Unable to boot after 6 month of SSD outside PC

User Support
1

Back in May/2023 I lost all VMs except dom0. So I pulled an old SSD with win10 in and used my PC while qubes OS SSD sat in the package. Back in May/2023 I was able to boot into dom0 and run some qubes commands to list VMs etc.

Over these month I didnot do any bios updates.

Now I am trying to repain the VMs from Qubes SSD. I put SSD back into same PC and it is not booting. It is going to a boot loop.

Error I am seeing(two types of error depending on the item I pick in boot menu)

If command contain multiboot I am getting
no multiboot header found

If command contain multiboot2 PC gives a blank screen and reboots after printing
Loading initial ramdisk ...

Xen version 4.1.4.3
Linux kernal version: 5.10.76-1

Note: This is the only SSD in the PC and Qubes is the only OS in the SSD

2

You can edit GRUB menu entry and remove quiet from it to see if it’ll show you any related errors in the log.

3

Thanks for response. I removed the quite and I didnot get any additional messages.

module2 /vmlinuz... placeholder console=none dom0_mem=......... rhgb 
echo  `Loading initial ramdisk`
module2 --nounzip /initram-5.10.76-1.......img

So I removed the lines module2 --nounzip /initram-5.10.76-1.......img line hoping to get a prompt but it rebooted after printing Loading initial ramdisk ....
This makes me wonder is it is crashing while loading a module in line module2 /vmlinuz...

Is there a way to set breakpoint in grub and fall into prompt to see what modules are loaded?

4

You can also enable some more debug output in grub along with removing quite:
For Xen command line (multiboot2 line): loglvl=all guest_loglvl=all vga=,keep
For kernel command line (first module2 line): console=hvc0 earlyprintk=xen

5

Did this PC only have this SSD back in time?

6

Originally PC came with windows preinstalled and I bought a new SSD for Qube OS and only ever installed Qube OS in it.

There is only one SSD bay on the motherboard so, never had multiple SSD simultaneously on the PC either.

However, I did try to boot this Qubes OS SSD on a different PC last week, with (older 2017 i5) spec and that did not work either. I assume older PC is just not compatible to Qubes.

7

I tried these recommendations to both multiboot and multiboot2 command lines. Also, with module and module2 command lines. No new errors displayed.

Above mentioned behavior is still the outcome(also pasted below for easy finding)
If command contain multiboot I am getting
no multiboot header found

If command contain multiboot2 PC gives a blank screen and reboots after printing
Loading initial ramdisk ...

I also tried adding rd.qubes.hide_all_usb as mentioned here: https://forum.qubes-os.org/t/black-screen-before-luks-encryption-password-boot-prompt-after-failed-dom0-upgrade/17521/4

My next plan is to try, let me know if I am in the wrong path: UEFI troubleshooting