Lost systemd boot after BIOS update

Issues & Assistance
1

Could someone please give me a clear step by step guide on restoring the systemd boot menu.

I have tried everything with zero success.
I have an MSI motherboard and I’m aware they don’t play nicely with linux.

My setup is a dual boot windows 11 & CachyOS (systemd boot & ext4 KDE Plasma) on seperate devices.

Things I have tried.
I have run cachy-chroot, selected /dev/nvme3n1p2: FS: ext4 then run bootctl install.
I have run cachy-chroot, selected /dev/nvme3n1p2: FS: ext4 & /dev/nvme3n1p1: FS: vfat then run bootctl install.

I have tried both above combinations followed by sdboot-manage gen which just returns me to the prompt
I have tried various combinations including pacman -Syu linux-cachyos linux-cachyos-headers.

I cannot figure it out and everytime I have a BIOS update I am forced to reinstall Cachyos because of it…

2

i would check the BIOS settings, maybe something has changed

3

Hi,

You need to go into cachy-chroot and run “sudo bootctl install”. Also, check which output youre getting.

4

These are the steps I took

1 Booted into cachyos live iso
2 ran sudo su to enter the root user within the live ISO
3 ran cachy-chroot
In the “Select the block device for the root partition (use arrow keys)”
I selected Partition: /dev/nvme3n1p2: FS: ext4 UUID

In the "Do you want to mount additional partitions? (y/n)"
I selected yes, entered /boot and selected Partition: /dev/nvme3n1p1: FS: vfat UUID
In the "Do you want to mount additional partitions? (y/n)"
I selected no which returned
    Info: Chrooting into the configured root partition...
    Info: To exit the chroot, type 'exit' or press Ctrl+D
    [root@CachyOS /]#

4 At the above prompt I ran the comand sudo bootctl install which returned
opied “/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi” to “/boot/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi”.
Copied “/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi” to “/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI”.
:warning: Mount point ‘/boot’ which backs the random seed file is world accessible, which is a security hole! :warning:
:warning: Random seed file ‘/boot/loader/random-seed’ is world accessible, which is a security hole! :warning:
Random seed file /boot/loader/random-seed successfully refreshed (32 bytes).
[root@CachyOS /]#

5 I entered exit twice to exit chroot and then root user, closed the terminal and rebooted

I think in hindsight I actually had it working before but wasn’t aware because when I install a fresh copy of cachyos, in my BIOS boot options the device is listed as a Linix boot option.
However, with the above steps it is not listed as a Linux boot option but it is there.

Thank you for your help.

5

I don’t think that actually worked, or rather it did in the previous example but I had already tried a few things so it’s possible I had already somehow fixed it or partly fixed it.

My reason for coming to that conclusion is that I have a second PC with pretty much an identical setup.

The setup is also a dual boot windows 11 & CachyOS (systemd boot & ext4 KDE Plasma) on seperate devices, it also has an MSI board though different model.

Anyway, I just updated the BIOS on that too, followed the same above steps and still no Linux device in my BIOS.

Bellow is a copy of my exact terminal entries…

[root@CachyOS liveuser]# sudo cachy-chroot

Info: Found 9 block devices

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/sda1: FS: iso9660 UUID: 2025-04-22-15-02-56-00

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/sda2: FS: vfat UUID: 6807-AFA0

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme2n1p2: FS: ntfs UUID: CE3EAAD53EAAB63D

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme0n1p1: FS: vfat UUID: DAEF-CD34

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme0n1p3: FS: ntfs UUID: C248F1A248F1957F

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme0n1p4: FS: ntfs UUID: 5C86ED8886ED634E

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme3n1p1: FS: vfat UUID: 31C3-2100

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme3n1p2: FS: ext4 UUID: 7f73a244-b9e1-4775-b35e-b090c53daaa1

Info: Found partition: Partition: /dev/nvme1n1p1: FS: BitLocker UUID: 9a2e11d7-e6bd-4d99-9993-5e9ac7eeb0b9

:check_mark: Select the block device for the root partition (use arrow keys): · Partition: /dev/nvme3n1p2: FS: ext4 UUID: 7f73a244-b9e1-4775-b35e-b090c53daaa1

Info: Mounting partition /dev/nvme3n1p2 at /tmp/cachyos-chroot-root-mount-7f73a244-b9e1-4775-b35e-b090c53daaa1-E7VJ3N with options:

Info: Mounting additional partitions based on /etc/fstab…

Info: Found 3 entries in /etc/fstab

Info: Mounting partition /dev/nvme3n1p1 at /tmp/cachyos-chroot-root-mount-7f73a244-b9e1-4775-b35e-b090c53daaa1-E7VJ3N/boot with options:

Warning: Partition UUID=7f73a244-b9e1-4775-b35e-b090c53daaa1 already mounted, skipping…

Warning: Invalid fs_spec in fstab, skipping…

Info: Finished mounting additional partitions

:check_mark: Do you want to mount additional partitions? · no

Info: Chrooting into the configured root partition…

Info: To exit the chroot, type ‘exit’ or press Ctrl+D

[root@CachyOS /]# sudo bootctl install

Copied “/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi” to “/boot/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi”.

Copied “/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi” to “/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI”.

:warning: Mount point ‘/boot’ which backs the random seed file is world accessible, which is a security hole! :warning:

:warning: Random seed file ‘/boot/loader/random-seed’ is world accessible, which is a security hole! :warning:

Random seed file /boot/loader/random-seed successfully refreshed (32 bytes).

[root@CachyOS /]#

I tried again and reinstalled the kernel while chrooted in with
sudo pacman -Syu linux-cachyos linux-cachyos-headers

That also didn’t work, there is no sign of the bootable device in the BIOS

Please note that in the end I reinstalled CachyOS and therefore won’t be able to try other ideas.
I am a long way from knowing my way around Linux but do know a little bit, I tried a lot of things that I understood and none of it worked…