<SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 17:18:18

G'day mates! I've got a bit of trouble installing Arch, first to my laptop and then to a VM. The same trouble seems to haunt both attempts. Immediately after installation is finished, I reboot, and I select the first option in Grub, I'm greeted with a warning:

error: no such device: string-of-characters
Loading Linux core repo kernel...
error: no such partition...
Loading initial ramdisk...
error: you need to load the kernel first.
Press any key to continue...

after which it returns to the grub menu.

After a bit of online searching, it appeared that my fstab is not configured properly. So I booted up a live Arch install, mounted the / partition (sda1), and checked fstab. Sure enough, fstab is completely empty. This is a bit weird because I'm positive I ran

genfstab -U /mnt /mnt/etc/fstab

during installation.

So I reformatted swap, made sure that sda1 was mounted in /mnt, and reran genfstab. It appeared to execute correctly, but "cat /mnt/etc/fstab" once again revealed an empty fstab.

At this point I think it would be best to ask for help. I've checked the permissions of /mnt/etc/fstab; it is indeed -rw-r--r-- and owned by root. I've checked the arch iso (v. 2016.02.01) and the checksums are good too.

My entire installation script is at http://pastebin.com/XAavu1nz

Thanks for any help!
Fred

Last edited by Fred Barclay (2016-03-21 20:56:49)

WorMzy · 2016-03-21 17:23:22

Run genfstab without the redirect, is anything printed?

EDIT: wait, you didn't have a redirect. That's probably your problem. You need to redirect the output to /mnt/etc/fstab, not include it as another parameter.

Last edited by WorMzy (2016-03-21 17:26:06)

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 17:24:44

So in the live system, just do

genfstab

?

EDIT: That only prints instructions on how to use genfstab.

Last edited by Fred Barclay (2016-03-21 17:26:06)

ugjka · 2016-03-21 17:25:51

Fred Barclay wrote:

This is a bit weird because I'm positive I ran
genfstab -U /mnt /mnt/etc/fstab
during installation.

It should be genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Scimmia · 2016-03-21 17:25:52

Your install script isn't writing to a file.

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 17:28:25

ugjka wrote:

Fred Barclay wrote:
This is a bit weird because I'm positive I ran
genfstab -U /mnt /mnt/etc/fstab
during installation.
It should be genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

Okay, just...
How on earth did I miss that!?!

Un segundo and I'll check it--but my notes say that I did run this (without the redirect) so I highly suspect this is the problem.
Grr...

Oh well, laugh instead of cry.

Last edited by Fred Barclay (2016-03-21 17:32:48)

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 19:23:24

No go--I still get the same error message at boot.

I did a complete reinstall just to be safe--details are at http://pastebin.com/XAavu1nz
Arch is still booting up with the same error message.

fstab is definitely populated correctly--I checked the uuids with "blkid."

However, I did notice some weird messages during installation--not sure if they're errors or not. I took a screenshot of one of 'em. (Sorry it's so small--it's the biggest windows VBox would give.)
https://i.imgur.com/7ndwsNb.png

Thanks!

Last edited by jasonwryan (2016-03-21 19:38:07)

jasonwryan · 2016-03-21 19:39:09

Please don't post screenshots of text, paste the actual text. And read the Forum Etiquette and only post thumbnails http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … s_and_code

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 20:06:45

Sorry about that.

WorMzy · 2016-03-21 20:11:14

You should probably update your title, since the genfstab problem was a red herring and the problem is in something else, presumably grub.

Posting your grub.cfg might help, as well as the output of 'lsblk -f'.

dcdriving · 2016-03-21 20:44:19

One of your problems is this line

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub

You should be writing to /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 20:47:03

Subject renamed. (hopefully).

It's going to take some doing to get those files out of the vbox install (it's not like I can install vbox-guest-utils and share a folder). I'll be back!

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 20:49:28

dcdriving wrote:

One of your problems is this line
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub
You should be writing to /boot/grub/grub.cfg

No, I don't believe that would hurt, would it?

I'm really sorry guys--today is just one of "those days." I don't have my usual notes for installing Arch and apparently I'm incapable of reading a wiki correctly.

Last edited by Fred Barclay (2016-03-21 20:50:29)

Fred Barclay · 2016-03-21 20:56:25

And "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub" was to blame. Agh!
Thanks so much!

dcdriving · 2016-03-21 20:58:04

If you don't write to the correct place, how would grub know where to find the config file?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … ation_file

Edit, sorry, you got it.

Last edited by dcdriving (2016-03-21 20:59:06)

Arch Linux

#1 2016-03-21 17:18:18

<SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#2 2016-03-21 17:23:22

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#3 2016-03-21 17:24:44

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#4 2016-03-21 17:25:51

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#5 2016-03-21 17:25:52

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#6 2016-03-21 17:28:25

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#7 2016-03-21 19:23:24

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#8 2016-03-21 19:39:09

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#9 2016-03-21 20:06:45

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#10 2016-03-21 20:11:14

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#11 2016-03-21 20:44:19

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#12 2016-03-21 20:47:03

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#13 2016-03-21 20:49:28

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#14 2016-03-21 20:56:25

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

#15 2016-03-21 20:58:04

Re: <SOLVED>Grub: error: no such device:

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