Arch Linux

cmskipsey

Member

Registered: 2020-04-14

Posts: 14

Lenovo X270 not booting properly

I've installed Arch a number of times, so not sure what I'm missing here...

I have 2 partitions on the SSD
512M ef EFI
2xxGB 83 linux

I've run all the grub config stuff including:
mkinitcpio -P (no errors)
grub-mkconfig (no errors)
fstab (checked UUID's, they're fine)

/boot seems to have all the necessary things.

When I try to boot to the nvme0 it says 'Enter boot menu' which brings up the screen to select a boot device, nvme0 is the only option, hit enter and it comes right back to the same menu.  No error messages, nothing.

Secure boot and TPM 2.0 are disabled, along with anything else that looks like it might be trying to stop it form booting.

Any ideas?  I've done this with T470 and other Thinkpad but never had this issue...

cmskipsey

Member

Registered: 2020-04-14

Posts: 14

Re: Lenovo X270 not booting properly

efibootgmr

BootCurrent: 001C
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0019,001C,0000,0017,0018,001A,001B,001D
Boot0000  Windows Boot Manager
Boot0010  Setup
Boot0011  Boot Menu
Boot0012  Diagnostic Splash Screen
Boot0013  Lenovo Diagnostics
Boot0014  Startup Interrupt Menu
Boot0015  Rescue and Recovery
Boot0016  MEBx Hot Key
Boot0017  USB CD
Boot0018  USB FDD
Boot0019* NVMe0
Boot001A* ATA HDD1
Boot001B* ATA HDD0
Boot001C* USB HDD
Boot001D  PCI LAN
Boot001E* IDER BOOT CDROM
Boot001F* IDER BOOT Floppy
Boot0020* ATA HDD
Boot0021* ATAPI CD

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/nvme0n1: 238.47 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Disk model: SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-000L7              
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: 0xbc671917

Device         Boot   Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/nvme0n1p1 *       2048   1050623   1048576  512M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/nvme0n1p2      1050624 500118191 499067568  238G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sda: 28.64 GiB, 30752000000 bytes, 60062500 sectors
Disk model: Ultra USB 3.0   
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: 0xbff8ee56

Device     Boot   Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *         64 1531903 1531840  748M  0 Empty
/dev/sda2       1531904 1691647  159744   78M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)

lsblk

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0         7:0    0 669.2M  1 loop /run/archiso/airootfs
sda           8:0    1  28.6G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    1   748M  0 part /run/archiso/bootmnt
└─sda2        8:2    1    78M  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:0    0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   512M  0 part /mnt/boot
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0   238G  0 part /mnt

mkinitcpio -P

==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Starting build: 5.17.5-arch1-1
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [autodetect]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux.img
==> Image generation successful
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'fallback'
  -> -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -c /etc/mkinitcpio.conf -g /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img -S autodetect
==> Starting build: 5.17.5-arch1-1
  -> Running build hook: [base]
  -> Running build hook: [udev]
  -> Running build hook: [modconf]
  -> Running build hook: [block]
  -> Running build hook: [filesystems]
  -> Running build hook: [keyboard]
  -> Running build hook: [fsck]
==> Generating module dependencies
==> Creating zstd-compressed initcpio image: /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
==> Image generation successful

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,660

Re: Lenovo X270 not booting properly

Your partitioning type is wrong. You should use GPT for an EFI boot.  https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Partit … tion_Table https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GPT_fd … BR_and_GPT

Other than that your efibootmgr shows there are no NVRAM entries for GRUB, was efibootmgr installed before invoking and how did you invoke grub-install ? If GRUB doesn't appear there on it's own you might have to check your UEFI menu on whether there's an option to manually add new NVRAM boot entries, or try to populate the fallback path by running the appropriate grub-install command with the --removable option added.

But in any case you definitely should switch to GPT first.

cmskipsey

Member

Registered: 2020-04-14

Posts: 14

Re: Lenovo X270 not booting properly

Thanks for your response.  Though the Arch Wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_sy … oned_disks tells you to use "EFI System" as the partition type for the boot partition (which I've done on other systems).  Also, GRUB entry was never created on NVRAM entries...  In the end I solved it by installing

intel-ucode

which fixed the issue and can now boot. 

efibootmgr

shows that

NVMe0

as the current boot.

So even though I got it working, I'm still kinda curious on the following:
1. GRUB entry in NVRAM seems not needed here - why is that?  When/why is it needed?
2. What did intel-ucode actually do / change to make it boot?
3. Why didn't it throw an error when I invoked grub-install, grub-mkconfig or mkinitcpio?

Every time I install Arch Linux I learn something new, but its also a long time between new installs so I tend to forget some important steps!

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,660

Re: Lenovo X270 not booting properly

1. NVRAM entry is needed if you are doing a "proper" EFI install. In which case your EFI needs to have a reference as to where a EFI binary ($esp/EFI/GRUB/grubx64.efi in that case) is stored so it can boot that, you can technically avoid that by populating the fallback path which sounds like that's what you're booting now but that wouldn't be created normally.

2. intel-ucode  should not have had an effect at the stage where you were failing, as it sounds like you didn't even get to GRUB in the  first place. If that's indeed all you changed and you did actually get to GRUB before then it's likely that your generated grub.cfg did include that as a initrd to be loaded (... due to the live disk mount point?) and because it wasn't present then loading of the entire kernel image failed outright.

3. there are many ways to run grub-install, grub-mkconfig and mkinitcpio in ways that are totally valid towards the actual operation of the tool in question while being the (technically) wrong approach for what you are actually intending to do. Of the three mkinitcpio is the least relevant and least likely to fail for what it sounds like what your issue was, which leaves the other two, both of which we don't know the actual command you actually ran, nor the actual output (e.g. what's your actual /boot/grub/grub.cfg and which exact command line did you invoke for grub-install?)