New Arch install on SSD with GPT

Ailurus · 2012-12-22 22:02:30

Hi guys,

Just bought a new laptop, Lenovo Y500 with a small 16 GB SSD in it (plan to update it to a larger one). I used gparted (from an Ubuntu live USB) to partition the SSD into:

- 2 MiB BIOS Boot Partition, with flag bios_grub
- 100 MiB ext4 partition for /boot with flag boot
- Rest for an ext4 partition for /

Then followed all other usual steps. After rebooting, I only get the following:

GRUB loading.
Welcome to GRUB!

And that's all I get. Anyone got a clue what I might have forgotten to do?

Last edited by Ailurus (2012-12-22 22:05:24)

Trilby · 2012-12-22 23:01:28

Ailurus wrote:

Then followed all other usual steps...Anyone got a clue what I might have forgotten to do?

Yes, you forgot to tell us what those "usual steps" are as that is where the problem lies. How did you (did you) configure grub?

Ailurus · 2012-12-22 23:32:51

Hi Trilby, thanks for your answer.

I installed grub-bios, and then used the four lines from this section in the wiki, but without the --target=i386-pc part. After that I ran grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg, and that's it, no manual configuration.

Trilby · 2012-12-23 00:25:17

I've never used grub (only grub legacy) so I'm not familiar with all the steps. As I understand it those steps should work to get grub to automatically configure everything for you - but I never trust automatic configurations. Can you post the config file here along with your partitioning scheme? The error message suggests grub is being started, it just doesn't have any suitable entries to boot to.

EDIT: oops. It seems those four commands probably are not sufficient. Did you run grub-mkconfig?

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-23 00:26:37)

cfr · 2012-12-23 01:52:29

I believe you need the target to be specified. Why did you drop that bit? It is correct even if you are using 64 bit Linux. (The boot loader will still use 32 bit unless you use the EFI version.)

Caveat: I don't boot in BIOS mode in Arch.

Ailurus · 2012-12-23 11:12:17

cfr wrote:

I believe you need the target to be specified. Why did you drop that bit? It is correct even if you are using 64 bit Linux. (The boot loader will still use 32 bit unless you use the EFI version.)

Well, actually I tried it once with this part and once without, doesn't help. It might actually be BIOS related, some people cannot boot from their SSD when not in UEFI mode.

cfr wrote:

Caveat: I don't boot in BIOS mode in Arch.

So I guess you use UEFI? Since my USBs were not recognized with this setting, I set it back to Legacy Support (i.e. BIOS).

Before I continue spending too much time on fixing this problem, what would be the best configuration to boot from a SSD? BIOS, UEFI, and then with MBR or GPT?

[Edit]
Even when using Legacy Support, MBR and GRUB, it doesn't work. Just replaced GRUB by Syslinux and everything seems fine... Will try again at a later time, using GPT and perhaps UEFI, if I can figure out how to boot this dual iso file with UEFI mode (if I just use dd to create the USB, it isn't recognized)..

Last edited by Ailurus (2012-12-23 12:45:22)

kgas · 2012-12-23 13:44:12

I did the installation long back with archboot iso. give it a try

Arch Linux

#1 2012-12-22 22:02:30

New Arch install on SSD with GPT

#2 2012-12-22 23:01:28

Re: New Arch install on SSD with GPT

#3 2012-12-22 23:32:51

Re: New Arch install on SSD with GPT

#4 2012-12-23 00:25:17

Re: New Arch install on SSD with GPT

#5 2012-12-23 01:52:29

Re: New Arch install on SSD with GPT

#6 2012-12-23 11:12:17

Re: New Arch install on SSD with GPT

#7 2012-12-23 13:44:12

Re: New Arch install on SSD with GPT

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