SOS = just can't install StartOS on Optiplex 7040 - systematic "No Bootable Devices found" error

StartOS Support
1

am facing a persistent “No Bootable Devices found” error when trying to install and boot StartOS 0.3.5.1 (x86_64) on my Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF with a Samsung SSD 870.

All preparatory steps, including creating bootable USBs (GParted, StartOS, Ubuntu), have been performed on a Mac. I have meticulously configured my Dell’s BIOS for UEFI booting: Boot Mode is UEFI, Secure Boot is Disabled, UEFI Boot Path Security is Disabled, and Legacy Option ROMs is Enabled.

I’ve also used GParted Live (booted in UEFI mode on the Dell) to completely wipe the SSD and confirm it has a GPT partition table with a correctly identified EFI System Partition (ESP) at /dev/sda2 (FAT32, ~1GB, with ‘boot’ and ‘esp’ flags).

I’ve attempted both automatic StartOS installation (ensuring the USB installer itself boots in UEFI mode via F12 menu) and manual UEFI boot option creation in the BIOS (pointing to /EFI/ubuntu/shimx64.efi and /EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi within HD(2,GPT,…)). Despite all these efforts, the system consistently returns “No Bootable Devices found” after installation.

==> Crucially, a full installation of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (x86_64) on the same Dell hardware, with the exact same BIOS settings, successfully installs and boots in UEFI mode without issue, definitively confirming the hardware and basic UEFI setup are functional.

Given this context:

  1. Considering Ubuntu boots successfully, what specific aspects of the StartOS UEFI bootloader implementation (e.g., GRUB version, signed EFI binaries, NVRAM registration method) might be incompatible with Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF firmware?

  2. Are there any known Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF BIOS quirks related to custom/non-standard UEFI boot entries, or specific efibootmgr commands (from an Ubuntu Live USB) that could force registration of the StartOS bootloader if the installer isn’t handling it?

  3. Has anyone successfully installed StartOS (or another niche distro using a similar boot chain) on a Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF, and if so, were there any specific steps or BIOS settings beyond the standard ones required for proper UEFI boot?

  4. Is it plausible that the StartOS installer is placing the .efi files in an unexpected location within the ESP, or that the files themselves are missing/corrupted despite the ESP showing used space? If so, what tools from an Ubuntu Live environment could help inspect the ESP’s contents to verify the \EFI\ubuntu (or \EFI\StartOS) directory structure and the presence of bootloader files?

2

It might be the UEFI firmware having a problem discovering/registering the EFI file paths (and StartOS doesn’t create a fallback at /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFII).

I posted a fix/hack for a different device which had a similar problem over here. Might be worth a try.

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3

thanks a lot. I am not that technical but I will give it a try today.

How do I access Terminal ? (because once I reboot with USB stick in, it will propose to re-download the flashed OS on the SSD)

thx again

4

After installation of StartOS, he’s booting into live Linux Mint, and using the terminal there. You can find it in the Mint menu.

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5

The process is to flash a new USB thumb drive with Linux Mint, Ubuntu, or any other Linux distro that you fancy (I prefer Mint). After you complete the StartOS installation using the StartOS USB thumb drive, it will tell you to remove the thumb drive and reboot. At this point, remove the StartOS thumb drive and insert the Linux USB thumb drive (plus a keyboard, mouse, and monitor if you don’t have them hooked up yet). Then reboot, which will load up a Linux desktop. From there, you can run the Terminal. If you use Linux Mint, simply click on the “lm” logo at the bottom-left of the screen and search for “terminal”.

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6

Hello StartOS Community,

I’m having a persistent issue installing StartOS on my Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF and consistently getting “No Bootable Devices found” after installation completes. I’ve tried reinstalling multiple times, and many hours of trouble shooting with no success. the problem persists. I bought the hardware for nothing it seems.

My Hardware & BIOS:

  • System: Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF
  • SSD: Samsung SSD 870 4TB (/dev/sda )
  • BIOS Version: 1.24.0 (latest)
  • BIOS Settings: UEFI mode enabled, Secure Boot disabled. (Note: My Dell BIOS initially only recognized my USB installer when in “Legacy” mode, even for UEFI-formatted media. I’d switch back to UEFI after booting the installer).

Problem Description:

The StartOS automated installer consistently reports a successful installation to the SSD. However, upon rebooting, the system fails to find a bootable device, leading to the “No Bootable Devices found” error.

