Arch Linux

Sava

Member

Registered: 2015-10-04

Posts: 5

[Solved]Arch live CD doesn't get detected as bootable media

I am trying to setup arch on my new server(full access to hardware and monitor) using a live CD. I've managed to partition the drives using the gparted live cd. The problem comes in when I insert my arch live cd, it doesn't get detected as a valid bootable disc. At that point I got very suspicious of my RAM memory and decided to run Memtest86+ off a live cd and it worked just fine with 100% pass. After that I've been trying to make sure my Arch CD is not corrupt, for that I made sure to download the ISO file 2 times from different locations, checked SHA of all of them, tried writing to 2 different dics and using different arch versions. None of these things seem to work. For anybody wondering, the error displayed is "DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER"
Thanks, Sava

Last edited by Sava (2015-10-08 14:20:31)

mpan

Member

Registered: 2012-08-01

Posts: 1,375

Website

Re: [Solved]Arch live CD doesn't get detected as bootable media

Are you sure that you have a proper boot order set up? To me it looks like your computer is actually trying to boot from HDD. Earlier Live CD could work because it was, for example, loaded by UEFI bootloader on the HDD, which was removed during repartitioning.

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Sometimes I seem a bit harsh — don’t get offended too easily!

Sava

Member

Registered: 2015-10-04

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved]Arch live CD doesn't get detected as bootable media

Are you sure that you have a proper boot order set up? To me it looks like your computer is actually trying to boot from HDD. Earlier Live CD could work because it was, for example, loaded by UEFI bootloader on the HDD, which was removed during repartitioning.

100% positive, how would I be able to run memtest if it wasn't configured to run from CD. But nonetheless double checked to make sure!

bavodog

Member

Registered: 2015-10-06

Posts: 28

Re: [Solved]Arch live CD doesn't get detected as bootable media

I got very suspicious of my RAM memory and decided to run Memtest86+ off a live cd and it worked just fine with 100% pass. After that I've been trying to make sure my Arch CD is not corrupt, for that I made sure to download the ISO file 2 times from different locations, checked SHA of all of them, tried writing to 2 different dics and using different arch versions. None of these things seem to work...

...Hey wait a minute!  I have heard the words to this song before humming away in my own head.  About five weeks ago I was installing Arch on an older-ish legacy machine and i went around and around with that thing for days.  For me, the fix was seemingly a setting in the bios, but changing the setting (do not remember the setting name today some seveeral weeks after the fact...sorry) did not seem to make any difference at all.  Changing out the drive multiple times made no difference.  Reflashing the bios multiple times did nothing.  Replacement RAM chips mocked me with their redundancy laying around my workbench in stacks just on the off chance that the memtest wasnt faulted.  That cd install took the wind out of my sails completely.

Then, I changed tactics and used a USB stick instead and it installed brilliantly on the first go.

Is a USB install (or network install) feasible in your instance Sava?

Cheers!

Sava

Member

Registered: 2015-10-04

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved]Arch live CD doesn't get detected as bootable media

I got very suspicious of my RAM memory and decided to run Memtest86+ off a live cd and it worked just fine with 100% pass. After that I've been trying to make sure my Arch CD is not corrupt, for that I made sure to download the ISO file 2 times from different locations, checked SHA of all of them, tried writing to 2 different dics and using different arch versions. None of these things seem to work...

...Hey wait a minute!  I have heard the words to this song before humming away in my own head.  About five weeks ago I was installing Arch on an older-ish legacy machine and i went around and around with that thing for days.  For me, the fix was seemingly a setting in the bios, but changing the setting (do not remember the setting name today some seveeral weeks after the fact...sorry) did not seem to make any difference at all.  Changing out the drive multiple times made no difference.  Reflashing the bios multiple times did nothing.  Replacement RAM chips mocked me with their redundancy laying around my workbench in stacks just on the off chance that the memtest wasnt faulted.  That cd install took the wind out of my sails completely.

Then, I changed tactics and used a USB stick instead and it installed brilliantly on the first go.

Is a USB install (or network install) feasible in your instance Sava?

Cheers!

Well I managed to solve this yesterday but it ended up being me stupid (*again*). Basically I took a blank disc off my blank DVD pile instead of my blank CD pile...I hope you see where this is going. In the end it was the drive in my server that I scrapped from an old PC being a problem, it only reads CDs not DVDs.

On the other note I did try USB boot but I don't think I've configured my USB properly as I didn't do this before.

bavodog

Member

Registered: 2015-10-06

Posts: 28

Re: [Solved]Arch live CD doesn't get detected as bootable media

On the other note I did try USB boot but I don't think I've configured my USB properly as I didn't do this before.

Yeah?  Well, take a look a unetbootin

http://unetbootin.github.io/

...gonna totally change the way you USB.