AFAIK it needn't be the first one on the disk - if memory serves, my Linux laptop came with Windows installed and the UEFI boot partition on the second partition, and the first first few Linux-only installed kept that layout - but it must be VFAT and it must be flagged bootable. Sent from Samsung Mobile on O2 -------- Original message --------From: Juan Carlos Villegas Botero via arch-general <arch-general@archlinux.org> Date: 29/10/2016 05:03 (GMT+00:00) To: General Discussion about Arch Linux <arch-general@archlinux.org> Cc: Juan Carlos Villegas Botero <juankvillegas@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [arch-general] Single Drive Fresh Install (mbr/grub2) Fails to boot (can boot existing from .iso??) And I also think that I read somewhere that theboot partition (EFI) must be the first one in the disk. On 10/28/2016 10:59 PM, Juan Carlos Villegas Botero wrote:
Sorry for the html response :S
On 10/28/2016 10:58 PM, Juan Carlos Villegas Botero wrote:
I'm not 100% sure that this is the solution, but if you are loading from UEFI, the boot partition must be formatted using GPT: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EFI_System_Partition
On 10/28/2016 09:58 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
All,
After 7 years and 30+ installs, I thought I had seen it all. I have a new (used) laptop, that I put a fresh 1T drive in, partitioned and loaded arch. The laptop can't find the drive to boot? Huh? There is only a single drive in the laptop, but it will only boot if booting from grub hd1 (instead of hd0).
The failure isn't a "grub prefix/root" problem, the problem is the laptop cannot even find grub to begin with when it is booting on it's own. The only way booting happens is to boot the installer (from USB) and then "Choose existing OS" and edit the prefix (from 0 -> 1). Which itself is wonky, because booting from USB creates the USB thumb-drive as /dev/sdb to begin with and the hard drive as /dev/sda where it should be.
This is a strange laptop, it has 2 hard drive bays (HP Elite 8760w). The bios is configured to scan both (as well as USB and PXE) for boot. I can boot the install .iso without issue, install went fine, but in order to boot the new install, I have to "Boot existing OS" from the .iso menu, then 'tab' and change
hd0 0
to
hd1 0
(I took the existing Win10 SSD out of the same bay I put this drive in - which is also a simple mbr boot - no UEFI). The setup is dead simple (.iso is sdb below)
$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sdb 8:16 1 980M 0 disk ├─sdb2 8:18 1 40M 0 part └─sdb1 8:17 1 792M 0 part sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk ├─sda7 8:7 0 880G 0 part /home ├─sda5 8:5 0 500M 0 part /boot ├─sda1 8:1 0 1K 0 part ├─sda8 8:8 0 1G 0 part └─sda6 8:6 0 50G 0 part /
and
$ sudo 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 is installed to /dev/sda with
grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/sda (no errors on install), and grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
I've searched for anything related to HP laptops or this model, but only find issues failing to boot the install CD or the newer UEFI pages like
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/HP_EliteBook_840_G1.
Has anyone encountered something similar? There is no longer a /boot/grub/device.map file installed by grub2, but given the fact the bios isn't seeing the drive at all for boot, I don't see how mapping hd0 to hd1 would make a difference. Does anyone have a link or any idea what the issue may be? I'm happy to send whatever additional information may be required. I'm ssh'ed into the box right now, I just need to get the boot and plasma ironed out. Any ideas? Thanks.