Can't boot after installing z18, new laptop

jhob101 · December 2, 2025, 11:52am

I got a new laptop (lenovo T16) with no OS installed.

Installed Zorin 18 pro fine and was setting everything up & copying over files from old laptop.

During a copy operation I got a 'Detected aborted journal ext4' error and after that it wouldn't boot, not even to grub menu.

I booted using the z18 live usb to run boot-repair tool but I don't have the option to repair, only to 'Create a Bootinfo summary', which I did and is below:

boot-repair-4ppa2081-zorin1                                              [20251202_1154]

============================== Boot Info Summary ===============================

 => No boot loader is installed in the MBR of /dev/nvme0n1.

nvme0n1p1: _____________________________________________________________________

    File system:       vfat
    Boot sector type:  FAT32
    Boot sector info:  No errors found in the Boot Parameter Block.
    Operating System:  
    Boot files:        /efi/BOOT/fbx64.efi /efi/BOOT/mmx64.efi 
                       /efi/ubuntu/grubx64.efi /efi/ubuntu/mmx64.efi 
                       /efi/ubuntu/shimx64.efi /efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg

nvme0n1p2: _____________________________________________________________________

    File system:       ext4
    Boot sector type:  -
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /mnt/BootInfo/nvme0n1p2: mount(2) system call failed: Structure needs cleaning.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.

sda: ___________________________________________________________________________

    File system:       iso9660
    Boot sector type:  Unknown
    Boot sector info: 
    Mounting failed:   mount: /mnt/BootInfo/FD/sda: /dev/sda already mounted or mount point busy.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.


================================ 0 OS detected =================================


================================ Host/Hardware =================================

CPU architecture: 64-bit
Video: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] from Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
Live-session OS is Zorin 64-bit (Zorin OS 18, noble, x86_64)

===================================== UEFI =====================================

BIOS/UEFI firmware: R2XET35W (1.15 )(1.15) from LENOVO
The firmware is EFI-compatible, and is set in EFI-mode for this live-session.
SecureBoot disabled (confirmed by mokutil).
BootCurrent: 0020
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0020,0000,001F,001D,001E,0021,0022,0023,0024,0025
Boot0000* Zorin OS	HD(1,GPT,b83d20d0-ec93-4a21-adb3-7e72fcf7438c,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0010  Setup	FvFile(721c8b66-426c-4e86-8e99-3457c46ab0b9)
Boot0011  Boot Menu	FvFile(126a762d-5758-4fca-8531-201a7f57f850)
Boot0012  Diagnostic Splash Screen	FvFile(a7d8d9a6-6ab0-4aeb-ad9d-163e59a7a380)
Boot0013  Lenovo Diagnostics	FvFile(3f7e615b-0d45-4f80-88dc-26b234958560)
Boot0014  ThinkShield secure wipe	FvFile(3593a0d5-bd52-43a0-808e-cbff5ece2477)
Boot0015  ThinkShield Passwordless Power-On Device Manager	FvFile(08448b41-7f83-49be-82a7-0e84790ab133)
Boot0016  Wi-Fi Configuration	FvFile(d3aaff0f-cb22-4792-896c-802c2e9383ba)2d004100700070000000
Boot0017  Reinstall Windows from Cloud	FvFile(3edbaac4-5017-4870-8cc4-721f9ef1974f)2d004100700070000000
Boot0018  Startup Interrupt Menu	FvFile(f46ee6f4-4785-43a3-923d-7f786c3c8479)
Boot0019  Rescue and Recovery	FvFile(665d3f60-ad3e-4cad-8e26-db46eee9f1b5)
Boot001A  Regulatory Information	FvFile(478c92a0-2622-42b7-a65d-5894169e4d24)
Boot001B  Asset Information	FvFile(da465b87-a26f-4c12-b78a-0361428fa026)
Boot001C  Lenovo OneKey Recovery	FvFile(04970e59-fccc-47cc-b945-7976ee7dbb7a)
Boot001D* USB CD	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,86701296aa5a7848b66cd49dd3ba6a55)
Boot001E* USB FDD	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e49)
Boot001F* NVMe0	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,001c199932d94c4eae9aa0b6e98eb8a400)
Boot0020* USB HDD	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,33e821aaaf33bc4789bd419f88c50803)
Boot0021* PXE BOOT	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,78a84aaf2b2afc4ea79cf5cc8f3d3803)
Boot0022* LENOVO CLOUD	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,ad38ccbbf7edf04d959cf42aa74d3650)/Uri(https://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/cdeploy/efi/boot.efi)
Boot0023* ON-PREMISE	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,ad38ccbbf7edf04d959cf42aa74d3650)/Uri()
Boot0024  Other CD	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,aea2090adfde214e8b3a5e471856a35400)
Boot0025  Other HDD	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,ca88c2349e7ae947beeb43038a5aeae700)
Boot0026* Boot Next Boot Option	VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-8316-c068ee79d25b,91af625956449f41a7b91f4f892ab0f6)

