[SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 10:23:46

Yep. The title says it all. I want to install Arch on one of my old x86_64 computers, but I can't properly write the disk image onto my USB stick. No matter what I use, it gets written in ISO 9660 format while I really need FAT32 because ISO 9660 medium is not recognized by UEFI of that computer.

Last edited by Seacat17 (2024-05-17 17:48:18)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2024-05-05 10:45:57

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855

EDIT: please describe what you actually see on the screen when booting the ISO. UEFI firmware should be able to handle ISO images.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2024-05-05 10:49:30)

mpan · 2024-05-05 10:53:34

In this message I assume that by “FAT32” you actually meant “MBR”.⁽¹⁾

What you describe is weird, because Arch ISO is hybrid: it is both MBR and ISO 9660. A correctly working BIOS/firmware should see it as yet another MBR to boot, completely ignoring the ISO 9660 part. And even my 15 year old motherboard has no issues.

How do you burn the image to your USB stick? Do you follow exactly the recommended way of burning ISO to USB? Please pay attention to what device is being used: you must write it to the entire device, not to a partition. Also don’t skip the first two tools mentioned (cat, cp).

Make sure Secure Boot is disable in your firmware while booting Arch ISO.

If that doesn’t help, you can create a bootable USB stick with multiple ISOs, except that you put only a single ISO on it. But that shouldn’t be needed.

____
⁽¹⁾ FAT32 is a file system and doesn’t participate in starting a bootloader, so without that correction/assumption the question wouldn’t make sense.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 11:44:00

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=57855
EDIT: please describe what you actually see on the screen when booting the ISO. UEFI firmware should be able to handle ISO images.

Can't give you the logs or picture but I can describe. I boot my machine up, reach the boot menu (Esc+F9) and then my USB stick is NOT there. If I will format it in FAT32 it will be there but it will not be bootable cuz there will be nothing on it. If it is ISO 9660 it is not recognized by ANY of my computers. It just doesn't show up in boot menu. I tried two different USB sticks and both produce the same result.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 11:46:41

mpan wrote:

In this message I assume that by “FAT32” you actually meant “MBR”.⁽¹⁾
What you describe is weird, because Arch ISO is hybrid: it is both MBR and ISO 9660. A correctly working BIOS/firmware should see it as yet another MBR to boot, completely ignoring the ISO 9660 part. And even my 15 year old motherboard has no issues.
How do you burn the image to your USB stick? Do you follow exactly the recommended way of burning ISO to USB? Please pay attention to what device is being used: you must write it to the entire device, not to a partition. Also don’t skip the first two tools mentioned (cat, cp).
Make sure Secure Boot is disable in your firmware while booting Arch ISO.
If that doesn’t help, you can create a bootable USB stick with multiple ISOs, except that you put only a single ISO on it. But that shouldn’t be needed.
____
⁽¹⁾ FAT32 is a file system and doesn’t participate in starting a bootloader, so without that correction/assumption the question wouldn’t make sense.

Yeah, I'm following those steps, and I tried cat method but it didn't work (bash: /dev/sdb: Permission denied, SU PRIVILEGES GRANTED) and then dd method and it did work but it gives me non-bootable USB stick. And yeah, I made sure that I'm writing it on the DEVICE, not on the PARTITION. The secure boot is long gone on that machine, it had Linux on it before, I just replaced the HDD and want to install something fresh and more flexible.

Last edited by Seacat17 (2024-05-05 11:47:32)

cryptearth · 2024-05-05 11:52:48

are we talking about UEFI or "classic bios" here? or a uefi in csm?
what usb-port do you plug your thumbdrive in to? if you use a usb3 port try a usb2 port instead - old hardware had issues with usb3 in the early days
how do you write the stick? simple "dd if=image of=/dev/(whatever)"?
you can also built a bootable fat32 legacy stick yourself: isolinux or grub
tldr: this smells like some issue when you write the image to the stick (hence you were asked to please post the complete console log of how you do that) - you could also try actual physical burning like with a cd-writer on a cd-r (if you have such)
also also: the old system is very likely able to PXE boot - set up a pxe-enabled dhcp server on your main rig and just have the old system PXE boot from it - this way you avoid the issue with writing a cd image to usb thumbdrive alltogether

