Unable to delete UEFI boot entry, I/O error.
by camorri from LinuxQuestions.org on (#518HV)
I get an I/O error when trying to delete Boot0006 with efibootmgr.
First of all, here is the output from efibootmgr:
Code:efibootmgr
Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0006": Input/output error
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0006,0007,0002,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* Slackware HD(1,GPT,b2ebd023-9462-4851-b11a-ce338b85ed1d,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Slackware\elilo.efi)
Boot0002 UEFI: HTTP IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)/Uri()..BO
Boot0003 UEFI: PXE IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0004 UEFI: HTTP IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)/Uri()..BO
Boot0005 UEFI: PXE IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive BBS(CDROM,,0x0)..GO..NO........u.H.L.-.D.T.-.S.T. .D.V.D.R.A.M. .G.H.2.4.N.S.C.0....................A.................................>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.M.K.J.8.O.9.3and the results from trying to delete Boot0006.
Code:efibootmgr -b 6 -B
Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0006": Input/output error
Could not delete variable: Input/output errorSome background. I installed a new system board, cpu, ram, and kept my two spinning rust drives, and 1 256 gig SSD drive. Each drive was bootable on the old BIOS system. I did not convert anything to GPT partitioning. EFI BIOS has CSM ( comparability mode ) set. I could boot off all three drives.
I was happy with new system. I bought a 1 tera byte NVME drive, and installed it. I installed current on it, using Live Slackware iso. That worked great.
I had a need for a drive elsewhere, and was not going to use the 500 gig disk, so I removed it. It was re-formatted and installed in another device.
So, now I have 1 spinning rust drive with current ( not GPT ) , one 256 Gig drive with Slackware 14.2, ( not GPT ) and one NVME drive with current. All three boot, this was a bit of a surprise to me, since I have one drive that will only work in UEFI mode, and two that need CSM mode to function.
When Slack 15 is released, I would like to remove the spinning rust drive, ( just not needed ) and reformat the 256 gig drive to GPT and install 15.
So, I decided it was time I learned something about UEFI. I have looked on this forum, there are a ton of posts on UEFI, I have not found out how to remove the stale entry, that I'm thinking was caused by my removing the 500 gig drive.
When I proceed with removing the one drive, and reformatting the SSD, how do I change these boot entries? How do I fix the error I have now?
The system board is a Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite.
First of all, here is the output from efibootmgr:
Code:efibootmgr
Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0006": Input/output error
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0006,0007,0002,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* Slackware HD(1,GPT,b2ebd023-9462-4851-b11a-ce338b85ed1d,0x800,0x32000)/File(\EFI\Slackware\elilo.efi)
Boot0002 UEFI: HTTP IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)/Uri()..BO
Boot0003 UEFI: PXE IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv4(0.0.0.00.0.0.0,0,0)..BO
Boot0004 UEFI: HTTP IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)/Uri()..BO
Boot0005 UEFI: PXE IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1,0x3)/Pci(0x0,0x2)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(b42e994eb18b,0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)..BO
Boot0007* CD/DVD Drive BBS(CDROM,,0x0)..GO..NO........u.H.L.-.D.T.-.S.T. .D.V.D.R.A.M. .G.H.2.4.N.S.C.0....................A.................................>..Gd-.;.A..MQ..L.M.K.J.8.O.9.3and the results from trying to delete Boot0006.
Code:efibootmgr -b 6 -B
Skipping unreadable variable "Boot0006": Input/output error
Could not delete variable: Input/output errorSome background. I installed a new system board, cpu, ram, and kept my two spinning rust drives, and 1 256 gig SSD drive. Each drive was bootable on the old BIOS system. I did not convert anything to GPT partitioning. EFI BIOS has CSM ( comparability mode ) set. I could boot off all three drives.
I was happy with new system. I bought a 1 tera byte NVME drive, and installed it. I installed current on it, using Live Slackware iso. That worked great.
I had a need for a drive elsewhere, and was not going to use the 500 gig disk, so I removed it. It was re-formatted and installed in another device.
So, now I have 1 spinning rust drive with current ( not GPT ) , one 256 Gig drive with Slackware 14.2, ( not GPT ) and one NVME drive with current. All three boot, this was a bit of a surprise to me, since I have one drive that will only work in UEFI mode, and two that need CSM mode to function.
When Slack 15 is released, I would like to remove the spinning rust drive, ( just not needed ) and reformat the 256 gig drive to GPT and install 15.
So, I decided it was time I learned something about UEFI. I have looked on this forum, there are a ton of posts on UEFI, I have not found out how to remove the stale entry, that I'm thinking was caused by my removing the 500 gig drive.
When I proceed with removing the one drive, and reformatting the SSD, how do I change these boot entries? How do I fix the error I have now?
The system board is a Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite.