Arch Linux

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

I just installed a fresh Arch, rebooted successfully into the new Arch several times and installed a desktop environment and a bunch of programs. Everithyng was good.

Than I removed the hard disk to get some data from the old one. When I mounted back the new one with the new Arch install, it wasn't recognised.

The hard disk doesn't appear on boot menu, nor BIOS. But when I boot on the live Arch usb, the disk is recognized. I can mount it and chroot on it. The disk is fine and all the files are there.

What should I do?

EDIT:

I reinstalled grub with the

--removable

option added and I ran mkconfig, than I could boot again. But as soon as I moved the disk again the same problem appeared.

How can I find a permanent solution to this problem?

Last edited by jeton (2018-12-26 11:15:01)

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,621

Website

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

Use UUIDs in your boot loader config and fstab rather than kernel block device names.

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

Use UUIDs in your boot loader config and fstab rather than kernel block device names.

I generated fstab with this command:

genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

and I installed grub with these commands:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot--bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Can you provide an example of what I need to change to use UUID?

P.s. Thank you for your help and patience.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,621

Website

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

I don't use grub, so I don't know what that will automatically do.  What is actually in your grub config(s)?

---

"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

I don't use grub, so I don't know what that will automatically do.  What is actually in your grub config(s)?

What do you use?

I tried with systemd-boot and Arch was booting fine. As soon I removed the hard disk and place it back ... again the same problem.

/boot/loader/entries/arch.conf looks like this

title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /intel-ucode.img
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID={my-part-uuid} quiet splash

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,605

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

Appears the firmware is dropping the EFI boot entry from NVRAM when the device is removed unless it is marked as removable.

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

Appears the firmware is dropping the EFI boot entry from NVRAM when the device is removed unless it is marked as removable.

How to mark it as removable?

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,605

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.g … 0b75#n1071 what grub-install is relying upon is
installation.html#alternative-naming specifically using EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI as the bootmgrs location.

Last edited by loqs (2018-12-27 20:26:53)

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

http://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/grub.g … 0b75#n1071 what grub-install is relying upon is
installation.html#alternative-naming specifically using EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI as the bootmgrs location.

I'm not using grub anymore, I switched to systemd-boot.

Is it saying that I should rename

EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi

to

EFI/BOOT/bootarch.efi

Last edited by jeton (2018-12-27 20:41:17)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,605

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

No EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi should be loaded even if it does not have an entry in efivars.  Did you copy systemd-bootx64.efi to bootx64.efi?

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

No EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi should be loaded even if it does not have an entry in efivars.  Did you copy systemd-bootx64.efi to bootx64.efi?

I tried now, it didn't help.

Should I run:

mkinitcpio -p linux

every time I make changes to these boot files?

Could updating bios help?
I'm using ASUS X550CA.

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

I just ran:

bootctl install

and restarted the pc and it booted again. But I guess removing the hard disk could break the boot loader again. I don't understand what is causing this.

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,605

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

Check the output of `efibootmgr` now with the working system and again when it is not.
I am working on the basis the entry for whichever bootloader your system is using is removed after the firmware detects the device has been removed.
Installing the bootmanager to  EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi should allow it to be detected even without an entry.

Last edited by loqs (2018-12-27 21:28:59)

jeton

Member

Registered: 2016-05-04

Posts: 29

Re: Reboot and Select proper Boot device !?

I installed and ran efibootmgr when arch was working:

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001
Boot0000* Linux Boot Manager
Boot0001* CD/DVD Drive

and than removed and mounted back the hard drive and ran efibootmgr again:
(note: just by removing and mounting back arch was booting, but when I mounted other hard disk with ubuntu in-between, the arch boot loader broke)

BootCurrent: 0004
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0004,0005,0003
Boot0003* CD/DVD Drive
Boot0004* UEFI: Patriot Memory PMAP
Boot0005* Hard Drive

The good thing is that now I now how to easily fix it, by chrooting with live usb and running bootctl install.