Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

lloydroc · 2019-04-01 16:26:02

OK I've gone through the instructions about 10 times and don't know what I'm missing.

Problem is after the full install then reboot command I pull out the USB stick I used to install I get "Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive" and it just hangs. I can also get into grub with the bootable USB stick and if I chose "Boot Existing OS" then I'll get "Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive" as well that hangs. Once I install I expect booting my machine without the bootable USB plugged in I would see Grub and it would boot the fresh install and give me a root login??

This is on a HP EliteDesk machine. It has EUFI - at least I think it does. It had CentOS installed on it previously.

Let me summarize the install without going into every step and putting what I think is relevant:
fdisk
/dev/sda1 EFI System partition 512MB
/dev/sda2 SWAP 32GB
/dev/sda3 Linux filesystem

Partitions are formatted. For the EFI I have
mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sda1

I mount them

mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

genfstab has 3 lines output.

I install grub:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

When I finally reboot though it won't ever boot?

Help!! Spent so much time on this.

One thing that looks suspect is:
[root@archiso /]# efivar-tester
UEFI variables set not supported on this machine.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-04-01 18:56:53

lloydroc wrote:

[root@archiso /]# efivar-tester
UEFI variables set not supported on this machine.

Check for /sys/firmware/efi to see if the machine is actually booted in UEFI mode.

If it is then mount the partitions, arch-chroot in and run the grub-install command again but this time add the --removable flag.

lloydroc · 2019-04-01 22:14:45

Big thanks for your reply!

Negative seems to not be booted in UEFI mode.

root@archiso # efivar-tester
UEFI variables not supported on this machine

if I

root@archiso # ls /sys/firmware
acpi/   devicetree/    dmi/    memmap/

don't see any directory /sys/firmware/efi . This is non-chrooted.

d_fajardo · 2019-04-01 23:07:22

It doesn't look like you have a UEFI motherboard in which case you have to repartition your drives as MBR. You won't be needing an EFI partition.

lloydroc · 2019-04-02 13:35:09

Well it has certainly has me confused if I have UEFI or not ....

If I boot the system and press F1 and F2 it comes up with a prompt that says "HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI". A little below it there is "Version 1.10.0.0 - BIOS". We have 3 of these. One has Ubuntu installed on it currently and I see a /sys/firmware/efi directory. When I boot Archlinux from USB stick, tried on 2 of them, I don't see the /sys/firmware/efi directory ...

Trilby · 2019-04-02 13:44:24

Could it be a 32 bit UEFI?

Slithery · 2019-04-02 14:05:37

Or are you just not booting in UEFI mode?

lloydroc · 2019-04-02 14:35:36

When I go through the archboot install instructions towards the end it says "Setup has detected that you are using X64 UEFI". Then I cannot seem to get through the install the boot loader pages. What is frustrating here is we have installed Ubuntu, CentOS and Debian all on these machines.

How do I boot in UEFI mode? Isn't that what happens normally when you boot if you have UEFI.

d_fajardo · 2019-04-02 14:49:44

Have you checked the BIOS if there's a switch there that enables/disables UEFI boot or UEFI Only or Legacy Support, etc?

lloydroc · 2019-04-02 15:16:24

Good question. When I boot into it the options are memory test, hard drive check, language and exit

Tried archboot and that gets errors installing the boot loaders. I'm just completely flummoxed on how the Ubuntu box with the same HW - I've confirmed part numbers AND same BIOS - has the /sys/firmware/efi directory.

lloydroc · 2019-04-02 15:21:07

here is a output of efibootmgr on the ubuntu system

root@devPC:/home/lloydroc# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,dc6bd75e-438f-4f40-9248-84e5590eaaf3,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)
Boot0001* DTO UEFI USB Floppy/CD	VenMedia(b6fef66f-1495-4584-a836-3492d1984a8d,0500000001)..BO
Boot0002* DTO UEFI USB Hard Drive	VenMedia(b6fef66f-1495-4584-a836-3492d1984a8d,0200000001)..BO
Boot0003* DTO Legacy USB Floppy/CD	VenMedia(b6fef66f-1495-4584-a836-3492d1984a8d,0500000000)..BO
Boot0004* Hard Drive	BBS(HD,,0x0)..GO..NO?.........F.a.k.e. .U.s.b. .O.p.t.i.o.n.................BO..NOy.......+.S.A.T.A.:. .L.I.T.E.O.N. .I.T. .L.C.S.-.2.5.6.L.9.S.-.H.P.........................rN.D+..,.\...........BO
Boot0005* BRCM MBA Slot 0300 v16.2.1	BBS(Network,,0x0)..BO

