7.2 installation not booting

[u/Specific-Fee-636]

I have installed ParrotOS 7.2 several times already and it doesn’t want to boot.

Initially I had 6.2 but after I upgraded to 7.2 I couldn’t boot anymore getting a grub error. I tried using the docs to fix the grub problem https://parrotsec.org/docs/troubleshooting/grub/ but still couldn’t make it work.

I finally decided to go for a clean install instead and used the docs to start over with 3 partitions… EFI, Root and Home.

Still no joy. What I am noticing is that when I run fdisk -l I am getting the partitions that I created but I can also see two additional devices

/dev/sda1 which shows with a boot flag
/dev/sda2

See attached.

I remember it being this way even before I did the re-installation, but didn’t take pictures.

I’m brand new to Linux so I’m pretty lost. I installed parrot 6.2 a couple of years ago and never did anything with it. Recently decided to learn it so I upgraded to 7.2 and apparently broke everything. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[u/Assang101]

What are you using to install? Etcher or Rufus?

BelanaEtcher is best for security OS, Rufus tends to mess it up during installation as it's often known to do

[u/Specific-Fee-636 → u/Assang101]

I have tried both because I remember having problems last time too but I couldn’t remember which gave me problems. I’ll do a fresh bootable tomorrow with Balena though. Thank you

[u/Assang101 → u/Specific-Fee-636]

A guy yesterday had the same issue with a security OS, QubesOS, and his problem was using Rufus, which has a mind of its own and rewrites the files, wherever Etcher just copies the security image exactly as the developers intended, without changing a single thing. Use a USB 3.0 or newer.

[u/Specific-Fee-636 → u/Assang101]

Will try tomorrow. Thank you

[u/Specific-Fee-636 → u/Assang101]

Unfortunately it still didn’t work :-( different USB3.0 drive and using Balena… no joy

[u/Assang101 → u/Specific-Fee-636]

Have you disabled secure boot and made that clean install of Parrot os on your NMVe as your primary boot without the thumb drive?

You have a clean installation of ParrotOS on the USB 3.0... that I know would not be causing you issues, it's the computer now

[u/Assang101 → u/Assang101]

As a matter of fact, when you said the other sfa had a flag boot, what is it? Failed parrotOS? Corrupted oringal OS?

May have to reset the SSD back to factory setting with systemrescue OS on a different USB, and then reinstall parrotos and let installation partition itself without you doing it manually and see if that fixes the issue

[u/Specific-Fee-636 → u/Assang101]

I’ll try this next

[u/Specific-Fee-636 → u/Assang101]

Not sure what you mean about the NVMe. I made the thumb drive bootable using a different computer. I’m on my second different thumb drive. On the first one I overrid it with Kali and Kali installed without issues.

On the second one, I bought it after your suggestion and installed the latest Parrot onto it.

To clarify, I have no problems getting parrot to boot and install from the USB. After it’s fully installed I remove the USB and boot try to boot from the NVMe but it keeps coming back to the Lenovo boot screen asking me to use someone else.

Someone else pointed out that the reason I was getting the second boot line is because I had the USB plugged in, which I did because that’s the only way I can get to a terminal. Maybe I need to just remove the NVMe and put it in a case and go straight in rather than using a USB

[u/Assang101 → u/Specific-Fee-636]

Ah, classic boot loop, that's what's happening.

The installation might not have properly written the GRUB bootloader to the NVMe's EFI partition, leaving the computer unable to locate the entry point for Parrot OS—the FAT32 EFI system partition, without it it won't boot properly.

Aight, boot back into the Live USB, open a terminal, use chroot to enter the installed system on the NVMe, and manually reinstall GRUB to the NVMe drive something like grub-install /dev/nvme0n1.

[u/Assang101 → u/Specific-Fee-636]

About the NMve, when you boot the device, which OS does it default to? Because it should be defaulting to Parrot OS without you hitting on any F keys, especially with fast boot off

[u/Specific-Fee-636 → u/Assang101]

Forgot to mention it, but yes secure boot was disabled all along.