Nitro 5 BIOS and Windows issues after installing Pop! over Ubuntu after creating new boot partition

eklipse

Recently, I tried to install Pop! OS on my system over my pre existing Ubuntu 22.04 installation. I have an Acer Nitro 5 with a 256 GB SSD (on which my windows is installed) and a 1TB HDD (on which I installed Pop! OS).

When installing Pop! OS, I created a new boot partition on my HDD (because my old boot partition was on the SSD and not big enough to proceed with the installation) and proceeded with choosing my /, /home, swap and /boot/efi partitions. After a successful installation, when I tried to boot, it just booted into an empty grub command line. I figured it was still trying to boot from the old boot partition on the SSD, so being the fool I am I deleted it.

I then tried to boot into the BIOS, but it just gave me a black screen with an unblinking white cursor on the top left of the screen. I tried scouring forums online and somehow I was able to enter into the BIOS.

Now I'm facing two issues. Firstly, I'm not able to see my bootable devices in the BIOS menu. There is a single entry with the number 2. and no text in it. I can't change it or move it: 

Secondly, my windows installation broke. When I try to boot into windows (using the systemd-boot entry I added using bcdboot) it gives me

The Boot Configuration Data file doesn't contain valid information for an operating system
File: \BCD
Error Code: 0xc0000098

Note: I am able to see the windows boot manager and the Pop! OS boot entry when I hold f12 and try to boot, and my Pop! OS installation works smoothly (I can login, run the browser, etc.)

Edit: I tried to reinstall Pop! OS and now I can't load the BIOS. Again.

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

eklipse

New edit, I'm able to boot into BIOS again

Alejandro_AC

Thanks for commenting on it.
All the best.

billsey

Yes, we have seen issues with Pop!_OS just like this. They do something in the UEFI boot configuration that removes all wait times typically allowed for tasks like pressing a BIOS entry key. So if you don't already have the keypress queued you can't get in to change anything. :(

eklipse

I'm able to get into BIOS, and I can hold f2 to do so. I can also hold f12 to get into the boot manager to choose which boot manager I want to start, the issue is I can't seem to choose the default order of boot managers from the BIOS.

billsey

When you use the F12 boot menu, is it in grub or Windows Boot Manager? There are different procedure for editing the UEFI launch points for each, and that's where you are going to set the default and whether you get to choose by default or choose only with the F12.

eklipse

Neither, it's the boot menu in acer. It looks similar to this:

The main issue is I can't change this order from the BIOS because I can't see any boot devices in BIOS.

billsey

So that is showing Windows Boot Manager as the EFI manager that gives the boot points. Since your Windows installation is broken you can't just drop into Windows and edit the EFI list. You may be able to use a UEFI boot editor like this one.

eklipse

Thank you for helping me, but I decided to revert back to Ubuntu after recreating my old boot partition on my SSD and everything seems to work now. Seems like Pop! OS was the issue after all.