EndeavorOS users have been struggling with bootloader grub problems for weeks. Now the developers want to have found a solution to the problem and are providing a new version of their distribution with the updated packages.

The developers of EndeavorOS only presented version 22.8 of their system at the beginning of September. EndeavorOS is actually a rolling release distribution. The point releases serve to update the installation media and create a track record. EndeavorOS 22.8 had a bunch of fresh software on board, including Linux 5.18.16, Mesa 22, and Vulkan 1.3. For this purpose, Chromium and Firefox were upgraded to the current versions and work was done on the in-house and lightweight window manager WORM and the alignment of the ARM and x86-64 versions of EndeavorOS.

Grub is to blame

The developers have now figured out what went wrong: Grub has been integrating a call for the command since August fwsetup --is-supported in its configuration file. For this, a current version of Grub must be installed on the affected system, its variant of fwsetup supports the parameter. Otherwise generated grub-mkconfig a configuration file that Grub can’t make any meaningful use of.

The problem only comes into play when distros after installing a new kernel grub-mkconfig call without also grub-install to start. Then fwconfig is part of the UEFI boot entry, but without calling grub-install not stored in the new variant that supports the parameter in the UEFI boot entry.

Kernel update as a trigger

Because EndeavorOS 22.8 included a new kernel, it ran here grub-mkconfigbut not grub-install. Why the new Grub version doesn’t call on many systems grub-install carried out, the developers are still investigating at the moment. The only solution for those affected is to log in via “chroot” and then grub-install to execute. This deposits the new version of fwsetup guaranteed in the UEFI boot entry and allows the system to be started normally again via grub.

Endeavor OS Nova 22.9

In order to protect other users from harm, the developers have immediately pushed a new EndeavorOS version. The operates, however, only model maintenance. X11, the Nvidia kernel driver and the Linux kernel will receive new updates, as will Firefox, the Mesa libraries and, of course, Grub. On top of that, the Calamares installer is now available in the current version 3.2.61, after a downgrade from 3.2.60 to 3.2.59 in EndeavorOS version 22.8. This was necessary because Calamares 3.2.60 had problems handling Arch Linux keyrings. The problem is now fixed.

EndeavorOS Nova 22.9 is available for download from the project’s website. If you have already installed the distribution, you can get all the packages from the package manager.