Arch Linux

dewdrop623

Member

Registered: 2017-07-20

Posts: 5

[SOLVED] Can't boot, "BootDevice Not Found"

I installed Arch Linux on my HP EliteBook Folio 1040 g1. Everything went smoothly until I tried to boot from the hard drive.

I don't even get to grub. After the HP BIOS logo I get:

BootDevice Not Found
Please install an operating system on your hard disk.
Hard Disk - (3F0)
F2 System Diagnostics
For more information, please visit: www.hp.com\go\techcenter\startup

The hard drive is fine, if I boot from a thumb drive I can mount it and edit files.

The boot settings in BIOS have these settings:

Boot Mode
[+] Legacy
[ ] UEFI Hybrid (With CSM)
[ ] UEFI Native (Without CSM)

I have always had legacy selected. Another checkbox is marked "Secure boot" and it is unchecked. So I do not believe UEFI is the cause of the issue.

During installation I just followed the guide. I tried the installation twice and  have successfully installed Arch multiple times before, so I don't think I made any major/obvious mistakes.

Here is grub.cfg:
https://pastebin.com/mUXnxPKj

And here is the output of fdisk -l:
https://pastebin.com/9JvLjs5w

Let me know what other information might help.
Thanks!

Last edited by dewdrop623 (2018-07-23 15:52:43)

awbyaf

Member

From: South Africa

Registered: 2018-07-23

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Can't boot, "BootDevice Not Found"

Your Disk label type should be "dos" and not "gpt".

Disk /dev/sda: 119.2 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 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: gpt
Disk identifier: 02386A9D-CD3E-8344-883F-054B51B89195

You will have to recreate your partition table by with "option o" in fdisk and resetup your partitions.

dewdrop623

Member

Registered: 2017-07-20

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] Can't boot, "BootDevice Not Found"

Thank you!

I'll be sure to mark this as solved. I'm curious as to why this worked though. I have two other machines (one of them is even a similar model laptop) with Arch installed that use gpt and boot fine. Is it something that the bios has to support?

A side note to any googlers that might stumble on this thread: remember to set the partition's bootable flag with fdisk's a option.

Last edited by dewdrop623 (2018-07-23 15:55:37)

awbyaf

Member

From: South Africa

Registered: 2018-07-23

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Can't boot, "BootDevice Not Found"

I believe it has to do with some BIOS. When it hands over control to the MBR which was designed to load MS-DOS and PC DOS, it expects the fdisk partition table scheme to be in use and scans the list of partitions in the MBR's embedded partition table to find the one partition marked with the active boot flag. It then loads and runs the volume boot record of the active partition and control is then passed to the boot loader code (GRUB) that then loads the OS.

I understand that there is a MBR partition on a GPT table but its only purpose is to indicate the existence of a GPT and to prevent utilities that only understands the MBR scheme from creating any partitions in what they would see as free space. DOS MBR code is more widely used and that is why you have this problem with this HP and not the other.

I have a Dell Latitude E7240 and would have the same issue if I had to set my partition table as GPT and expects to boot. It would come up as an empty drive.