39bc76ff6662f4fbe9aa116e4c997b41   nvme0n1p1/BOOT/fbx64.efi
4ba5a5aad43c197e9fb58b76b404d287   nvme0n1p1/BOOT/mmx64.efi
94c7467f956700d44c5b4dcd3967535c   nvme0n1p1/ubuntu/grubx64.efi
4ba5a5aad43c197e9fb58b76b404d287   nvme0n1p1/ubuntu/mmx64.efi
07e25dcaf57c776875f78fa36827c58e   nvme0n1p1/ubuntu/shimx64.efi
07e25dcaf57c776875f78fa36827c58e   nvme0n1p1/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi

============================= Drive/Partition Info =============================

Disks info: ____________________________________________________________________

nvme0n1	: is-GPT,	no-BIOSboot,	has---ESP, 	not-usb,	not-mmc, no-os,	no-wind,	2048 sectors * 512 bytes

Partitions info (1/3): _________________________________________________________

nvme0n1p1	: no-os,	64, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	not-far
nvme0n1p2	: no-os,	64, nopakmgr,	no-docgrub,	nogrub,	nogrubinstall,	no-grubenv,	noupdategrub,	end-after-100GB

Partitions info (2/3): _________________________________________________________

nvme0n1p1	: is---ESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot, vfat
nvme0n1p2	: isnotESP,	part-has-no-fstab,	no-nt,	no-winload,	no-recov-nor-hid,	no-bmgr,	notwinboot, ext4

Partitions info (3/3): _________________________________________________________

nvme0n1p1	: not--sepboot,	no---boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	no--grub.d,	nvme0n1
nvme0n1p2	: maybesepboot,	no---boot,	part-has-no-fstab,	not-sep-usr,	no---usr,	part-has-no-fstab,	no--grub.d,	nvme0n1

fdisk -l (filtered): ___________________________________________________________

Disk nvme0n1: 1.82 TiB, 2000398934016 bytes, 3907029168 sectors
Disk identifier: 85803BAE-43A1-4D21-92FA-C709165088FE
           Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
nvme0n1p1    2048    1050623    1048576  512M EFI System
nvme0n1p2 1050624 3907028991 3905978368  1.8T Linux filesystem
Disk sda: 28.67 GiB, 30784094208 bytes, 60125184 sectors
Disk identifier: 0x18134454
     Boot    Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
sda1  *           0 15873983 15873984  7.6G  0 Empty
sda2            604    10843    10240    5M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
sda3       15876096 60125183 44249088 21.1G 83 Linux

parted -lm (filtered): _________________________________________________________

sda:30.8GB:scsi:512:512:msdos: USB  SanDisk 3.2Gen1:;
2:309kB:5552kB:5243kB:::esp;
3:8129MB:30.8GB:22.7GB:ext4::;
nvme0n1:2000GB:nvme:512:512:gpt:Samsung SSD 990 EVO Plus 2TB:;
1:1049kB:538MB:537MB:fat32:EFI System Partition:boot, esp;
2:538MB:2000GB:2000GB:ext4::;

