Arch Linux

denravonska

Member

Registered: 2025-03-23

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Unable to boot after booting from live CD

I'm trying to install Arch on a Toshiba Satellite laptop but it's behaving in the weirdest way.

I successfully installed what I thought I needed and booted into my system. Turned out I had forgotten iwctl so I had to go back to the live CD, connect to wifi, mount everything, chroot, install iwctl (only) and reboot. Now the BIOS doesn't think the HDD is bootable.
So back to the live CD, chroot, reinstall grub and reboot. System boots from the HDD just fine.
Now I realize I hadn't installed sudo. Back to the live CD, chroot, install sudo and reboot. Guess what? The HDD isn't bootable anymore.

I have never seen this on any hardware or distro, including Arch, before. What have I missed here and what can I try?

Last edited by denravonska (2025-03-23 13:37:22)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,527

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after booting from live CD

There are firmwares out there that will delete any non-Windows entries as soon as something else is successfully booted. Installing to the default loader location should work around it, use grub-install's --removable flag.

denravonska

Member

Registered: 2025-03-23

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Unable to boot after booting from live CD

There are firmwares out there that will delete any non-Windows entries as soon as something else is successfully booted. Installing to the default loader location should work around it, use grub-install's --removable flag.

Oh that's devious. That fixed it, thanks!