System fails to boot after installation

steelwing · 2023-11-24 04:19:09

I followed the installation guide and chose GRUB as my bootloader. Now the system fails to boot. The following is what I did:

pacman -Sy grub efibootmgr
grub-install --efi-directory=/boot --boot-directory=/boot/EFI --target=x86_64-efi
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/EFI/GRUB/grub.cfg

Then I exited the arch-chroot and rebooted. It then tells me no operating system is found. Any ideas? I did this following the instructions (as best I could understand them) in the GRUB wiki article.
edit: the system is definitely UEFI and the disk was partitioned as GPT.

Last edited by steelwing (2023-11-24 04:20:23)

Scimmia · 2023-11-24 04:23:44

"--efi-directory=/boot --boot-directory=/boot/EFI"

this makes no sense at all. check on those options

steelwing · 2023-11-24 09:06:43

As I said, I followed the installation guide and the GRUB wiki article. When I first had the problem, I looked at the forum and found this post. The solution at the end suggests the options as I gave them.
I think I have a solution. when I originally partitioned this disk, I hadn't realized it was a gpt disk and I partitioned it with cfdisk, when I should have used cgdisk. The partition table is probably boogered at this point, so I'm going back to the beginning and repartitioning properly. I've seen elsewhere that gdisk can be used to change a disk from gpt to mbr and vice-versa, is that so?

V1del · 2023-11-24 09:14:25

cfdisk supports GPT as well and it's trivial to check what you ended up picking with e.g. fdisk -l, as for the question on whether you can convert: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GPT_fd … BR_and_GPT

That said from your OP your GRUB invocation is definitely "incorrect" (you can technically make it work but there are a bunch of unnecessary hoops and pitfalls by setting it up that way, and not mentioned as such in the wiki you claim to have read: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation ) . You should not set the boot-directory flag (it will be /boot by default, which is what you generally want, especially if you have the ESP on a distinct path like /boot/efi) and you'd generate your config into /boot/grub/grub.cfg

steelwing · 2023-11-24 09:33:52

V1del wrote:

cfdisk supports GPT as well and it's trivial to check what you ended up picking with e.g. fdisk -l, as for the question on whether you can convert: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GPT_fd … BR_and_GPT
That said from your OP your GRUB invocation is definitely "incorrect" (you can technically make it work but there are a bunch of unnecessary hoops and pitfalls by setting it up that way, and not mentioned as such in the wiki you claim to have read: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation ) . You should not set the boot-directory flag (it will be /boot by default, which is what you generally want, especially if you have the ESP on a distinct path like /boot/efi) and you'd generate your config into /boot/grub/grub.cfg

I thought that on EFI systems, the grub.cfg went in /boot/EFI/<something>.

steelwing · 2023-11-24 10:12:19

Update: I redid the partitions using cgdisk after using gdisk to verify the gpt partition table. I then followed the installation guide to its end as I've done before. Last step before exiting the chroot I did the following:

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

All this is exactly as the grub wiki article and this post from the forum suggest. It should work, but I still get told upon a reboot:

Error 1962: No operating system could be found. Press any key to retry boot sequence

What did I do wrong??

steelwing · 2023-11-24 11:00:52

At this point I'm willing to try anything, so I tried switching to Legacy mode in BIOS. My installation media won't even boot there, it keeps complaining isolinux.bin is missing or corrupt. I've booted this media a dozen times before for Arch installs, it's never failed like this.
I guess try UEFI mode with MBR partitioning?

V1del · 2023-11-24 12:10:34

What's your mainboard? Can you post the output of

efibootmgr -uv

? If this is MSI, or some weird other pseudo UEFI system, try running the grub-install command with the --removable argument, so

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

that should populate a fallback path that anything claiming to support UEFI must be able to boot.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_o … n_services

Last edited by V1del (2023-11-24 12:11:32)

Wild Penguin · 2023-11-24 12:10:49

It would be useful at this point to post here:

your partition layout (output of some partition utility listing, for example the one you used, and lsblk and blkid commands)
output of efibootmgr -command
Generally, when you post commands you've used, also post their output. This is more often than not more important the actual commands. I.e. copy+paste your grub-install with the output here

Generally, you can not "just follow the wiki". You need to understand it, and often adapt it to your use case. There is no "one size fits all" installation guide for Arch.

EDIT: it is certainly possible it's a sloppily made UEFI BIOS. For the record, I have a recent MSI motherboard and UEFI works correctly without any hickups (I've created and deleted multiple testing out different ways on booting), however it may have a bug creating an UEFI entry when there is no fallback installed (it just doesn't). In that case, what V1del suggested should work around the UEFI bug, after which entries might work correctly (assuming your BIOS is like mine ; MSI Tomahawk B550 here).

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2023-11-24 12:15:38)

steelwing · 2023-11-24 23:47:13

This evening, I did everything I could to replicate the installation process (specifically the partition layout) I used on a machine where I know that layout works. /dev/sda is a SATA SDD that I used for /home, /dev/sdb is a SSD that is supposed to have the OS and the boot stuff, as well as a swap partition.
efibootmgr:

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002,0009,0001,0006,0007,0008,000A,0003
Boot0000* saraGRUB	HD(2,GPT,cde7c215-3a20-104c-9f50-d21411191fd1,0x96800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\saraGRUB\grubx64.efi)
Boot0001* PLDS DVD-RW DH16ACSH	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0002* GRUB	HD(1,GPT,5b38caf1-86b3-4aae-a5a0-b9914f3b2683,0x800,0x96000)/File(\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi)
Boot0003* IBA GE Slot 00C8 v1372	BBS(Network,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0006* SPCC Solid State Disk	BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0007* TOSHIBA DT01ACA100	BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0008* PNY USB 2.0 FD 8.02	BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO
Boot0009* UEFI: Seagate Backup+ BL 0409	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1a,0x0)/USB(1,0)/USB(5,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x3372b9d9,0x800,0x1db000)/HD(1,MBR,0xa6db746a,0x18d000,0x7800)AMBO
Boot000A* Seagate Backup+ BL 0409	BBS(HD,,0x0)AMBO

/etc/fstab:

# cat /etc/fstab
# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sdb4
UUID=f02dd5c6-287b-4329-8cab-f05e5a50b93c	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 1

# /dev/sdb1
UUID=c8ff399b-30ca-404d-a2ea-58e11c70e2e5	/boot     	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

# /dev/sdb2
UUID=65F5-4CF5      	/efi      	vfat      	rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro	0 2

# /dev/sda1
UUID=14a9c912-304c-4be6-a56a-6931c3df80db	/home     	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

# /dev/sdb3
UUID=c25c5c84-3c77-420f-9a32-eb96ecad0eef	none      	swap      	defaults  	0 0

mount output:

# mount
/dev/sdb4 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime)
/dev/sdb1 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime)
/dev/sdb2 on /efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/sda1 on /home type ext4 (rw,relatime)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
sys on /sys type sysfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
efivarfs on /sys/firmware/efi/efivars type efivarfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime)
udev on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,nosuid,relatime,size=8124788k,nr_inodes=2031197,mode=755,inode64)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,gid=5,mode=620,ptmxmode=000)
shm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,inode64)
run on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755,inode64)
tmp on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,inode64)
run on /etc/resolv.conf type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,mode=755,inode64)

partition list:

# gdisk -l /dev/sdb
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.9.1

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sdb: 500118192 sectors, 238.5 GiB
Model: SPCC Solid State
Sector size (logical/physical): 512/512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): 2606E8CE-F5A9-492A-980E-4974FBEC6BE4
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 500118158
Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries
Total free space is 2669 sectors (1.3 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1            2048          616447   300.0 MiB   8300  
   2          616448         1665023   512.0 MiB   EF00  
   3         1665024        43608063   20.0 GiB    8200  
   4        43608064       500117503   217.7 GiB   8300

lsblk of the OS disk (/dev/sdb)

# lsblk /dev/sdb
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sdb      8:16   0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─sdb1   8:17   0   300M  0 part /boot
├─sdb2   8:18   0   512M  0 part /efi
├─sdb3   8:19   0    20G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sdb4   8:20   0 217.7G  0 part /

blkid (/dev/sdd is the USB hard drive I'm using as my install media for Arch, /dev/sdc is a separate flash drive that stays plugged into this machine constantly)

# blkid
/dev/sdd2: UUID="12FB-5053" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="3372b9d9-02"
/dev/sdd1: BLOCK_SIZE="2048" UUID="2023-04-01-06-07-22-00" LABEL="ARCH_202304" TYPE="iso9660" PTUUID="a6db746a" PTTYPE="dos" PARTUUID="3372b9d9-01"
/dev/sdb4: UUID="f02dd5c6-287b-4329-8cab-f05e5a50b93c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="7c113503-a5a0-6545-b1ed-1e29a00db112"
/dev/sdb2: UUID="65F5-4CF5" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="cde7c215-3a20-104c-9f50-d21411191fd1"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="c25c5c84-3c77-420f-9a32-eb96ecad0eef" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="a1d40795-de09-854c-9d30-8aee3c9e076c"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="c8ff399b-30ca-404d-a2ea-58e11c70e2e5" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="00a15bf9-5ffc-e24a-b7e0-020d15ab3535"
/dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE="1048576" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="SHADOW" UUID="6007-6CB5" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda1: UUID="14a9c912-304c-4be6-a56a-6931c3df80db" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="b213729c-01"

Does any of this give anyone any ideas?

Wild Penguin · 2023-11-25 00:25:27

Your EFI partittion seems to be in /dev/sdb1. So your --efi-directory -parameters should be --efi-directory=/efi.

You don't need to give --boot-directory, as grub should use /boot per default, but it needs to be in a FS grub can read (it should be able to read ext[234] just fine. But this will work only if the disk you have mounted right now to /boot will be present when grub loads (but the mount point can vary, or more correctly, grub only cares about it when installing and during updating grub installation).

I've also noticed you have many grub entries in UEFI NVRAM (listet by efibootmgr). Delete the extra ones unless you are using them on purpose. I also suggest using --bootloader-id=[somenicename] so you know what is the newest grub installation. It should make itself the default, but having a discernible name will save headache in case something changes the default later (*ahm* windows *ahm*).

Also, take your time to read especially https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_system_partition, the grub installation page from the wiki and the relevant parts in grub man page. From these it is clear that none of the commands you've tried previously could have worked.

I'm still curious what grub-install spits as output for you.

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2023-11-25 00:28:16)

steelwing · 2023-11-25 00:36:19

Wild Penguin wrote:

Your EFI partittion seems to be in /dev/sdb1. So your --efi-directory -parameters should be --efi-directory=/efi.
You don't need to give --boot-directory, as grub should use /boot per default, but it needs to be in a FS grub can read (it should be able to read ext[234] just fine. But this will work only if the disk you have mounted right now to /boot will be present when grub loads (but the mount point can vary, or more correctly, grub only cares about it when installing and during updating grub installation).

This last time I used:

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=saraGRUB

The result was "Installation successful. No errors reported."
/boot is /dev/sdb1 and /efi is /dev/sdb2. Both are mounted by fstab.

Wild Penguin wrote:

I've also noticed you have many grub entries in UEFI NVRAM (listet by efibootmgr). Delete the extra ones unless you are using them on purpose. I also suggest using --bootloader-id=[somenicename] so you know what is the newest grub installation. It should make itself the default, but having a discernible name will save headache in case something changes the default later (*ahm* windows *ahm*).

This used to be a Windows machine and I did delete the Windows entry. I just wasn't sure what others were safe to remove. If I can remove all of them except for the one that references this latest grub install, I'll gladly do that.

Wild Penguin wrote:

Also, take your time to read especially https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_system_partition, the grub installation page from the wiki and the relevant parts in grub man page. From these it is clear that none of the commands you've tried previously could have worked.
I'm still curious what grub-install spits as output for you.

It just tells me installation was completed successfully (see above). Every time I've run grub-install, it only ever tells me it completed successfully with no errors.

steelwing · 2023-11-25 01:07:27

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=saraGRUB
Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.

This is all I get in response to grub-install.

steelwing · 2023-11-25 15:23:17

V1del wrote:

What's your mainboard? Can you post the output of
efibootmgr -uv
? If this is MSI, or some weird other pseudo UEFI system, try running the grub-install command with the --removable argument, so
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB --removable
that should populate a fallback path that anything claiming to support UEFI must be able to boot.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/List_o … n_services

efibootmgr -uv:

BootCurrent: 0000
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,000A,0001,0006,0007,0008,000B,0009
Boot0000* saraGRUB	HD(2,GPT,cde7c215-3a20-104c-9f50-d21411191fd1,0x96800,0x100000)/File(\EFI\saraGRUB\grubx64.efi)
      dp: 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 00 68 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 15 c2 e7 cd 20 3a 4c 10 9f 50 d2 14 11 19 1f d1 02 02 / 04 04 38 00 5c 00 45 00 46 00 49 00 5c 00 73 00 61 00 72 00 61 00 47 00 52 00 55 00 42 00 5c 00 67 00 72 00 75 00 62 00 78 00 36 00 34 00 2e 00 65 00 66 00 69 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
Boot0001* PLDS DVD-RW DH16ACSH	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 03 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0006* SPCC Solid State Disk	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0007* PNY USB 2.0 FD 8.02	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0008* TOSHIBA DT01ACA100	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0009* IBA GE Slot 00C8 v1372	BBS(Network,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 06 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot000A* UEFI: Seagate Backup+ BL 0409	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1a,0x0)/USB(1,0)/USB(5,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x3372b9d9,0x800,0x1db000)/HD(1,MBR,0xa6db746a,0x18d000,0x7800)䵁佂
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 1a / 03 05 06 00 01 00 / 03 05 06 00 05 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 b0 1d 00 00 00 00 00 d9 b9 72 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 d0 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 6a 74 db a6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot000B* Seagate Backup+ BL 0409	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f

lshw -short:

H/W path        Device    Class          Description
====================================================
                          system         0606D32 (To be filled by O.E.M.)
/0                        bus            LENOVO
/0/0                      memory         64KiB BIOS
/0/4                      processor      Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-1607 0 @ 3.00GHz
/0/4/5                    memory         256KiB L1 cache
/0/4/6                    memory         1MiB L2 cache
/0/4/7                    memory         10MiB L3 cache
/0/16                     memory         16GiB System Memory
/0/16/0                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/1                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/2                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/3                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/4                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/5                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/6                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/16/7                   memory         2GiB DIMM DDR3 1066 MHz (0.9 ns)
/0/100                    bridge         Xeon E5/Core i7 DMI2
/0/100/1                  bridge         Xeon E5/Core i7 IIO PCI Express Root Port 1a
/0/100/1.1                bridge         Xeon E5/Core i7 IIO PCI Express Root Port 1b
/0/100/2                  bridge         Xeon E5/Core i7 IIO PCI Express Root Port 2a
/0/100/3                  bridge         Xeon E5/Core i7 IIO PCI Express Root Port 3a in PCI Express Mode
/0/100/3/0      /dev/fb0  display        GM206 [GeForce GTX 950]
/0/100/3/0.1    card1     multimedia     GM206 High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/3/0.1/0  input24   input          HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=3
/0/100/3/0.1/1  input25   input          HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=7
/0/100/3/0.1/2  input26   input          HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=8
/0/100/3/0.1/3  input27   input          HDA NVidia HDMI/DP,pcm=9
/0/100/5                  generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Address Map, VTd_Misc, System Management
/0/100/5.2                generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Control Status and Global Errors
/0/100/5.4                generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 I/O APIC
/0/100/11                 bridge         C600/X79 series chipset PCI Express Virtual Root Port
/0/100/11/0               storage        C602 chipset 4-Port SATA Storage Control Unit
/0/100/16                 communication  C600/X79 series chipset MEI Controller #1
/0/100/16.2               storage        C600/X79 series chipset IDE-r Controller
/0/100/16.3               communication  C600/X79 series chipset KT Controller
/0/100/19       eno1      network        82579LM Gigabit Network Connection (Lewisville)
/0/100/1a                 bus            C600/X79 series chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller #2
/0/100/1b       card0     multimedia     C600/X79 series chipset High Definition Audio Controller
/0/100/1b/0     input28   input          HDA Intel PCH Front Mic
/0/100/1b/1     input29   input          HDA Intel PCH Rear Mic
/0/100/1b/2     input30   input          HDA Intel PCH Line
/0/100/1b/3     input31   input          HDA Intel PCH Line Out
/0/100/1b/4     input32   input          HDA Intel PCH Front Headphone
/0/100/1c                 bridge         C600/X79 series chipset PCI Express Root Port 1
/0/100/1c.4               bridge         C600/X79 series chipset PCI Express Root Port 5
/0/100/1c.4/0             bus            uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller
/0/100/1d                 bus            C600/X79 series chipset USB2 Enhanced Host Controller #1
/0/100/1e                 bridge         82801 PCI Bridge
/0/100/1f                 bridge         C600/X79 series chipset LPC Controller
/0/100/1f/0               system         System Board
/0/100/1f/1               system         Motherboard registers
/0/100/1f/2               communication  16550A-compatible COM port
/0/100/1f/3               system         AT Real-Time Clock
/0/100/1f/4               system         Motherboard registers
/0/100/1f/5               system         PnP device PNP0c31
/0/100/1f/6               system         System Board
/0/100/1f/7               generic        PnP device INT3f0d
/0/100/1f.2               storage        C600/X79 series chipset 6-Port SATA AHCI Controller
/0/100/1f.3               bus            C600/X79 series chipset SMBus Host Controller
/0/100/1f.6               generic        C600/X79 series chipset Thermal Management Controller
/0/8                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QPI Link 0
/0/8.3                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QPI Link Reut 0
/0/8.4                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QPI Link Reut 0
/0/9                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QPI Link 1
/0/9.3                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QPI Link Reut 1
/0/9.4                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QPI Link Reut 1
/0/a                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Power Control Unit 0
/0/a.1                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Power Control Unit 1
/0/a.2                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Power Control Unit 2
/0/a.3                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Power Control Unit 3
/0/b                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Interrupt Control Registers
/0/b.3                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Semaphore and Scratchpad Configuration Registers
/0/c                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Unicast Register 0
/0/c.1                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Unicast Register 0
/0/c.6                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller System Address Decoder 0
/0/c.7                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 System Address Decoder
/0/d                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Unicast Register 0
/0/d.1                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Unicast Register 0
/0/d.6                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller System Address Decoder 1
/0/e                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Processor Home Agent
/0/e.1                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Processor Home Agent Performance Monitoring
/0/f                      generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Registers
/0/f.1                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller RAS Registers
/0/f.2                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder 0
/0/f.3                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder 1
/0/f.4                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder 2
/0/f.5                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder 3
/0/f.6                    generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Target Address Decoder 4
/0/10                     generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 0
/0/10.1                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 1
/0/10.2                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller ERROR Registers 0
/0/10.3                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller ERROR Registers 1
/0/10.4                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 2
/0/10.5                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller Channel 0-3 Thermal Control 3
/0/10.6                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller ERROR Registers 2
/0/10.7                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Integrated Memory Controller ERROR Registers 3
/0/11                     generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 DDRIO
/0/13                     generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 R2PCIe
/0/13.1                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Ring to PCI Express Performance Monitor
/0/13.4                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 QuickPath Interconnect Agent Ring Registers
/0/13.5                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Ring to QuickPath Interconnect Link 0 Performance Monitor
/0/13.6                   generic        Xeon E5/Core i7 Ring to QuickPath Interconnect Link 1 Performance Monitor
/1              scsi7     storage        
/2              scsi9     storage        
/3              card2     multimedia     U0x46d0x819
/4              input0    input          Power Button
/5              input1    input          Power Button
/6              input2    input          Logitech USB Receiver
/7              input21   input          Logitech Wireless Keyboard PID:4023
/8              input22   input          Logitech Wireless Mouse
/9              input23   input          PC Speaker
/a              input3    input          Logitech USB Receiver Mouse
/b              input33   input          UVC Camera (046d:0819)
/c              input4    input          Logitech USB Receiver Consumer Control
/d              input5    input          Logitech USB Receiver System Control

dmidecode -t baseboard:

# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes
Base Board Information
	Manufacturer: LENOVO
	Product Name: LENOVO
	Version: NONE
	Serial Number: NONE                
	Asset Tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
	Features:
		Board is a hosting board
		Board is replaceable
	Location In Chassis: To be filled by O.E.M.
	Chassis Handle: 0x0003
	Type: Motherboard
	Contained Object Handles: 0

Handle 0x0035, DMI type 41, 11 bytes
Onboard Device
	Reference Designation:  Onboard LAN
	Type: Ethernet
	Status: Enabled
	Type Instance: 1
	Bus Address: 0000:00:19.0

Handle 0x0046, DMI type 10, 6 bytes
On Board Device Information
	Type: Other
	Status: Disabled
	Description: IBM Embedded Security Hardware Type 3

dmidecode -t BIOS:

# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
	Vendor: LENOVO
	Version: A0KT45AUS
	Release Date: 02/01/2013
	Address: 0xF0000
	Runtime Size: 64 kB
	ROM Size: 8 MB
	Characteristics:
		PCI is supported
		BIOS is upgradeable
		BIOS shadowing is allowed
		Boot from CD is supported
		Selectable boot is supported
		BIOS ROM is socketed
		EDD is supported
		5.25"/1.2 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
		3.5"/720 kB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
		3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
		Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
		8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
		Serial services are supported (int 14h)
		Printer services are supported (int 17h)
		ACPI is supported
		USB legacy is supported
		BIOS boot specification is supported
		Targeted content distribution is supported
		UEFI is supported
	BIOS Revision: 0.45

Handle 0x0047, DMI type 13, 22 bytes
BIOS Language Information
	Language Description Format: Long
	Installable Languages: 1
		en|US|iso8859-1
	Currently Installed Language: en|US|iso8859-1

dmidecode -t system

# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x0001, DMI type 1, 27 bytes
System Information
	Manufacturer: LENOVO
	Product Name: 0606D32
	Version: ThinkStation S30
	Serial Number: MJ070TN
	UUID: 84d66d14-8898-e211-ae0d-402cf4e9d886
	Wake-up Type: Power Switch
	SKU Number: To be filled by O.E.M.
	Family: To be filled by O.E.M.

Handle 0x0015, DMI type 12, 5 bytes
System Configuration Options
	Option 1: scre++

Handle 0x002A, DMI type 32, 20 bytes
System Boot Information
	Status: No errors detected

Handle 0x003A, DMI type 15, 73 bytes
System Event Log
	Area Length: 8192 bytes
	Header Start Offset: 0x0000
	Header Length: 16 bytes
	Data Start Offset: 0x0010
	Access Method: Memory-mapped physical 32-bit address
	Access Address: 0xFFACB000
	Status: Valid, Not Full
	Change Token: 0x00000001
	Header Format: Type 1
	Supported Log Type Descriptors: 25
	Descriptor 1: Single-bit ECC memory error
	Data Format 1: None
	Descriptor 2: Multi-bit ECC memory error
	Data Format 2: None
	Descriptor 3: Parity memory error
	Data Format 3: None
	Descriptor 4: Bus timeout
	Data Format 4: None
	Descriptor 5: I/O channel block
	Data Format 5: None
	Descriptor 6: Software NMI
	Data Format 6: None
	Descriptor 7: POST memory resize
	Data Format 7: None
	Descriptor 8: POST error
	Data Format 8: POST results bitmap
	Descriptor 9: PCI parity error
	Data Format 9: None
	Descriptor 10: PCI system error
	Data Format 10: None
	Descriptor 11: CPU failure
	Data Format 11: None
	Descriptor 12: EISA failsafe timer timeout
	Data Format 12: None
	Descriptor 13: Correctable memory log disabled
	Data Format 13: None
	Descriptor 14: Logging disabled
	Data Format 14: None
	Descriptor 15: System limit exceeded
	Data Format 15: None
	Descriptor 16: Asynchronous hardware timer expired
	Data Format 16: None
	Descriptor 17: System configuration information
	Data Format 17: None
	Descriptor 18: Hard disk information
	Data Format 18: None
	Descriptor 19: System reconfigured
	Data Format 19: None
	Descriptor 20: Uncorrectable CPU-complex error
	Data Format 20: None
	Descriptor 21: Log area reset/cleared
	Data Format 21: None
	Descriptor 22: System boot
	Data Format 22: None
	Descriptor 23: End of log
	Data Format 23: None
	Descriptor 24: OEM-specific
	Data Format 24: OEM-specific
	Descriptor 25: OEM-specific
	Data Format 25: OEM-specific

In summary, I don't see anything specifically identifying the motherboard. I'm thinking of trying adding --removable to my grub-install command, after deleting the 0 boot entry previously created. At this point, I'll take anything that works.

steelwing · 2023-11-25 15:50:23

I tried running grub-install with --removable as V1del had suggested above. Is it normal for no entry to be added to EFI when you do that?

Scimmia · 2023-11-25 15:53:25

Yes, that's normal

steelwing · 2023-11-25 16:29:14

Scimmia wrote:

Yes, that's normal

Thanks. So I create my own then. Reading efibootmgr's man page, if my ESP is on /dev/sdb2, I use:

efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdb -p 2 -l \EFI\label\grub.efi -L label

where label is whatever I used as the bootloader-id parameter to grub-install. Does that look right?

Scimmia · 2023-11-25 16:32:09

No, you don't create your own. The point if using --removable is to install it to the default loader location so you can tell the firmware to just boot that drive.

steelwing · 2023-11-25 16:40:39

And that's supposed to just work. OK.
So now if I run efibootmgr -uv (having not created any other entries on my own), I get the following:

