Arch Linux

wombatvvv

Member

Registered: 2016-07-29

Posts: 50

Can't get BIOS to detect EFI partition (Dell Lattitude 7390) [SOLVED]

Hello,

First, excuse me, I'm not very good with Linux, I just like it to develop on and use Arch to keep it very bloat-free.

I'm trying to install Arch Linux as the sole OS on a Dell Lattitude 7390 laptop. However, I can't seem to get it to boot Arch.

I have a very simple process, I basically install Arch following the Arch Installation Guide and use efibootmgr to start the system. I have done this quite a few times with different machines and never run into any problems that I couldn't figure out, but in this case I just can't get it to boot. If I go into the BIOS I can't even get it to register as a bootable device.

Obviously without any OS installed on it, I can't copy and paste output, so I took photographs instead. Excuse me if it's hard to read. You can click the images to enlarge them.

This is what I get when I attempt to boot:
https://i.ibb.co/rsQyr29/20201015-145410.jpg

Here are some screen shots showing my partition setup, fstab and efibootmg setup:
https://i.ibb.co/5KxphkH/20201015-161033.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/tYHfBpz/20201015-161109.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/w4LGq9Y/20201015-161244.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/Z6BpZ66/20201015-161406.jpg

These are some screenshots of my BIOS setup. As you can see, in the boot-sequence menu I have an option to "add new" and "select a file", where I can choose from the files on my EFI Partition, but that doesn't work either.
https://i.ibb.co/RT3QnjN/20201015-145156.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/N3JK8Cr/20201015-145310.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/kMGTy82/20201015-145206.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/zN09nGR/20201015-145220.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/mF63cxC/20201015-145245.jpg

If anyone can provide some help or insight I would appreciate that.

Last edited by wombatvvv (2020-10-15 15:15:31)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,079

Re: Can't get BIOS to detect EFI partition (Dell Lattitude 7390) [SOLVED]

Please convert all of these to links rather than embedding direct images.

And if you have an internet connection on the Arch iso it would be better if you posted the actual text instead of potentially hard to read and cut off camera pictures: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li … in_clients

Did you post that efibootmgr entry just after trying to create it or does the entry stick after a reboot?

Put it into the bootable list:

efibootmgr -o 0,2,3,4

If that doesn't work it might be that you won't be able to properly pass parameters to the UEFI, so I'd suggest you set up a boot loader to be independent of these shenanigans (you should be able to add that one via that menu and as it doesn't need any parameters itself it should work). Sometimes you can't get around that.

Last edited by V1del (2020-10-15 14:38:59)

wombatvvv

Member

Registered: 2016-07-29

Posts: 50

Re: Can't get BIOS to detect EFI partition (Dell Lattitude 7390) [SOLVED]

Thanks, I installed a bootloader and that fixed it.

In case anyone finds this via a Google search, I installed systemd-boot: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd-boot

To get it to work, I removed the "initrd  /intel-ucode.img" line from the sample arch.conf file listed there (it didn't exist on my ESP, so I assume it's not needed?)

I then had to give the partition containing the linux install a label which is referenced in arch.conf, I did that using the e2label command: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pe … ming#fstab

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,079

Re: Can't get BIOS to detect EFI partition (Dell Lattitude 7390) [SOLVED]

It's recommended to load intel-ucode.img , you'll have to install the intel-ucode package however.

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,280

Re: Can't get BIOS to detect EFI partition (Dell Lattitude 7390) [SOLVED]

To get it to work, I removed the "initrd  /intel-ucode.img" line from the sample arch.conf file listed there (it didn't exist on my ESP, so I assume it's not needed?)

More information why adding that line is recommended:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Microcode

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wombatvvv

Member

Registered: 2016-07-29

Posts: 50

Re: Can't get BIOS to detect EFI partition (Dell Lattitude 7390) [SOLVED]

Thanks guys, I will do that!