Arch Linux

Pacopag

Member

Registered: 2011-05-29

Posts: 287

[SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

Hi.  I'm trying to get Arch installed on a new Acer laptop.  Everything is fine until the time to install a bootloader.  I've tried grub, efistub (via efibootmgr), and bootctl (which I think I would prefer).  None of them work...they all just hang at some point.

For example, bootctl install hangs on

Copied "/usr/lib/systemd/boot/efi/systemd-bootx64.efi" to "/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI"

It's like it freezes and never exits.  Ctrl+C doesn't break out of it too.  I'm wondering if there is a bios setting I need to change, but the Acer bios is very simple.  All I did was diable secure boot.

I know there's not a ton of information to go on, but has anyone seen this kind of thing before?

Last edited by Pacopag (2017-05-16 17:22:01)

Pacopag

Member

Registered: 2011-05-29

Posts: 287

Re: [SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

Here's what ended up working for me

mkdir -p /boot/EFI/systemd
mkdir -p /boot/EFI/Boot
mkdir -p /boot/loader/entries
cp /usr/lib/systemd/boot/ef/systemd-bootx64.efi /boot/EFI/systemd/
cp /usr/lib/systemd/boot/ef/systemd-bootx64.efi /boot/EFI/Boot/BOOTX64.efi

Then in /boot/loader/loader.conf

default arch
timeout 2
editor 0

Then in /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf

title    Arch Linux
linux   /vmlinuz-linux
initrd   /initramfs-linux.img
options  root=PARTUUID=1ebe352e-257f-4a58-a3db-129227836383 rw

Where the PARTUUID I got from the 'root' partition of (in my case it was /dev/sda3)

blkid

Now she boots!

tom.ty89

Member

Registered: 2012-11-15

Posts: 897

Re: [SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

Probably the UEFI is broken, so bootctl got stalled when it attempted to register systemd-bootx64.efi to its NVRAM. Since you have a copy of the EFI executable under the fallback path (EFI/Boot/BOOTX64.EFI), which doesn't require NVRAM registration, so it works.

Pacopag

Member

Registered: 2011-05-29

Posts: 287

Re: [SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

And I guess that's the same reason why refind with --usedefault kinda worked?  (at least I think it would have also worked had I configured it properly)

tom.ty89

Member

Registered: 2012-11-15

Posts: 897

Re: [SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

Yup. I suppose.

--usedefault device-file
    You can install rEFInd to a disk using the default/fallback filename of EFI/BOOT/bootx64.efi (as well as EFI/BOOT/bootia32.efi and EFI/BOOT/bootaa64.efi, if the IA-32 and ARM64 builds are available) using this option. The device-file should be an unmounted ESP, or at least a FAT partition, as in --usedefault /dev/sdc1. Your computer's NVRAM entries will not be modified when installing in this way. The intent is that you can create a bootable USB flash drive or install rEFInd on a computer that tends to "forget" its NVRAM settings with this option. This option is mutually exclusive with --notesp and --root.

luceph

Member

From: Ontario, Canada

Registered: 2017-05-06

Posts: 27

Re: [SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

I know it's solved, but did you enter the --path=/boot option? i.e. bootctl --path=/boot install Idk why the default path needs to be specified, but it does for me. Just in case anyone else has this issue in the future

Pacopag

Member

Registered: 2011-05-29

Posts: 287

Re: [SOLVED] bootctl install never finishes

Yes sir, I did.  It seemed like all bootloaders would fail at the point where it would try to register the efi.