New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

goodwinmcd · 2016-07-12 23:40:41

Hey guys, I installed arch yesterday and am having problems. After installing from a USB and setting up arch I rebooted and went to grub rescue. I have come across other post that discuss this problem but none of the solutions work for me. I'll give as much detail as I can.

I have two hard drives. The first hard drive has windows 8 installed on it and is labeled as sda1 and sda2. The second hard drive has the new arch install on it and takes up the almost the entire hard drive (500GB). I have a second empty partition that is only 2GB. Using the ls command in the grub rescue revealed that (hd1,msdos1) is my arch partition. I tried the standard solution of:

set root=(hd1,msdos1)
set prefix=(hd1,msdos1)/boot/grub
insmod normal

insmod normal gives me "error: symbol 'grub_real_boot_time' not found. " I live booted and arch-chroot into the hard drive and redid the entire grub install. Still no luck. I then wiped out the entire partition and started from scratch being very careful to do it correctly. Still receive the same error. I have hit a wall and not sure where to go next. I did notice that doing fdisk -l shows an astrix under the boot column for sda1 but nothing under sdb1. Grub recovery cannot read the filesystem on sda1 though. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Texbrew · 2016-07-13 00:19:14

Two questions:

Is your system BIOS set for EFI boot, Legacy boot, or both? I think newer Windows machines are set up for EFI boot. but you may be able to change this setting in BIOS. I'm fairly certain grub won't work on a machine that is set to EFI boot.

When you set up disk partitions, did you set the boot flag on the boot partition? If not, it won't boot. You didn't say what utility you used for paritioning. Here's a sample using fdisk, but it's another linux distro, if that matters:

# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e12e0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   969439231   484718592   83  Linux
/dev/sda2       969441278   976771071     3664897    5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5       969441280   976771071     3664896   82  Linux swap / Solaris
root@mylaptop:/home/tex#

Note the asterisk * in the Boot column for /dev/sda1.

You likely will need to provide more information in order to arrive at a solution...

tex

goodwinmcd · 2016-07-13 00:40:32

Texbrew wrote:

Two questions:
Is your system BIOS set for EFI boot, Legacy boot, or both? I think newer Windows machines are set up for EFI boot. but you may be able to change this setting in BIOS. I'm fairly certain grub won't work on a machine that is set to EFI boot.
When you set up disk partitions, did you set the boot flag on the boot partition? If not, it won't boot. You didn't say what utility you used for paritioning. Here's a sample using fdisk, but it's another linux distro, if that matters:
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000e12e0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   969439231   484718592   83  Linux
/dev/sda2       969441278   976771071     3664897    5  Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5       969441280   976771071     3664896   82  Linux swap / Solaris
root@mylaptop:/home/tex#
Note the asterisk * in the Boot column for /dev/sda1.
You likely will need to provide more information in order to arrive at a solution...
tex

I think my bios is in efi mode but I'm not sure how to check. I was previously using grub to dual boot between windows and linux previously though. It worked great until I wiped my partition to install arch on it. I used fdisk to set up my partitions. The boot flag was not set. I went back and enabled it on the partition with grub installed and it still did not work.

EDIT: I am in UEFI mode.

Last edited by goodwinmcd (2016-07-13 01:32:41)

Texbrew · 2016-07-13 01:43:39

I think my bios is in efi mode but I'm not sure how to check. I was previously using grub to dual boot between windows and linux previously though. It worked great until I wiped my partition to install arch on it. I used fdisk to set up my partitions. The boot flag was not set. I went back and enabled it on the partition with grub installed and it still did not work.

The keystrokes used to enter BIOS varies, so you'll have to google that. On a Lenovo Thinkpad T420 it's F1 at power on. On the T420, I use the arrow keys to select the "Security" tab, then arrow key down to UEFI/Legacy Boot. Press Enter, it shows 3 options:

Both
UEFI Only
Legacy Only

My thinkpad is set to Legacy Only. Your Mileage May Vary.

As to why your machine worked with grub/dual boot and doesn't work now, I don't have the answer...

When you used fdisk to set the Boot flag, did you remember to Write the change to disk before rebooting? If not, the boot flag remains unchanged.

tex

EDIT: I was delayed in my reply and just saw your edit saying you are in UEFI mode. So that's key number one. Select Both or Legacy Only in your BIOS (or however it's worded).

And you need to make sure the boot flag is set and written to the hard drive using fdisk.

I have no machine using UEFI Boot. If that's the way you want to go, you'll have to go back to the Wiki.

