Arch Linux

kaisa

Member

Registered: 2023-05-11

Posts: 24

[SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

Hi everyone, thanks in advance for helping a noob.

I just did a vanilla arch install and as the title suggests, after rebooting, I now go straight to BIOS screen. Im unable to try and boot from a usb now (or anything at all), as every time I try and restart my computer, doesn't matter what function keys I press, it proceeds straight to the BIOS settings.

I followed the wiki and referenced this video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68z11VAYMS8]

I think I know where I went wrong. When mounting my boot partition, I ran:

mount --mkdir /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot 

And then in one of the last steps, when trying to run

grub-install /dev/nvme0n1p1

I get an error message:

grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory

Now the video I referenced explicitly made the /mnt/boot/efi directory and then mounted there. Instead I just ran the command in the wiki.

When I received that error, I panicked and shut down my system like an idiot hoping I could restart the process. (ik im so dumb for this)

Now I imagine grub doesnt know what to do.

As a result, I am so scared I bricked my system.

Im not sure if it's relevant, I just purchased this laptop yesterday:
MSI Stealth 16 Studio 16"
i9-13900H
RTX4060

Any assistance would be sooo appreciated!

Edit: this is UEFI
Edit2: Secure Boot is disabled

Last edited by kaisa (2024-01-23 21:05:29)

d.ALT

Member

Registered: 2019-05-10

Posts: 959

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

As a result, I am so scared I bricked my system.

From ArchLinux Live post here:

# efibootmgr -uv

Also, please share here a photo of BOOT SETTINGS (or whichever its called) within the UEFI's Firmware SetUp Menu.

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,232

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

That GRUB install command is incomplete and incorrect on an UEFI system. Use https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#UEFI_systems

Nothing about this should prevent you from booting the live disk again. It's absolutely normal that it won't boot your system since you didn't actually install your bootloader.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,642

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

A few things. 

Technically, although often mangled due to old habits refusing to die, your system is either BIOS or uEFI.  Some modern uEFI systems can emulate the ancient BIOS system for backwards compatibility.  BIOS systems cannot deal with uEFI.

Do you have a uEFI system? Did you boot the Arch Linux system in legacy BIOS mode?  I ask because

grub-install: error: cannot find EFI directory

Boot to the install media and verify that you are in EFI mode.  The output of efivar -l should not be empty.

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Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

^ The error message would be different if evifarfs wasn't mounted.

I think V1del is right — the posted grub-install command would only work if the ESP was mounted under /boot/efi/. The block device at the end would be ignored though.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2024-01-23 17:59:39)

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

kaisa

Member

Registered: 2023-05-11

Posts: 24

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

Hi everyone, sorry for the delay. Thx so much for the guidance.

Below I've attached an image of my bios

In addition, I wish I could boot my arch so I could try these commands. But I really have no clue how to do that now. I can't seem to boot anything other than the BIOS

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: The Wirral

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 9,003

Website

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

If you can get to the firmware ("BIOS") menus then the machine isn't bricked at all.

Do you have any other ISO images? It could be that the USB stick with the Arch ISO has just died.

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Jin, Jîyan, Azadî

kaisa

Member

Registered: 2023-05-11

Posts: 24

Re: [SOLVED] New Arch install booting straight to BIOS

If you can get to the firmware ("BIOS") menus then the machine isn't bricked at all.

Do you have any other ISO images? It could be that the USB stick with the Arch ISO has just died.

Thank you for that reassurance. I just got this laptop for school and I start classes in 2 days hence my desperation.

I will try that and report back with my results.

Could be relevant to my issue trying to boot from the usb again—when partioning the disks in 1.9 of install wiki. I actually partitioned the usb (sda right?), and then realized my error and then partitioned the actual nvme0n1 with a boot, swap, and root partitions.

EDIT: OMG that worked, and I can boot from the new usb now!!!! TYSM, going to proceed with the installation again!

EDIT2: Thank you everyone for the help. Got Arch installed with hyprland and nvidia no problem

Last edited by kaisa (2024-01-23 21:06:21)