Arch Linux

Cinbu

Member

Registered: 2016-12-27

Posts: 29

GRUB does not show Arch

Until now I used a dual-boot with Ubuntu 16.04 and Windows. It worked out of the box with GRUB after the installation of Ubuntu.
Now I formated my Windows partition and installed Arch via USB on this partition. I followed the steps in the installation guide and had no problems.

After a reboot GRUB still shows the option to boot into Windows instead of Arch. When I choose the option GRUB just says the device does not exist and returns to the GRUB menu.

I tried to update the grub.cfg file:

sudo update-grub                 
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-57-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-57-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-53-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-53-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-51-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-51-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-47-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-47-generic
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.elf
Found memtest86+ image: /boot/memtest86+.bin
Found Arch on /dev/sda4
Found Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (14.04) on /dev/sda9
done

So apparently it finds Arch. Why can't I boot into it?

I case it helps, this is the output of "fdisk -l":

Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048   2050047   2048000 1000M Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda2    2050048   2582527    532480  260M EFI System
/dev/sda3    2582528   2844671    262144  128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda4    2844672 203354111 200509440 95,6G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda5  244314112 305754111  61440000 29,3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda6  305754112 311613439   5859328  2,8G Linux swap
/dev/sda7  499867648 500117503    249856  122M BIOS boot
/dev/sda8  311613440 499867647 188254208 89,8G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda9  203354112 244314111  40960000 19,5G Linux filesystem

ks3

Member

Registered: 2016-07-07

Posts: 5

Re: GRUB does not show Arch

A few thoughts.

• You may need to update your partition types from the Microsoft types to Linux filesystem.

• I see EFI, you should probably be using gdisk (think it's in package gptfdisk) instead of fdisk.

• Related to EFI, GRUB may use different config file locations for EFI vs. MBR systems, so make sure you're updating the correct one.  When I update the GRUB config in my EFI system, the command I use is grub-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/grub/grub.cfg

Cinbu

Member

Registered: 2016-12-27

Posts: 29

Re: GRUB does not show Arch

• You may need to update your partition types from the Microsoft types to Linux filesystem.

I used gdisk instead of fdisk, giving me this output:

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048         2050047   1000.0 MiB  2700  
   2         2050048         2582527   260.0 MiB   EF00  EFI system partition
   3         2582528         2844671   128.0 MiB   0C01  Microsoft reserved ...
   4         2844672       203354111   95.6 GiB    0700  Basic data partition
   5       244314112       305754111   29.3 GiB    0700  Basic data partition
   6       305754112       311613439   2.8 GiB     8200  
   7       499867648       500117503   122.0 MiB   EF02  
   8       311613440       499867647   89.8 GiB    8300  
   9       203354112       244314111   19.5 GiB    8300  Ubuntu14

Number 4 is the Arch partition, it is not described as Microsoft data anymore. So I guess this is fine?

• I see EFI, you should probably be using gdisk (think it's in package gptfdisk) instead of fdisk.

The EFI partition confuses me, too, since I boot with Legacy BIOS and according to the wiki I should have MBR, so why does the EFI partition even exist? I only installed Ubuntu 16 and 14 on my Laptop after receiving it with Windows preinstalled.

I checked if I boot with UEFI or Legacy BIOS witht his code:

$ sudo efibootmgr        

EFI variables are not supported on this system.