Arch Linux

bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

New installation freezes before grub menu.

I have installed arch numerous times same way never had any issues.

This time when I turn my notebook on it freezes with a dash on top left corner.
I can enter BIOS and already tried resetting it and every possibility about secure boot and legacy suport combined. I can also see grub in the bios boot options and also "boot from efi" option, with which I can search and select grubx64.efi directly but same thing happens. It freezes with a dash in the top left corner. Also tried reinstalling grub, and using the --removable option when doing grub-install.

I have no clue where to start looking for errors, thanks for any help.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Can you boot the multi-user.target (2nd link below) in doubt along the "nomodeset" https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_parameters ?

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Just tried multi-user.target with nomodeset. Same thing. It freezes with a dash.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

This time when I turn my notebook on it freezes with a dash on top left corner.

Just to be clear, you are still reaching grub, though?

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

I see grub entry in bios boot menu options. Thats all.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Ok, so the problem is actually your grub installtion, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Installation
How exactly did you go about that? Did you follow some youtube tutorial here?

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

No, just the instalation guide. As I have done multiple times in the past.

bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

# grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
And
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

How exactly did you go about that?

Did you disable secure boot first (assuming you don't care) and then 'grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=esp --bootloader-id=GRUB'
Were all partitions properly mounted into place?

[Edit: Your ESP is mounted into /boot ? Is it sufficiently sized to hold all boot data?]

You're currently chrooting into the system?

pacman -Qkk grub

and try to re-install that, then run grub-install again?

Last edited by seth (2025-10-11 14:48:45)

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Properly mounted: yes
Chrooted: yes
Suficiently sized: 1Gb enough?

Pacman -Qkk grub with 3 mismatchs
Modification time
Size
Sha256

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

with 3 mismatchs

You mean

backup file: grub: /etc/default/grub (Modification time mismatch)
backup file: grub: /etc/default/grub (Size mismatch)
backup file: grub: /etc/default/grub (SHA256 checksum mismatch)

that's normal, but you should not have 3 altered files there.
1GB ESP shall suffice - the most likely scenario is around secure boot. Is that disabled and was it disabled before installing grub?

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Had 0 altered files.
Yes secure boot was disabled before.

mini

Member

Registered: 2006-12-18

Posts: 136

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

I am experiencing the same thing but only get a black screen.
My PC - Lenovo V110 GPU Intel hd graphics 520.
BTW I have also installed Arch on another PC without any problems

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Can you boot a https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Unified_kernel_image or does systemd-boot work?

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

It works normally with systemd-boot. Problem is just with grub. I even tryed grub with the archinstall script and the issue persists.

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 69,058

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Is your /boot partition the same as the ESP?
What filesystems are involved (though you'd typically get an error and a grub shell)
Does it help to https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB/T … ramebuffer ?

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bugsbunny

Member

Registered: 2025-10-11

Posts: 9

Re: New installation freezes before grub menu.

Yes, ESP mounted in /boot.
Just system efi for esp, a swap partition and a ext4 for /.
I tried disabling frame buffer after reading this but the problem stills the same.