Arch Linux

NotSoVisualBasic

Member

Registered: 2018-07-05

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] UEFI Grub installed with no problem but fails on reboot

I decided to fully commit and have arch as my only OS instead of dual booting. I have one SSD and 3 1TB HDDs. The partion table is as follows:

root@archiso ~ # lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0   463M  1 loop /run/archiso/sfs/airootfs
sda      8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   500M  0 part 
└─sda2   8:2    0 223.1G  0 part 
sdb      8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0 931.5G  0 part 
sdc      8:32   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdc1   8:33   0 931.5G  0 part 
sdd      8:48   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdd1   8:49   0 931.5G  0 part 
sr0     11:0    1   4.4G  0 rom  /run/archiso/bootmnt

Parted print list is as follows:

(parted) print list
Model: ATA SanDisk SDSSDA24 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 240GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End    Size   File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  525MB  524MB  fat32              boot, esp
 2      525MB   240GB  240GB  ext4


Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-22B (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  ext4


Model: ATA WDC WD1003FZEX-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  ext4


Model: ATA WDC WD1003FZEX-0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdd: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  1000GB  1000GB  ext4


Model: ATAPI iHAS124 E (scsi)
Disk /dev/sr0: 4700MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 2048B/2048B
Partition Table: msdos
Disk Flags: 

Number  Start  End    Size   Type     File system  Flags
 2      336kB  269MB  268MB  primary               esp

I then format the partitions using the following commands:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1 -n "EFI"
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2 -L "Root"
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1 -L "Home"
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdc1 -L "Gaming"
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdd1 -L "Gaming"

After this I mount the drives with the following command.

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/home

Which results in the following:

root@archiso ~ # lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0   463M  1 loop /run/archiso/sfs/airootfs
sda      8:0    0 223.6G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   500M  0 part /mnt/boot/efi
└─sda2   8:2    0 223.1G  0 part /mnt
sdb      8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0 931.5G  0 part /mnt/home
sdc      8:32   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdc1   8:33   0 931.5G  0 part 
sdd      8:48   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdd1   8:49   0 931.5G  0 part 
sr0     11:0    1   4.4G  0 rom  /run/archiso/bootmnt
root@archiso ~ # 

I then install the system and generate the fstab using

pacstrap /mnt base base-devel vim
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

After chroot into the installed system, I add users change passwords and other stuff and then lastly I install grub by installing the following packages:

pacman -S grub efibootmgr

Then I

 [root@archiso /]# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-linux
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
Found fallback initrd image(s) in /boot: initramfs-linux-fallback.img
done
[root@archiso /]# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --recheck --bootloader-id=Arch
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.

I then exit, umount and reboot. As you can see grub says it was installed with no errors but when I reboot grub is no where to be found, theres no entry for the bootloader in my motherboards UEFI entries and when i redid the install I checked efibootmgr using:

[root@archiso /]# efibootmgr 
BootCurrent: 0003
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0003,0002,0001
Boot0000* Arch
Boot0001  Hard Drive
Boot0002  CD/DVD Drive
Boot0003* UEFI: ATAPI   iHAS124   E

Which shows the bootloader is there but as i said when i reboot grub doesn't load and when I mount all the drives after the reboot and use efibootmgr the Arch entry isn't there. I have to install grub all over again to get an entry on efibootmgr.

Why isn't grub being installed properly all drives are GPT and sda1 has the esp and boot flags yet grub still doesn't work with my system.

Last edited by NotSoVisualBasic (2018-07-05 07:57:36)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,072

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI Grub installed with no problem but fails on reboot

Some motherboards are very finicky with how they implement the UEFI spec. What motherboard are we talking? Can you install grub again with the --removable flag so that it get's put in the standard path? If that doesn't help either, you might have to check if there's an option to manually add an entry in your UEFI firmware menu.

NotSoVisualBasic

Member

Registered: 2018-07-05

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI Grub installed with no problem but fails on reboot

I'm using an MSI z370 sli plus, if nothing works i might try with systemd-boot but ill try it with the removable flag now. I think the only way to manually add entries on my motherboard is to use the uefi shell but I'm not very well versed on this. This is quite frustrating seeing as I've had this problem and I haven't been able to install for 3 days now , I've tried so many variations of partition tables, mount points, and grub installed and none of them have worked.

NotSoVisualBasic

Member

Registered: 2018-07-05

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI Grub installed with no problem but fails on reboot

Some motherboards are very finicky with how they implement the UEFI spec. What motherboard are we talking? Can you install grub again with the --removable flag so that it get's put in the standard path? If that doesn't help either, you might have to check if there's an option to manually add an entry in your UEFI firmware menu.

WOW, thank you it seems all I was missing was the --removable flag, i hate the fact that I was stuck on this for 3 days and all I was missing was that.

Lt_Abstergo

Member

Registered: 2018-07-12

Posts: 1

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI Grub installed with no problem but fails on reboot

I have the same problem. In my case I am dual booting. I have a laptop setup with a 1.8 TB HDD and a 256 GB SSD. I use the ssd for C drive.
I have used Ubuntu before using the same hardware. And used grub as the boot loader. I didn't have an ssd then. I am trying to install arch on my hdd. I had separate partition for /boot, /mnt and /home on sda. And I was mounting the EFI partition from sdb to /boot/efi.
Sorry for post hijacking. It  looked better to post here then create a new one

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,072

Re: [SOLVED] UEFI Grub installed with no problem but fails on reboot

If you had the same problem, the same fix would fix it for you, I presume you've tried that and it didn't work? Therefore you have a different issue.

Make your own thread, take an example of NotSoVisualBasics initial post and add the information they've added initially. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … _hijacking

Closing.