[SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

occasionally_smart · 2017-01-30 01:31:32

hey!

after using arch for a bit on my laptop i finally decided to try and dual boot (keeping w10 for some games) arch/w10 on my desktop.

i followed the wiki and installed w10 first using that installs efi partition to dual boot and so forth..
i installed bootctl set up my loader.conf and the arch.conf - timeout is also not commented.
it works just fine on my laptop.

i can boot into arch but i dont get a menu to show (pressing space doesn't help either) - using the bios boot option i can also boot into windows just fine.

i decided to install efibootmgr and try to fiddle with it changing bootorder and whatnot.. thats where things started getting a bit weird - no matter what changes i make, they do not show up in my motherboards bios menu thingy (it does however show my linux boot manager).

odd.. so i decided to try and fix it from w10 with bcdedit shenanigans - same thing - entries i delete just keep reappearing and i have two windows boot manager entries for some reason (this really bugs me).

i tried adding a windows boot manager once through efibootmgr and am wondering if that could have caused the two entries. i also forgot to disable fast startup (now it is disabled however) before installing arch and maybe that could be the cause for the menu not showing.
but honestly i'm kinda at my wits end as to how to properly set this up and i would greatly appreciate any help.

greetings!

Last edited by occasionally_smart (2017-01-31 22:17:20)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-01-30 08:08:23

occasionally_smart wrote:

i can boot into arch but i dont get a menu to show (pressing space doesn't help either)

To be absolutely sure — you need to *hold down* the space bar during the startup process to make the systemd-boot menu appear, just pressing it isn't enough.

Also, the loader.conf file is only honoured if there are no NVRAM settings stored for the systemd-boot menu, these are activated by using the keyboard shortcuts T/t (for the timeout) and d (for the default entry).

To disable the NVRAM settings, press t to reduce the timeout below zero and toggle d over the same menu entry to clear the "default" setting and allow loader.conf to take "control" again.

no matter what changes i make, they do not show up in my motherboards bios menu thingy (it does however show my linux boot manager).
odd.. so i decided to try and fix it from w10 with bcdedit shenanigans - same thing - entries i delete just keep reappearing and i have two windows boot manager entries for some reason (this really bugs me).

Sounds like you have a crappy UEFI firmware implementation, this is actually rather common

I use the so-called "removable loader location" ($ESP/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI) for the .efi bootloader on my similarly-afflicted laptop...

http://www.rodsbooks.com/efi-bootloader … ive-naming

You should probably share your current NVRAM configuration:

# efibootmgr -v

occasionally_smart · 2017-01-30 17:23:24

omg!

Also, the loader.conf file is only honoured if there are no NVRAM settings stored for the systemd-boot menu, these are activated by using the keyboard shortcuts T/t (for the timeout) and d (for the default entry).
To disable the NVRAM settings, press t to reduce the timeout below zero and toggle d over the same menu entry to clear the "default" setting and allow loader.conf to take "control" again.

pressing t made my menu show up and increased my timeout - i then could press T to reduce it below 0 and now my loader.conf is loaded - thank you very much!

my efibootmgr -v output is this:

BootCurrent: 0001
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,0005,0007,0008,0009,0000,0002
Boot0000* SATA6:ATAPI   iHOS104         
Boot0001* Linux Boot Manager
Boot0002* SATA1:Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250G
Boot0005* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0007* UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell 
Boot0008* Windows Boot Manager
Boot0009* UEFI: Seagate Backup+ Desk 0342

i still wonder why i have 2 windows entries and why they disappear if i delete them.
all of them are actually undeletable. i don't even know why the backup one exists - i backed w10 up but actually ended up deleting it again so..

i took a look at your link and am not sure if that's the issue i'm having. unless there's some sort of recovery backup that's always loaded in one of those efi folders, it would be kinda weird for my entries to come back like that, right?
i even tried taking out my motherboards battery for some time to try and fix it.
it doesn't really matter that much anymore tbh, as i now got my menu to work and don't see the other entries there. so i'll wait for one or two more replies and then mark it solved.

thank you very much!

Blasphemist · 2017-01-30 22:33:06

I'm not sure if I understand about your problem deleting boot entries for windows. If you use efibootmgr -b 8 -B to delete Boot0008 and remove it from the boot order it should be gone forever, unrelated to weather or not the OS itself is still installed. This is shown in the man page for efibootmgr (man efibootmgr). Is that not how it is working for you?

occasionally_smart · 2017-01-30 22:59:53

yes that's exactly what i thought should happen - but it doesn't
they just keep coming back - i'm guessing it's because of my motherboard but i don't really know
if it matters my mb is the msi big bang-xpower ii

Head_on_a_Stick · 2017-01-31 17:34:45

I think that your UEFI firmware is just generally buggy — my board started to "forget" NVRAM entries at first, then the Secure Boot facility stopped working and finally it stopped accepting new entries at all and will only boot the UEFI default loaders, as found on USB sticks and the like.

I have seen these sort of problems with other forum members as well, search my posts for more details.

occasionally_smart · 2017-01-31 22:15:42

well nothing to do then i guess - i'll go ahead and mark this solved.
thanks everyone!

Last edited by occasionally_smart (2017-01-31 22:16:05)

Arch Linux

#1 2017-01-30 01:31:32

[SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

#2 2017-01-30 08:08:23

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

#3 2017-01-30 17:23:24

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

#4 2017-01-30 22:33:06

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

#5 2017-01-30 22:59:53

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

#6 2017-01-31 17:34:45

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

#7 2017-01-31 22:15:42

Re: [SOLVED] systemd-boot | uefi dual boot arch/w10 - NO MENU

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