Free space >10MiB: ______________________________________________________________

sda: 5.29MiB:7752MiB:7747MiB

blkid (filtered): ______________________________________________________________

NAME        FSTYPE   UUID                                 PARTUUID                             LABEL                 PARTLABEL
sda         iso9660  2025-10-13-23-08-04-00                                                    Zorin OS 18 Pro 64bit 
├─sda1      iso9660  2025-10-13-23-08-04-00               18134454-01                          Zorin OS 18 Pro 64bit 
├─sda2      vfat     63E4-8997                            18134454-02                                                
└─sda3      ext4     ad38a2da-f01d-409d-a4d8-298f1c43c1ba 18134454-03                          writable              
nvme0n1                                                                                                              
├─nvme0n1p1 vfat     AABD-8195                            b83d20d0-ec93-4a21-adb3-7e72fcf7438c                       EFI System Partition
└─nvme0n1p2 ext4     30e11b05-a719-499a-a826-8ad812084307 ebc0ae45-1cb8-4cdd-a6c3-e98c2ca2dbe9 ZORIN                 

Mount points (filtered): _______________________________________________________

                                                               Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/nvme0n1p1                                                504.8M   1% /mnt/boot-sav/nvme0n1p1
/dev/sda1                                                          0 100% /cdrom
efivarfs                                                       91.4K  61% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Mount options (filtered): ______________________________________________________

/dev/nvme0n1p1                                                vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro
/dev/sda1                                                     iso9660         ro,noatime,nojoliet,check=s,map=n,blocksize=2048,iocharset=utf8

=================== nvme0n1p1/efi/ubuntu/grub.cfg (filtered) ===================

search.fs_uuid 8cfec2cc-4228-4be9-97bf-3814916aa261 root 
set prefix=($root)'/boot/grub'
configfile $prefix/grub.cfg

======================== Unknown MBRs/Boot Sectors/etc =========================

Unknown BootLoader on sda




Suggested repair: ______________________________________________________________

The default repair of the Boot-Repair utility would not act on the boot.

sprunge.us ko ()

I'm not entirely sure where I go from here, can anyone help?

jhob101 · December 2, 2025, 12:39pm

After a bit more research, I have a badly corrupted filesystem and couldn't recover it from backup superblocks.

I think a re-install is the best approach here.

I wonder how and why that happened though?

Ponce-De-Leon · December 2, 2025, 2:02pm

That here could be a Point.

When Your BIOS is in UEFI, it would be the Question for me why it comes up with MBR? It could be that the Drive /dev/nvme0n1 if formatted in MBR. You could check that in Zorin Live Mode in Disks or GParted.

Another Point: What Tool did You use to create the bootable USB Stick? If it was Rufus or Ventoy did You checked that it creates it in GPT and not MBR?

jhob101 · December 2, 2025, 2:37pm

I used Gnome Disks to create the bootable USB via 'Restore Disk Image'.

Just checked my re-installed version and the nvme shows up as gpt in GParted.

The live USB has partition type 'none'.

Should I be using a different method to create live USBs?

wesoliv429 · December 2, 2025, 2:50pm

ya id try a new install and see if that helps

wesoliv429 · December 2, 2025, 2:50pm

wesoliv429 · December 2, 2025, 2:52pm

of course if the repair isnt showing only thing now is a reinstall let us know if that helped...

wesoliv429 · December 2, 2025, 3:03pm

if this helps only have in the drive you want to install zorin on i had win 11 on another drive so i removed all the drives installed zorin on only drive there then put the other drives back in

wesoliv429 · December 2, 2025, 3:04pm

i have since removed win 11 from the other drive and its a storage drive for steam games i have

Ponce-De-Leon · December 2, 2025, 5:52pm

Yes, could be a good Idea. And checking the Checksum of the ISO, too.

Depending what System You have, I can recommend Rufus when You have somewhere a windows System for creating a Boot Stick. there You have directly the Option ''Partition Sheme'' where You can choose between GPT and MBR.

With Ventoy, You have to go in the Settings to set it up. If I remember corectly it uses by default MBR.

The Tool that I use on Zorin for creating Bootsticks is Impression. You can find it in the Software Store as Flatpak. You don't have an Option but it seems to use GPT by default.

jhob101 · December 3, 2025, 12:11am

Thanks, I'll give that a go

StarTreker · December 3, 2025, 12:22am

In the future, when you are no longer on Windows anymore, and you are always on Linux, another ISO burner tool that I love and always use, is Popsicle. (Linux Only) Its works really well, its light weight, and always makes a good burn.

jhob101 · December 3, 2025, 12:45am

Thanks, I'll have a look at that. I'm not on windows at all now. Last laptop was dual boot. This one is just linux, I bought it with no OS installed and put my own nvme in (lenovo only did up to 1tb).