Arch Linux

sumthingranedum

Member

Registered: 2023-11-28

Posts: 10

Can’t Boot After Install

I just followed the installation wiki exactly and then rebooted, taking out my usb installation media, but when it tries to boot I instead see “Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key”. Let me know what information I need to give. I am trying to use Grub, if it matters. Thanks.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,771

Website

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

Is SecureBoot disabled?

Otherwise please share the full, exact commands used to install the bootloader along with the full configuration files. Thanks.

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sumthingranedum

Member

Registered: 2023-11-28

Posts: 10

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

cat /sys/firmware/efi/fw_platform_size returns 64 during the installation setup, if that’s what you’re asking. I assume this means that I have secure boot enabled, but I’m very new to Arch, so please excuse my lack of knowledge.

sumthingranedum

Member

Registered: 2023-11-28

Posts: 10

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

Just to speed things up, here is every command in order I entered from booting to installation media --> reboot:

ping google.com
fdisk /dev/sda (i use a gpt table to make 3 partitions: 1 = 2G efi system, 2 = 8G swap, 3 = rest of SSD root)
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
swapon /dev/sda2
pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
arch-chroot /mnt

while chroot-ed:

ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/US/Pacific /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
pacman -S vim
vim /etc/locale.gen (set up locale for my region)
locale-gen
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
echo "archlinux" > /etc/hostname
vim /etc/hosts (set up host stuff)
passwd (set password)
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit

reboot

Also, whenever I reboot I always get [FAILED] Failed unmounting /run/archiso/copytoram. Not sure if this is important because it doesn't stop rebooting.

Thanks for the help!

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,771

Website

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

So does the system boot if you disable SecureBoot from the firmware ("BIOS") menus?

Some UEFI implementations will allow non-SecureBoot-compliant live USB sticks to boot even if SecureBoot is enabled but Arch does not support SecureBoot by default so it will have to be disabled until you add support.

Relevant: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unifie … ecure_Boot

I prefer to remove the Windows SecureBoot keys, add my own keys to the firmware and then use a signed unified kernel image. Other methods are available.

EDIT: I do not recommend mounting the ESP under /boot/ if you're using GRUB; it's not needed and the FAT filesystem breaks too easily for my liking. The grub-install command presumes the ESP is mounted under /boot/efi/, which is probably more sensible.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2023-12-04 06:47:49)

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sumthingranedum

Member

Registered: 2023-11-28

Posts: 10

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

Do you mean that secure boot is independant of the arch installation and is simply in my motherboard bios settings? If so, I don't understand why I have been able to install arch with the archinstall command and everything works perfectly. On one of these "archinstall" installations, I did 'bootctl' and it said the secure boot was disabled. Do you still think I need to configure my BIOS settings? Also, kind of less related question, but I have heard that it is possible and better to not use a boot manager like grub if you only plan on having one device/os to boot to. Is this true and if so, how can I do it because I'm not doing any kind of dual boot or anything that would require something like grub.

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,771

Website

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

Do you still think I need to configure my BIOS settings?

Why don't you try it and find out? Remember to mark the thread [SOLVED] if my suggestion gets your system booting.

I have heard that it is possible and better to not use a boot manager like grub if you only plan on having one device/os to boot to. Is this true

It's certainly possible, yes. Not sure about "better" though because GRUB offers a lot of flexibility.

how can I do it

Consult the ArchWiki. It really is a fantastic resource.

The Arch kernel can boot itself in UEFI mode: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFISTUB

I prefer unified kernel images because then I don't have to rely on NVRAM boot entries — just place the image at /EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi on the EFI system partition and it should be booted automatically if there are no specific NVRAM entries. They're also simpler to use with SecureBoot because only a single image needs to be signed.

EDIT: and systemd-boot can be useful because of it's support for XBOOTLDR partitions: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System … g_XBOOTLDR; it can even read other filesystems:

During initialization, sd-boot automatically loads all driver files placed in the /EFI/systemd/drivers/ directory of the ESP. The files placed there must have an extension of the EFI architecture ID followed by .efi (e.g. for x86-64 this means a suffix of x64.efi). This may be used to automatically load file system drivers and similar, to extend the native firmware support.

https://man.archlinux.org/man/sd-boot.7#FILES

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2023-12-04 16:30:34)

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SeagullFish

Member

Registered: 2023-08-10

Posts: 26

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

May I suggest a few improvements/simplifications?
Edit: Removed, after feedback from Scimmia.

Last edited by SeagullFish (2023-12-12 16:48:26)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 11,655

Re: Can’t Boot After Install

May I suggest a few improvements/simplifications?
...

None of those are improvements, and have nothing to do with their problem. Don't do that.