Slithery · 2019-04-02 15:24:12

lloydroc wrote:

Good question. When I boot into it the options are memory test, hard drive check, language and exit

That's not the correct menu. Are you repeatedly hitting the correct key when booting to load the firmware menu?
IIRC it's usually F10 with HP but google your model number + 'firmware menu' to make sure.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-04-02 17:41:25

d_fajardo wrote:

It doesn't look like you have a UEFI motherboard in which case you have to repartition your drives as MBR

If the OP wants to get the system booting in non-UEFI mode then simply adding a BIOS boot partition (type EF02 in gdisk) and running the non-UEFI grub-install command[1] should do the trick, no need to switch to an msdos partition table.

lloydroc wrote:

Boot0000* ubuntu	HD(1,GPT,dc6bd75e-438f-4f40-9248-84e5590eaaf3,0x800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\shimx64.efi)

The shimx64.efi loader allows Ubuntu to boot with Secure Boot enabled, have you tried booting the Arch ISO image with Secure Boot disabled?

lloydroc · 2019-04-03 22:33:01

Firstly thanks all for making my first experience to the Arch Community warm and welcome!! Very nice people with knowledgeable and good help.

I haven't yet gotten a chance to get it to boot. I started using gdisk and it seems a bit better than using fdisk. Something seems to just be strange with this BIOS though on what is the right way to partition the disk. It's seems like a split personality of BIOS and UEFI. I'm trying to compare with a Ubuntu install on the same hardware that has a EFI and /boot/efi, however when I look through the BIOS it appears to not be EFI. I was also able to boot it nicely on virtual box with MBR. The same attempt on this HP hardware has different results ... I have a bootable option in fdisk on virtual box and not on the real hardware ... not sure how the fdisk menu could be different.

Will try to update to this thread once/if I can load Archlinux on this HP box. That is if I don't get so frustrated I throw it in the lake.

Lone_Wolf · 2019-04-04 11:18:58

It IS possible to put an EFI system partition on MBR disks , https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EF … oned_disks
Maybe that's the setup used by the ubuntu install ?

example from my desktop[1] :

# fdisk -l /dev/nvme0n1
Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 232.9 GiB, 250059350016 bytes, 488397168 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 970 EVO 250GB               
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: 0x47430e07

Device         Boot     Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1           2048 159385599 159383552   76G 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p2      159385600 484444159 325058560  155G 83 Linux
/dev/nvme0n1p3      484444160 488397167   3953008  1.9G ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
#

[1]
If someone wants the reasoning for such a setup, see https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=241950

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2019-04-04 11:19:29)

lloydroc · 2019-04-04 14:01:23

there is something strange going on here still.

On the Ubuntu system it has an efi system and efibootmgr has output. Again this is the exact same HW with serial number and BIOS version. But whenever I boot Archlinux and run efibootmgr is says "EFI variables are not supported on this system". I still don't get how one system can show EFI vars and the other can't when they're the same. Others in this topic tried to post saying I need to boot in EFI mode but looking through the options I don't see a way to do it ...

root@devPC:/boot/grub# lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0  91.1M  1 loop /snap/core/6531
loop1    7:1    0 140.7M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-26-1604/82
loop2    7:2    0  1008K  1 loop /snap/gnome-logs/57
loop3    7:3    0 144.9M  1 loop /snap/slack/12
loop4    7:4    0 192.1M  1 loop /snap/eclipse/29
loop5    7:5    0  35.3M  1 loop /snap/gtk-common-themes/1198
loop6    7:6    0 143.5M  1 loop /snap/gnome-3-28-1804/23
loop7    7:7    0  53.7M  1 loop /snap/core18/782
loop8    7:8    0     4M  1 loop /snap/gnome-calculator/352
loop9    7:9    0  89.3M  1 loop /snap/core/6673
loop10   7:10   0  14.8M  1 loop /snap/gnome-characters/206
loop11   7:11   0   7.5M  1 loop /snap/canonical-livepatch/58
loop12   7:12   0   3.7M  1 loop /snap/gnome-system-monitor/70
sda      8:0    0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
├─sda2   8:2    0   223G  0 part /
└─sda3   8:3    0    15G  0 part [SWAP]
root@devPC:/boot/grub# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/loop0: 91.1 MiB, 95522816 bytes, 186568 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


