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XPS 13 9360, latest updates broke restart, dual boot
Hi all,
This is my first post here.
I have an XPS 13 9360, and had a dual boot Win 10 Home and Linux Mint system running fine (albeit because of WiFi driver issues, I had to go with 32-bit Linux and Legacy Boot to get Grub working).
Now, after a recent set of Dell updates, most notably the December 12th BIOS update (v.2.4.2), Grub was deleted and I could only boot into Windows. After managing to repair Grub using a Linux Live USB, I got Grub back and thought everything was fine (using UEFI now). However...
If I am in Windows 10 and choose to Restart, the Grub entry in the BIOS gets deleted again!!! I have to obviously then run through the whole process with a Live USB to get it re-installed.
What is more, after Windows exits, a while a dell SupportAssist screen will show, which runs some ePSA Pre-boot Assessment [4304.32], saying that a hard drive cannot be found.
The hard drive seems to work fine, and also there is no problem with Grub with the Windows Shutdown, so the fact that a hard drive can't be found on reboot is weird, potentially some driver bug?
The issue may be related to Windows 10 updates happening in parallel, but I cannot be sure.
Unfortunately, I tried to downgrade the BIOS firmware to an older version, only to be kindly informed that this is not allowed, so, thanks for that, I'm now stuck with an irreversible firmware update!
I have already wasted 2 days with this, when I just wanted my laptop to work as it was set up a few week ago, and was working fine for a year. Things like this make me hesitant to ever run any useless Dell/Windows updates again!
Has anyone had the same issue, or have any clue as to what is going on?
Latest XPS BIOS updates 2.4.2 & 2.5 will cause rebooting issues, and overwrite GRUB if you are using it for a Linux dual-boot system.
Over a month later and still no fix. As I also mentioned, downgrading the BIOS firmware to an older version is not possible.
Thanks Dell Update, for breaking a previously perfectly working system and not allowing a BIOS downgrade!
The recent BIOS update also stopped my XPS15 from booting with GRUB. I was able to restore GRUB by entering the BOOT MENU (i.e. holding the F12 key down when DELL flashed on the screen while booting the computer). From the BOOT MENU, I was able to select the GRUB MENU after a bit of trial and error since the GRUB MENU was named after the USB stick I had used to install Ubuntu Linux rather than being called GRUB. Once I was in Linux, I was able to fix GRUB by running the following command: sudo grub-install.
Before the update, I also had a problem in which I couldn't Shutdown my computer from Windows, although I was able to Restart and enter GRUB. To fix this problem, I had to turn off the FAST STARTUP option in Windows. The following is one way of finding the FAST STARTUP option:
Settings->System->Power & sleep: Additional power settings
Choose what the power buttons do->Change settings that are currently unavailable:
unselect "Turn on fast startup (recommended)"
select "Save changes"I was able to restore GRUB as well, but if I restart in Windows it is deleted again.
One option of course is to avoid restarting, which is OK until Windows decides to install updates ...
My current solution is moving Linux to a VM, which works, but not as well.
I had the same issue on my XPS 9550. I fixed it with the help of this thread. It's so disappointing. I love my XPS, but these Linux-related issues are disheartening. I go to a lot of It&Tech conferences and I see a lot of ppl with XPS laptops there. And guess what? They never use Windows unless they are .NET engineers! This is an amazing machine and is a great match for Tech professionals. Dell should really pay more attention to Linux support.
Anyway, to sum it up: what worked for me is:
1) Add another boot option in the Boot Sequence in BIOS
2) Disable Secure Boot
3) Save & Reload
Its_Luisky
1 Message
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Posted December 29th, 2017 05:00
Hi, this is my first post here as well,
I ran into the same issue 2 times since the 2.4.2 bios update, with the same ePSA 4304.32.
Unfortunately I don't know what causes the grub entry to be wiped like this, but I can confirm that it happened when I rebooted from windows.