Detailed Troubleshooting Steps & Observations (using GParted Live):

  1. Disk Preparation:
  • The 4TB SSD (/dev/sda ) was completely wiped with a GPT partition table.
  1. Automated StartOS Installation:
  • I’ve tried numerous automated installations, selecting the entire SSD for StartOS. Each time, the installer finished without apparent errors, but the system wouldn’t boot.
  1. Partition Layout After Installation (Observed via GParted Live):
  • /dev/sda1 : FAT16 (around 100MB-512MB), with boot and esp flags correctly set. (Note: FAT16 is unusual for ESP, typically FAT32 is expected).
  • /dev/sda2 : FAT32 (around 1GB), with msftdata flag. (Note: This seems to be acting as the /boot partition, but is FAT32 instead of the more common ext4 for /boot ). GParted refused to set only the boot flag without also setting esp on this partition, so I left it with msftdata .
  • /dev/sda3 : BTRFS, occupying the majority of the disk, sometimes showing lvm flags.
  1. EFI Bootloader Files Inspection (/dev/sda1 ):
  • Booted into GParted Live.
  • Mounted /dev/sda1 (EFI partition) to /mnt/efi .
  • Ran ls -l /mnt/efi/EFI/startos/ .
  • Result: Confirmed presence of essential bootloader files: BOOTX64.CSV , fbx64.efi , grub.cfg , grubx64.efi , mmx64.efi , shimx64.efi .
  • Conclusion: The bootloader binaries are indeed being placed on the EFI partition.
  1. Attempted Chroot for GRUB Repair (Failure):
  • After mounting /dev/sda3 to /mnt , /dev/sda2 to /mnt/boot , /dev/sda1 to /mnt/boot/efi , and binding /dev , /proc , /sys , /run . (Confirmed all these mounts via mount | grep "/mnt" were successful).
  • Attempted sudo chroot /mnt /bin/bash .
  • Error: chroot: failed to run command '/bin/bash': No such file or directory
  • Further checks: ls -l /mnt/bin/bash and ls -l /mnt/usr/bin/bash both reported “No such file or directory”. Even ls -l /mnt/bin/sh or /mnt/usr/bin/sh failed.
  1. Core OS Files Missing/Inaccessible:
  • Ran ls -F /mnt/ to inspect the contents of what should be the StartOS root filesystem (/dev/sda3 ).
  • Observed Directories: boot/ , config/ , current/ , dev/ , efi/ , next/ , proc/ , run/ , sys/ .
  • Critical finding: Missing crucial Linux root directories like bin/ , etc/ , lib/ , sbin/ , usr/ , var/ . This suggests the core OS files are either not being fully installed to /dev/sda3 or are placed within a BTRFS subvolume that’s not being mounted as the root.
  1. Live Environment sudo/PTY Issues:
  • I’ve also encountered sudo: unable to allocate pty: No such device errors when trying sudo umount /mnt/dev/pts or sudo -i in the GParted Live environment. This required rebooting GParted Live to clear.

My Hypothesis:

It appears the StartOS installer is correctly placing the EFI bootloader files, but it’s consistently failing to install the full core operating system files onto the /dev/sda3 (BTRFS) partition, or it’s installing them into a BTRFS subvolume that isn’t properly detected/mounted as the system root by the boot process. This means even if GRUB were to start, there’s no complete OS for it to load.

Request for Assistance:

Has anyone encountered this specific issue with Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF systems or similar scenarios where the core OS files are seemingly incomplete after an automated StartOS installation (especially with BTRFS)?

Any guidance on how to properly identify and mount the correct BTRFS subvolume as root, or alternative methods to get a full StartOS installation working on this hardware, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for your time and help!

7

Given all the troubleshooting we’ve done, including multiple attempts to reinstall StartOS and manually configure the boot environment, here’s a summary of the persistent problem preventing your Dell OptiPlex 7040 SFF from booting from the SSD:

Summary of the Boot Problem

The core issue is a “No Bootable Devices found” error when trying to start StartOS from your SSD. This is a complex problem with several layers:

  1. Initial UEFI USB Boot Issues: Your Dell OptiPlex’s BIOS initially had trouble recognizing or booting from UEFI-formatted USB drives, forcing you to use “Legacy” mode to even start the GParted Live environment. This hinted at firmware-level difficulties with UEFI booting, even though your BIOS is updated.
  2. StartOS Installer Inconsistencies & Failures:
  • Automated Installation Failure: The StartOS automated installer consistently reports success, but the system still won’t boot. This indicates the installer isn’t properly registering the boot entry with your UEFI firmware or correctly setting up all boot components.
  • Unexpected Partitioning: We observed the installer created an EFI System Partition (/dev/sda1) as FAT16 (instead of the standard FAT32) and a /boot partition (/dev/sda2) as FAT32 (instead of the expected ext4). While these aren’t always fatal, they are non-standard.
  • BTRFS Root & LVM: The main operating system partition (/dev/sda3) uses BTRFS, and there’s a separate LVM data partition (/dev/sda4). This is a more complex setup that requires precise GRUB configuration to locate the kernel within these file systems.
  1. Bootloader Files Present, But Not Executable/Found:
  • Crucially, we successfully located the necessary EFI bootloader files (shimx64.efi, grubx64.efi, grub.cfg) in /mnt/efi/EFI/startos/ on your /dev/sda1 (EFI System Partition). This means the files themselves are physically on the disk.
  • The /dev/sda1 (EFI) partition also has the correct boot and esp flags, which are essential for UEFI to find it.
  1. The Core Problem: Incomplete StartOS Installation on the SSD:
  • Despite the bootloader files being present, our attempts to chroot into your installed StartOS system consistently failed with “No such file or directory” errors for /bin/bash or /usr/bin/bash.
  • Further investigation (ls -F /mnt/) revealed that the /mnt directory (where your /dev/sda3 StartOS root partition is mounted) does not contain a complete Linux root filesystem. It’s missing fundamental directories like bin/, etc/, lib/, sbin/, usr/, and var/. Instead, it shows directories like boot/, config/, current/, efi/, next/, proc/, run/, and sys/, which are more indicative of a minimal boot environment or a specific BTRFS subvolume, rather than the full OS.

