[SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

Sirsurthur · 2013-08-25 15:47:04

Hello everybody,

I went through a new installation for my new system based on the motherboard VI hero. It seems that the motherboard is not in UEFI mod since sys/firmware/efi directory does not exist.

I made the following partition scheme in GPT :
- sda1 /boot ext4
- sda2 / ext4
- sda3 /home ext4
- sdb1 /var ext4
- sdb2 swap
- sdb3 /dada ext4

I followed carefully (I think) the installation and beginners' guide and went finally through the installation of gptfdisk and syslinux. I modifier syslinux.conf in order to point out my root partition /dev/sda2.

However, after unmounting my partitions and rebooting, I have no syslinux menu and are in my uefi bios menu.

What mistakes might I have made ?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Last edited by Sirsurthur (2013-08-26 20:40:48)

Trilby · 2013-08-25 16:37:39

Did you install the syslinux MBR code (or whatever the equivalent term is for GPT)? And/or is sda1 set as bootable?

Edit: I missed this the first time:

Sirsurthur wrote:

and are in my uefi bios menu.

I thought you said it wasn't uefi?

Last edited by Trilby (2013-08-25 16:40:11)

Sirsurthur · 2013-08-25 17:51:57

Thanks Trilby for your answer.

Concerning the motherboard, it says that it is an uefi bios but when running arch iso cd, the sys folder is not created. So I guess it´s a bios type.

Regarding syslinux, I configured it with syslinux-install_update -iam. The output says it produced a mbr code (is it the same for gpt partition ?). I did not made any more configuration on sda1 (Syslinux should make it bootable by itself) ?

Maybe I should redo my partition choosing mbr instead of gpt ?

Trilby · 2013-08-25 20:00:59

Those are the right steps for installing syslinux MBR code, and according to the wiki it works the same with gpt. That command will (should) mark the partition as bootable as well. You could check this with fdisk/gdisk to make sure.

I suspect the most likely issue, though, is that your system has an option for uefi or non-uefi boot. Have you checked your bios config for any such options?

EDIT: I know next to nothing about uefi, so I could be way off here, but would a /sys/firmware/efi be expected in a regular live medium even on uefi hardware? As I understand it (which may not be ver far) to install on a uefi system, one cannot use the standard installation iso.

Last edited by Trilby (2013-08-25 20:02:41)

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-25 20:01:55

It should not matter whether you use MBR or GPT unless you are using an operating system that requires a certain type (windows will only do mbr/bios & gpt/uefi). Syslinux is especially good with either mbr or gpt, as it is a bootloader who's stage 1 code will actually fit in the MBR's 446 bytes.

So did you go through the syslinux wiki page? There is information about now only how to use the syslinux-install_update command but also how to do it manually. The partition where /boot/syslinux lives definitely needs to be made bootable. You also need to copy the relevant files into the /boot/syslinux directory as well as dd the proper file to the mbr. But when all else fails, the manual method always works for me.

Still, what you have posted so far is a bit confusing, so it might do some good if you clarified exactly what you are experiencing, and what is going on. As it is, all that is relaly known is that it doens't work.

Sirsurthur · 2013-08-25 20:15:31

Thanks for your answers.

Sorry for the low level of details. I am not sure of the direction I have to look into but what I can tell is that the automatic syslinux installation seems to have been successful.

At the moment, when rebooting, I do not have any syslinux menu and can consequently not boot in archlinux. I will look in my bios if I have an option to switch between uefi / non uefi, even if the installation media did not create a sys/firmware/efi file.

What command outputs might help you to narrow the problem ?

cfr · 2013-08-25 23:38:22

As Trilby said, output from gdisk would be good e.g. gdisk -l /dev/sda.

Try installing syslinux manually as WonderWoofy suggested and post any errors you get.

What is in your "uefi bios menu"?

Sirsurthur · 2013-08-26 20:40:55

Finally I got it working by using mbr partitions and non uefi boot.

Thanks for all your help guys.

srs5694 · 2013-08-27 16:28:03

Just FYI, there's no standardized way for an EFI to determine its boot mode (EFI vs. BIOS). Some use the presence of GPT to do that; others look for an MBR partition that's marked as bootable; others look for BIOS boot code in the first sector of the disk; others rely on boot order settings stored in NVRAM; and so on. Chances are you ran into a problem with your firmware's method of determining its boot mode that didn't agree with your configuration. Most likely it saw no MBR partition marked as bootable (since setting GPT properties for SYSLINUX didn't touch the protective MBR), and so it didn't try a BIOS-mode boot; or perhaps the NVRAM boot order was messed up, thus excluding a BIOS-mode boot. In any event, you could probably have overcome this problem and kept GPT; or you could have created an EFI System Partition and installed an EFI boot loader. My Web page on BIOS-mode booting from GPT disks covers some of these issues in more detail. If it's working in BIOS-boot mode now, there's little reason to go back and redo this; I'm just posting to help elucidate what probably happened, and therefore to help anybody who might read this in the future.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-25 15:47:04

[SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#2 2013-08-25 16:37:39

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#3 2013-08-25 17:51:57

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#4 2013-08-25 20:00:59

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#5 2013-08-25 20:01:55

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#6 2013-08-25 20:15:31

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#7 2013-08-25 23:38:22

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#8 2013-08-26 20:40:55

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

#9 2013-08-27 16:28:03

Re: [SOLVED] Help regarding boot issues

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