[SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

nsood · 2019-01-02 13:46:24

Solution for me: marked /boot as active/bootable

Hey.

So I installed Arch on my laptop (HP EliteBook 8470p) and the thing just doesn't boot GRUB and skips right past into Windows. I'm using GRUB with MBR. My current partition layout:

/dev/sda1: Windows
/dev/sdb1: NTFS data partition
/dev/sdb2: Arch system
/dev/sdb3: Swap
/dev/mmcblk0p1: /boot (SD card, explained below)

So my first install just had /boot on sdb2 itself, as I normally do. But that didn't work, it kept trying to boot from the SD card, which (for unrelated reasons) had GRUB installed to it. I'd since removed that partition from the SD card so it would drop to a rescue prompt. Removing the SD card, I would just boot to Windows no matter which drive I tried to boot from using the BIOS, sda or sdb. Since I was booting off the SD before, I tried to reinstall with /boot and GRUB on it, but now even booting from the SD card takes me to Windows.

Things I've tried:

1. Normal install without /boot on SD
2. Normal install except sdb is wiped to GPT and I use UEFI boot
3. Install with /boot on SD

If it's any indication, Manjaro has the same issue when I try to install it, but Ubuntu 18.04 works fine. Booting from USB obviously works, but I guess that's syslinux, not GRUB.

Can anyone help? Let me know if you need additional details, and thank you so much.

Last edited by nsood (2019-01-02 14:23:11)

schard · 2019-01-02 13:50:01

Most likely, the disk behind /dev/sda is your primary boot device and Windows has its bootloader in its MBR.
So this is what the BIOS will load.
If you want to have the disk behind /dev/mmcblk0 as your primary boot device, you must select it as such in your BIOS settings.

Last edited by schard (2019-01-02 13:50:11)

V1del · 2019-01-02 13:54:01

How did you install the boot loader, which exact command?

Last edited by V1del (2019-01-02 13:54:48)

nsood · 2019-01-02 13:54:44

schard wrote:

Most likely, the disk behind /dev/sda is your primary boot device and Windows has its bootloader in its MBR.
So this is what the BIOS will load.
If you want to have the disk behind /dev/mmcblk0 as your primary boot device, you must select it as such in your BIOS settings.

I boot to Windows even when I specifically select the SD card or sdb in the boot options. In the BIOS's legacy boot order, I currently have SD card > sdb > sda, which should be fine I think.

schard · 2019-01-02 13:56:24

Does /dev/mmcblk0 have the boot flag set?
Having boot loaders on multiple disks ist not necessarily a benefit.
If you're using MBR/BIOS boot, which I assume from your paritioning, you should mark one partition as the boot partition and install your boot loader, i.e. gruib, there.
Using os-prober you can also use it to boot Windows if needed and you don't have to mess around with possibly faulty boot device selection of your BIOS.

Last edited by schard (2019-01-02 13:59:09)

nsood · 2019-01-02 13:57:00

V1del wrote:

How did you install the boot loader, which exact command?

For the current MBR install:

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/mmcblk0

For the previous MBR install:

grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sdb --recheck

For the GPT/EFI install, I don't remember the exact command, I basically copied it from the wiki and set /boot (then mounted to an EFI partition in sdb) as my ESP.

I'm a bit unclear on what --recheck does, so I've tried it both ways. Neither works.

nsood · 2019-01-02 13:58:02

schard wrote:

Does /dev/mmcblk0 have the boot flag set?

Not sure. How do I check?

It did boot a live environment before, but that was before it was wiped.

V1del · 2019-01-02 14:00:12

FWIW are you absolutely certain your Windows is installed in MBR and BIOS mode as well? Mix and matching UEFI and BIOS mode usually does not end well. You should do an UEFI if Windows is installed as UEFI because it currently sounds like the firmware will simply launch the first and only UEFI binary it finds.

nsood · 2019-01-02 14:02:51

V1del wrote:

FWIW are you absolutely certain your Windows is installed in MBR and BIOS mode as well? Mix and matching UEFI and BIOS mode usually does not end well. You should do an UEFI if Windows is installed as UEFI because it currently sounds like the firmware will simply launch the first and only UEFI binary it finds.

Yep, Windows is MBR/BIOS as well. In fact, my BIOS was set to legacy-only before this, I set it to UEFI-CSM when I tried the GPT Arch install. Also, tried the GPT/EFI Arch install (mentioned in OP), still boots to Windows.

Last edited by nsood (2019-01-02 14:03:39)

nsood · 2019-01-02 14:22:29

Update: it was the boot flag. I never had to set it before and kinda assumed grub-install would set it for me. But setting it manually via diskpart in Windows (active) or cfdisk from the live USB worked. Doesn't explain why UEFI didn't work, but oh well, I prefer MBR/BIOS anyway.

Thank you, to all who helped!

Arch Linux

#1 2019-01-02 13:46:24

[SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#2 2019-01-02 13:50:01

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#3 2019-01-02 13:54:01

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#4 2019-01-02 13:54:44

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#5 2019-01-02 13:56:24

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#6 2019-01-02 13:57:00

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#7 2019-01-02 13:58:02

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#8 2019-01-02 14:00:12

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#9 2019-01-02 14:02:51

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

#10 2019-01-02 14:22:29

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop doesn't want to boot into Arch

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