uefi-troubleshooting/#installation-finished-but-qubes-boot-option-is-missing-and-xencfg-is-empty--installation-fails-with-failed-to-set-new-efi-boot-target

The .efi file path was different and the "placeholder /mapbs /noexitboot"
part wasn't needed in my case.

Luckily I had another working Qubes machine where I could dump a working
efibootmgr entry and configure the machine accordingly:

Boot0001* Qubes OS HD(1,GPT,REDACTED,REDACTED,REDACTED)/File(\EFI\qubes\grubx64.efi)

I haven't had time to submit a pull request to update the docs.

[ale...@magenta.de]

Neil du Preez:

> On 2024-02-24 16:02, ale...@magenta.de wrote:
>> In my fresh install of 4.2 this error appeared.
>>
>>> The following error occurred while installing the boot loader. The system
>> will not be bootable.
>>> Would you like to ignore this and continue with installation?
>>> Failed to remove old efi boot entry. This is most likely a kernel or
>> firmware bug.
>>

>> But it would be nice to understand why this happens and how to fix it.
>
> You might have a setting in your BIOS that prevents boot entries from
> being removed.
>

I think you are right, there is the option "boot order lock" enabled in
the BIOS. I will try to use efibootmanager to fix this after I have
disabled this setting.

Thank you for the suggestion!