A quick suggestion : Why not try systemd-boot instead of grub? (Since now arch is installed in UEFI) No harm trying ;) On Mon 7 Nov, 2016, 23:05 David C. Rankin, <drankinatty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 11/05/2016 04:38 AM, Simon Brulhart wrote: > > I may be missing something, but is there a chance that the bios just > > doesn't wait long enough for the disk to turn on? > > On some laptops this sometimes happen to me when trying to boot an USB > > harddisk. The disk isn't detected at all by the bios, but generally > > rebooting with the disk already turned on fixes the issue. > > I've also seen an option on some BIOSes to wait for a few additional > > seconds at boot before enumerating drives, indicating that this may be a > > common issue. > > > > Simon > > Simon, > > Thanks, but no, I eliminated that by choosing the boot options menu > (e.g. F9) on boot which allowed 30 seconds or so as I pondered the > options for the drives to spin up, no it is something quirky with this > laptop that I have to figure out, but I'm totally stuck. > > I prepared a fresh summary of my ordeal in hopes of getting some > wisdom to help with this mystery. Here is the summary to date: > > I need a miracle (or just some good help) to find out why I can boot > from the .iso and "Choose existing OS" just fine, but cannot get this > laptop to find and boot grub otherwise. (UEFI is *completely* disabled > in the BIOS and it boots win10 in Legacy mode fine) I have now exhausted > all that I can figure out based on my decade and a half of Linux use and > based on the wikis: > > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_System_Partition > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HP_EliteBook_840_G1 (uses EFI mode) > > I have configured and tried simple MBR boot with the following setup: > > # fdisk -l /dev/sda > Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes > Disklabel type: dos > Disk identifier: 0xff7d45aa > > Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type > /dev/sda1 2048 1953525167 1953523120 931.5G 5 Extended > /dev/sda5 * 4096 1028095 1024000 500M 83 Linux > /dev/sda6 1030144 105887743 104857600 50G 83 Linux > /dev/sda7 105889792 1951383551 1845493760 880G 83 Linux > /dev/sda8 1951385600 1953525167 2139568 1G 82 Linux swap / > Solaris > > grub isn't seen on boot, but popping the .iso on USB in, choosing > "Boot existing OS", hitting 'tab' and changing 'hd0 0' to 'hd1 0' boots > Arch fine. > > I next tried with GPT and a 'bios_boot' partition: > > # fdisk -l /dev/sda > Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes > Disklabel type: gpt > Disk identifier: 00B6A48C-CBDB-4071-A1EC-97FA828A6C26 > > Device Start End Sectors Size Type > /dev/sda1 2048 4095 2048 1M BIOS boot > /dev/sda2 4096 1028095 1024000 500M Linux filesystem > /dev/sda3 1028096 105885695 104857600 50G Linux filesystem > /dev/sda4 105885696 1949282303 1843396608 879G Linux filesystem > /dev/sda5 1949282304 1951379455 2097152 1G Linux swap > > same result, grub not found on its own, but booting from USB works fine. > > Next, stranger things being possible, I decided to try a full UEFI > setup thinking maybe the Legacy mode for this laptop uses some contrived > boot scheme that requires the esp partition to be present. so I > re-partitioned the drive and went though the UEFI setup: > > # fdisk -l /dev/sda > Disk /dev/sda: 931.5 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors > Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes > Disklabel type: gpt > Disk identifier: 00B6A48C-CBDB-4071-A1EC-97FA828A6C26 > > Device Start End Sectors Size Type > /dev/sda1 2048 4095 2048 1M BIOS boot > /dev/sda2 4096 1028095 1024000 500M EFI System > /dev/sda3 1028096 105885695 104857600 50G Linux filesystem > /dev/sda4 105885696 1949282303 1843396608 879G Linux filesystem > /dev/sda5 1949282304 1951379455 2097152 1G Linux swap > > Still, grub isn't seen on boot, but now "Choose existing OS" starts > grub, but then throws the error of "unrecognized partition type" (I > presume is due to the UEFI setup while UEFI is disabled in the BIOS) > > So I'm stuck. This box boots from the iso perfectly. After "Choose > existing OS", I pull the USB drive, and the machine works flawlessly. > (I've got a full plasma/KDE5 setup installed with wpa_supplicant WPA > wifi, bluetooth, synaptics touchpad, ieee-1394, all working just fine, > etc.., e.g. I drafted this on kwrite and sent it via thunderbird from > this same darn box) I just can't get this box to find grub to save my life. > > I need help figuring out how the .iso is booting in Legacy mode just > fine, while I can't do the same thing from the hard drive. If this box > can see and boot the .iso just fine, what could possibly explain it not > seeing grub on the hard drive? Anybody have any more ideas? > > -- > David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. > >
