Arch Linux

CatNIP

Member

Registered: 2025-08-29

Posts: 2

Arch not booting w systemd-boot selecting Arch drops straight intobios

Hardware / Setup:
Laptop: Asus R521JP
CPU: Intel i5-1035G1
Dual-boot: Windows 10/11 on SSD, Arch Linux on HDD
Secure Boot: Disabled
Fast Boot: Disabled
Installation:
Arch installed on HDD, with a separate EFI partition on the same drive
No GRUB, using only systemd-boot
EFI partition mounted at /mnt/boot during installation
Bootloader installed with:
bootctl --path=/mnt/boot install

Problem:
Linux Boot Manager appears in the boot menu
Selecting Arch Linux briefly shows a screen, then immediately drops to BIOS
Happens whether I press Enter or wait for the timeout
Tried so far:
Correcting arch.conf
Mounting /boot manually
Reinstalling systemd-boot
Copying EFI to fallback (BOOTX64.EFI)
Rebuilding initramfs (mkinitcpio -P)
/boot contains: vmlinuz-linux, initramfs-linux.img, loader/, EFI/
Configs: /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf:
title   Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd  /intel-ucode.img
initrd  /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=<your-root-partuuid> rw

/etc/fstab (EFI line):
UUID=<efi-partition-uuid>  /boot  vfat  umask=0077  0 2

Steps already tried:
Verified /boot is mounted and files exist
Rebuilt initramfs (mkinitcpio -P)
Reinstalled systemd-boot
Checked root PARTUUID matches
Copied EFI to fallback paths
Disabled Secure Boot and Fast Boot
Reordered boot priorities in BIOS
Request:
Why does systemd-boot fail to load the kernel/initramfs and drop to BIOS?
Is this a firmware quirk specific to Asus R521JP?
How can I make systemd-boot launch Arch correctly on this hardware?
Note that I don't want to use anything else expect systemd-boot because i only want to manually boot into linux on some occasions and mainly boot straight into windows automatically BUT if there is any other boot loader or method i can use to get the same result id be gald to hear it.
Sorry if my post is too long i wanted to give as much info as possible
tnx for your time btw
Ps:so i couldn't get systemd-boot to work(probably bc of a stubborn motherboard ) but i installed grub and everything went smooth and as planned

Last edited by CatNIP (2025-08-29 16:33:47)

twelveeighty

Member

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 1,448

Re: Arch not booting w systemd-boot selecting Arch drops straight intobios

Why does systemd-boot fail to load the kernel/initramfs and drop to BIOS?

This is the important part to *investigate* first, before you make any changes.

First of all, did you Disable Windows Fast-Start?

Selecting Arch Linux briefly shows a screen

Describe this "screen" - is this the standard systemd-boot startup, or do you have plymouth running? Post your *actual* /boot/loader/loader.conf and the contents of the files in /boot/loader/entries/

In case it does make it to the boot process: what is in your journal from the failed boot attempts? Make sure to set your journal to be persistent between boots.

Did you use the official installation guide, or some other method to install Arch?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: Arch not booting w systemd-boot selecting Arch drops straight intobios

initrd  /intel-ucode.img

Doesn't appear to be installed.

CatNIP

Member

Registered: 2025-08-29

Posts: 2

Re: Arch not booting w systemd-boot selecting Arch drops straight intobios

Why does systemd-boot fail to load the kernel/initramfs and drop to BIOS?

This is the important part to *investigate* first, before you make any changes.

First of all, did you Disable Windows Fast-Start?

Selecting Arch Linux briefly shows a screen

Describe this "screen" - is this the standard systemd-boot startup, or do you have plymouth running? Post your *actual* /boot/loader/loader.conf and the contents of the files in /boot/loader/entries/

In case it does make it to the boot process: what is in your journal from the failed boot attempts? Make sure to set your journal to be persistent between boots.

Did you use the official installation guide, or some other method to install Arch?

Ok so fast boot and hibernation are in fact disabled and by the screen after choosing Linux i meant the normal systemd-boot screen where it want you to either press enter or wait to boot into arch but after that screen it goes straight to bios
And yup i used the official installation guide.
My guess is that my motherboard couldn't execute a random efi file since the boot loader worked(we know this because the systemd-boot screen came up) but when it tried to hand it off to kernel/initra it failed fo some reason
And there couldn't be a problem with the loader and arch.conf files since i checked them many times.
Ps:though i installed grub and everything is fine now i m still curious about what caused this problem

Last edited by CatNIP (2025-08-29 16:44:46)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,724

Re: Arch not booting w systemd-boot selecting Arch drops straight intobios

And there couldn't be a problem with the loader and arch.conf files since i checked them many times.

And yet, there is.