Arch Linux

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

[SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

I have installed Arch Linux and GRUB afresh. It seems to have worked alright, but when I now boot from the harddisk, I only get the GRUB prompt, without any operating systems to boot. My guess is that the config file does not get loaded somehow, although it does exist.

I have the following partitions:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
/dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
/dev/sda3 /mnt
/dev/sda4 /mnt/home

I installed GRUB after chrooting to /mnt, and then run grub-config.

I guess I screwed up with EFI. I'm new (and confused) to EFI.

I'm a bit confused as to what exactly went wrong, any ideas?

Last edited by TheGasolineWillBeOurs (2019-12-02 13:52:43)

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,646

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

Please post the exact steps you used to install and configure grub -- starting from before you chroot, so we can see what partitions you mounted and where you mounted them.

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

From memory, this should be:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda3 /mnt
mount /dev/sda4 /mnt/home

arch-chroot /mnt
pacman -S grub efibootmgr
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck --debug
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

I have the following partitions:

/dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
/dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
/dev/sda3 /mnt
/dev/sda4 /mnt/home

Did you make a / partition?

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _the_disks

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

Not sure if I follow. /mnt becomes /, once I chroot into /mnt?

Last edited by TheGasolineWillBeOurs (2019-11-30 19:00:16)

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

I think I understand what you mean now - it looks to me like you've mounted things in the wrong order. I presume this is what @2ManyDogs wants to know from the question above.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … le_systems
says...
Mount the file system on the root partition to /mnt, for example:
# mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt
Create any remaining mount points (such as /mnt/efi) and mount their corresponding partitions.

but you've mounted other partitions before doing so.

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

That didn't even cross my mind, that the order could play a role. I now mounted it in the following order:

/dev/sda3 /mnt
/dev/sda2 /mnt/boot
/dev/sda1 /mnt/boot/efi
/dev/sda4 /mnt/home

But the outcome is the same.

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

Perhaps the output of...

lsblk

and

fdisk -l

might help here.

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

Thanks for everyone helping. I'm really lost here.

lsblk:

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0    7:0    0 520.9M  1 loop 
sda      8:0    0   3.7T  0 disk 
|-sda1   8:1    0   511M  0 part /boot/efi
|-sda2   8:2    0   511M  0 part /boot
|-sda3   8:3    0    29G  0 part /
`-sda4   8:4    0   3.6T  0 part /home
sdb      8:16   1   1.9G  0 disk 
|-sdb1   8:17   1   635M  0 part 
`-sdb2   8:18   1    64M  0 part 

fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 3.65 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD40EZRZ-00G
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 2A48B5BF-579E-E242-8457-4ECDA6D73AA4

Device        Start        End    Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1      2048    1048576    1046529  511M EFI System
/dev/sda2   1050624    2097152    1046529  511M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda3   2099200   62914560   60815361   29G Linux filesystem
/dev/sda4  62916608 7814037134 7751120527  3.6T Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 1.9 GiB, 2016935936 bytes, 3939328 sectors
Disk model: TDMINIG4        
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: 0x65cc13ea

Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *        0 1300479 1300480  635M  0 Empty
/dev/sdb2         164  131235  131072   64M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/loop0: 520.88 MiB, 546164736 bytes, 1066728 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

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

I tried following this guide here:
https://www.linux.com/tutorials/how-res … b-2-linux/

But I can't seem to find the linux kernel.

My /boot partition is (hd0, gpt2), but if I ls this directory in grub, it shows only:

grub> ls(hd0,2)
lost+found/ efi/ grub/

while I was expecting a vmlinuz kernel here. Is that the fundamental problem that I have?

paulkerry

Member

From: Sheffield, UK

Registered: 2014-10-02

Posts: 611

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

You don't need that extra /boot partition that is mounted on sda2 as well as /boot/efi you have mounted on sda1, although I'm unsure if this would be the issue that stops grub from working as it should?

see "UEFI/GPT example layout" on...
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … le_layouts

Have you had a look through...
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … leshooting

TheGasolineWillBeOurs

Member

Registered: 2015-02-06

Posts: 65

Re: [SOLVED] Grub does not give selection of operating systems

I think I got it. Instead of

pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware

as outlined in the install wiki, I was only running

pacstrap /mnt base

The wiki even states, that "[y]ou can omit the installation of the kernel or the firmware package if you know what you are doing."

Turns out that I do not know what I'm doing.

Thanks everyone for the help, and sorry for the noise. If I would have followed the wiki more carefully, this should not have even have come up.

@paulkerry: To be honest, I do not know why I have a separate /boot partition. Some years ago, when I first installed Arch Linux (and haven't tried any other operating system since), a friend helped me setting it up. He chose the partitions that I'm still using today. I understand that you need a separate (FAT) partition for EFI, I know that it makes sense to separate root / from /home, but I never understand why a separate /boot partition would be needed. But I just followed advice from a friend that is far more knowledgeable than I am.