Arch Linux

sainty

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2017-04-20

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] Fresh Install needs selecting from boot menu.

I have been on arch for a while in a VM and now setting up on actual hardware.  The problem is when I turn on the laptop, I have to select Arch Linux from the boot menu.  It boots and runs as expected after but the boot manager does not just boot it automatically and am going in circles with this.  So a little information:

Laptop is Lenovo T420 set up to boot UEFI only.
HDD is partitioned:
GPT Partition Table
/dev/sda1 - EFI System (512M)
/dev/sda2 - Linux LVM (Rest of Drive)

LVM has one VG named MainVG with LV's:
root @ 40G
home @ 100G
swap @ 2G

Mounting of the above is:
MainVG-root @ /
MainVG-home @ /home
/dev/sda1 @ /boot

I am using EFIStub for booting.

After adding "Arch Linux" with the efibootmgr as per the Wiki it is available to boot and shows in the laptops setup screen and boot menu as first priority.  efibootmgr --verbose confirms this also is the first boot device.

So while it is not stopping me from running I do not understand why it is not booting without me selecting it.  After a 'reboot now' command from inside arch it will reboot to arch but after a 'shutdown now' command the next power on needs me to select arch at the boot menu.

Can anyone point me in the right direction with this issue?

Thank you for your time in advance.

Edit: I have also found that pressing ESC instead of selecting an option resumes normal boot as expected.

SOLVED: So this should have been obvious.  The laptop I got reconditioned and was told it had all the updates.  I found the firmware on the laptop was actually almost back to its manufacture date 8 years out of date.  After updating and repairing my boot records it now boots straight away.

Last edited by sainty (2018-12-13 21:55:56)

radiomike

Member

Registered: 2013-12-19

Posts: 73

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh Install needs selecting from boot menu.

Using efibootmgr, there is potential to set a timeout, which may achieve what you want.

However you may be better using a bootloader like bootctl or rEFInd to do what you want. It may also make things easier if you wish to have more than one kernel installed.

sainty

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2017-04-20

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh Install needs selecting from boot menu.

Hi radiomike,

I have no intentions of having more than one kernel (honestly I have no idea why I would consider it so guess my needs never would) hence the reason I took the approach from this Wiki as I believe it said the simplest setup. Often the simplest in the best.

Thank you for your input. I will leave this open for a while to look for a fix and will continue to investigate myself. If nothing comes up then I guess it will be welcome back grub.

Edit: Also, I forgot to mention, the timeout was set to zero.  I tried it at 3 seconds but this yields no difference.

Last edited by sainty (2018-04-01 11:42:32)

alanxoc3

Member

Registered: 2015-09-03

Posts: 17

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh Install needs selecting from boot menu.

I don't know if I can help you, but I will say that it is usually a good thing to have multiple kernels. I think arch may do that by default or something (or I just set it up a long time ago and can't remember). When you install a new kernel, you want to keep the old kernel as a backup, in case the new kernel is incompatible with your hardware. I've been saved a few times with that.

Maybe I was just misinterpreting what you were saying though.

circleface

Member

Registered: 2012-05-26

Posts: 639

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh Install needs selecting from boot menu.

What I do when I want to boot directly to one OS is to use systemd-boot (bootctl) and set the timeout to 0.  That way, it does load the boot manager, but also loads instantly so you don't notice a delay.

sainty

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2017-04-20

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] Fresh Install needs selecting from boot menu.

Alanxoc3
I see what you mean about multiple kernels now. I am guessing this backup you are referring to is the fallback. That is all there as normal so far as I see when I was initially installing. As I have not needed to use this yet I have not dove any deeper into it. But so far as I can tell I assume either I would have to explicitly say to use the fallback or I would be prompted to during an error. In any case booting works fine when esc’ing the boot menu so this suggests perhaps the issue may be with the laptops own firmware. That’s what I am starting to believe any way.

Circleface
Thank you for the input. The timeout does work exactly as you say. Unfortunatly the system seems to not want to make a decision after the timeout not matter what it is set to.  The idea was not to use a boot loader as per the wiki but I may have to look at one.

Last edited by sainty (2018-04-02 01:24:37)