Arch Linux

nikdog

Member

Registered: 2022-08-01

Posts: 5

MBR grub-install not working

I'm setting up an old work machine with Arch Linux, everything has gone smoothly except installing the bootloader. The machine pre-dates UEFI dominance. I used the same MBR Partition Table that was already on the HDD. It has one of those BIOS system partitions that I didn't want to remove and resetup.

grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck /dev/sda completes successfully, "no errors". Absolutely ran grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

System sits on a blinking cursor at boot, grub doesn't load. No partitions were flagged bootable, flagged sda3 bootable, same results. Someone else had a similar issue in the forum, fixed it using parted to flag partition 1 bootable, tried that for fun, same results. Tried dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=446 count=1 to wipe the MBR, then grub-install again, same results. I'm stumped. I'm not sure why it isn't working.

Sector size 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
sda1 *Boot 63 80324 80262 39.2M de Dell Utility
sda2 81920 4276223 4194304 2G 82 Linux Swap
sda3 *Boot 4276224 625142447 620866224 296.1G 83 Linux

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,400

Re: MBR grub-install not working

What boot options/bootable entry list does your BIOS have? If it for some reason takes you up on the offer and can actually try to boot a bootable partition that would be wrong and it should try to boot "the disk" itself. Also what machine exactly? MB name? model?

Last edited by V1del (2025-04-25 17:31:16)

nikdog

Member

Registered: 2022-08-01

Posts: 5

Re: MBR grub-install not working

BIOS boot order is set to:
Onboard or USB Floppy
Onboard or USB CD-ROM
USB Device
Onboard SATA Hard Drive
Onboard Network Controller

The F12 boot options just let me select from that.
For shits'n'giggles I actually used the F12 boot menu and selected Onboard SATA Hard Drive. That loaded Grub. System booted. Not sure why it isn't booting on itsown.

It's a Dell Optiplex 380.

euromatlox

Member

Registered: 2017-02-10

Posts: 131

Re: MBR grub-install not working

Is it possible to add some delay to booting ? Or slower booting with manufacturer commercials and/or memtest ? Might not help but worth to try.
Of course it's possible to add delay to grub autoselecting, that's what I have done in my computer, I have 22 seconds there.
If I hurry and push Enter after 2 seconds it's very possible that freeze happens and I have to press reset button on computer to reboot.

From my grub.cfg:

terminal_input console
terminal_output console
if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
  set timeout_style=menu
  set timeout=22
# Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is
# unavailable.
else
  set timeout=22
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

Last edited by euromatlox (2025-04-25 18:10:21)