Why It Prevents Booting

The combination of these issues leads to the “No Bootable Devices found” error because:

  • Missing OS Core: Even if GRUB could start, it has no complete operating system to hand off to. The essential programs (bash, system libraries, configuration files) that make up StartOS are simply not present in their expected locations on /dev/sda3.
  • GRUB’s Confusion: GRUB relies on update-grub to scan the installed OS and generate its configuration (grub.cfg). If the core OS files are missing or in an unusual BTRFS subvolume not properly detected, update-grub cannot correctly build the boot menu entries to load your kernel and initramfs from /dev/sda2 and the root filesystem from /dev/sda3 (especially if it’s within LVM).
  • UEFI Firmware Not Registering/Prioritizing: Even if GRUB files are there, the UEFI firmware on your Dell OptiPlex might not be correctly discovering and registering the “StartOS” boot entry, or it might be prioritizing other (non-existent) boot entries. However, this is secondary to the missing OS files.

In essence, you have the bootloader (GRUB) files ready on the EFI partition, but the actual StartOS installation that GRUB is supposed to load is incomplete or fundamentally corrupted on your main SSD partitions. Without a complete operating system, nothing can boot.

Given that repeated reinstallations haven’t resolved this, it suggests a persistent issue with how the StartOS installer writes files to your specific hardware configuration, or perhaps an underlying issue with the StartOS installation media itself.

8

update to my problem.

Thanks to @ [paulscode] (Profile - paulscode - Start9 Community) (you rock !!!) I adapted his solution to the Dell Optiplex 7040 , and StartOS is finally installed and booting easily.

Gratitude (:slight_smile:

here is the version of the procedure adapted to DELL machines for people who will encounter the same issue :

Based on the provided information about your OptiPlex partitions, here is an adapted version of the tutorial with the bash commands separated.

Adapted Tutorial for Your OptiPlex

Please note: This tutorial assumes your OptiPlex has a similar boot issue where it doesn’t recognize the bootloader after installation. The key difference in your setup is the split EFI System Partition (/dev/sda1) and a separate boot partition (/dev/sda2). This tutorial will focus on the EFI partition, as that’s where the bootloader files need to be.

You’ll need a keyboard, mouse, and monitor temporarily, along with a bootable Linux USB thumb drive (like Ubuntu).

Step 1:

Complete the initial StartOS installation process. When the OptiPlex reboots, it won’t launch StartOS. We’ll fix this in the following steps.

Step 2:

Attach the keyboard, mouse, and monitor, insert the Linux USB drive, and power on the OptiPlex. Boot from the USB drive.

Step 3:

Open a terminal and enter the following commands one by one. Adjust the device paths if your partitions are different than /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.

# Mount the EFI System Partition (/dev/sda1)
sudo mount /dev/sda1 /mnt

# Make a folder under EFI called "BOOT"
sudo mkdir /mnt/EFI/BOOT

# Copy shimx64.efi as BOOTX64.EFI
sudo cp /mnt/EFI/startos/shimx64.efi /mnt/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI

# Copy mmx64.efi
sudo cp /mnt/EFI/startos/mmx64.efi /mnt/EFI/BOOT/

# Copy grubx64.efi
sudo cp /mnt/EFI/startos/grubx64.efi /mnt/EFI/BOOT/

# Create grub.cfg
sudo nano /mnt/EFI/BOOT/grub.cfg

Enter just the following two lines into the nano editor:

search --no-floppy --file /EFI/startos/grub.cfg --set=esp
configfile ($esp)/EFI/startos/grub.cfg

Then save the file by pressing Ctrl+X, then Y, and then Enter.

# Make sure writes are finished
sync

# Unmount the EFI partition
sudo umount /mnt

Step 4:

Reboot the computer. StartOS should now launch.

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9

Excellent. Glad it worked out for you.

BTW, that LLM’s summary of the problem was a bit off, eh? :laughing:

At least it did identify the problem (though it is buried in there):

In short, the “fix” (hack?) is to place your bootloader at /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI – that path is hard‑coded in the UEFI spec as the “removable‑media fallback,” so virtually every firmware will look there automatically when no explicit boot entry is found.

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10

Thank you for this thorough report! I’ve added the 7040 to the known working hardware list.

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