You are not logged in.

#1 2010-04-05 14:40:12

b9anders
Member
Registered: 2007-11-07
Posts: 691

updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

So, I updated my BIOSrecently. After that, when I tried to boot into arch the boot screen says

'waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sda6'

and eventually 'could not find root device'

which is when it drops me into a basic ramfs commandline.

I tried to boot with the fallback image with the same result and when I try to run the arch livecd it gives the same output (except it waits 30 seconds for /dev/archiso). I tried it with both an i686 image and a x86_64 one.

At first, I thought it was an issue with the BIOS update itself, but I can still boot just fine into vista and ubuntu. Nothing arch related seems to work now however.

Any idea as to what it is about arch that causes it to fail now and what I can do about it?

Offline

#2 2010-04-05 14:50:59

thestinger
Package Maintainer (PM)
From: Toronto, Canada
Registered: 2010-01-23
Posts: 478

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

since grub still works fine and finds the kernel, the bios probably switched the order in which linux finds the drives

boot into ubuntu change arch's /etc/fstab entries to UUID or LABEL instead of /dev/sdx and you won't have the problem - your grub kernel line probably already uses UUID (you can check ubuntu's fstab - I bet it already uses UUID and that's why it's still working)

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Per … ice_naming

I don't know why the arch live cd doesn't work - but it uses an older kernel so it might just lack driver support or something

Offline

#3 2010-04-05 14:53:12

Ashren
Member
From: Denmark
Registered: 2007-06-13
Posts: 1,229
Website

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

Try booting ubuntu and then chroot your arch installation. Use blkid/ls -lF /dev/disk/by-uuid to get UUID's. Change device names to UUID's in fstab - reboot. Have no idea if this solves the problem, but it would be what I'd do in your situation.

Offline

#4 2010-04-05 20:07:19

b9anders
Member
Registered: 2007-11-07
Posts: 691

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

I tried changed all the entries in fstab and even in grub.cfg to UUIDs (fwiw, ubuntu did use them), but I'm afraid its to no avail so far. Still get the same output, except now it's 'waiting for device UUID='lotsofnumbers'

Last edited by b9anders (2010-04-06 08:40:31)

Offline

#5 2010-04-06 03:09:10

1LordAnubis
Member
Registered: 2008-10-10
Posts: 253
Website

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

I would try to chroot into your Arch system with the Arch Live CD.
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ins … via_chroot

fdisk -l to see the partitions, make sure your /etc/fstab and /boot/grub/menu.lst all match up.... sometimes its easy to have something mismatched in grub... and you can always reinstall the kernel


Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
-Benjamin Franklin
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
-George Bernard Shaw

Offline

#6 2010-04-13 18:09:20

b9anders
Member
Registered: 2007-11-07
Posts: 691

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

I tried chrooting but I get

error while loading shared libraries: libalpm.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

When I try to sync pacman. And besides, the problem seems to be a larger one seeing as I can't boot any installation images either.

I am really hoping for some helps here as at the moment, it looks like I am forced to drop arch after 3+ years if a solution doesn't show. sad

Offline

#7 2010-04-13 19:26:51

Zariel
Member
Registered: 2008-10-07
Posts: 446

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

to install packages just do a, tar -xvvzf pack.tar.gz -C /, You can also boot into a disk, mount up your arch PC and install packages from the CD via, pacman --root /mnt -Syu

Offline

#8 2010-04-13 23:19:06

davidm
Member
Registered: 2009-04-25
Posts: 371

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

b9anders wrote:

I tried changed all the entries in fstab and even in grub.cfg to UUIDs (fwiw, ubuntu did use them), but I'm afraid its to no avail so far. Still get the same output, except now it's 'waiting for device UUID='lotsofnumbers'

Maybe if nothing else post your grub.cfg and /etc/fstab files along with 'fdisk -l' and a brief summary of what each partition should be.  That way we can take a look and perhaps find something causing it.

Offline

#9 2010-04-13 23:27:50

SoleSoul
Member
From: Israel
Registered: 2009-06-29
Posts: 319

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

Guys, he says that even the LiveCD won't boot. It can't be grub/fstab related!

Offline

#10 2010-04-14 00:03:28

jocheem67
Member
Registered: 2009-11-09
Posts: 243

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

There's no change whatsoever in the new BIOS? Maybe try to flash it back to the older one just to be sure....

Offline

#11 2010-04-14 13:06:45

whompus
Member
From: Durham. UK
Registered: 2005-08-09
Posts: 256

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

Make sure the BIOS does not have a setting for Installed O/S [Vista]  or [WinXP] or similar maybe in advanced settings, my Novatech laptop would not boot into Arch unless I changed Installed O/S [Other]

Offline

#12 2010-04-17 14:28:10

b9anders
Member
Registered: 2007-11-07
Posts: 691

Re: updated BIOS - Can no longer boot arch in any shape or form

I looked into the BIOS settings and couldn't find any new features added or settings changed, so I don't think that's an option. No installed OS options either.

Id prefer not to have to downgrade my BIOS, since the problem is clearly arch related and should be possible to resolve via arch.

May be nothing, but when I log in out of X in Ubuntu I get this message I haven't noticed before:

Your CPU appears to be lacking expected security protections.
Please check your BIOS settings, or for information run:
/usr/bin/check-bios-nx --verbose

When I run this, I get:

This CPU is family 6, model 22 and has NX capabilities but is unable to use these protective features because the BIOS is configured to disable the capability. Please enable this in your BIOS. For more details see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Security/CPUFeatures.

I couldn't find any setting for this in my BIOS. On the Ubuntu page, the relevant information is:

Some BIOS manufacturers have released firmware updates for their BIOS to allow enabling NX (e.g. Lenovo IdeaPads) so make sure to install the latest BIOS if the NX option is missing.

Since I have a Lenovo 3000 n200 (type 0769) , but I this update didn't include it.

Again, I don't know if this is related at all, but if it is, I thought it might provide a clue to the solution.

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB