Arch Linux

daerlnaxe

Member

Registered: 2023-08-01

Posts: 5

VMWARE v17 installation - "no compatible bootloader found"

Hi,

I begin with ArchLinux and installing the bootloader manually,

My purpose is to make a machine on a VM then place it on an usb key/ssd  like for BATOCERA with balena etcher. I don't know if the author uses a vm but i want to do the same thing at the end to have the possibility to place an usb key with a light os and additional things on any machine without modifying anything on the local hard drive of the machine. I tried to install for EFI.

My problem..
I don't know why but this week end everything worked except the part to move to the usb key... I tried to restart from the begining, futhermore i wrote notes during my installation for later... But this time i have this error
"no compatible bootloader found".

I don't understand why, neither how to find a solution.

Thx.

What i did  (i removed the most things possible to let only things about partitions and syslinux)

- gpart
__ o
__ n -> sda1 for boot (vfat, ef00, label: BOOT)
__ n -> sda2 for swap
__ n -> sda3 for os (ext4)

Mounted
sda1 -> /mnt/boot
sda3 -> /mnt

fstab generation

arch-chroot /mnt

mkdir -p /boot/EFI/syslinux
cp -r /usr/lib/syslinux/efi64/* /boot/EFI/syslinux

efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/sda --part 1 --loader /EFI/syslinux/syslinux.efi --label "Syslinux" --unicode

vim /boot/EFI/syslinux/syslinux.cfg

PROMPT 1
TIMEOUT 50
DEFAULT arch


LABEL arch
	LINUX ../../vmlinuz-linux
	APPEND root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX rw
	INITRD ../../initramfs-linux.img

LABEL archfallback
	LINUX ../../vmlinuz-linux
	APPEND root=UUID=XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX rw
	INITRD ../../initramfs-linux-fallback.img

with uuid from the fstab file.

Last edited by daerlnaxe (2023-08-02 18:03:59)

Torxed

Member

Registered: 2013-01-10

Posts: 203

Re: VMWARE v17 installation - "no compatible bootloader found"

Not sure this is an `archinstall` issue?

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 15,111

Re: VMWARE v17 installation - "no compatible bootloader found"

To verify if this is an installation done with archinstall, please post /var/log/archinstall/install.log  from the created instalaltion .

As for the bootloader issue : you have read https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Syslin … I_Syslinux ?

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2023-08-02 10:50:01)

---

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

daerlnaxe

Member

Registered: 2023-08-01

Posts: 5

Re: VMWARE v17 installation - "no compatible bootloader found"

Hi,

Thx for your answers.

I followed this tutorial: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Installation_guide

I was tired yesterday and i didn't notice the last "d" of "guided". I'm sorry

I read this topic , but i didn't understand everything, except there is a mention about problem with vmware i can't see the problem and why it worked this week end.

Too bad.

-----
I removed a lot of entries (perhaps by trying to resolve the problem i entered several times

 efibootmgr --create --disk /dev/<disque> --part <numéro de partition> --loader /EFI/syslinux/syslinux.efi --label "Syslinux" --unicode

To do it i used

uefibootmgr -B -b <entry>

There is something i have some problem to understand, if my syslinux is in the folder "/boot/EFI/syslinux" why this command finish by "/EFI/syslinux/syslinux.efi" ?

I don't have the same error, now i have "no media"
----
Edit 2

By trying to activate i saw the entry with /EFI/syslinux/.. was wrong "could not set active .... No Such File or directory"

I added a new entry with /boot/EFI... and activated it, i have no error this time when i activate

Reboot : syslinux ...  no media.

Last edited by daerlnaxe (2023-08-02 18:12:40)

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,648

Re: VMWARE v17 installation - "no compatible bootloader found"

Not a Guided Installer issue; moving to Newbie Corner.