Arch Linux

Byggemand

Member

Registered: 2015-08-18

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] UEFI/USB boot issues - "losing" boot

Greetings!

Just got back into Arch after having used various RH flavours for a while. The install is so deliciously flexible. Anyway, I have this weird boot issue, which I can't seem to figure out....

My partitions are laid out like so:

/dev/mapper/luks_root   /               xfs
/dev/sdd2               /boot           ext4
/dev/sdd1               /boot/efi       vfat
/dev/mapper/luks_home   /home           btrfs

The device /dev/sdd is a GRAY (colour) USB memory stick containing the LUKS key in addition to the boot stuff. I somehow managed to get both Refind and Grub installed, so they run one after another on boot. It seems to work fine, though.

I also have a RED USB stick containing an Arch install/rescue image.

I was trying to go full UEFI on this install, so the CSM is disabled.

Now, after booting from a Windows CD (tried with 7 and 8.1), my computer flat out refuses to recognize my boot partition on GRAY USB, and instead dumps me right into the firmware setup ("BIOS"? or whatever it's called. You know, the "Press ESC to enter setup" thing).

I then pop in the RED Arch install/rescue stick, boot up, mount my partitions, chroot in and run either grub-install or refind-install. This fixes the problem until next time I pop in a bootable CD/DVD, after which I must rescue boot, mount, chroot, install boot manager again.

It only seems to happen what I've been booting from something else than GRAY stick. Rebooting or turning on/off does not cause the system to 'lose' boot.

The RED stick, however, consistently boots - each time, every time, which seems to suggest that I'm missing *something* on my GRAY /boot stick.

So .... any ideas as to what the deal could be here?

Last edited by Byggemand (2015-08-19 21:28:28)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,778

Website

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI/USB boot issues - "losing" boot

Is /dev/sdd1 an EFI system partition or is it a FAT-formatted GNU/Linux partition?

Plug all the devices and post the output of:

# parted -l
# efibootmgr -v

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Byggemand

Member

Registered: 2015-08-18

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI/USB boot issues - "losing" boot

It should be EFI all around.

efibootmgr -v:

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001
Boot0000* rEFInd Boot Manager   HD(1,GPT,12028206-e014-468e-ae8f-20da09b71e66,0x800,0x31801)/File(\EFI\refind\refind_x64.efi)
Boot0001* UEFI: VerbatimSTORE N GO      PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1a,0x0)/USB(1,0)/USB(1,0)/HD(1,GPT,12028206-e014-468e-ae8f-20da09b71e66,0x800,0x31801)..BO

(The 1202..... UUID corresponds to the ESP at /dev/sdd1)

parted -l

Model: ATA OCZ-VERTEX4 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 128GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name              Flags
 1      1049kB  32.2GB  32.2GB               Linux filesystem
 2      32.2GB  59.1GB  26.8GB               Linux filesystem



Model: ATA WDC WD5000AAKS-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size   Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  500GB  500GB  primary  ntfs


Model: ATA WDC WD2500AAJS-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 250GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags:

Number  Start   End    Size   Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  149GB  149GB  primary  ext4



Model: Verbatim STORE N GO (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdd: 8011MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name                  Flags
 1      1049kB  105MB  104MB  fat16        EFI System Partition  boot, esp
 2      106MB   643MB  537MB  ext4         Linux filesystem

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,778

Website

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI/USB boot issues - "losing" boot

You can also install rEFInd to the default/fallback boot path /EFI/BOOT/BOOT*.EFI. This is helpful for bootable USB flash drives or on systems that have issues with the NVRAM changes made by efibootmgr

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RE … stallation

In your case:

# refind-install --usedefault /dev/sdd1

---

Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

Byggemand

Member

Registered: 2015-08-18

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI/USB boot issues - "losing" boot

Hah. Problem solved.

Brilliant, mate, thanks a lot!

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,778

Website

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI/USB boot issues - "losing" boot

You're welcome

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî