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#1 2013-08-29 08:09:49

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

I'm new to the forums as you could probably tell, but with Arch Linux being my favorite flavor of Linux, I hope to be beneficial here.

My problem is that I have an Alienware Aurora R4, and cannot get GRUB2 (grub-x86_64-efi more specifically) to install for the life of me. I've tried commands on Arch Linux's wiki such as

# modprobe dm-mod
# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck --debug

which returned "efibootmgr: not found"


I also tried some other suggestions I came across, but I am still at a lost. I have no problem installing Arch on BIOS based systems, but I just can't do EFI or UEFI...

Secure Boot is disabled.

The hard drive I am trying to install Arch to is the following:

/dev/sda
/dev/sda1 bootable, efi (Both other Operating Systems: Windows an Linux Mint 15, are booted from here.
/dev/sda2 /mnt .ext4
/dev/sda3 swap


I can answer any additional questions. This is really bothering me and I want Arch Linux on my Alienware.

Thank you in advance!

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#2 2013-08-29 08:27:35

Roberth
Member
From: The Pale Blue Dot
Registered: 2007-01-12
Posts: 894

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

You must install efibootmgr.


Use the Source, Luke!

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#3 2013-08-29 08:28:51

swordfish
Member
Registered: 2012-01-14
Posts: 160

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

You have to boot your install media in UEFI mode, otherwise it won't work.

Best way is to use UEFI bootable media: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UE … able_Media

Further advice from the Beginners' Guide:

1. Testing if you are booted into UEFI mode: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … _UEFI_mode

2. Install and configure a bootloader - For UEFI motherboards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … therboards


Arch_x64 on Thinkpad Edge E520 (Intel Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB Crucial M4 SSD) + ITX-Desktop (Asrock H77M-ITX, Intel Core i3-2120T, 8GB RAM, 64 GB Samsung 830 SSD)

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#4 2013-08-29 22:20:04

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

Roberth wrote:

You must install efibootmgr.

Thank you for the reply. How might I go about doing that?

pacman -S efibootmgr or some other command?

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#5 2013-08-29 22:21:56

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

swordfish wrote:

You have to boot your install media in UEFI mode, otherwise it won't work.

Best way is to use UEFI bootable media: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UE … able_Media

Further advice from the Beginners' Guide:

1. Testing if you are booted into UEFI mode: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … _UEFI_mode

2. Install and configure a bootloader - For UEFI motherboards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Be … therboards


Oh, I see now. I didn't notice 'efibootmgr' on that web page before. Thank you! I'll try installing Arch again as soon as possible. Thank you!

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#6 2013-08-29 23:51:47

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

Okay so after trying to install Arch Linux again, I was able to install Grub 2 but now when I boot it brings me to Grub Rescue... Well command line Grub. I am not sure how to proceed. Oh and when doing mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

I get:

Generating grub.cfg ...
Found Linux Image: /boot/vmlinuz-linux
found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: no such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
No volume groups found.
SQUASHFS error: Can't find a SQUASHFS superblock on sdb2
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
FAT-fs (sdb2): bogus numer of reserved sectors
NTFS-fs warning (device sdb3): load_system_files(): volume is dirty. Will not be able to remount read-write. Run chkdsk and mount in Windows.
EXT4-fs (sdb4): write access unavailable, Cannot proceed.

These errors are all pointing to mmy second hard drive it would seem. The partioning on that is as follows:
/dev/sdb1 EFI System Partiton
/dev/sdb2 Microsoft Reserved Part
/dev/sdb3 Microsoft Windows 7
/dev/sd4 Linux Mint 15

Last edited by GNUzel (2013-08-29 23:54:12)

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#7 2013-08-30 01:45:43

srs5694
Member
From: Woonsocket, RI
Registered: 2012-11-06
Posts: 719
Website

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

My advice is to avoid GRUB 2, especially on EFI systems; it's just too complex to configure it correctly, especially when doing it manually. (It's easier on Fedora, Ubuntu, and so on because their installers do more in an automatic way, so there's less room for user error. Even they get it wrong sometimes, though, especially on systems that deviate from a typical installation in any way.)

