I cancelled a CachyOS installation immediately after it wiped my drive. Since then, I've installed and switched between several other Linux distributions, but my firmware's F12 boot menu still shows a nonworking CachyOS entry. I removed it with efibootmgr from Linux and also tried deleting it with a Windows UEFI-management tool. The entry disappears temporarily, then returns after reboot. The entry appears to point to `EFIBootbootx64.efi` followed by extra characters or numbers, but the only related file I can find on my current EFI system partition is `/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.efi`, which belongs to my current system. How can I locate whatever is recreating this entry and remove it permanently?
3 Answers
Use `sudo efibootmgr -v` to see the complete device, partition, and file path for the entry. Then compare that partition with the ESP your current Linux installation uses. If the entry points to another disk or another ESP, deleting files from `/boot/EFI` won’t affect it. Mount every EFI partition involved and search them with something like `find /mnt/esp -type f -iname '*.efi'`.
Some firmware recreates boot options from the fallback path `EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI`, and some systems also retain boot entries in NVRAM even after the referenced file is gone. Remove the stale NVRAM entry with `efibootmgr -b XXXX -B`, where `XXXX` is the boot number, then verify with `efibootmgr -v`. If it returns, check the firmware’s own boot-management screen and reset or remove the saved entry there. Also make sure no installer USB or second drive with an EFI partition is connected during testing.
Check the EFI System Partition directly rather than relying only on the mounted `/boot/EFI` path. First identify the ESP with `lsblk -f` or `sudo fdisk -l`, then mount that partition manually and inspect every directory under it, including hidden or unusual files. A leftover loader directory or `.efi` file may be what the firmware is detecting.
The path shown by `efibootmgr` looks like `EFIBootbootx64.efi` with additional characters, but I can’t find a matching directory or file in the ESP currently mounted at `/boot/EFI`.
The fact that the path is under `EFI/Boot` makes the fallback loader worth checking, but the entry could still be coming from a different EFI partition. The important step is confirming the disk and partition shown by `efibootmgr -v` before deleting anything.