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#1 2020-09-07 23:41:45

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

[Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

I am installing Arch on a new PC, following the Wiki installation Guide. Everything seemed to be successful, except I cannot boot the new system. I am writing this from another PC.

It drops me to a rescue prompt saying

error: file '/boot/grub2/i386-pc' not found.
error: file 'boot/grub2/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found.

Everything I did was in /boot/grub, not /boot/grub2 . And, everything I did was for x86_64, not i386.

If there's a way to get files from the arch-chroot environment to this forum, I will be glad to try posting whatever could help.

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-09-08 13:54:34)

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#2 2020-09-07 23:50:03

Scimmia
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Registered: 2012-09-01
Posts: 11,461

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Sounds like it's trying to boot BIOS/CSM, not UEFI. Make sure your firmware is set to UEFI only.

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#3 2020-09-08 00:52:50

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Is that in the system BIOS setup? I ran the installation booted in UEFI mode, and I installed grub by the UEFI instructions. It was successful.

I found it. Boot Device Control = UEFI and Legacy OPROM. Another possibility is UEFI only.

I set it to UEFI only. It now boots back to the BIOS setup, where it says, "The system cannot find any bootable devices."

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-09-08 01:05:54)

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#4 2020-09-08 01:30:54

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Somebody in another thread said they fixed theirs by changing the /boot partition to ext4. Mine is vfat, which I thought it was supposed to be. What partition type is it supposed to be for Arch Linux?

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#5 2020-09-08 07:17:52

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,409

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

The ESP partition which you passed as --efi-directory= parameter to the GRUB install command has to be vfat (... and properly marked as the ESP partition in GPT partition terms). If you are using GRUB that doesn't also have to be your /boot partition but it can be if you want.

FWIW we likely need some data here after mounting everything as you think it should be post

parted -l
efibootmgr -v
tree /boot

for pasting/posting from the terminal see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Li … in_clients

Which mainboard brand/model is this?

Last edited by V1del (2020-09-08 07:18:50)

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#6 2020-09-08 10:05:41

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Ok, first, the motherboard is an Asus TUF X570 Plus.

I will try to gather the other things and post them.

Thanks

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#7 2020-09-08 10:19:36

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

parted http://ix.io/2wNJ

efibootmgr http://ix.io/2wNK

"tree will not execute and completion _tree exists."

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#8 2020-09-08 10:41:30

schard
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From: Hannover
Registered: 2016-05-06
Posts: 1,932
Website

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Please post the output of efibootmgr with the -u flag. Otherwise it's hard to read.
You currently only have an ESP on /dev/sdd2, which by it's name appears to be a pen drive.
While this can be fine, I suspect that you do not want to have the ESP on a removable device.

Edit: Judging from /dev/sda2, this appears to have been a dual boot setup at some point.
Do you still dual boot? I'm asking since there appears to be no windows data partition.
If not, /dev/sda2 could make a nice ESP if formatted and marked correctly.

Last edited by schard (2020-09-08 10:47:56)

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#9 2020-09-08 10:56:09

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

This is a brand new PC, and it has never been dual booted. However, I have installed several distros on it, trying to find the right one. It has had Fedora, Gentoo, MX, and openSUSE. In particular, Gentoo worked correctly with this same EFI partition. I’m coming back to Arch because everything else sucked.

I’m perfectly willing to repartition the drive and start over, if that would be best.

I will redo The Efibootmgr cmd and post the output...

Efibootmgr http://ix.io/2wO4

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-09-08 11:00:12)

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#10 2020-09-08 11:05:13

schard
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From: Hannover
Registered: 2016-05-06
Posts: 1,932
Website

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

My only concern is having the ESP on a pen drive. Do you really want to have it there? If so, it's fine. But it's an unusual setup.
In any case, you do not need to repartition the disks. If you don't have any valuable data on /dev/sda2, you can just change it's flag to ESP (ef00) and use it during the setup of your bootloader / boot manager as ESP accordingly.

Last edited by schard (2020-09-08 11:05:55)

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#11 2020-09-08 11:10:36

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

No, the ESP is supposed to be on SSD at /dev/sda2. It is apparently not recognized. Like I said, I’m willing to repartition and start over.

The USB drive is the Arch installation media.

PS - So, just change the partition type of sda2 and recreate the stuff that’s there? It’s worth a try.

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-09-08 11:13:23)

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#12 2020-09-08 11:14:16

schard
Member
From: Hannover
Registered: 2016-05-06
Posts: 1,932
Website

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Okay. So /dev/sda2 is a candidate for an ESP, given the aforementioned changes.
Before you change anything, it'd be good to know, what's on /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2.

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#13 2020-09-08 11:22:31

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

I changed the sda2 partition to EF00;”EFI system partition”. All of the directories and files are still intact. But efibootmgr still doesn’t prefix it with “UEFI”.

Sda1 is a GPT BIOS boot partition type EF02

Sda2 has directories EFI and grub, initramfs, initramfs fallback, vmlinuz-Linux, and amd-ucode.img

Sorry for the bad typing. I’m on an iPad and it tries to autocorrect everything.

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-09-08 11:28:20)

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#14 2020-09-08 11:30:03

schard
Member
From: Hannover
Registered: 2016-05-06
Posts: 1,932
Website

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Please run

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/where/you/mounted/dev/sda2 --bootloader-id=GRUB

and post the complete output.

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#15 2020-09-08 11:32:50

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

I assume do that in Arch-chroot?

http://ix.io/2wOf

Last edited by ratcheer (2020-09-08 11:42:51)

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#16 2020-09-08 12:29:36

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Hmmm. /boot/EFI/BOOT is an old directory from the Gentoo installation on 21-Aug. It contains file BOOTX64.EFI

Should I delete this?

Also, since installing grub a step ago, I ran grub-mkconfig. The system still will not bootup, and it still gives the same grub errors as in the top post of this thread.

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#17 2020-09-08 13:09:54

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

Ok, screw it! I’m going to repartition the drive and start over.

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#18 2020-09-08 13:53:57

ratcheer
Member
Registered: 2011-10-09
Posts: 912

Re: [Solved] Another user lost in UEFI configuration

I apologize to everyone. Repartitioning the drive cleared all the old mess, and a completely fresh installation works, perfectly.

The reason I did it the way I did at first was because the Installation Guide basically says, if you have an existing /boot partition, keep it. In my case, it caused all these failures.

Many thanks to @schard, @v1del, and @scimmia

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