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#1 2022-09-19 01:49:14

SalmonSeasoning
Member
Registered: 2020-03-30
Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Arch won't boot

Hello all,

I'm having some difficulty installing Arch Linux on my hopefully soon-to-be triple-boot PC.

On /dev/nvme0n1 I have a Samsung 970 EVO Plus that's hosting Windows install.
On /dev/sdb I have a Sumsung 860 EVO which hosts my Linux Mint install and GRUB.
On /dev/sda is my current Arch installation on a SanDisk SSD.

It's already configured for dual-boot, so the BIOS loads /dev/sdb and GRUB will show the selection options for Windows or for Mint, correctly.

However, following the Wiki, I believe I installed Arch Linux correctly, but not the boot loader. I followed the directions of installing the "grub", "amd-ucode", and "efibootmgr" packages.

For reference, /dev/sda1 is the EFI System Partition, /dev/sda2 is the Linux Swap space, and /dev/sda3 is the root file system. I do not have a separate /home partition as I find no necessity in having it.

I mounted /dev/sda3 to /mnt and /dev/sda1 to /mnt/boot as per the instructions before chrooting into /mnt.

GRUB was installed with the command:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB

The configuration file was generated using:

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

It was updated on GRUB on /dev/sdb (Linux Mint) by running:

sudo update-grub

GRUB on /dev/sdb correctly finds Arch Linux on /dev/sda3, however, when loading it, I get a "device not found: <insert ID>" and "make sure you load the kernel first" error messages.

Running os-prober doesn't seem to return anything on /dev/sda, but does return Arch and Windows on /dev/sdb.

I haven't installed Xorg/Wayland or sound drivers yet. I pretty much kept it as close to the Wiki instructions as possible.

Any ideas?

Last edited by SalmonSeasoning (2022-09-21 03:01:35)

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#2 2022-09-19 03:56:32

jonno2002
Member
Registered: 2016-11-21
Posts: 684

Re: [SOLVED] Arch won't boot

you dont need to install grub at all since you already have it on the mint install, all you need to do is run grub-mkconfig on mint and it should pick up arch and add it to the list.

have a read here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Dual-booting
it says you CAN have grub config file for arch and use that but its not necessary

EDIT: its been a long time since i did a dual or tripple boot so i had a bit of a play around and i would say the best option is to install grub on arch via pacman and generate a config file (grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg), but DONT install an efi file (grub-install .....), then on mint make sure os-prober is installed and enabled (its disabled by default on arch, no idea about mint) and mount the arch partition to /mnt and run update-grub.
i found that if i didnt have the other OS mounted to /mnt that os-prober took ages to complete.

Last edited by jonno2002 (2022-09-19 04:38:29)

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#3 2022-09-19 05:23:46

SalmonSeasoning
Member
Registered: 2020-03-30
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Arch won't boot

Well, the problem with that I don't plan on keeping my Mint install forever.

I mean, Windows... that's a given. I like to play games every now and again, so I kinda need that.

But I only want to keep Mint as of now since it's been my daily driver for 2-3+ years now (so it has a lot of important data), and I've grown very fond of it, and it's 100% stable on my system through those years of configuring and maintaining it. (It even survived being moved to a new PC.)

But, I 100% plan on replacing it. Since I develop in my spare time, the older builds of all the software available is just a complete hindrance, and updating everything is a lot more hassle than its worth. In the meantime, however, I want to keep it available just in case I start experiencing issues with Arch like I've had 4 years ago before switching to Mint to begin with.

With this in mind, still recommend not installing GRUB and deal with it whenever I decide to fully shift away from Mint, or is there something I can do to back up my entire install and wipe it off the drive, and then just go from there?

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#4 2022-09-19 06:20:50

jonno2002
Member
Registered: 2016-11-21
Posts: 684

Re: [SOLVED] Arch won't boot

well it doesnt really matter which install you use as the default, heck you could have both installed and configured so you can boot the arch or mint EFI file (via bios selection) and have both grub menus list both arch and mint but thats kinda pointless so just pick one and use it. then if or when you decide to remove the mint installation you just remove the mint EFI file and folder from the EFI partition and install one for arch, easy as that.

as for backing up an install see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_backup

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#5 2022-09-20 05:07:45

SalmonSeasoning
Member
Registered: 2020-03-30
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Arch won't boot

jonno2002 wrote:

well it doesnt really matter which install you use as the default, heck you could have both installed and configured so you can boot the arch or mint EFI file (via bios selection) and have both grub menus list both arch and mint but thats kinda pointless so just pick one and use it. then if or when you decide to remove the mint installation you just remove the mint EFI file and folder from the EFI partition and install one for arch, easy as that.

as for backing up an install see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/System_backup

Went with your suggestion. Went through the Arch install while skipping the boot-loader step. Worked 100% fine. Now I have Wayland, NVIDIA, GNOME, and PipeWire set up. Sucked trying to get those to work together, but ultimately came together fine. The home directory situation was also kinda annoying and I finally touched the Sudoers file for the first time in 4 years.

Going to be an adventure getting the new developer environment set up.

Now I can finally comment "I use arch btw" again.

Thanks for your help! smile

- Ty

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#6 2022-09-21 02:30:56

cfr
Member
From: Cymru
Registered: 2011-11-27
Posts: 7,131

Re: [SOLVED] Arch won't boot

Please edit your original post to mark your issue as solved in the subject.


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