UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

Toxcity · 2012-07-06 21:51:34

Good evening all!

I have just installed Windows in EFI mode onto a GPT disk and that went nice and smoothly. Now I want dual(or more) with Arch.
How in the world do you get Arch to install onto GPT?

I cannot believe it but so far I am impressed with how Windows handled it and depressed how Arch is.

So I already have 100MB EFI partition created by Windows and of course a 20GB Windows partition. I've got a Arch Bootable USB flash drive.

The laptop can boot in BIOS mode.

Thanks!

DSpider · 2012-07-06 22:00:39

Depressed? Arch makes you sad?

Did you read the GPT wiki article yet?

Especially the Bootloader Support part.

Toxcity · 2012-07-06 22:06:40

Badly worded sorry, meant to say depressed with how Arch is not fantastical with GPT.

I did create a partition using "parted" but what gets me stumped is how to install burg/grub2 etc...

Last edited by Toxcity (2012-07-06 22:09:50)

Trent · 2012-07-06 22:18:47

I think DSpider was joking about the odd choice of "depressed" in contrast to "impressed".

But anyway. I installed Arch just the other day and was also disappointed to find that the core CD didn't include gptfdisk or support installation on GPT. I ended up installing it with the regular MBR tools, booted into the new system, converted to GPT, and reinstalled syslinux. Worked like a charm, didn't have any trouble at all. (You do have to remember to leave unused space at the end of the drive for the partition table when using fdisk & friends.)

I don't know whether the Arch CD could be persuaded to use an existing GPT disk or not. When you boot the install CD, can you see the GPT partitions on the hard drive? If so I bet it wouldn't be too difficult to do the relevant installation steps manually and let the installer pick up from there; if not, I'm out of my league.

Toxcity · 2012-07-06 22:23:49

Well, what I did was before running /arch/setup was to create the drive with parted in the terminal. Once that's created you can carry on with the install like normal.
Obviously, no need to create partitions just assign the already created one to the system.

That's where I am stuck. I need to install burg or grub2 onto the Arch machine just created but how? There must be a way by using the CD. Somehow connect to the interwebz and download etc...

But how!?!

Trent · 2012-07-07 00:08:14

Wait... the Arch install cd has parted? TIL.

cfr · 2012-07-07 01:44:31

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GPT
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub2
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Burg
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot

mynis01 · 2012-07-07 03:23:06

All I did to get it working was install grub2 like it says to in the wiki then run shell64.exe from inside my motherboards uefi shell and it automatically added the entry to the boot menu.

blackout23 · 2012-07-10 11:29:33

Use Archboot when dealing with GPT trust me it is much better than the original Arch Installation Framework.
Does everything automatically just select GPT instead of MBR, when it asks you what you want to use.

Last edited by blackout23 (2012-07-10 11:29:50)

picmantonic · 2012-07-11 12:19:54

Thanks Blackout23. I'll give that a try.
I've been trying to get arch to install dual boot on my iMac (11,2) but so far cannot get the installer to recognise the existing ext4 partition on my pure gpt disk.
I considered making it hybrid to be able to use grub2, but then read about efi stub booting with refind.
refind was then installed on the mac.
I tried installing ubuntu 12.10 (development) and it went OK, the partition was recognised and I copied the kernel onto the EFI system partition and set up the refind_linux.conf file to point to the right partition.
This boots fine into ubuntu without using grub or any bootloader, other than the kernel file. ubuntu does have issues with the radeon video driver at the moment but there are workrounds and I expect things will settle, as they did with 12.04.

I'd like to do the same with arch, but there is no way I can see to get arch installed onto the disk without going hybrid and installing grub2.
Maybe I just have to do that and uninstall grub2 afterwards? Or will archboot allow me to install without grub2?

DSpider · 2012-07-12 03:18:13

Or will archboot allow me to install without grub2?

You can skip the Install Bootloader part.

cfr · 2012-07-12 22:04:41

@picmantonic

Welcome to Arch. I think since you are trying to do something different from the OP (if I've understood correctly), it might be better to start a new thread for your issue. That way what the OP here is trying to do - install grub2/burg - won't get confused with what you want to do - install without a boot loader and there's less risk of a misunderstanding leading to somebody giving inappropriate advice to one or other of you.

*david_a* · 2012-07-13 16:55:54

picmantonic wrote:

Maybe I just have to do that and uninstall grub2 afterwards? Or will archboot allow me to install without grub2?

Archboot will allow you to use rEFIt/rEFInd/whatever it's called, instead of grub2. This post proves it - I installed that way last night. There's a simple checkbox to format your drives as GPT, and another simple checkbox later on allowing you to choose your bootloader from a short list.

I think the key to all this is making sure you boot your installer media through EFI and not the older-style BIOS. That is (as far as I can tell) easiest to accomplish by (in your old/other system) mounting your Archboot CD (or just the ISO) and copying (by ordinary methods such as the cp command or a file manager) all of its contents onto a FAT32-formatted USB stick, then inserting the stick into the machine getting the Arch install, and asking your BIOS to start up using that instead of the CD.

Once you actually boot your installer using EFI, then the EFI install options become available. Until then, the installer seems to assume that the machine has no EFI, and won't allow you to see the options for it.

picmantonic · 2012-07-16 08:13:53

@david_a
Thanks for that. I take cfr's point and won't continue further in this thread.

I have actually got this working now, installing directly from the archboot cd.
The other main thing is to prevent kms from using the radeon driver (specify nomodeset).
The rest is about wireless working, region setting, etc.
For X I have to use fbdev - radeon still misbehaves on this system.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-07-06 21:51:34

UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#2 2012-07-06 22:00:39

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#3 2012-07-06 22:06:40

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#4 2012-07-06 22:18:47

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#5 2012-07-06 22:23:49

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#6 2012-07-07 00:08:14

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#7 2012-07-07 01:44:31

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#8 2012-07-07 03:23:06

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#9 2012-07-10 11:29:33

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#10 2012-07-11 12:19:54

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#11 2012-07-12 03:18:13

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#12 2012-07-12 22:04:41

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#13 2012-07-13 16:55:54

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

#14 2012-07-16 08:13:53

Re: UEFI and GPT and Arch and Windows

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