BootCurrent: 0007
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0007,000C,0008,0006,0009,000A,000D,000B
Boot0001* PLDS DVD-RW DH16ACSH	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 03 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0006* SPCC Solid State Disk	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0007* UEFI: Hard Drive 	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x11,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/EDD10(0x2a010480)/HD(2,GPT,cde7c215-3a20-104c-9f50-d21411191fd1,0x96800,0x100000)䵁佂
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 11 / 01 01 06 00 00 00 / 01 04 15 00 c5 fa 31 cf 4e c2 d2 11 85 f3 00 a0 c9 3e c9 3b 80 / 04 01 2a 00 02 00 00 00 00 68 09 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00 00 00 00 15 c2 e7 cd 20 3a 4c 10 9f 50 d2 14 11 19 1f d1 02 02 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0008* PLDS DVD-RW DH16ACSH	BBS(CDROM,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 03 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot0009* PNY USB 2.0 FD 8.02	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot000A* TOSHIBA DT01ACA100	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot000B* IBA GE Slot 00C8 v1372	BBS(Network,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 06 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot000C* UEFI: Seagate Backup+ BL 0409	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1a,0x0)/USB(1,0)/USB(5,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x3372b9d9,0x800,0x1db000)/HD(1,MBR,0xa6db746a,0x18d000,0x7800)䵁佂
      dp: 02 01 0c 00 d0 41 03 0a 00 00 00 00 / 01 01 06 00 00 1a / 03 05 06 00 01 00 / 03 05 06 00 05 00 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 b0 1d 00 00 00 00 00 d9 b9 72 33 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 04 01 2a 00 01 00 00 00 00 d0 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 78 00 00 00 00 00 00 6a 74 db a6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f
Boot000D* Seagate Backup+ BL 0409	BBS(HD,,0x0)䵁佂
      dp: 05 01 09 00 02 00 00 00 00 / 7f ff 04 00
    data: 41 4d 42 4f

7 appears to be the default loader thing. If I'm reading that right it is pointing to the right drive. So hopefully that works after another reboot.
Edit: Still the same 'Error 1962: No operating system found.' on reboot. And if I try to point the BIOS (using the boot menu) directly at the drive, that fails too.

Last edited by steelwing (2023-11-25 16:46:28)

paleRider · 2023-11-26 02:25:13

I recently struggled with Arch and a dual boot with Windows on a new tower computer. This is what worked for me in the end. I'm in UEFI mode (Secure boot disabled). Windows 11 and Linux are on separate drives, with each an EFI partition of their own.

The below steps were used after the install to fix Grub, once I booted on the Arch Linux live usb.

// Mount the Linux system / partition. Example :

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

// Install needed packages

pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools openssh os-prober mtools linux-headers

// change root

arch-chroot /mnt

// mount EFI partition. Try /efi rather than /boot/efi. Example:

mkdir /efi
mount /dev/sda1 /efi

// at that stage I deleted every previous traces of grub install attempts in /efi as well as /boot/efi, /boot/grub/efi etc. It was a mess. I looked for all *.efi files and deleted the corresponding folders. My BIOS was seeing several grubs.

// if you needed to add a Windows boot entry:
in /etc/default/grub, uncomment the following line: "GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false" and edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom file. Example:

menuentry 'Windows 11' {
    search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root XXXX-XXXX (here you need the UUID of your Windows EFI partition which blkid will give you. Read the UUID field, not PARTUUID)
    chainloader (${root})/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi
}

// install Grub and generate a config file

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

// exit the chroot and reboot:

exit
reboot

Last edited by paleRider (2023-11-26 02:33:44)

Arch Linux

#1 2023-11-24 04:19:09

System fails to boot after installation

#2 2023-11-24 04:23:44

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#3 2023-11-24 09:06:43

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#4 2023-11-24 09:14:25

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#5 2023-11-24 09:33:52

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#6 2023-11-24 10:12:19

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#7 2023-11-24 11:00:52

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#8 2023-11-24 12:10:34

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#9 2023-11-24 12:10:49

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#10 2023-11-24 23:47:13

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#11 2023-11-25 00:25:27

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#12 2023-11-25 00:36:19

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#13 2023-11-25 01:07:27

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#14 2023-11-25 15:23:17

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#15 2023-11-25 15:50:23

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#16 2023-11-25 15:53:25

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#17 2023-11-25 16:29:14

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#18 2023-11-25 16:32:09

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#19 2023-11-25 16:40:39

Re: System fails to boot after installation

#20 2023-11-26 02:25:13

Re: System fails to boot after installation

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