Arch Linux

gillecaluim

Member

Registered: 2014-11-02

Posts: 42

[SOLVED] failed boot after installation

new installation on an older motherboard (non UEFI).  Partioned /dev/sda with /dev/sda1 ef02, /dev/sda2 8200 & /dev/sda3 8300.  Installed system to mounted sda3.  Mounted sda1 as /boot and performed grub-install /dev/sda....no errors.  grub -mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg ...no errors
Reboot nevers loads grub menu...machine continuously reboots looking for a bootable device.  I've checked the bios and it should be attempting to boot from the disk.
I've noticed that the arch install disk, examine hardware menu, shows all of my disks but reports that none are bootable.
Any suggestions.

Last edited by gillecaluim (2015-09-03 19:08:24)

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

Does the boot partition have the boot flag?

Oblivion7

Member

From: Outside your universe.

Registered: 2015-08-29

Posts: 78

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

new installation on an older motherboard (non UEFI).  Partioned /dev/sda with /dev/sda1 ef02, /dev/sda2 8200 & /dev/sda3 8300.  Installed system to mounted sda3.  Mounted sda1 as /boot and performed grub-install /dev/sda....no errors.  grub -mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg ...no errors
Reboot nevers loads grub menu...machine continuously reboots looking for a bootable device.  I've checked the bios and it should be attempting to boot from the disk.
I've noticed that the arch install disk, examine hardware menu, shows all of my disks but reports that none are bootable.
Any suggestions.

I could be wrong with this but don't you not mount or format the BIOS boot partition I thought grub finds it itself. (Awebb might be right though could just be as simple as not setting it as boot.)

EDIT: I belive this is the way things should be mounted

/dev/sda1 -BIOS BOOT- not mounted or formatted
/dev/sdaX  /mnt/boot (you could use a boot partition but you don't need it to be separate)
/dev/sda2 Swap
/dev/sda3 Root /mnt (I assume this also holds your home folder and stuff)

Last edited by Oblivion7 (2015-09-02 11:22:50)

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Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 30,333

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Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

Partioned /dev/sda with /dev/sda1 ef02, /dev/sda2 8200 & /dev/sda3 8300.  Installed system to mounted sda3.  Mounted sda1 as /boot ...

In that order?  So your kernel is not installed to the boot partition, but rather to a boot directory in the root partition which gets masked by the newly mounted boot partition.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent" - Dennis Ritchie; "GNU's Not Unix" - Richard Stallman

Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,688

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

Shouldn't we see a grub error message then? Is grub not in the MBR?

gillecaluim

Member

Registered: 2014-11-02

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

to clear things up...
1. I partitioned /dev/sda with /dev/sda1 ef02, /dev/sda2 8200, /dev/sda3 8300.
2. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 /dev/sda3
3. mkswap /dev/sda2
4. mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
5. mkdir /mnt/boot
6. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
7. pacstrap /mnt base

so the system installed to /dev/sda3 and after chroot I installed grub without errors.  I even set the LegacyBiosBootable flag /dev/sda1 using expert mode fdisk.
the system continuously reboots, never see a grub menu and never seems to fine a bootable drive

Head_on_a_Stick

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From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 8,778

Website

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

to clear things up...
1. I partitioned /dev/sda with /dev/sda1 ef02, /dev/sda2 8200, /dev/sda3 8300.
2. mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 /dev/sda3
3. mkswap /dev/sda2
4. mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
5. mkdir /mnt/boot
6. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

As Oblivion7 says, EF02 is a BIOS boot partition and it should *not* be formatted or mounted anywhere.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BIOS_boot_partition

Also, using a disk with a GUID partition table in a non-EFI system may not work at all.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GU … OS_systems

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gillecaluim

Member

Registered: 2014-11-02

Posts: 42

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

Ok, I finally got it to boot by creating an EF02 1MB partition (not formatted) and a separate partition for /boot.  The beginners arch linux wiki page needs to make this item a bit clearer.

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [SOLVED] failed boot after installation

Ok, I finally got it to boot by creating an EF02 1MB partition (not formatted) and a separate partition for /boot.  The beginners arch linux wiki page needs to make this item a bit clearer.

I don't think this kind of setup is in there at all? The Beginners' Guide shows the most common ways to do things, so it only says "MBR for BIOS, GPT for UEFI". If you were strictly following that, why did you go for GPT with BIOS? It will often mention alternatives, but for the details (including maybe even more alternatives) you have to follow the links to other pages and this seems pretty clear: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … structions

Anyway, if it's working now, please prepend [SOLVED] to the title by editing the first post.