[Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

adventure_scientist · 2018-07-10 16:32:40

I messed up the partition scheme and now grub won't load the liveusb. How do I redirect

grub-rescue

to boot from a live usb ?
I've tried

set root=(hd1)

followed by

insmod normal

but the grub-rescue complains that it's an unknown filesystem. Is there a guide to making a live usb on windows using rufus, loading it from grub-rescue for a clean install of arch (where do i search for the relevant boot files on the live usd hd1)?

Thank you!

Last edited by adventure_scientist (2018-07-10 17:50:33)

Slithery · 2018-07-10 16:36:51

What does grub have to do with this? Just boot the machine from the live USB directly.

adventure_scientist · 2018-07-10 16:39:09

The previous OS left a grub at hd0 and now grub tries to boot from hd0 but since there's no OS there, it can't boot. So, when I plugin the live usb, I enter grub-rescue instead of booting from it. I need to boot the liveusb from grub-rescue so that I can re-install arch properly this time.

The closest help I found was this, but I was not able to find the boot files from thr arch liveusb. Is there something similar for Arch live image ?

Last edited by adventure_scientist (2018-07-10 17:08:45)

Trilby · 2018-07-10 17:08:59

adventure_scientist wrote:

The previous OS left a grub at hd0 and now grub tries to boot from hd0 but since there's no OS there, it can't boot. So, when I plugin the live usb, I enter grub-rescue instead of booting from it. I need to boot the liveusb from grub-rescue so that I can re-install arch properly this time.

Don't boot to hd0 at all, that's the point. The USB is bootable, select it in your BIOS/Firmware, it doesn't matter what is on the harddrive: nothing at all needs to be there.

adventure_scientist · 2018-07-10 17:24:52

I wish that was possible. As soon as I power up the laptop, I get an invalid partition table error. Then I enter grub-rescue. Thus, I am forced to boot the liveusb from grub-rescue.

FWIW the laptop is Dell Precision 6440 and the old OS was Manjaro with ~100GB XFS and 8GB swap at hd0. (During the arch install the partition scheme asked to reboot to overwrite the old scheme and I did and now there's no OS at hd0).

Last edited by adventure_scientist (2018-07-10 17:31:00)

ewaller · 2018-07-10 17:31:10

What are the make and model?

Edit: I was posting whilst you were editing.

Last edited by ewaller (2018-07-10 17:31:47)

ewaller · 2018-07-10 17:34:02

First Google hit https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/us … lang=en-us
press F12 during start up. If that does not work, press it repeatedly while powering up

Edit:

During the arch install the partition scheme asked to reboot to overwrite the old scheme

Care to elaborate on that? How does a scheme ask such a question?

Last edited by ewaller (2018-07-10 17:37:48)

Trilby · 2018-07-10 17:34:46

Again, partitioning schemes and content of the hard drive are irrelevant. You need to enter the BIOS or firmware settings which usually requires a machine-specific key or key combination to be held during ~~booting~~ powerup.

You can even unplug or entirely remove the harddrive. Assuming USB is in the boot order (just lower priority) this in itself would be sufficient.

(edit: "during booting" was poor wording as that would generally refer to the starting of an OS, but this is long before that.)

Last edited by Trilby (2018-07-10 17:45:20)

c00ter · 2018-07-10 17:39:25

adventure_scientist wrote:

I wish that was possible. As soon as I power up the laptop, I get an invalid partition table error. Then I enter grub-rescue. Thus, I am forced to boot the liveusb from grub-rescue.
FWIW the laptop is Dell Precision 6440 and the old OS was Manjaro with ~100GB XFS and 8GB swap at hd0. (During the arch install the partition scheme asked to reboot to overwrite the old scheme and I did and now there's no OS at hd0).

You are not interrupting the POST soon enough. After you power up but before you receive the invalid partition table error, you should be able to interrupt the process in order to configure your hardware settings, boot order, etc. At that point is where you can control selecting to boot from the Arch (or any other) LiveISO.

This is consistent with Trilby & Slithery's posts above.

Last edited by c00ter (2018-07-10 17:40:05)

Slithery · 2018-07-10 17:46:41

adventure_scientist wrote:

During the arch install the partition scheme asked to reboot to overwrite the old scheme and I did and now there's no OS at hd0.

Which installer are you using?

adventure_scientist · 2018-07-10 17:50:02

Which installer are you using?

The latest Archiso from the website. Created a live USB on windows using Rufus.

Care to elaborate on that? How does a scheme ask such a question?

I was trying to make a new partition scheme and IIRC fdisk asked to reboot to set the new partition scheme. After reading the forums I saw that the best practice is the use a swapfile instead of swap partition for an SSD so I wanted to merge /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2. I created a new partition at /dev/sda1 and extended it to /dev/sda2. At this point I performed the reboot as requested and I ended up with a grub that didn't find the os.

I now understand that I should have been using the system bios to set the boot to usb instead of using a broken grub to redirect grub-rescue to use the usb which is much more complicated. Thanks again!

Last edited by adventure_scientist (2018-07-10 18:09:33)

Arch Linux

#1 2018-07-10 16:32:40

[Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#2 2018-07-10 16:36:51

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#3 2018-07-10 16:39:09

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#4 2018-07-10 17:08:59

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#5 2018-07-10 17:24:52

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#6 2018-07-10 17:31:10

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#7 2018-07-10 17:34:02

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#8 2018-07-10 17:34:46

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#9 2018-07-10 17:39:25

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#10 2018-07-10 17:46:41

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

#11 2018-07-10 17:50:02

Re: [Solved] How to boot and install arch from live usb and grub rescue

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