Arch Linux

archabacus

Member

Registered: 2022-05-08

Posts: 4

Installing on USB drive

Hello,

I have problems installing Arch on a ssd in a USB enclosure.

I have followed  https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Instal … ble_medium without any errors. However, no boot option appears in the boot menu.

A standard, non-removable installation works fine on said USB enclosure: a 'grub' option is written in the boot menu and Arch boots fine, but when I disconnect/reconnect the drive the option disappears.

Any ideas, please?

Thank you!

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: Installing on USB drive

A lot of motherboards will remove the NVRAM entry if booted without the drive attached. You need to also install grub in the fallback location...
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#D … _boot_path

---

No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

archabacus

Member

Registered: 2022-05-08

Posts: 4

Re: Installing on USB drive

Thanks, I have tried that but the problem persists, I am afraid.

grub-install with --removable doesn't seem to be doing anything, at least from the output of efibootmgr.

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,729

Re: Installing on USB drive

Of course it doesn't do anything to the output of efibootmgr. That's the NVRAM entries, it has nothing to do with the default loader.

Tell your firmware to boot that drive, it should work.

archabacus

Member

Registered: 2022-05-08

Posts: 4

Re: Installing on USB drive

For whatever reasons, the external drive doesn't show up as a boot option when using --removable, unfortunately.

I have also followed https://mags.zone/arch-usb.html - only exception I used fdisk instead of sgdisk. Again, it's a no-go.

PS
Laptop is an MSI Modern 14 B11MOL.

Last edited by archabacus (2022-05-09 14:40:17)