Arch Linux

mjd119

Member

Registered: 2020-05-07

Posts: 119

[SOLVED] Updated BIOS, No Longer a Boot Option for Arch

Today I updated my BIOS and I can no longer boot to my Arch Linux installation. I cannot get to the Grub menu to boot. The only thing I can boot is Windows 10 from the Windows Boot Manager. I am going to see if I can boot with Super Grub on a USB stick, but for now I can't boot. I was reading the ArchWiki page about Grub and how to install it when you first install Arch, but I am not sure what to do when you want to make your Arch installation bootable again. Should I reinstall Grub? Do I need to recreate an EFI partition? Unsure what I should do.

Last edited by mjd119 (2020-07-16 00:44:31)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,057

Re: [SOLVED] Updated BIOS, No Longer a Boot Option for Arch

Check efibootmgr's output to see if the BIOS update cleared the entries from NVRAM.
Also check in the firmware if settings were reset including Secure Boot.

Last edited by loqs (2020-07-15 23:12:43)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: [SOLVED] Updated BIOS, No Longer a Boot Option for Arch

Yeah, not uncommon for updating the firmware to clear the NVRAM. Just need to add it back, or redo the bootloader setup which will do it. I wouldn't have messed with partitions.

Last edited by Scimmia (2020-07-15 23:13:04)

mjd119

Member

Registered: 2020-05-07

Posts: 119

Re: [SOLVED] Updated BIOS, No Longer a Boot Option for Arch

Yeah, not uncommon for updating the firmware to clear the NVRAM. Just need to add it back, or redo the bootloader setup which will do it. I wouldn't have messed with partitions.

I was able to boot to my installation using a Super Grub USB stick. Does this mean I need to recreate the EFI partition? I'm not sure which commands I should follow on the wiki. I don't want to screw up my installation. Should I run:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp --bootloader-id=GRUB

or maybe

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

I did these steps when I did the installation on my desktop (the one I updated my bios on) and my laptop. Not sure which to pick.
EDIT:
When I run grub-install /dev/sda (disk where Arch is installed) I get:

Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory.

It looks like I need to recreate the /efi partition but I'm unsure.

Last edited by mjd119 (2020-07-15 23:53:48)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 19,057

Re: [SOLVED] Updated BIOS, No Longer a Boot Option for Arch

The GRUB wiki page provides an installation section for each of EFI and BIOS.

Last edited by loqs (2020-07-15 23:54:30)

mjd119

Member

Registered: 2020-05-07

Posts: 119

Re: [SOLVED] Updated BIOS, No Longer a Boot Option for Arch

The GRUB wiki page provides an installation section for each of EFI and BIOS.

I followed the guide for UEFI grub install and I figured it out. It turned out I wasn't passing the mount point as an argument (esp).