Arch Linux

Dejvid11

Member

Registered: 2022-03-05

Posts: 2

Arch Linux won't boot with Legacy BIOS

Hi!

I've been trying to install Arch on my machine for the past few days without any success. My motherboard does not support EFI in the slightest and it's causing me issues when trying to boot any distro.

Booting up the newest version of Arch (2022.03.01 release) takes me to the boot options menu, but when I attempt booting Arch, my screen goes dark and my keyboard and mouse shut off.

Booting up the 2019 version of Arch also takes me to the same place, but when I try to boot, I get an 'Attempted to kill init!' error. photo

Booting up an even older version DOES WORK, but I could not successfully install the necessary core packages because of missing PGP signatures (base, base-devel, linux, linux-firmware). I tried changing the mirrors and installing the keys manually, no success.

I did some research about this, I found a suggestion to delete the 'EFI' folder after mounting the USB. Going through with this method did get rid of the 'dark screen' thing on the 2022 version, but I got the exact same error as I did on the older one (Attempted to kill init!)

I'd appreciate any help anyone can give me right now.

d_fajardo

Member

Registered: 2017-07-28

Posts: 1,568

Re: Arch Linux won't boot with Legacy BIOS

Have a look at: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_fl … ion_medium
Have a look at Manual Formatting for BIOS.

Maniaxx

Member

Registered: 2014-05-14

Posts: 738

Re: Arch Linux won't boot with Legacy BIOS

What mainboard, cpu, gfx-card do you have?
Latest BIOS is installed?
It mocks about 'memory space handler'. Could be memory problems. Did you check the RAMs yet? Other than that, try to deactivate features you don't need in the BIOS that might shuffle ACPI tables.

Last edited by Maniaxx (2022-03-05 16:41:08)

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sys2064

Dejvid11

Member

Registered: 2022-03-05

Posts: 2

Re: Arch Linux won't boot with Legacy BIOS

My MOBO is a 2820h, the BIOS are up-to-date.
My CPU is Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
My GPU is a GT 710 2GB
My RAM is properly installed and is working fine.

Maniaxx

Member

Registered: 2014-05-14

Posts: 738

Re: Arch Linux won't boot with Legacy BIOS

Please check the ram with something like MemTest86 and make sure there are no proprietary/enterprise specific or useless features enabled in the BIOS (its an old exotic HP motherboard nevertheless). There seem to be problems with ACPI/RAM that might be related to such functions.

If there are no RAM errors try to tweak/disable ACPI via kernel cmdline options (pci=noacpi or acpi=off).

Last edited by Maniaxx (2022-03-05 19:11:28)

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sys2064