Arch Linux

beakergordon

Member

Registered: 2020-06-24

Posts: 3

[SOLVED] EFI GRUB not auto-detected, but can be manually loaded

I just finished installing Arch on an HP workstation laptop. The laptop indicates at power on that it can't find an OS to boot, but I can locate GRUB manually and boot it without issue via the laptop's "EFI File Navigator" utility.

Excerpt from `parted`

Number  Start   End    Size    File system     Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  538MB  537MB   fat32                 boot, esp
 2      538MB   249GB  248GB   ext4
 3      249GB   250GB  1074MB  linux-swap(v1)        swap

I have `/dev/sda1` mounted at `/efi` with GRUB stored at `/efi/EFI/GRUB/grubx64.efi`. The laptop's utility presents this as `\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi`.

I confirmed that the laptop is configured with Boot Mode "UEFI Native (Without CSM)" (no change vs CSM enabled) and the internal disk is at the top of the boot priority.

Is it possible I've got GRUB at an unexpected location in the file system? I would think that if GRUB were otherwise improperly configured that it wouldn't boot when selected manually. I've read through quite a bit of the related ArchWiki pages, including GRUB Troubleshooting, but haven't been able to figure it out yet.

I'd really prefer to understand what's gone wrong and fix it vs just wiping it all out and trying again, so any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

Last edited by beakergordon (2020-06-25 20:26:40)

beakergordon

Member

Registered: 2020-06-24

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] EFI GRUB not auto-detected, but can be manually loaded

For some reason a prior search didn't turn this up for me, but I found a post with a similar issue: [SOLVED]"Reboot and Select proper Boot device" - UEFI Shell works fine

The solution there seemed to be to circumvent a bad device firmware/NVRAM implementation by running grub-install with the --removable flag. According to the ArchWiki, this option installs GRUB to `esp/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI` instead. Would it be enough for me to simply `mv` my existing GRUB install to that location, or are there other internal differences aside from simply the location? Also, dumb question: can I backup my current GRUB install by simply cp/tar'ing the contents of `/efi/`?

nl6720

The Evil Wiki Admin

Registered: 2016-07-02

Posts: 671

Re: [SOLVED] EFI GRUB not auto-detected, but can be manually loaded

Would it be enough for me to simply `mv` my existing GRUB install to that location, or are there other internal differences aside from simply the location?

You can just move it. See GRUB#Default/fallback boot path.

can I backup my current GRUB install by simply cp/tar'ing the contents of `/efi/`?

GRUB has multiple stages and they all must be from the same GRUB version, i.e. the EFI binary in /efi/ must be compatible with the modules in /boot/grub/. Also GRUB's main configuration file is in /boot/grub/. If you want a full backup of an UEFI GRUB install, backup both of these directories.

beakergordon

Member

Registered: 2020-06-24

Posts: 3

Re: [SOLVED] EFI GRUB not auto-detected, but can be manually loaded

Thanks, nl6720. I was able to mv my existing GRUB install to the fallback path and the laptop firmware finally recognized it and began booting directly into GRUB.