[SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

matcharles · 2015-07-30 22:17:11

Hello all,

I've meant to switch my gummiboot instalation to GRUB for quite some time now and today is the day I feel like messing my arch install it seems!

I followed the guide to install GRUB but didn't get really far:

grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

All of that GPT/BIOS/EFI thing is my achiles heel and now I am totally lost and unwilling to reboot my machine because I don't want to be locked out. What should I do next? Here are the output of

parted /dev/sda

sudo parted -l
[sudo] password for matt: 
Model: ATA KINGSTON SV300S3 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 120GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  539MB   538MB   fat32              boot, esp
 3      1588MB  99.1GB  97.5GB  ext4


Model: ATA ST3000DM001-1CH1 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 3001GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  2981GB  2981GB  ext4
 2      2981GB  2992GB  10.7GB  ext4
 3      2992GB  3001GB  8588MB  linux-swap(v1)

/boot folder (which is weird since I do have a EFI folder... as opposed to what GRUB tells me)

└─> ls -l /boot
total 25568
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root     4096 Mar 15 16:30 EFI
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root     4096 Jul 30 17:45 grub
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 18461861 Jul  4 08:47 initramfs-linux-fallback.img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3526485 Jul  4 08:47 initramfs-linux.img
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root     4096 Mar 19 19:12 loader
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  4177312 Jun 30 03:51 vmlinuz-linux

Let me know if you need some other input and please tell me this is just a pebkac trouble!

Thanks for your time.

Last edited by matcharles (2015-08-01 17:58:10)

matcharles · 2015-07-31 10:22:12

Quick addon. I tried to point grub to the right EFI folder and I get this. It's like it doesn't see my /boot drive.

└─> grub-install --efi-directory=/boot/efi --recheck /dev/sda
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: warning: disk does not exist, so falling back to partition device /dev/sda1.
grub-install: warning: disk does not exist, so falling back to partition device /dev/sda1.
grub-install: warning: disk does not exist, so falling back to partition device /dev/sda1.
grub-install: error: disk `hostdisk//dev/sda1' not found.

What does it say that the disk does not exist?

Raynman · 2015-07-31 10:44:19

How is that "the right EFI folder"? The directory /boot/efi doesn't even exist according to the ls output you posted. Your ESP is at /boot (as is common when using gummiboot*). Not exactly sure what's happening with the fallback attempt (also not a grub user myself). Just try with the correct directory.

* If you want to change that along with the move to grub, go and set that up first.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-07-31 21:40:02

Please post the output of:

lsblk -f

matcharles · 2015-08-01 02:13:53

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Please post the output of:
lsblk -f

Thanks!

└─> lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE LABEL UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                      
├─sda1 vfat   efi   2B0D-A043                            /boot
└─sda3 ext4   root  e78bd164-412a-49c2-a8d7-a02be83764ac /
sdb                                                      
├─sdb1 ext4   home  7eb041f8-6550-40de-bbda-c6fbfb682b55 /home
├─sdb2 ext4   var   ea1d196a-f2fe-4eec-936e-68ca0131dcff /var
└─sdb3 swap         b0027b90-2f05-4b86-b5b5-a7751af3329e [SWAP]

Raynman wrote:

How is that "the right EFI folder"? The directory /boot/efi doesn't even exist according to the ls output you posted. Your ESP is at /boot (as is common when using gummiboot*). Not exactly sure what's happening with the fallback attempt (also not a grub user myself). Just try with the correct directory.
* If you want to change that along with the move to grub, go and set that up first.

Thanks for your message. Yes it does exists. If you are refering to the EFI vs efi, I did both with the same result.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2015-08-01 11:18:37

You should probably use the commands specified in the ArchWiki.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … allation_2

EDIT: To clarify:

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub --recheck

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2015-08-01 11:20:01)

matcharles · 2015-08-01 17:57:24

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

You should probably use the commands specified in the ArchWiki.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … allation_2
EDIT: To clarify:
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub --recheck

OMG please don't kill me. I was following the guide for the MBR Grub install, not GPT.

Thanks so much, that did the trick!

Arch Linux

#1 2015-07-30 22:17:11

[SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

#2 2015-07-31 10:22:12

Re: [SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

#3 2015-07-31 10:44:19

Re: [SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

#4 2015-07-31 21:40:02

Re: [SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

#5 2015-08-01 02:13:53

Re: [SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

#6 2015-08-01 11:18:37

Re: [SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

#7 2015-08-01 17:57:24

Re: [SOLVED] Switching from Gummiboot to Grub Problem

Board footer