I wrote a Web page summarizing the alternatives, so you can check that out for my opinions. Most of those boot loaders and boot managers are available in the Arch archives, and the Arch wiki also describes some of them in an Arch-centric way. Judging by posts in this forum, using the EFI stub loader (which is built into the kernel, so nothing new to configure) in conjunction with rEFInd or gummiboot seems quite popular. With this approach, and especially when using gummiboot, part of the challenge is simply proper partition mounting: Putting the ESP at /boot rather than at /boot/efi can greatly simplify things, since that puts the kernel on the ESP, where gummiboot can read it, by default. (rEFInd comes with EFI filesystem drivers, and so can read a Linux kernel from elsewhere; but mounting the ESP at /boot means you don't need to use those drivers, which simplifies things slightly.) rEFInd is designed to require minimal configuration file changes to boot a Linux kernel. Gummiboot takes a little bit more in that respect, but it's still pretty minor compared to what GRUB requires. Full disclosure: I maintain rEFInd, so I'm not unbiased in comparisons between it and anything else.

One caveat: EFI stub kernels have been flaky on Lenovo hardware since the 3.6 series. A few other models might also be affected, but mostly it's Lenovo users who are complaining. Alienware is unusual enough that it's conceivable it will have problems, but odds are it will be OK. If you do run into kernels that hang when launched (with no screen output after the initial "booting" message from the boot manager), then you might need to use ELILO or SYSLINUX instead of or in addition to rEFInd or gummiboot.

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#8 2013-08-30 03:16:06

Oxyd
Member
From: Czech Republic
Registered: 2008-01-17
Posts: 167

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

GNUzel wrote:

(...) when doing mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

The path should be /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.cfg.

As for the other errors, I think you should be able to ignore them. Well, unless you want GRUB to boot your Windows 7 installation on sdb, that is.

(Although the errors seem to suggest that you didn't shutdown Windows properly -- maybe you hibernated it, which doesn't unmount filesystems properly. It is highly advisable to properly shutdown whatever OS you're running before booting into another one -- unless you want to have some fun with each OS having a different idea of the current state of the filesystems.)

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#9 2013-08-30 09:53:45

Roberth
Member
From: The Pale Blue Dot
Registered: 2007-01-12
Posts: 894

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

GNUzel wrote:
Roberth wrote:

You must install efibootmgr.

Thank you for the reply. How might I go about doing that?

pacman -S efibootmgr or some other command?

Yes, it's that simple.


Use the Source, Luke!

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#10 2013-08-30 10:33:04

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

Thanks for the all the support guys. It's very helpful. After installing Grub to /dev/sda1 and having the grub-mkconfig output to /boot/efi/EFI/grub/grub.cfg, now my computer has reverted to the Grub bootloader it had from before, when Linux Mint 15 was first installed. Do you think it'd be possible just to add Arch's menu entry to the Grub.cfg that Mint made?

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#11 2013-09-01 23:14:52

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

Well I did it! Thanks for help you guys. I managed to install Arch Linux on my Alienware and its EFI hardware. Turns out I wasn't using the --boot-directory=/boot/efi/EFI option to the grub-install like I was supposed to and that was why Grub couldn't be configured. Now I just need to get the other OS to appear on the Grub bootloader. Can I just take the grub entries from Linux Mint's grub.cfg or do I have to something else?

Linux Mint's Grub.cfg: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9u8iMD … sp=sharing

Arch Linux's Grub.cfg: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9u8iMD … sp=sharing

EDIT: I was able to add Linux Mint  15 to the bootloader. Now I just need to add Windows 7.

New Arch grub.cfg: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9u8iMD … sp=sharing

EDIT 2: I have managed to get all the Operating Systems on GRUB, but also broke Window's BCD. Thanks for the help though guys! I didn't realize efibootmgr was a package. Thanks for all your help!

Last edited by GNUzel (2013-09-02 05:50:02)

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#12 2013-09-05 07:20:52

christov84
Member
From: West. Australia
Registered: 2013-08-27
Posts: 27

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

srs5694 wrote:

My advice is to avoid GRUB 2, especially on EFI systems; it's just too complex to configure it correctly, especially when doing it manually. (It's easier on Fedora, Ubuntu, and so on because their installers do more in an automatic way, so there's less room for user error. Even they get it wrong sometimes, though, especially on systems that deviate from a typical installation in any way.)

