Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

erumpet · 2017-09-17 04:26:34

I am trying to install arch on a new laptop. When I select the USB with the arch iso on it, the boot process starts but then stops with the error:

Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201709 ...
usb 1-5: device descriptor read/64, error -110
Error: Boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds...
Falling back to interactive prompt.
You can try and fix the problem manually....

Searching online and in the forums I found many solution to this problem which mostly include renaming the partition or creating a symbolic link. Unfortunately, none of those are working as it does not appear that the USB stick can be seen at all. cat /proc/scsi/scsi only shows what appears to be the main host device. I tried moving the USB stick to different USB ports. I tried to manually add a symlink to /dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201709. I tried re-burning the ISO several times, through RUFUS on windows and through dd from another arch machine. I tried changing the disk label on the USB.

The USB can be booted into from another laptop with no problem, and start the installation process. If I boot the problem laptop into windows, it can see the USB stick and read from it. Secure boot is disabled on the problem laptop. UEFI is not disabled. I'm not sure what the problem is at this point. Any suggestions or advice is appreciated.

Thanks.

x33a · 2017-09-17 04:45:41

Which laptop model is it?

erumpet · 2017-09-17 04:47:15

It is a Lenovo P71.

x33a · 2017-09-17 05:17:19

Is CSM or Legacy mode fully disabled?

erumpet · 2017-09-17 05:19:48

CSM is disabled, boot is set to UEFI only.

Scruffman · 2017-09-17 08:04:08

Although you can technically install Arch Linux with UEFI, it is a lot easier to do an EFI installation. Turn CSM on and set boot to either auto or legacy only and you should hopefully be good to go.

Slithery · 2017-09-17 09:47:43

Scruffman wrote:

Although you can technically install Arch Linux with UEFI, it is a lot easier to do an EFI installation.

This makes no sense at all - can you explain please.

erumpet · 2017-09-17 18:38:57

Thanks for the suggestion Scruffman.

I would very much like to leave UEFI enabled. On my last laptop I was able to install arch with UEFI enabled, and I noticed performance increases, and I liked taking advantage of some of the features it offered. I will try disabling UEFI and seeing if the problem persists, but if that is the issue I'd like to try to fix it and not leave "disable UEFI" as the workaround.

erumpet · 2017-09-18 01:26:41

I've tried a number of things, none of them worked.

I tried enabling CSM mode, and it worked once. But when I rebooted, it wasn't working anymore. I tried this several more times but it never worked again. Since it worked once, I tried several things like powering off and waiting several minutes before trying again, and inserting the USB stick after getting to the boot menu. Nothing helped.

I tried enabling legacy mode, but I left UEFI enabled. It didn't work.

I tried disabling UEFI. It didn't work.

Then I thought it might be a problem with arch, so I burned a gentoo iso (I've installed gentoo several times before). When I try to boot from the USB with the gentoo iso, nothing happens at all. I know this isn't a gentoo forum so I won't ask about that, but I thought I'd mention it for additional information.

I would think it's a hardware issue, but the USB stick works on other laptops, and when I boot into windows on the problem machine it can read and write to the USB, so I really don't know what the problem could be. Any more suggestions?

x33a · 2017-09-18 03:06:47

A quick Google search shows that people have successfully installed Linux on this model, so I suspect a firmware or a hardware issue.

Have you tried updating the EFI to the latest version?

Scruffman · 2017-09-18 04:39:47

slithery wrote:

Scruffman wrote:
Although you can technically install Arch Linux with UEFI, it is a lot easier to do an EFI installation.
This makes no sense at all - can you explain please.

Certainly, if UEFI is enabled while installing Arch Linux, it is necessary to create an EFI system partition (an extra step).
Also, I've been setting up Linux installations since around when UEFI started to take off and I've had nothing but trouble with it.
Granted, I haven't tried it personally with Arch Linux, I've had enough issues with it that I disable it on principle. (I'm a tad biased sorry)

Arch Linux

#1 2017-09-17 04:26:34

Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#2 2017-09-17 04:45:41

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#3 2017-09-17 04:47:15

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#4 2017-09-17 05:17:19

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#5 2017-09-17 05:19:48

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#6 2017-09-17 08:04:08

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#7 2017-09-17 09:47:43

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#8 2017-09-17 18:38:57

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#9 2017-09-18 01:26:41

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#10 2017-09-18 03:06:47

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

#11 2017-09-18 04:39:47

Re: Installer fails after trying to find USB partition

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