Arch Linux

LloydLynx

Member

Registered: 2021-08-23

Posts: 6

BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

I'm doing a fresh Arch install on a new drive. I'm installing onto an Intel/BIOS system, with the partitioning sda1 as 1GB /boot, sda2 as 2GB swap, and the remaining space for sda3 as /, all on a DOS/MBR partition table.

I installed the "grub" package, then installed grub "grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda", then generated grub.cfg with "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg". All of that was done while chrooted into the newly installed system at the end of the arch wiki install guide.

These packages where installed at the pacstrap phase: "base linux linux-firmware networkmanager vim man-db man-pages texinfo"

I saw in a similar post that these might be useful
fstab: https://pastebin.com/w15dtDq7
grub.cfg: https://pastebin.com/w15dtDq7

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0    7:0    0 641.6M  1 loop /run/archiso/airootfs
sda      8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0     1G  0 part /mnt/boot
├─sda2   8:2    0     2G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda3   8:3    0 462.8G  0 part /mnt
sdb      8:16   1     0B  0 disk 
sdc      8:32   1     0B  0 disk 
sdd      8:48   1     0B  0 disk 
sde      8:64   1     0B  0 disk 
sdf      8:80   1  14.8G  0 disk /run/archiso/bootmnt
├─sdf1   8:81   1   711M  0 part 
└─sdf2   8:82   1    68M  0 part 
sdg      8:96   1  57.7G  0 disk 
└─sdg1   8:97   1  57.7G  0 part /usbstick
sr0     11:0    1     0B  0 rom  

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? I installed Arch successfully on this PC not terribly long ago and I think I'm running through the same process as before. I even tried the Arch install process from the begining a second time today and still got no bootable drive.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,255

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

On an MBR system you need to mark one of the primary partitions of the drive as bootable before most BIOS consider booting from it. e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fdisk# … n_bootable.

Last edited by V1del (2021-08-23 14:07:31)

LloydLynx

Member

Registered: 2021-08-23

Posts: 6

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

On an MBR system you need to mark one of the primary partitions of the drive as bootable before most BIOS consider booting from it. e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fdisk# … n_bootable.

I've marked sda1 (/boot) as bootable with fdisk and the BIOS still doesn't see any bootable devices.

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,255

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

Are you absolutely certain you are booting in BIOS mode? What model is this exactly? What's your output for

fdisk -l /dev/sda

?

LloydLynx

Member

Registered: 2021-08-23

Posts: 6

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

Are you absolutely certain you are booting in BIOS mode? What model is this exactly? What's your output for

fdisk -l /dev/sda

?

I am absolutely certain that it's set to BIOS mode. It's a Dell Optiplex 9020 MT, options in the BIOS are "UEFI" and "Legacy", I have "Legacy" selected.

Disk /dev/sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: Hitachi HTS54505
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xc9b08344

Device     Boot   Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *       2048   2099199   2097152     1G 83 Linux
/dev/sda2       2099200   6293503   4194304     2G 83 Linux
/dev/sda3       6293504 976773167 970479664 462.8G 83 Linux

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,318

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

Since that is a new drive, did you make sure it is included in the boot order in your bios menu?

Is there a reason you do not want to use efi boot?

Last edited by progandy (2021-08-23 16:47:06)

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LloydLynx

Member

Registered: 2021-08-23

Posts: 6

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

Since that is a new drive, did you make sure it is included in the boot order in your bios menu?

It is. I've been manually selecting it throughout this whole troubleshooting process just to make sure.

Is there a reason you do not want to use efi boot?

A few reasons:
*BIOS boot is brain dead simple to work with.
*The UEFI instructions on the Arch wiki look intimidating.
*It sometimes causes issues to switch between many UEFI operating systems on this PC, which I sometimes do because I like playing with different OSes. If I install an OS through UEFI, there's no guarantee that all the other OSes recorded in the boot menu will still boot.
*I've briefly looked up how UEFI boot works a few times and it's confusing, I'm not sure I understand it well enough to properly work with it.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,149

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

grub2 on MBR disks requires a gap between MBR and first partition to store its core image[1] .

Maybe that gap on your system is not big enough ?

[1] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#M … structions

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Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

tupadown228

Member

Registered: 2022-10-25

Posts: 45

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

So, did you solve your problem?

Last edited by tupadown228 (2023-02-10 20:12:26)

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: BIOS doesn't see drive as bootable

So, did you solve your problem?

The OP has not been back since September 2021, so at this point we are not likely to find out. If you have a similar problem, plezse start a new topic and refer back to this one if you think it still applies.

Closing.