Arch Linux

Sedenion

Member

Registered: 2016-07-03

Posts: 30

[Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

I wiped my entire disk and installed a fresh copy of Arch. My disk has the flag pmbr_boot flag and is formatted like this:

Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-60Z (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: pmbr_boot

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  17.2GB  17.2GB  linux-swap(v1)
 2      17.2GB  17.2GB  2097kB                        bios_grub
 3      17.2GB  155GB   137GB   ext4
 4      155GB   429GB   275GB   ext4
 5      429GB   1000GB  571GB   ext4

I installed arch to `/dev/sda3` with boot loader being GRUB. No error was reported.

The problem is that I cannot boot directly into Arch. I have to use the Arch's installation medium, choose "Boot from existing OS" and specify the partition being number 2.

My computer does not support UEFI but can identify UEFI devices such as the Arch installation medium. What could be the problem here?

Edit: The problem was solved by reverting back to MBR. A /boot partition of size 128MiB was created.

Last edited by Sedenion (2016-07-04 17:53:04)

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,499

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

the bios grub partition is not a filesystem , so if you have ext2 on sda2 that might be part of your problem... make sure sda2 is not mounted (possibly zero it) and reinstall grub to /dev/sda

can you show what it looks like in parted? (`parted /dev/sda unit s print free` or similar)

also where exactly does the boot process get stuck...?

Last edited by frostschutz (2016-07-03 17:37:13)

dockland

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2015-06-06

Posts: 861

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

I wiped my entire disk and installed a fresh copy of Arch. My disk has the flag pmbr_boot flag and is formatted like this:

/dev/sda
|-/dev/sda1 17.2GB swap
|-/dev/sda2    2MB ext2 grub_bios
\-/dev/sda3  137GB ext4

I installed arch to `/dev/sda3` with boot loader being GRUB. No error was reported.

The problem is that I cannot boot directly into Arch. I have to use the Arch's installation medium, choose "Boot from existing OS" and specify the partition being number 2.

My computer does not support UEFI but can identify UEFI devices such as the Arch installation medium. What could be the problem here?

Can you chroot and post your fstab?

---

I possess a device, in my pocket, that is capable of accessing the entirety of information known to man.
I use it to look at funny pictures of cats and to argue with strangers.

Sedenion

Member

Registered: 2016-07-03

Posts: 30

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

the bios grub partition is not a filesystem , so if you have ext2 on sda2 that might be part of your problem... make sure sda2 is not mounted (possibly zero it) and reinstall grub to /dev/sda

can you show what it looks like in parted? (`parted /dev/sda unit s print free` or similar)

also where exactly does the boot process get stuck...?

This is the result of parted:

$ sudo parted /dev/sda print
Model: ATA WDC WD10EZEX-60Z (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt
Disk Flags: pmbr_boot

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  17.2GB  17.2GB  linux-swap(v1)
 2      17.2GB  17.2GB  2097kB                        bios_grub
 3      17.2GB  155GB   137GB   ext4
 4      155GB   429GB   275GB   ext4
 5      429GB   1000GB  571GB   ext4

As for the boot process, my bios allows me to select the device to boot into with F12. The only options avaliable are the Arch installation medium and the optic drive. The OS is not avaliable. I can boot into the OS with the help of the installation medium.

Last edited by Sedenion (2016-07-03 17:42:37)

Sedenion

Member

Registered: 2016-07-03

Posts: 30

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

I wiped my entire disk and installed a fresh copy of Arch. My disk has the flag pmbr_boot flag and is formatted like this:

/dev/sda
|-/dev/sda1 17.2GB swap
|-/dev/sda2    2MB ext2 grub_bios
\-/dev/sda3  137GB ext4

I installed arch to `/dev/sda3` with boot loader being GRUB. No error was reported.

The problem is that I cannot boot directly into Arch. I have to use the Arch's installation medium, choose "Boot from existing OS" and specify the partition being number 2.

My computer does not support UEFI but can identify UEFI devices such as the Arch installation medium. What could be the problem here?

Can you chroot and post your fstab?

I am currently logged into Arch. (Not the installation medium) Here is the fstab

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# /dev/sda3
UUID=cd079123-dc7c-4026-85f4-6e7d7ff681dd       /               ext4      
rw,relatime,data=ordered        0 1

# /dev/sda1
UUID=57f24124-1e75-421d-a5c7-ca6ace6e1a2c       none            swap      
defaults        0 0

frostschutz

Member

Registered: 2013-11-15

Posts: 1,499

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

parted looks fine to me. what does grub say when you (re-)install it to /dev/sda? which command do you use to install grub?

the fstab you pasted has a weird linebreak (the rw,relatime ... defaults should be a continuation of the previous line so not counting # and empty lines you have 2 lines in total

Sedenion

Member

Registered: 2016-07-03

Posts: 30

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

parted looks fine to me. what does grub say when you (re-)install it to /dev/sda? which command do you use to install grub?

the fstab you pasted has a weird linebreak (the rw,relatime ... defaults should be a continuation of the previous line so not counting # and empty lines you have 2 lines in total

GRUB says this: (I am not sure if the platform i386-pc is correct, but that seems to be the only option)

$ sudo grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.
$ sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found Intel Microcode image
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-linux
Found initrd image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
Found fallback initramfs image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
done

Last edited by Sedenion (2016-07-03 18:13:33)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,418

Re: [Solved] Boot device unrecognised with BIOS/GPT

It is possible that your BIOS will not boot from GPT. I've run into a few systems that are that way.