[SOLVED] Operation system not found

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-08 23:10:10

Hi, new to Arch, and struggling with the initial install. Linux & server user for many years, however Arch is another kettle of fish.

So far:

Have installed using the newbie guide and seemingly set everything up. Possibly an issue with grub? I'm using a L321x dell xps 13 ultrabook - this was before uefi was a thing. There's not much I can actually change in the bios - other than selecting which disk to boot from it's pretty basic.

I've configured the wireless, installed the base system, and setup grub - only on rebooting, I get the error message 'Operation system not found'. Can still boot from the installation usb and arch-chroot into root - what else can I try?

Thanks.

Last edited by curiousmitchell (2017-05-09 09:57:41)

fukawi2 · 2017-05-08 23:17:42

curiousmitchell wrote:

I've configured the wireless, installed the base system, and setup grub

How did you do that -- what instructions did you follow? Sounds like you missed the `grub-install /dev/sdX` stage of setting up grub.

Trilby · 2017-05-08 23:31:58

As above - assuming the error is "operating system not found" - that is a generic BIOS error. This results from one of ~~two~~ three causes: either your BIOS is not configured to boot the disk you installed to, or that disk doesn't have the MBR boot code (which the grub-install command would create.)

(edit: third possibility below)

Last edited by Trilby (2017-05-09 00:31:00)

R00KIE · 2017-05-08 23:47:11

I believe some boards also refuse to boot if there isn't a partition marked as bootable.

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 03:21:47

@fukawi2 - I used the installation instructions here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_guide
When I got to the bootloader section, I followed the links through and install grub. I definitely ran 'grub-install /dev/sda' and watched it complete successfully.

@Trilby - The bios has always been configured to boot from the hard disk, however this was one of the first things I checked. This issue isn't it.

@Rookie - thanks for the tip.

Could you please help me manually mark the correct partition to boot from, using fdisk? How do I check the MBR code? Again, I have run grub-install, however something isn't right.

Thanks everyone for your quick replies.

tom.ty89 · 2017-05-09 04:19:31

curiousmitchell wrote:

Could you please help me manually mark the correct partition to boot from, using fdisk? How do I check the MBR code?

It doesn't matter which partition to mark, grub does not rely on the bootable flag, so in case your BIOS really have this "false sanity check", you can just mark any one of them as bootable. (It matters if you turn to syslinux or so though)

curiousmitchell wrote:

How do I check the MBR code?

[root@localhost ~]# hexdump -C -n 512 /dev/sda
00000000  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001c0  02 00 ee ff ff ff 01 00  00 00 23 7b 94 03 00 00  |..........#{....|
000001d0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  |................|
*
000001f0  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 55 aa  |..............U.|
00000200

(Mine is a "PMBR" on a "GPT disk" without any legacy bootloader installed)

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 05:24:31

@tom.ty89 Thanks. How do I actually mark the partition as bootable - is there a way to do this through fdisk (or something similar), that doesn't rely on grub, assuming that is the issue?

olegabrielz · 2017-05-09 08:01:22

curiousmitchell wrote:

... is there a way to do this through fdisk ...?

You can actually answer that question yourself. I'll give you a hint: Look under 'extra functionality (experts only)' in fdisk

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 08:57:50

@olegabrielz - That's really patronizing and less than helpful. The point of posting in the forums is asking for concrete help - I don't need to be told to answer the question myself and given 'hints' as to where to find it. If you aren't able to offer help please don't bother posting.

WorMzy · 2017-05-09 09:03:57

Olegabrielz's reply was perfectly helpful. If you want to know whether a command can do something, read it's manpage. The forums are not here to hold your hand.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … way_street

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 09:08:33

@WorMzy - then a simple 'It's in the man page' would suffice - patronising attitudes and comments are just a great way to piss people off. For those interested, the bootable flag is "a" in fdisk. (not hard to write, is it?) Will try later and post back the results.

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 09:41:55

Ok - solved it! Needed to unset the bootable flag from /dev/sda1 (where grub installed itself) and make it /dev/sda2 (where the operating system actually is). Simple commands:

fdisk /dev/sda
a (choose bootable option)
Then choose each partition to toggle it.

Thanks for all your help people.

M

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 09:43:21

How do I mark this thread as solved?

olegabrielz · 2017-05-09 09:46:19

Just edit your first post and add [SOLVED] to the beginning of the title.

curiousmitchell · 2017-05-09 09:58:05

olegabrielz wrote:

Just edit your first post and add [SOLVED] to the beginning of the title.

Thanks! Done. M

Arch Linux

#1 2017-05-08 23:10:10

[SOLVED] Operation system not found

#2 2017-05-08 23:17:42

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#3 2017-05-08 23:31:58

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#4 2017-05-08 23:47:11

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#5 2017-05-09 03:21:47

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#6 2017-05-09 04:19:31

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#7 2017-05-09 05:24:31

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#8 2017-05-09 08:01:22

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#9 2017-05-09 08:57:50

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#10 2017-05-09 09:03:57

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#11 2017-05-09 09:08:33

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#12 2017-05-09 09:41:55

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#13 2017-05-09 09:43:21

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#14 2017-05-09 09:46:19

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

#15 2017-05-09 09:58:05

Re: [SOLVED] Operation system not found

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