[SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

diniamo · 2023-02-06 20:48:03

I'm getting this error message, I've tried copying the i386-pc folder (from /usr/lib/grub) to the correct location (as that is what they said in every online post I found) in the live install, but I'm still getting the same error.

Last edited by diniamo (2023-02-10 12:15:09)

jonno2002 · 2023-02-06 23:47:21

when did this error start happening ? is this a new install thats failed or a working system thats somehow failed ?
if its a new install, tell us the exact commands you are using to install and any output thats given during the process.
if its a working system thats failed, what changed to make it fail, did you do an update ?

diniamo · 2023-02-07 17:51:11

It's a new install. Could you perhaps ask for anything more specific? I just tried the commands I found on the wiki (both the secure boot and non-secure boot versions)

Last edited by diniamo (2023-02-07 17:51:51)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-07 17:59:26

diniamo wrote:

It's a new install

So how did you install the bootloader during installation? Please provide the exact, full commands.

diniamo wrote:

I just tried the commands I found on the wiki (both the secure boot and non-secure boot versions)

Again, please provide the exact, full commands. Vague descriptions aren't good enough.

diniamo · 2023-02-07 19:05:07

As I said, with the basic commands found on the forums:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-07 19:20:30

That grub-install command won't work unless you're running it from a directory that contains an "esp" directory under which the EFI system partition is mounted, which seems unlikely. Read the wiki page again but more carefully this time — "esp" is a placeholder and should not be used literally.

diniamo · 2023-02-07 19:38:33

Oops, my bad on that one, I used /boot, just forgot to replace it there and that's where my EFI partition was mounted.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-07 19:43:51

The "i386-pc" in the error indicates that a non-UEFI version of GRUB is attempting to boot. Is UEFI mode enabled and non-UEFI (CSM or "Legacy") mode disabled in the firmware ("BIOS") options?

Are you sure the Arch ISO was booted in UEFI mode when you ran those commands? How did you check? Were there any error messages after running them?

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2023-02-07 19:44:17)

diniamo · 2023-02-08 16:22:31

I just disabled the "Launch CSM" option.

It probably wasn't then. I didn't. I doubt that.

Do I just try to reinstall Grub?

V1del · 2023-02-08 16:41:31

Technically yes, but if you never booted the GRUB you have installed with the correct commands for an UEFI system, it could also be a bug in your UEFI implementation and an easy thing to try is adding --removable to the GRUB install command to populate the fallback path. Which motherboard is this? Do you see an actual GRUB entry in

efibootmgr -uv

Last edited by V1del (2023-02-08 16:42:18)

diniamo · 2023-02-08 17:00:27

The motherboard is Asus Sabertooth 990FX R2.0

It doesn't seem to show a grub entry: https://0x0.st/oCRg.txt

V1del · 2023-02-08 17:08:08

Asus is normally good about this and I have no issues here, so installing GRUB with the correct UEFI invocation command should work. You didn't enable secureboot or so right? That board seems old, potentially bugged EFI in the first place. Try adding the --removable flag to the grub-install so it should be booting the fallback location.

Last edited by V1del (2023-02-08 17:11:01)

diniamo · 2023-02-08 17:11:33

I reinstalled with CSM enabled, and now it shows in efibootmgr -uv. Still can't boot though, even with --removable added. I do have secure boot enabled, there is no option to disable it though; I'm pretty sure the arch setup works because ventoy disables it for me.

V1del · 2023-02-08 17:16:49

If secureboot is enabled then this isn't surprising. There must be an option to disable it, or you'd have to jump through some hoops to sign the bootloader[1]. Settings like these are often hidden behind enabling a password for EFI access.

Ventoy is likely signed with an MS key.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#S … ot_support

diniamo · 2023-02-08 17:20:11

Managed to disable it, I had to set the os type to windows and only then could I go into key management and delete my keys.

Still can't boot though.

V1del · 2023-02-08 17:28:36

What does that mean? With secureboot disabled and rerunning the grub-install command (without --removable) do you now see an entry in efibootmgr? If you do not see an entry and you did run with --removable what you should now be able to boot is the "Hard Disk" option. Do you still get the same message as in the OP?¨

Is your drive partition table MBR instead of GPT like it should be for UEFI? Do you even want to boot UEFI?

fdisk -l
#From an arch-chroot
file /boot/GRUB/GRUBx64.EFI /boot/EFI/BOOTx64.EFI

diniamo · 2023-02-08 17:34:33

Is your drive partition table MBR instead of GPT like it should be for UEFI?

I think it's dos?: https://0x0.st/oC7K.txt

Do you even want to boot UEFI?

I'm not sure, but I think so?

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-02-08 18:45:46

Yes, the disk has an MS-DOS ("MBR" type) partition table. Booting in UEFI mode from an MS-DOS partition table is part of the official UEFI specification but many firmware implementations simply will not allow it.

I would recommend wiping the disk from the Arch live ISO with this command:

# sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sda

Then create a new GUID partition table with gdisk, install Arch and use the UEFI grub-install command. Check to see if your motherboard "remembers" the new GRUB boot entry and if it doesn't run the grub-install command again with the --removable option.

As you're using GRUB you should probably mount the EFI system partition under /efi/ or /boot/efi/ and keep /boot/ on the root (/) partition. Having /boot/ on a FAT filesystem is sub-optimal and not needed for GRUB.

If you're still having problems be sure to post each and every command you have used in full. It is very difficult to help you otherwise.

diniamo · 2023-02-10 10:15:41

Commands until now:

# sgdisk --zap-all /dev/sda
# gdisk /dev/sda
> o
> ... (create partitions)
# lsblk

lsblk: http://0x0.st/HrHm.txt

Where should I mount my efi partition again? In the installion guide it suggests /mnt/boot

Last edited by diniamo (2023-02-10 10:19:45)

V1del · 2023-02-10 10:37:18

Mostly up to preference. I don't trust FAT filesystems to properly carry my kernel packages so I pick /efi and install just GRUB there. /boot would then still be part of your root partition and kernels will land there and GRUB can read linux filesystems and find the kernel. But there's nothing that would inherently hinder you from mounting it to /boot and using that, you just need to be aware of what you decided on as that will define where kernel images land and where GRUB looks up it's configs.

diniamo · 2023-02-10 10:46:21

I still don't understand the difference, even if I pick /efi, it'll still be a fat32 system and a part of root.

V1del · 2023-02-10 11:57:50

Every partition is "part of root" when it's mounted. But a mount point writes data to a different part of the disk/partition/filesystem (think drive letters on Windows, but instead of having one specific drive letter you are freely able to define the place the drive should show up under). If you unmount a partition the directory /efi will still be there, but unless you mount the partition the directory will be empty. This is mounting 101: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/File_s … ile_system

If you opt for a different path than /boot it will only contain the files put there by the grub-install command. The kernels and kernel images land on /boot by default. If you mount the ESP to /boot then the kernel images will land there, if you don't then they don't.

diniamo · 2023-02-10 12:07:56

Okay, I see. I went with mounting the efi partition to /boot/efi. Where do I generate the grub config file?

V1del · 2023-02-10 12:09:46

to /boot/grub/grub.cfg like usual

diniamo · 2023-02-10 12:14:24

Wooooo, I'm in Arch. Thanks a lot.

Last edited by diniamo (2023-02-10 12:21:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2023-02-06 20:48:03

[SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#2 2023-02-06 23:47:21

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#3 2023-02-07 17:51:11

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#4 2023-02-07 17:59:26

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#5 2023-02-07 19:05:07

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#6 2023-02-07 19:20:30

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#7 2023-02-07 19:38:33

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#8 2023-02-07 19:43:51

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#9 2023-02-08 16:22:31

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#10 2023-02-08 16:41:31

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#11 2023-02-08 17:00:27

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#12 2023-02-08 17:08:08

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#13 2023-02-08 17:11:33

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#14 2023-02-08 17:16:49

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#15 2023-02-08 17:20:11

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#16 2023-02-08 17:28:36

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#17 2023-02-08 17:34:33

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#18 2023-02-08 18:45:46

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#19 2023-02-10 10:15:41

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#20 2023-02-10 10:37:18

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#21 2023-02-10 10:46:21

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#22 2023-02-10 11:57:50

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#23 2023-02-10 12:07:56

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#24 2023-02-10 12:09:46

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

#25 2023-02-10 12:14:24

Re: [SOLVED] Grub error: file '/boot/grub/i386-pc/normal.mod' not found

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