Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

tkm · 2012-12-30 16:50:11

Hello all,

I installed everything according to the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide ... I think.
But when I reboot, I end up in the UEFI setup utility (this is 214 by the way).

If I look in gdisk (when booting from usb) I see my EF00 partition on the first partition.

I don't use a separate /boot partition, I only use a / partition with a /boot directory in it.
I mounted /dev/sda1 on the /boot/efi directory.
I formatted /dev/sda1 as vfat -F32.
I installed GRUB2 as the bootloader.
If I look onto the /dev/sda1 I only see the EFI directory.

looked a bit further.
I used the ISO image to to make my bootable USB stick.
I looked at the root dir on the stick and the /sys and the /proc look strange a ls -al results in

dr-xr-xr-x 123 root root 0 Dec 30 19:50 proc/
dr-xr-xr-x 13 root root 0 Dec 30 19:50 sys/

After the pacstrap step I could not do:
arch-chroot /mnt pacman -S grub-efi-x86_64
Left it until today and it succeeded but with warnings.

Did the same just now and looked at de /mnt dir and the /mnt/sys & /mnt/proc in the same strange state as on the root dir.
The /mnt/proc & /mnt/sys are empty!

Please help.

Regards,

Theo

Last edited by tkm (2012-12-30 19:21:33)

cfr · 2012-12-30 20:05:12

Please try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide instead. It is a bit more step-by-step and should be easier to follow. If you get stuck, post back exactly which commands failed and exactly what errors you get.

It is normal for /proc and /sys to be empty when they are not at the current root directory. These directories get populated on boot and while the system is running. Their purpose is to represent the current state of the running system - nothing persists here between boots as nothing needs to.

EDIT: Welcome to Arch!

Last edited by cfr (2012-12-30 20:06:09)

tkm · 2012-12-30 21:42:02

cfr wrote:

Please try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide instead.

Tried this. The only thing that I observed was, that the efivars weren't loaded in the beginning of the other installation guide.

I came to the same step ("Chroot and configure the base system") with the problem I couldn't: arch-chroot /mnt
sys is already mounted or /mnt/sys is busy
sys is already mounted to /sys
sys is already mounted to /mnt/sys
ERROR:Failed to setup API filesystems in chroot /mnt

cfr · 2012-12-30 21:54:22

If that is really the only difference you saw, you cannot have read very carefully. https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … therboards covers installing a UEFI bootloader.

The modprobe efivars is crucial, by the way, and will only work if you are booted in EFI mode.

Restart the system and follow the steps in the beginner's guide. If you are sure you did everything else correctly, start with the installation of the boot loader. If you get errors, post the commands and errors you receive. Did you run grub-install? Did you install efibootmgr? Did you check the efivars module was loaded correctly?

tkm · 2012-12-31 10:37:23

Sorry, I'm not a native English speaker :-)

I meant biggest difference was the modprobe.

I have a problem, that I reported.

tkm wrote:

I came to the same step ("Chroot and configure the base system") with the problem I couldn't: arch-chroot /mnt
sys is already mounted or /mnt/sys is busy
sys is already mounted to /sys
sys is already mounted to /mnt/sys
ERROR:Failed to setup API filesystems in chroot /mnt

I began all new again, following the beginners guide, and (re)formatted the partitions. But became stuck at "Chroot and configure the base system".
I never came to the part of installing the bootloader again because I couldn't arch-chroot.

Sorry for the confusion.

I've read the motherboard part now. My EF00 is 1GB big and is mounted on /mnt/boot/efi directory and vfat32 formatted.

cfr · 2012-12-31 17:20:52

Post fstab.

What does mount give?

Note: Please use [code ][/code ] tags (without the spaces).

tkm · 2013-01-03 10:55:50

I solved the problem.

The problem had to do with the wifi connection.
Somehow multiple laptops & smartphones close together interfered with the wifi link on the ultrabook.
Every time I started all new and ran pacstrap some process never finished because it had some issues with the connection.
That prevented me from running arch-chroot.

Because I ran the installation process so many times that last evening I did it without another laptop running (without the beginners guide on it) and /sys and /mnt/sys was back normal.
I could arch-chroot without any issues.
I could finish the GRUB configuration and boot normally into the ultrabook.
This morning I'm at the fuzzy world of selecting Fonts and a graphical environment.
I will use the ultrabook mostly for designing in UML & programming in C & C++.
That said I am not a administrator but for Arch it seems I'm getting into that world too :-) .

Thanks for all the help.

With kind regards,

Theo

Last edited by tkm (2013-01-03 11:01:09)

Arch Linux

#1 2012-12-30 16:50:11

Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

#2 2012-12-30 20:05:12

Re: Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

#3 2012-12-30 21:42:02

Re: Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

#4 2012-12-30 21:54:22

Re: Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

#5 2012-12-31 10:37:23

Re: Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

#6 2012-12-31 17:20:52

Re: Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

#7 2013-01-03 10:55:50

Re: Problems booting an UX31A ultrabook

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