Disk /dev/loop1: 140.7 MiB, 147496960 bytes, 288080 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


Disk /dev/loop2: 1008 KiB, 1032192 bytes, 2016 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


Disk /dev/loop3: 144.9 MiB, 151912448 bytes, 296704 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


Disk /dev/loop4: 192.1 MiB, 201469952 bytes, 393496 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


Disk /dev/loop5: 35.3 MiB, 37027840 bytes, 72320 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


Disk /dev/loop6: 143.5 MiB, 150470656 bytes, 293888 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


Disk /dev/loop7: 53.7 MiB, 56315904 bytes, 109992 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


Disk /dev/sda: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 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: gpt
Disk identifier: F9620992-0FCB-47B7-9EF1-162FDBA91478

Device         Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1       2048   1050623   1048576  512M EFI System
/dev/sda2    1050624 468697087 467646464  223G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3  468697088 500117503  31420416   15G Linux swap


Disk /dev/loop8: 4 MiB, 4214784 bytes, 8232 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


Disk /dev/loop9: 89.3 MiB, 93581312 bytes, 182776 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


Disk /dev/loop10: 14.8 MiB, 15458304 bytes, 30192 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


Disk /dev/loop11: 7.5 MiB, 7839744 bytes, 15312 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


Disk /dev/loop12: 3.7 MiB, 3846144 bytes, 7512 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
root@devPC:/boot/grub# ^C
root@devPC:/boot/grub# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0001,0002,0003,0004,0005
Boot0000* ubuntu
Boot0001* DTO UEFI USB Floppy/CD
Boot0002* DTO UEFI USB Hard Drive
Boot0003* DTO Legacy USB Floppy/CD
Boot0004* Hard Drive
Boot0005* BRCM MBA Slot 0300 v16.2.1
root@devPC:/boot/grub#

lloydroc · 2019-04-04 14:13:45

The other thing that seems broken is that on the Ubuntu system I can see a

/sys/firmware/efi

But on the system with arch I don't have this directory.

When I see posts like this

https://superuser.com/questions/678976/ … be-efivars

It appears that perhaps efivars is not loaded in the kernel. But if you read the comments at the bottom of the answer I cannot modprobe efivars, nor can I mount the filesystem.

modprobing will say that the module isn't found in directory /lib/modules/4.20.13-arch1-1-ARCH
mounting will say the mountpoint doesn't exist - /sys/firmware/efi/efivars

Not sure if there is something I can do to get the /sys/firmware/efi to show up but if I could get efibootmgr to work I think I would be home free ....

Slithery · 2019-04-04 14:45:51

Have you actually booted into your firmware menu yet and checked the settings? There will be an option that lets you switch between UEFI and BIOS mode (often called CSM).

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-04-04 17:45:42

lloydroc wrote:

I still don't get how one system can show EFI vars and the other can't when they're the same.

Can you disable Secure Boot?

Perhaps the machine is automatically enabling CSM if a Secure Boot compatible loader is not detected, that would explain why the Arch ISO can boot in non-UEFI mode.

Did you try adding a BIOS boot partition and running grub-install --target=i386-pc to see if Arch will boot in non-UEFI mode?

@Lone_Wolf: the OP has a GPT disk.

Slithery · 2019-04-04 17:59:30

@HoaS

As far as I can tell the OP hasn't actually booted into their firmware menu at all to check any settings, hence my questions.

lloydroc · 2019-04-05 15:34:54

Hey All, will be out until Weds. Thanks for all the help.

I'm looking at this like an investigator of a murder where I'm also the lead suspect as the killer.

