Recover arch after windows

iambrj · 2018-01-26 19:26:27

I have installed windows after installing arch linux.

To recover grub, I booted into a live session using a Ubuntu. I then used boot-repair. After rebooting I got the grub menu. In the grub menu Windows option was missing. I selected arch linux. Then I got a message saying "You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, "systemctl default" or ^D to boot default mode." In the next line it says "Root password for maintenance." I pressed ctrl-D. It said booting into default mode. After some time, I got the same message again. Now I am unable to boot into windows or arch. Please help.

After using boot-repair, I got the following link : https://paste.ubuntu.com/26465843

Last edited by iambrj (2018-01-26 19:29:55)

Scimmia · 2018-01-26 19:30:12

Why the hell would you use Ubuntu for this? I have no idea what "boot-repair" is or what it does as it doesn't exist in Arch, so who knows what you've done.

Do what you should have done from the beginning. Boot a live disk, mount your Arch partition and any other partitions and pseudo-filesystems you need, chroot into it, and reinstall your bootloader like you originally did.

iambrj · 2018-01-26 19:40:30

I did that too. But I'm facing the same problem.

Regarding the boot-repair : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Recov … ingWindows

Last edited by iambrj (2018-01-26 19:41:07)

Scimmia · 2018-01-26 19:45:02

Then you didn't re-install it right.

Use Ubuntu tools if you're on Ubuntu.

sanjaychak01 · 2018-01-27 12:33:58

@iambrj

You may be facing a problem because Arch loads intel microcode differently. Please see https://www.ordinatechnic.com/os-specif … tions-grub

I received a kernel panic when I installed Ubuntu after Arch. Ubuntu reinstalled grub, and although Arch was detected, I got kernel panic when I booted Arch.

The only way is to use the Arch live cd and use that to reinstall grub. If you use Ubuntu Live CD, it will not work.

shera10001 · 2018-01-27 20:37:06

I had the exact same problem 5 days ago. Please view my entire thread to see how I solved it. The problem was that I had windows 7 and installed Arch, but after that couldn't see Windows in the menu. I'm subscribing to this thread and ready to help you out. Here is my thread - https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=233827

EDIT : To follow these steps you must have the windows and arch linux installation media. Arch linux on a usb with iso. Windows disks to install windows. If it is possible for you to delete everything and then first install windows, and then arch linux, then you can literally follow my thread and have a working system. I was also sent into emergency mode. If you install windows first your system will have a /dev/sda1 *bootable 100 mb (or around that size) ntfs partition. And a single, or however many drives your windows installation has, those many ntfs partitions, none of them bootable. Follow the arch installation guide, with one key point explained below, which is to remember to mount the windows /boot partition in /mnt/boot.

So for us dualbooters, the mounting goes as follows (refer to my thread for my partitions) -

mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot (this is the windows boot partition, make sure it is /dev/sda1 on yours too by running fdisk -l ('l' as in lower) and lsblk and checking which ntfs partition is bootable. That is the mount partition.
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt (archlinux will be installed on this partition)

then pacstrap, genfstab, and finally chroot into the new system. Then do all the steps as per the installation guide. After chrooting into the system, check your /etc/fstab by

 vi /etc/fstab

. It should not have any duplicate entries, such as /dev/sda4 listed twice or something like that. If that is the case, simply (NOTE : exit vi by pressing ESC two-three times just to be sure, and then typing

:wq

), run

rm /etc/fstab

and then type exit . Then genfstab again and chroot into the system again. Check fstab, if no duplicate entries, proceed. When it asks to install a bootloader, do

 pacman -S grub os-prober

and here is the important part. Install the ntfs-3g package with

pacman -S ntfs-3g

. Now do

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

. If you see something like "Windows 7 found" you're should see it after you reboot too. Good luck. If you don't see it after that, see my thread and paste/type-by-hand that code into the file /etc/grub.d/40_custom. Except you have to type "chainloader +1" (without quotes) instead of ntldr /bootmgr . And the code will also be different, check the wiki for Windows XP code. If you're installing windows 7 then this code in my thread should be fine. Anytime you change the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file you have to run

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

again. But you don't have to reinstall your system, just ch-root into it by

mount /dev/sda4 (or whatever your linux partition is) /mnt

and then

arch-chroot /mnt

. Good luck. Read the thread, and this thoroughly, and please let us know which version of windows you are installing.

If you can delete your whole system and then install windows and then arch, my thread and some instructions from us is all you need, you'll have both windows and arch, guaranteed.

EDIT : My system partition layout, just for reference. I use MBR-BIOS boot, neither UEFI nor GPT, so that might change the steps a bit. Follow the wiki.

[dds@raf ~]$ fdisk -l
fdisk: cannot open /dev/sda: Permission denied
[dds@raf ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for dds: 
Disk /dev/sda: 465.8 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00057d94

Device     Boot     Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *         2048    206847    204800   100M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848 163842047 163635200    78G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       471042048 976771071 505729024 241.2G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda4  *    163842048 471042047 307200000 146.5G 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

[dds@raf ~]$ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   100M  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0    78G  0 part 
├─sda3   8:3    0 241.2G  0 part 
└─sda4   8:4    0 146.5G  0 part /
sr0     11:0    1  67.2M  0 rom  
sr1     11:1    1    71M  0 rom

Last edited by shera10001 (2018-01-27 21:17:39)

Xyne · 2018-01-28 19:18:13

mod note
An off-topic discussion about grub configuration has been moved here.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-01-26 19:26:27

Recover arch after windows

#2 2018-01-26 19:30:12

Re: Recover arch after windows

#3 2018-01-26 19:40:30

Re: Recover arch after windows

#4 2018-01-26 19:45:02

Re: Recover arch after windows

#5 2018-01-27 12:33:58

Re: Recover arch after windows

#6 2018-01-27 20:37:06

Re: Recover arch after windows

#7 2018-01-28 19:18:13

Re: Recover arch after windows

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