Arch Linux

elfomelo

Member

Registered: 2011-10-27

Posts: 47

[Solved] Unable to create a grub or uefi entry in an Acer laptop

Hello,

I'll begin apologizing for my inefficient search skill. I know the answer must be somewhere, but after hours of frustrated readings and tries I'm posting here as my last resort.

I installed arch in an Acer laptop following the installation guide. I used three partitions, sda2 is the EFI, sda7 for / and sda8 for /home. The other ones are for windows, but I don't actually care for a dual boot. There was a Linux Mint installed before, with a grub entry, so I know this is possible. The installation runs fine, but when I reboot I get only the grub prompt. I'm able to boot following the steps in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … mand_shell

set prefix=(hd0,2)/boot/grub
insmod linux
set root=(hd0,7)
linux (hd0,2)/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda7
initrd (hd0,2)/initramfs-linux.img
boot

I then tried to add a manual entry in

/etc/grub.d/40_custom

as

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
	set root=(hd0,7)
        linux (hd0,2)/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda7
        initrd (hd0,2)/initramfs-linux.img
}

After running

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

and rebooting I get the same grub prompt.

I also tried to add an entry in the uefi menu using efibootmgr

 efibootmgr --disk /dev/sda --part 2 --create --gpt --label "Arch Linux" --loader /vmlinuz-linux --unicode "root=/dev/sda7 rw initrd=/initramfs-linux.img" 

after this, running

 efibootmgr -v 

an Arch Linux entry appears, but after rebooting I can't find this entry in the uefi firmware.

Finally, I'm also able to boot in the grub prompt via

set root=(hd0,2)
chainloader (${root})/ef/arch/grubx64.efi
boot

Can anybody point me in the right direction on how to make an easy permanent boot?

Last edited by elfomelo (2018-02-28 19:55:55)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,732

Website

Re: [Solved] Unable to create a grub or uefi entry in an Acer laptop

Can we please see the full output of

efibootmgr -v

---

Are you infected with Wetiko?

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,665

Re: [Solved] Unable to create a grub or uefi entry in an Acer laptop

UEFI is kind of weird on Acers, to add a boot entry you will have to go into the UEFI and there mark a corresponding UEFI binary as trusted, even if you disabled secureboot already, so you can create an entry for it. See also the last few model notes in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop/Acer

elfomelo

Member

Registered: 2011-10-27

Posts: 47

Re: [Solved] Unable to create a grub or uefi entry in an Acer laptop

Sorry for taking so long to answer. I was installing a desktop environment so I could post the output

Can we please see the full output of

efibootmgr -v

Yes, here it goes

BootCurrent: 0007
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0007,0002,0005,0004,0003,0006,2001,2002,2003
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}....................
Boot0001* Unknown Device: 	HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
Boot0002* shim	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)A01 ..
Boot0003* Mok	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\MokManager.efi)A01 ).
Boot0004* bootx	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\Boot\bootx64.efi)A01 9.
Boot0005* bootmgrp	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\OEM\Boot\pt-BR\bootmgr.efi.mui)A01 I.
Boot0006* Windows Boot Manager	HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)RC
Boot0007* grub	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1f,0x2)/Sata(0,0,0)/HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\grubx64.efi)A01 ..
Boot0008* Unknown Device: 	HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)RC
Boot0009* ubuntu	HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot000A* arch	HD(2,GPT,86bc8d8f-45dc-4537-b0fd-8b1fa72e850c,0x12c800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\arch\grubx64.efi)
Boot2001* EFI USB Device	RC
Boot2002* EFI DVD/CDROM	RC
Boot2003* EFI Network	RC

UEFI is kind of weird on Acers, to add a boot entry you will have to go into the UEFI and there mark a corresponding UEFI binary as trusted, even if you disabled secureboot already, so you can create an entry for it. See also the last few model notes in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop/Acer

Tried to do it, but could not find this option in the firmware.

elfomelo

Member

Registered: 2011-10-27

Posts: 47

Re: [Solved] Unable to create a grub or uefi entry in an Acer laptop

UEFI is kind of weird on Acers, to add a boot entry you will have to go into the UEFI and there mark a corresponding UEFI binary as trusted, even if you disabled secureboot already, so you can create an entry for it. See also the last few model notes in https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Laptop/Acer

Tried again. Enabling secure boot allowed me to enter a menu to add a trusted source. However, the firmware only allows five boot entries, and I'm not finding where I can remove one. Do you have any clue?

Edit: Finally!!! I had to save and exit after every little change. Restore defaults, save & exit. Select arch as trusted, save & exit. Select boot order, save & exit. Done!

Thanks for the help!

Last edited by elfomelo (2018-02-28 19:56:36)