Last edited by Texbrew (2016-07-13 01:51:20)

goodwinmcd · 2016-07-13 01:46:32

Yeah, I wrote the changes. I think I destroyed my previous grub files when installing arch and that's why grub does not work anymore. I don't remember what I did the first time to configure it correctly to dual boot. Do I need a GPT table since I am set for EFI boot?

For clarification my disk are formatted with msdos MBR acording to parted -l.

Last edited by goodwinmcd (2016-07-13 01:58:27)

Texbrew · 2016-07-13 02:01:34

goodwinmcd wrote:

Yeah, I wrote the changes. I think I destroyed my previous grub files when installing arch and that's why grub does not work anymore. I don't remember what I did the first time to configure it correctly to dual boot. Do I need a GPT table since I am set for EFI boot?

Looks like we're playing "tag". I have no expertise on GPT table/EFI boot, so I can't advise you on that.

I think I would try changing the BIOS boot option to "Both" (or however it's worded on your machine). That may be all that's needed.

Grub may or may not be corrupted, but I'm pretty sure it won't work if your machine is set to UEFI boot.

tex

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-13 08:04:54

goodwinmcd wrote:

I did notice that doing fdisk -l shows an astrix under the boot column for sda1 but nothing under sdb1

goodwinmcd wrote:

my disk are formatted with msdos MBR acording to parted -l.

Please post the full terminal output rather than vague descriptions of terminal output.

In this case, the output of:

# parted -l

You can use a pastebin client from the Arch live ISO to generate a URL that can be posted here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php?ti … edirect=no

goodwinmcd wrote:

I live booted and arch-chroot into the hard drive and redid the entire grub install.

Please post the exact commands that you used rather than a vague description of the commands that you used.

EDIT: It is possible to use an MBR-style disk with a UEFI system but support for this is firmware-dependent; for UEFI systems, GPT disks are thus recommended.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2016-07-13 08:05:58)

goodwinmcd · 2016-07-13 13:03:00

Alright, I'll post the output when I get home.

Edit: Also can I use GPT even if I'm already using MBR?

Last edited by goodwinmcd (2016-07-13 13:03:57)

goodwinmcd · 2016-07-16 20:53:26

Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc919918a


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x93eae771

Device     Boot  Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *      2048     718847     716800   350M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2       718848 1953519615 1952800768 931.2G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT




Disk /dev/sdc: 1.9 GiB, 2002780160 bytes, 3911680 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x4c840490

Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  *        0 1533951 1533952  749M  0 Empty
/dev/sdc2         172   82091   81920   40M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/loop0: 325 MiB, 340824064 bytes, 665672 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Model: ATA ST500DM002-1BD14 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End  Size  Type  File system  Flags


Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-08M (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      1049kB  368MB   367MB   primary  ntfs         boot
 2      368MB   1000GB  1000GB  primary  ntfs


Model: Generic Flash Disk (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 2003MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    Type     File system  Flags
 2      88.1kB  42.0MB  41.9MB  primary  fat16        esp

Sorry it took so long for me to update. Above is the output of fdisk -l and parted -l. I went ahead and got rid of my previous arch installation so now I have a 500 GByte hard drive (sda) ready for the arch install.

Not sure how to proceed with partitions though. The ones I know I want are a swap, shared data, and root partition. Do I need to make any other ones for booting/GRUB? Where should I install GRUB so that grub rescue can identify it and not give me the 'error: symbol 'grub_real_boot_time' not found"?

Thanks again in advance for the help.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-17 20:34:14

I think the correct approach here is to install Arch in non-UEFI mode as Windows is also does not boot in UEFI mode.

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gr … structions & https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Du … OS_systems

Upstream documentation here:
https://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manua … 02fWindows

can I use GPT even if I'm already using MBR?

I would recommend using an MBR-style partition table with a non-UEFI system.

goodwinmcd · 2016-08-08 02:51:21

Just want to update and say that I fixed this issue by installing grub mbr repair software to a USB flash drive. I booted off of the USB flash drive, ran the software, and then rebooted. I was capable of booting into windows after this and started the whole installation process for arch all over again. It worked afterwards.

This was a couple weeks ago and I cannot recall the software I used to repair my MBR. The problem appeared to be my partition table being over written when I was trying to install arch the first time.

Arch Linux

#1 2016-07-12 23:40:41

New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#2 2016-07-13 00:19:14

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#3 2016-07-13 00:40:32

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#4 2016-07-13 01:43:39

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#5 2016-07-13 01:46:32

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#6 2016-07-13 02:01:34

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#7 2016-07-13 08:04:54

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#8 2016-07-13 13:03:00

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#9 2016-07-16 20:53:26

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#10 2016-07-17 20:34:14

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

#11 2016-08-08 02:51:21

Re: New install sent me to grub rescue. Cannot find solution

Board footer