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 12:13:48

cryptearth wrote:

are we talking about UEFI or "classic bios" here? or a uefi in csm?
what usb-port do you plug your thumbdrive in to? if you use a usb3 port try a usb2 port instead - old hardware had issues with usb3 in the early days
how do you write the stick? simple "dd if=image of=/dev/(whatever)"?
you can also built a bootable fat32 legacy stick yourself: isolinux or grub
tldr: this smells like some issue when you write the image to the stick (hence you were asked to please post the complete console log of how you do that) - you could also try actual physical burning like with a cd-writer on a cd-r (if you have such)
also also: the old system is very likely able to PXE boot - set up a pxe-enabled dhcp server on your main rig and just have the old system PXE boot from it - this way you avoid the issue with writing a cd image to usb thumbdrive alltogether

It's full-fledged UEFI.
It's USB2, I double-checked.
Yeah, simple "sudo dd bs=4M if=arch.iso of=/dev/sdb conv=fsync oflag=direct status=progress".
No, I don't have CD writer :'>
My only internet is crappy LTE so I don't think that trying PXE is a good idea.

Last edited by Seacat17 (2024-05-05 12:14:29)

seth · 2024-05-05 12:36:18

Did you ensure that the ISO and after the dd /dev/sdb have the correct checksum?
https://archlinux.org/download/

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 12:42:09

seth wrote:

Did you ensure that the ISO and after the dd /dev/sdb have the correct checksum?
https://archlinux.org/download/

Yes, I did...

mpan · 2024-05-05 13:24:02

Given my own mobo acts weird with booting USB sticks, check if the stick is not listed as a HDD in the boot devices menu. This is the case for me.

Seacat17 wrote:

Yeah, I'm following those steps, and I tried cat method but it didn't work (bash: /dev/sdb: Permission denied, SU PRIVILEGES GRANTED)

These commands are to be executed from root. Arch Wiki uses # to indicate commands to be run with elevated privileges.

Seacat17 wrote:

and then dd method and it did work but it gives me non-bootable USB stick.

Where is the result of trying cp? Something went wrong? If yes, what? Also please note: I had a reason to explicitly ask for cat and cp — it’s avoiding the use of dd.

Seacat17 wrote:

seth wrote:
Did you ensure that the ISO and after the dd (emphasis from mpan) /dev/sdb have the correct checksum?
https://archlinux.org/download/
Yes, I did...

How did you check it after writing the image?

nl6720 · 2024-05-05 14:04:31

Unless a previous ISO worked while the new one doesn't, there's probably nothing we can do.

If you only need to UEFI boot, then follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_fl … #UEFI_only. That method is as simple as it gets.

Last edited by nl6720 (2024-05-05 14:04:42)

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 14:21:18

mpan wrote:

These commands are to be executed from root. Arch Wiki uses # to indicate commands to be run with elevated privileges.

I DID run it with SUDO.

seth · 2024-05-05 14:24:03

"sudo cat foo > bar" escalates the wrong privileges - cat doesn't need to run as root, but the ">" does.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 14:38:53

Did the "cat" method with SU instead of SUDO. It managed to write stuff onto the USB stick but my PC still doesn't see it when plugged in.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 14:40:09

nl6720 wrote:

Unless a previous ISO worked while the new one doesn't, there's probably nothing we can do.
If you only need to UEFI boot, then follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_fl … #UEFI_only. That method is as simple as it gets.

Will try this one now.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 15:00:41

nl6720 wrote:

Unless a previous ISO worked while the new one doesn't, there's probably nothing we can do.
If you only need to UEFI boot, then follow https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_fl … #UEFI_only. That method is as simple as it gets.

Did this one.

"The selected boot device failed."

I repeat, this is UEFI, not BIOS. And it's NOT in Legacy mode. And I tried 2 different USB sticks. It seems like my PC is not able to create a bootable media...

nl6720 · 2024-05-05 15:10:37

What motherboard is this? It looks like it has quirky firmware.

A few things to try:
1) Try using the MBR partition type ID "ef" instead of "0c".
2) Try FAT16 instead of FAT32.
3) Try partitioning with GPT and using the proper EFI system partition type.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-05 15:17:52

nl6720 wrote:

What motherboard is this? It looks like it has quirky firmware.
A few things to try:
1) Try using the MBR partition type ID "ef" instead of "0c".
2) Try FAT16 instead of FAT32.
3) Try partitioning with GPT and using the proper EFI system partition type.

