Arch Linux

Lowra

Member

Registered: 2009-09-21

Posts: 192

[USB Stick install] Grub can't boot (printing GRUB _)

Hi
It seems to be an endless problem. After installing Arch to a usb stick, reading the wiki and trying different things, I still can't get grub booting on my Arch install

Here is what I got after the bios:
http://ompldr.org/vOGJoOQ/DSC00202.JPG

The differents things I tried:
- Partitioning to ext4, adding usb to hooks (according to the wiki) => choosing the "first sdb" (see the photo below)
- Partitioning to ext2, not adding usb to hooks (someone in the french community told me that it may be useless), choosing disk detection by label => choosing the "second sdb"

Here is what I mean when I say "first sdb" and "second sdb":
http://ompldr.org/vOGJoOA/DSC00199.JPG

Actually I don't know what I could try...

Thanks

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bsilvereagle

Member

Registered: 2011-03-29

Posts: 42

Re: [USB Stick install] Grub can't boot (printing GRUB _)

Will a combination of "Esc" and "c" or just "c" get you to a grub terminal?

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Vaio F11: i7-720 QM  | 8 GB RAM | Nvidia GT330m
Windows 7 | openSuse 11.4 KDE | Arch Linux e17/KDE

Lowra

Member

Registered: 2009-09-21

Posts: 192

Re: [USB Stick install] Grub can't boot (printing GRUB _)

Nope, the "_" after "GRUB" is blinking, but I can't get anything working, I have to do an hardware shutdown...

Wey

Member

Registered: 2011-04-22

Posts: 217

Re: [USB Stick install] Grub can't boot (printing GRUB _)

Hello Lowra,
you didn't mention wether you are using grub2 or the legacy grub. in case of the latter i would try to install grub2. either way, reinstalling grub is a good idea.

chroot in or try to boot your usb stick from the grub that is installed on your hard drive. Put your usb stick in, but don't select it in the bios. When your normal grub comes up open its console (should be c or ^c). Type in ls to see available partitions. Then type set root=(hdx,x) (for grub2) or root (hdx,x) (for legacy grub, not sure about that one), inserting your corresponding drive. Type ls / and repeat these steps until you found your usb key. finally write:

linux /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
boot

for grub legacy you may need to replace "linux" with "kernel". if there is an error during boot try different /dev/sd...'s

once you are in your usb's arch do a pacman -Syu and try to reinstall grub / grub2. don't forget just installing grub with pacman probably isn't enough, you need to issue some kind of grub_bios-install or grub-install (if in doubt see the wiki).

Hope i could help.