Arch Linux

loot1007

Member

Registered: 2015-03-02

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Trouble booting to SSD after rsync transfer from HDD

I've been using Arch as my main OS for about six months now, and have tailored the settings just as I like them.  Recently I purchased a new SSD, and with the help of the wiki transferred my install to the new drive using rsync.  I am able to mount the new drive, and navigate my cloned file structure.  However, at boot when I press f12 and select the new drive, there is a blank screen for a few seconds and then Windows 8 (which I have installed on a different SSD) boots. 

I did everything the wiki suggested before first boot: updated my fstab in the cloned file structure, regenerated the grub.cfg, and even chroot'd into the cloned file structure and executed the mkinitcpio command. 

When I run "grep UUID= /boot/grub/grub.cfg", I get this output, which is the UUID of the original HDD arch install:

	linux	/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0690e2ab-de88-4b07-8c13-50a93b94e0fc rw  quiet
		linux	/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0690e2ab-de88-4b07-8c13-50a93b94e0fc rw  quiet
		linux	/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0690e2ab-de88-4b07-8c13-50a93b94e0fc rw  quiet

I'm at wits end here; Some google searches told me that GRUB doesn't play well with Windows dual boots, and I attempted using the Windows install CD to repair the bootmgr, to no avail. If anyone could steer me in the right direction, it would be most appreciated.

Contents of SSD fstab:

#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

# /dev/sdb1
tmpfs        /tmp          tmpfs     nodev,nosuid             0   0

# /dev/sdb1
UUID=85d47bcc-bded-4e1c-91a0-4a7be9fa5b70       /             ext4      defaults                 0   1

Last edited by loot1007 (2015-03-04 00:07:00)

rep_movsd

Member

Registered: 2013-08-24

Posts: 135

Re: [SOLVED] Trouble booting to SSD after rsync transfer from HDD

I believe the issue is this:

Your GRUB boot loader is on the first drive. When you update grub, it will install the boot loader onto the drive on which you are booted, regardless of chroot.

What you should do is when booting, edit the grub menu entry to change root=... to point to your new drive
Once it boots into the new drives installation, run mkinitcpio and update grub again, now you have a boot loader on the new drive and it will work independently of your original drive

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,763

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Trouble booting to SSD after rsync transfer from HDD

Install GRUB and generate the configuration file (confirm that the Arch system is on /dev/sdb first):

# grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sdb
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … otherboard

The rsync command will copy the filesystem but GRUB is on the MBR (or BIOS boot partition) in a non-EFI system.

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?

loot1007

Member

Registered: 2015-03-02

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Trouble booting to SSD after rsync transfer from HDD

I believe the issue is this:

Your GRUB boot loader is on the first drive. When you update grub, it will install the boot loader onto the drive on which you are booted, regardless of chroot.

What you should do is when booting, edit the grub menu entry to change root=... to point to your new drive
Once it boots into the new drives installation, run mkinitcpio and update grub again, now you have a boot loader on the new drive and it will work independently of your original drive

Worked like a charm!  Thanks for the replies guys, tagging as solved.