HP15 laptop. It had Ubuntu on it before it's HDD decided that it doesn't want to serve me anymore.
1. How do I do that?
2. Will try;
3. How?

nl6720 · 2024-05-05 15:51:11

Seacat17 wrote:

1. How do I do that?

Use fdisk's option t. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/fdisk# … ition_type for instructions.

Seacat17 wrote:

3. How?

Using fdisk or gdisk. Pick your poison! Create a new partition table on the drive using option g in fdisk or option o in gdisk then create a single partition and set its type by following https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_sy … oned_disks.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-15 16:13:01

Okay, I tried LITERALLY EVERYTHING that you guys recommended but I still can't get it to run.

My problem is this: after I flash my USB stick with any tool or method, it uses ISO 9660 filesystem that DOES NOT SHOW UP IN BOOT MENU both on my old and new computers.

If I try to manually format it with this method: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/USB_fl … #UEFI_only
I get a USB stick that DOES SHOW UP IN BOOT MENU but DOES NOT BOOT and gives me the next error: "The selected boot device failed."

This is UEFI system with legacy mode DISABLED.

I don't know what to do at this point. I'm burning out already. I want to install Arch on this cursed thing but I just can't create a flash drive that will be bootable.

nl6720 · 2024-05-15 17:36:57

All I could find online about a "The selected boot device failed" error are suggestions to enable the legacy mode. Have you tried that?

Seacat17 · 2024-05-15 18:42:56

nl6720 wrote:

All I could find online about a "The selected boot device failed" error are suggestions to enable the legacy mode. Have you tried that?

The thing is that I don't need it to run in BIOS mode when it's capable of UEFI. And something tells me that it won't help anyways, because none of my computers can boot into this goddamn system.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-15 18:48:01

I tried to manually boot from the EFI file and nothing works. Both BOOTIA32.EFI and BOOTx64.EFI give me the same error.

"The selected boot device failed"

seth · 2024-05-15 19:14:07

The thing is that I don't need it to run in BIOS mode when it's capable of UEFI.

Is an assertion that currently doesn't match the facts, does it?
Especially since the UEFI-only system explicitly doesn't work?

something tells me that it won't help anyways

Is a blind assumption that would be very easy to verify, isn't?
It would just conflict with the above assertion.

1. Try to boot the system in legacy mode to get some actually hard data on the relevance of that condition.
2. try to boot some other iso, eg. https://grml.org/ (uses syslinux) in UEFI mode.

Seacat17 · 2024-05-16 20:17:09

seth wrote:

2. try to boot some other iso, eg. https://grml.org/ (uses syslinux) in UEFI mode.

Where can I send some pictures of this thingy working 100% fine with Wi-Fi working out-of-the-box? I downloaded gmrl64-small and I didn't enable Legacy support so I guess it's running in UEFI mode. I managed to do apt update and install Neofetch just to see that it's working just fine.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-05-05 10:23:46

[SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#2 2024-05-05 10:45:57

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#3 2024-05-05 10:53:34

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#4 2024-05-05 11:44:00

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#5 2024-05-05 11:46:41

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#6 2024-05-05 11:52:48

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#7 2024-05-05 12:13:48

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#8 2024-05-05 12:36:18

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#9 2024-05-05 12:42:09

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#10 2024-05-05 13:24:02

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#11 2024-05-05 14:04:31

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#12 2024-05-05 14:21:18

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#13 2024-05-05 14:24:03

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#14 2024-05-05 14:38:53

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#15 2024-05-05 14:40:09

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#16 2024-05-05 15:00:41

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#17 2024-05-05 15:10:37

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#18 2024-05-05 15:17:52

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#19 2024-05-05 15:51:11

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#20 2024-05-15 16:13:01

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#21 2024-05-15 17:36:57

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#22 2024-05-15 18:42:56

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#23 2024-05-15 18:48:01

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#24 2024-05-15 19:14:07

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

#25 2024-05-16 20:17:09

Re: [SOLVED, USE OLDER ISO]Arch ISO is not bootable after flashing

Board footer