I wrote a Web page summarizing the alternatives, so you can check that out for my opinions. Most of those boot loaders and boot managers are available in the Arch archives, and the Arch wiki also describes some of them in an Arch-centric way. Judging by posts in this forum, using the EFI stub loader (which is built into the kernel, so nothing new to configure) in conjunction with rEFInd or gummiboot seems quite popular. With this approach, and especially when using gummiboot, part of the challenge is simply proper partition mounting: Putting the ESP at /boot rather than at /boot/efi can greatly simplify things, since that puts the kernel on the ESP, where gummiboot can read it, by default. (rEFInd comes with EFI filesystem drivers, and so can read a Linux kernel from elsewhere; but mounting the ESP at /boot means you don't need to use those drivers, which simplifies things slightly.) rEFInd is designed to require minimal configuration file changes to boot a Linux kernel. Gummiboot takes a little bit more in that respect, but it's still pretty minor compared to what GRUB requires. Full disclosure: I maintain rEFInd, so I'm not unbiased in comparisons between it and anything else.

One caveat: EFI stub kernels have been flaky on Lenovo hardware since the 3.6 series. A few other models might also be affected, but mostly it's Lenovo users who are complaining. Alienware is unusual enough that it's conceivable it will have problems, but odds are it will be OK. If you do run into kernels that hang when launched (with no screen output after the initial "booting" message from the boot manager), then you might need to use ELILO or SYSLINUX instead of or in addition to rEFInd or gummiboot.

Nah Grub works fine.

The issue I had was i didnt have my UEFI partition mounted correctly on /boot.

After that the instructions were spot on and worked.

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#13 2013-09-12 13:54:37

christov84
Member
From: West. Australia
Registered: 2013-08-27
Posts: 27

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

GNUzel wrote:

/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: no such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
No volume groups found.
SQUASHFS error: Can't find a SQUASHFS superblock on sdb2
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
FAT-fs (sdb2): bogus numer of reserved sectors
NTFS-fs warning (device sdb3): load_system_files(): volume is dirty. Will not be able to remount read-write. Run chkdsk and mount in Windows.
EXT4-fs (sdb4): write access unavailable, Cannot proceed.

These errors are all pointing to mmy second hard drive it would seem. The partioning on that is as follows:
/dev/sdb1 EFI System Partiton
/dev/sdb2 Microsoft Reserved Part
/dev/sdb3 Microsoft Windows 7
/dev/sd4 Linux Mint 15

Ok I take it /dev/sdbX is what your UEFI bios points too? It should

Also make sure /dev/sdb1 is mounted as /boot as per the wiki instructions

The LVM errors may halt the install as well.

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#14 2013-09-12 18:28:04

GNUzel
Member
From: New York, US
Registered: 2013-08-29
Posts: 7

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

christov84 wrote:
GNUzel wrote:

/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: no such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
/run/lvm/lvmetad.socket: connect failed: No such file or directory.
No volume groups found.
SQUASHFS error: Can't find a SQUASHFS superblock on sdb2
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
EXT4-fs (sdb2): VFS: Can't find ext4 filesystem
FAT-fs (sdb2): bogus numer of reserved sectors
NTFS-fs warning (device sdb3): load_system_files(): volume is dirty. Will not be able to remount read-write. Run chkdsk and mount in Windows.
EXT4-fs (sdb4): write access unavailable, Cannot proceed.

These errors are all pointing to mmy second hard drive it would seem. The partioning on that is as follows:
/dev/sdb1 EFI System Partiton
/dev/sdb2 Microsoft Reserved Part
/dev/sdb3 Microsoft Windows 7
/dev/sd4 Linux Mint 15

Thanks for the reply christov, but everything is working great now and I couldn't be happier. Thanks for the help guys big_smile Do I mark this as solved?
Ok I take it /dev/sdbX is what your UEFI bios points too? It should

Also make sure /dev/sdb1 is mounted as /boot as per the wiki instructions

The LVM errors may halt the install as well.

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#15 2016-06-10 14:51:48

ewaller
Administrator
From: Pasadena, CA
Registered: 2009-07-13
Posts: 19,739

Re: Installing Arch Linux with GPT + UEFI

Using this opportunity to close this old thread.


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Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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