SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-23 17:44:51

I just finished the install on my laptop. Everything seemed to go as expected, no errors that I saw. So I rebooted and I get an error I really did not expect
"Non-System disk or disk error
replace and strike any key when ready"

Oh fudge, says I (or words to that affect) and I insert the cd and hit any key.

The cd spins up and I get to the Arch Linux boot menu. I had not seen the "Boot existing OS" choice before so I try it. And then I get the boot boot menu I was expecting (the simple blue and white one that syslinux created during the install. It boots the way I expect it too and now I'm at a command prompt.

This is really odd. Did I miss a step somewhere?
I'm not familiar with cgdisk, was there something I was supposed to do to make the partition bootable?

for /dev/sda I have
1007.0 KiB free space
1 465.8 GiB Linux filesystem Linux filesystem

That seems right to me, but I'm clearly not an expert.

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by dlbarron28 (2014-04-24 11:06:43)

Trilby · 2014-04-23 17:49:07

What's the free space? Is this UEFI or BIOS booting? If BIOS (or whatever the proper name for non-UEFI is) then the partition does need to be marked as bootable - if it isn't, that would lead to the symptoms you describe.

GloW_on_dub · 2014-04-23 17:49:12

It could be a incorrect boot order in bios settings. Did you check that your primary hdd is the first in boot order ?

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-23 17:52:40

Trilby wrote:

What's the free space? Is this UEFI or BIOS booting? If BIOS (or whatever the proper name for non-UEFI is) then the partition does need to be marked as bootable - if it isn't, that would lead to the symptoms you describe.

It is BIOS. There is 435Gig free on the disk

Last edited by dlbarron28 (2014-04-23 17:53:16)

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-23 17:53:56

GloW_on_dub wrote:

It could be a incorrect boot order in bios settings. Did you check that your primary hdd is the first in boot order ?

I assume it is first, Windows was on this machine before and it booted without a problem.

Trilby · 2014-04-23 18:10:11

For the free space, I was asking about the 1007KB free space (unpartitioned) listed in your output. But much more important is the boot flag - I suspect that is the issue.

Last edited by Trilby (2014-04-23 18:10:54)

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-23 18:19:34

Trilby wrote:

For the free space, I was asking about the 1007KB free space (unpartitioned) listed in your output. But much more important is the boot flag - I suspect that is the issue.

How do I set the boot flag?

Trilby · 2014-04-23 18:22:54

There are various ways. Paritioning tools often can, but if you followed the Beginner's guide, the steps in setting up the boot loader would have included this. This then depends on which bootloader you chose.

You indicated that you installed syslinux - so generally the `syslinux-install_update -i -a -m` command would take care of this (that's the job of the -a flag).

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-23 18:27:49

Trilby wrote:

There are various ways. Paritioning tools often can, but if you followed the Beginner's guide, the steps in setting up the boot loader would have included this. This then depends on which bootloader you chose.
You indicated that you installed syslinux - so generally the `syslinux-install_update -i -a -m` command would take care of this (that's the job of the -a flag).

I did follow the beginners guide and I did that step. Should I do it again? Will it cause a problem if I run it a second time?

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-23 19:43:07

dlbarron28 wrote:

Trilby wrote:
There are various ways. Paritioning tools often can, but if you followed the Beginner's guide, the steps in setting up the boot loader would have included this. This then depends on which bootloader you chose.
You indicated that you installed syslinux - so generally the `syslinux-install_update -i -a -m` command would take care of this (that's the job of the -a flag).
I did follow the beginners guide and I did that step. Should I do it again? Will it cause a problem if I run it a second time?

I tried the command again I am still getting the same issue.

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-24 00:20:02

Well, life keeps getting stranger. I went through the install again, I used fdisk to create the partition and made it bootable, ran through all of the steps again only this time I chose Grub for the bootloader. Installed perfectly, booted correctly.
Looks like it's working fine now, I just need to figure out how to issue the "rfkill unblock all" command automatically now.

GloW_on_dub · 2014-04-24 05:46:22

This is another issue, wich have been discussed a lot

If i understand correctly, you problem is gone.
You should mark this thread as solved.

dlbarron28 · 2014-04-24 11:05:04

GloW_on_dub wrote:

This is another issue, wich have been discussed a lot
If i understand correctly, you problem is gone.
You should mark this thread as solved.

I am trying to but the process isn't apparent. Can someone explain how it's done?

GloW_on_dub · 2014-04-24 11:39:10

by editing your first post.

Arch Linux

#1 2014-04-23 17:44:51

SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#2 2014-04-23 17:49:07

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#3 2014-04-23 17:49:12

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#4 2014-04-23 17:52:40

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#5 2014-04-23 17:53:56

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#6 2014-04-23 18:10:11

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#7 2014-04-23 18:19:34

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#8 2014-04-23 18:22:54

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#9 2014-04-23 18:27:49

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#10 2014-04-23 19:43:07

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#11 2014-04-24 00:20:02

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#12 2014-04-24 05:46:22

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#13 2014-04-24 11:05:04

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

#14 2014-04-24 11:39:10

Re: SOLVED: Can only boot with the CD inserted

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