Arch Linux

megaminxwin

Member

Registered: 2017-07-30

Posts: 16

Unable to boot Arch from disk on System76 Meerkat

Hi,

I'm trying to install Arch on my System76 Meerkat, which came with Ubuntu. I can boot from USB just fine, and install it from there, but when I reboot I'm told that there are no volumes with installation media available.

Things of note:

- This computer has 2 drives, an SSD and an HDD. I'm attempting to install the OS and the EFI partition on the SSD, and the swap and /home partition on the HDD.
- SecureBoot is not enabled.
- UEFI boot is enabled and is the only one available. The boot disk is GPT with an ESP on it, mounted at /boot, formatted as FAT32.
- This is the result when I type efibootmgr -v: https://ptpb.pw/r9ma
- I add the swap and ESP partitions to the fstab file using the directions on the wiki.
- Grub configures via x86_64-efi, with the ESP partition set to /boot.
- When booting from disk, grub shows up and gives me the basic command line. I'm only given the error after I exit out of that.

Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Blasphemist

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2013-01-17

Posts: 160

Re: Unable to boot Arch from disk on System76 Meerkat

There should only be one ESP per system. Are you trying to create a second ESP partition on the SSD?

There have been a number of UEFI boot entries created and deleted I see. You have removed the Ubuntu that the system came with? And put windows on? Why is Boot0008 thinking that hard disk has an MBR instead of being GPT? What are do you want to leave in place on this system?

Do you remove your installation media or use the UEFI provided boot menu to ensure you really are booting from the installed grub? What you're describing looks more like you're booting from the installation media.

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Simple and Open

megaminxwin

Member

Registered: 2017-07-30

Posts: 16

Re: Unable to boot Arch from disk on System76 Meerkat

There should only be one ESP per system. Are you trying to create a second ESP partition on the SSD?

I'm only attempting to make one ESP partition. There aren't any on the HDD - there shouldn't be, anyway...

There have been a number of UEFI boot entries created and deleted I see. You have removed the Ubuntu that the system came with? And put windows on? Why is Boot0008 thinking that hard disk has an MBR instead of being GPT? What are do you want to leave in place on this system?

I removed Ubuntu but I never put Windows on, that was just there for some bizarre reason. Boot0008 is the USB drive, I needed that in so I could run efibootmgr in the first place. I want to have a brand new installation with everything wiped.

Do you remove your installation media or use the UEFI provided boot menu to ensure you really are booting from the installed grub? What you're describing looks more like you're booting from the installation media.

I remove the USB drive before attempting to boot into the installation. If I don't, I still get the Grub command line, but if I type exit then it sends me to the live USB.

Blasphemist

Member

From: Colorado

Registered: 2013-01-17

Posts: 160

Re: Unable to boot Arch from disk on System76 Meerkat

I don't see any need to keep the Boot0000 entry for windows since you don't have windows so I'd get rid of that. Boot to the install iso, mount your root and ESP partitions, run arch-chroot:

# efibootmgr -b 9 -B

Did you add either of these drives? This system had a ESP to start with so which drive was it on and are you re-using it? Did you remake the ESP after deleting the existing ESP or did you format the existing ESP?

What is the output from parted for each drive?

# parted /dev/sdx print

Does this show that you referred to the right drive and partition all the way through grub installation and configuration? An error related to that is usually the cause of getting the grub rescue prompt after installation.

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Simple and Open

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: Unable to boot Arch from disk on System76 Meerkat

Grub configures via x86_64-efi, with the ESP partition set to /boot.
- When booting from disk, grub shows up and gives me the basic command line. I'm only given the error after I exit out of that.

Did you forget https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … ation_file?

Also, please post the exact, full commands used rather than vague descriptions.

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

megaminxwin

Member

Registered: 2017-07-30

Posts: 16

Re: Unable to boot Arch from disk on System76 Meerkat

Okay, I managed to get it working now. I decided to reinstall absolutely everything, and remove the Windows option in that efibootmgr thing. I'm not entirely sure what else I did different, unfortunately... Thanks anyway.