Here are my leads
1) Boot the BIOS and toggle some option for EFI. Well I don't know why I would have to do this, but I've looked a couple times and I don't see anything
2) This isn't an UEFI system, but I have not been able to partitions it right where the grub install is happy. GPT issues ....
3) Format issues. I've been able to format EFI and install grub but it won't boot. That's my original post. Tried many combos of MBR and EFI system and having the MBR in the root Linux partition.

My witness of another computer with the same hardware and software has Ubuntu with UEFI and it works. I'm also trying to figure out the options on the Ubuntu install to grub when it was installed.

Done the install about 10 times and I've successfully installed it on Virtual Box. Will keep trying when I get back.

thanks again

Head_on_a_Stick · 2019-04-05 15:56:01

lloydroc wrote:

Boot the BIOS and toggle some option for EFI. Well I don't know why I would have to do this

Because Ubuntu supports Secure Boot but a stock Arch Linux system does not.

This means that your Ubuntu system can boot in UEFI mode with Secure Boot enabled but the Arch Linux ISO image can only boot in UEFI mode if Secure Boot is disabled, otherwise it boots in non-UEFI mode (as you can see from the lack of /sys/firmware/efi in the live Arch system).

This also means that your installed Arch system will not boot in UEFI mode unless Secure Boot is disabled — you have used the UEFI grub-install command but you have not disabled Secure Boot so the system cannot boot.

See https://neosmart.net/wiki/disabling-sec … ecure_Boot for a general guide to disabling Secure Boot and see if you can apply it to your machine.

lloydroc wrote:

This isn't an UEFI system, but I have not been able to partitions it right where the grub install is happy. GPT issues ....

To use the non-UEFI grub-install command successfully with a GPT disk you need to add a BIOS boot partition to the disk, as I mentioned earlier.

You can do this with gdisk from the live ISO image: create a new partition of type "EF02" in sectors 34-2047 and do not format it.

lloydroc wrote:

I'm also trying to figure out the options on the Ubuntu install to grub when it was installed.

Use the boot-info-script package (/usr/sbin/bootinfoscript) to get the answers you need, it is very comprehensive.

Slithery · 2019-04-05 17:38:50

lloydroc wrote:

1) Boot the BIOS and toggle some option for EFI. Well I don't know why I would have to do this, but I've looked a couple times and I don't see anything

You don't have a BIOS, you have a UEFI firmware menu. You need to go to this menu and change the options because it's currently set to not boot in UEFI mode. See all of my previous posts.

2) This isn't an UEFI system

Yes it is, you just haven't configured it correctly.

lloydroc · 2019-04-11 15:17:40

OK I have fully disabled secure boot and legacy boot sources, and only allowed UEFI boot using F10. It will say "no disk to boot to" or something like that. I've found no combination to boot the USB in UEFI mode.

lloydroc · 2019-04-11 15:36:42

I am able to get it to boot into grub and I can type:

insmod linux
set root=(hd0,1)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda1
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
boot

Not sure exactly what changed. I still can't see a /sys/firmware/efi directory.

When it boots I get an ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve [\_SB.ALIB], AE_NOT_FOUND. I have booted it 2x - last time had a USB stick.

Wanted to just send an update now that it's booting. Suppose can close this forum now, however, I really wanted a clean install and this doesn't seem like one.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-04-01 16:26:02

Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#2 2019-04-01 18:56:53

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#3 2019-04-01 22:14:45

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#4 2019-04-01 23:07:22

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#5 2019-04-02 13:35:09

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#6 2019-04-02 13:44:24

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#7 2019-04-02 14:05:37

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#8 2019-04-02 14:35:36

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#9 2019-04-02 14:49:44

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#10 2019-04-02 15:16:24

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#11 2019-04-02 15:21:07

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#12 2019-04-02 15:24:12

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#13 2019-04-02 17:41:25

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#14 2019-04-03 22:33:01

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#15 2019-04-04 11:18:58

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#16 2019-04-04 14:01:23

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#17 2019-04-04 14:13:45

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#18 2019-04-04 14:45:51

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#19 2019-04-04 17:45:42

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#20 2019-04-04 17:59:30

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#21 2019-04-05 15:34:54

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#22 2019-04-05 15:56:01

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#23 2019-04-05 17:38:50

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#24 2019-04-11 15:17:40

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

#25 2019-04-11 15:36:42

Re: Attempting to Boot From Hard Drive ... hung

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