[SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-15 14:43:58

I recently bought a HP T620 Plus thin client and wish to install Arch Linux on it. I followed the official installation guide, and here are the commands I used during installation:

timedatectl set-ntp true
parted /dev/sda
# mkpart fat32 2048s 256M
# mkpart f2fs 256M 200G
# set 1 esp on
mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sda1
mkfs.f2fs /dev/sda2
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir -p /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux-lts linux-firmware f2fs-tools nano dhcpcd grub efibootmgr amd-ucode
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
arch-chroot /mnt
ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Shanghai /etc/localtime
hwclock --systohc
# Enable en_US.UTF-8 and zh_CN.UTF-8 in /etc/locale.gen
locale-gen
echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
# Setup hostname
passwd
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
umount -R /mnt
reboot

The generating GRUB configuration command gives me a warning:

Warning: os-prober will not be executed to detect other bootable partitions.
Systems on them will not be added to the GRUB boot configuration.
Check GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER documentation entry.

I set GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER to false and it disappeared.

However, when I type reboot and select GRUB in the boot menu, it tells me that there is no bootable device. The screen gives me an error code "3F0" and says cannot find hard drive. Then I tried to install Ubuntu Server 20.04 LTS, and it went smoothly. I really wish to use Arch Linux on my device, so can someone help me locate the problem?

Last edited by Icarus_Radio (2021-09-18 16:30:15)

Slithery · 2021-09-15 14:49:08

Icarus_Radio wrote:

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

As the wiki states, you need to replace esp with the actual location, in your case /boot
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation_2

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-15 16:51:28

Slithery wrote:

Icarus_Radio wrote:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp --bootloader-id=GRUB
As the wiki states, you need to replace esp with the actual location, in your case /boot
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation_2

Oh, I did use /boot instead of esp, I just copy-paste from the wiki and forgot to change it. And I double-checked, the /boot directory is correctly populated.

Mr Victory · 2021-09-15 17:12:12

Could you try installing GRUB with the removable option?

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable

The warning of os-prober is not important if you are not planning to dual-boot.

Also, you initialised the disk with GPT, did you?

parted /dev/<disk> print

should show you
Partition Table: gpt

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-16 03:02:42

Mr Victory wrote:

Could you try installing GRUB with the removable option?
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable
The warning of os-prober is not important if you are not planning to dual-boot.
Also, you initialised the disk with GPT, did you?
parted /dev/<disk> print
should show you
Partition Table: gpt

Yes, it's GPT.

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-16 05:21:01

After some research on HP forums, somebody says it is about the secure boot. However, I checked the UEFI firmware menu, and the secure boot is turned off. So it has nothing to do with secure boot.
It still confuses me how Ubuntu manages to install. Is there a way to override the existing Ubuntu installation with Arch Linux?

Last edited by Icarus_Radio (2021-09-16 16:28:01)

Slithery · 2021-09-16 09:33:09

Make sure that the drive is set to AHCI mode in your firmware menu.

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-16 12:39:05

Slithery wrote:

Make sure that the drive is set to AHCI mode in your firmware menu.

It is AHCI mode, I have checked the UEFI firmware menu.

Mr Victory wrote:

Could you try installing GRUB with the removable option?
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --removable

I tried your suggestion, and I cannot find GRUB in UEFI boot entries.

Last edited by Icarus_Radio (2021-09-16 16:27:39)

Slithery · 2021-09-16 12:48:10

Icarus_Radio wrote:

It is AHCI mode, I have checked the BIOS.

Completely irrelevant but just a pet grrr of mine.
You don't have a BIOS firmware menu, you have a UEFI firmware menu.

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-16 16:27:23

Slithery wrote:

Icarus_Radio wrote:
It is AHCI mode, I have checked the BIOS.
Completely irrelevant but just a pet grrr of mine.
You don't have a BIOS firmware menu, you have a UEFI firmware menu.

Oh sure, I will correct them.

Mr Victory · 2021-09-16 16:58:26

Could you double-check that you have the file bootx64.efi under the path EFI/BOOT in the EFI system partition after running grub-install with --removable option? If you really have the file but you still cannot boot, then I am out of ideas. The fastest route to get Arch booting would be starting over and using legacy mode (MBR/BIOS) instead. Enable legacy mode on firmware menu if you decide to use legacy mode.

After some research on HP forums, somebody says it is about the secure boot.

The error appears if the computer finds nothing to boot. I also own an HP and use legacy mode to boot, if I disable legacy mode I recieve same error because there is no EFI system partition or EFI file to boot from on my HDD.

Last edited by Mr Victory (2021-09-16 16:59:28)

Icarus_Radio · 2021-09-18 16:29:55

Mr Victory wrote:

Could you double-check that you have the file bootx64.efi under the path EFI/BOOT in the EFI system partition after running grub-install with --removable option? If you really have the file but you still cannot boot, then I am out of ideas. The fastest route to get Arch booting would be starting over and using legacy mode (MBR/BIOS) instead. Enable legacy mode on firmware menu if you decide to use legacy mode.
After some research on HP forums, somebody says it is about the secure boot.
The error appears if the computer finds nothing to boot. I also own an HP and use legacy mode to boot, if I disable legacy mode I recieve same error because there is no EFI system partition or EFI file to boot from on my HDD.

So I nuked everything on my drive and followed the installation process again with a few modifications:

Change esp to /boot/efi (I saw Ubuntu did this, so I think it might be a good idea to follow).
Add the --removable option.

After reboot, it works. Now I am able to boot into Arch Linux. However, there is an error message:

[FAILED] Failed to start Remount Boot and Kernel File Systems.

I will try to figure out what this means. Anyways, thanks Mr Victory and Slithery for your help.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-09-15 14:43:58

[SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#2 2021-09-15 14:49:08

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#3 2021-09-15 16:51:28

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#4 2021-09-15 17:12:12

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#5 2021-09-16 03:02:42

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#6 2021-09-16 05:21:01

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#7 2021-09-16 09:33:09

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#8 2021-09-16 12:39:05

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#9 2021-09-16 12:48:10

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#10 2021-09-16 16:27:23

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#11 2021-09-16 16:58:26

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

#12 2021-09-18 16:29:55

Re: [SOLVED] Fail to boot after installation on HP thin clients

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