#1137540 fwupdtool WARNING: UEFI ESP partition not detected or configured

Package:
fwupd
Source:
fwupd
Description:
Firmware update daemon
Submitter:
Steve McIntyre
Date:
2026-05-25 17:41:01 UTC
Severity:
normal
#1137540#5
Date:
2026-05-24 22:16:05 UTC
From:
To:
Hey Mario,

When I run "fwupdtool --version" I'm getting the above warning
message.

I'm seeing this on a range of machines, running trixie (2.0.8-1),
trixie with a locally backported update (2.0.10-1) and unstable
(2.1.2-1). All of the machines have an ESP mounted at /boot/efi as
normal for a default-installed Debian system.

The suggested wiki page at

https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:esp-not-found

doesn't really help. I've checked and on these machines udisks2 is
installed on some of them and not on others. *All* of the machines
report the error. How is this happening?

P.S. I *hate* that you've apparently decided to now depend on udisks2
here - it's a totally unwanted piece of software for many people on
servers (etc.), while fwupd is something we *really8 should be pushing
people to install everywhere. This seems like a backward step from
allowing people to specify the ESP location directly.
#1137540#10
Date:
2026-05-24 23:57:38 UTC
From:
To:
Can you please share 'fwupdtool esp-list -v' output from one of them
running unstable?

It wasn't taking lightly when we made this change upstream.  There are
safety checks done to ensure we don't cause an unbootable OS on multi
disk or dual boot systems by doing a firmware update.

You can't do this without being able to mount and investigate all
potential ESPs on all disks.
#1137540#15
Date:
2026-05-24 23:57:38 UTC
From:
To:
Can you please share 'fwupdtool esp-list -v' output from one of them
running unstable?

It wasn't taking lightly when we made this change upstream.  There are
safety checks done to ensure we don't cause an unbootable OS on multi
disk or dual boot systems by doing a firmware update.

You can't do this without being able to mount and investigate all
potential ESPs on all disks.
#1137540#20
Date:
2026-05-25 00:21:11 UTC
From:
To:
Sure - see attached.

Hmmm...
#1137540#25
Date:
2026-05-25 00:21:11 UTC
From:
To:
Sure - see attached.

Hmmm...
#1137540#30
Date:
2026-05-25 00:27:41 UTC
From:
To:
This log looks like it identified the ESP as "/dev/nvme0n1p1".
This system shows that warning in fwupdmgr?
#1137540#35
Date:
2026-05-25 00:27:41 UTC
From:
To:
This log looks like it identified the ESP as "/dev/nvme0n1p1".
This system shows that warning in fwupdmgr?
#1137540#40
Date:
2026-05-25 00:31:47 UTC
From:
To:
root@test-x270-w:/home/steve# fwupdtool --version
Loading…                 ▕⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦▏
WARNING: UEFI ESP partition not detected or configured
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:esp-not-found for more information.
compile   info.libusb                   1.0.29
compile   org.freedesktop.fwupd         2.1.2
compile   com.hughsie.libxmlb           0.3.24
compile   org.freedesktop.Passim        0.1.10
compile   com.hughsie.libjcat           0.2.5
runtime   com.hughsie.libxmlb           0.3.24
runtime   com.hughsie.libjcat           0.2.5
runtime   org.freedesktop.fwupd         2.1.2
runtime   org.kernel                    7.0.7+deb14-amd64
#1137540#45
Date:
2026-05-25 00:47:12 UTC
From:
To:
Is it only an issue with fwupdtool?

Can you please share fwupdmgr get-devices output?

And if you drop your configuration changes from the config file does
message go away?
#1137540#50
Date:
2026-05-25 01:02:21 UTC
From:
To:
That's the only place I'm seeing it, I think,

Attached.
fwupdtool --version:

root@test-x270-w:/home/steve# fwupdtool --version
Loading…                 ▕⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦▏
WARNING: UEFI ESP partition not detected or configured
See https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/wiki/PluginFlag:esp-not-found for more information.
compile   info.libusb                   1.0.30
compile   org.freedesktop.fwupd         2.1.3
compile   com.hughsie.libxmlb           0.3.24
compile   org.freedesktop.Passim        0.1.10
compile   com.hughsie.libjcat           0.2.5
runtime   com.hughsie.libxmlb           0.3.24
runtime   com.hughsie.libjcat           0.2.5
runtime   org.freedesktop.fwupd         2.1.3
runtime   org.kernel                    7.0.7+deb14-amd64
#1137540#55
Date:
2026-05-25 02:25:19 UTC
From:
To:
Got it.  I can reproduce.  Here's a fix.

https://github.com/fwupd/fwupd/pull/10372
#1137540#60
Date:
2026-05-25 17:37:58 UTC
From:
To:
Awesome!