Le 2017-12-18 16:24, Ken OKABE via arch-general a écrit :

Here is my experience.

1. Ubuntu live image is the most stably working distribution among others, so it's good for base to install Arch. 2. If your laptop is UEFI, it's good to have reEFInd USB stick. www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ If your PC cannot boot reEFInd USB stick, your bios setup is very wrong. 3. If you can boot into Ubuntu live image, the rest is relatively easy to set up Arch.

On Mon, Dec 18, 2017 at 2:56 PM, Beta Smollner via arch-general <arch-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

...

Does your USB-stick boot on other systems? I can boot on my company’s elitebook just fine with an easy2boot-prepared [1] stick.

~ P

[1] http://www.easy2boot.com/

Well, I guess my bios setup is very wrong then. I have exactly the same behavior with an easy2boot stick and reEFInd. I guess my only option left is to backup my data, restaure factory settings and hope for the best. As I don't know where to look to find some logs for this behavior debug will not be easy... I'll keep this topic up to date as soon as I have news. Thanks alot for these tips Tom

On 2017-12-20 3:00 am, David C. Rankin wrote:

On 12/18/2017 08:36 AM, news@contrepoison.ch wrote:

...

Hi everyone,

I'm struggeling with my laptop : I can't manage to boot into any Linux distribution. My laptop is an HP Elitebook x360 G2 ; BIOS P80 01.09 Rev.A (up to date). By turning off every "protection" I'm able to select the USB stick in the boot menu ; but I can't pass this step. I immediately go back to the boot menu.

Does anyone knows how to install Arch on one of thoose #@$&=%* machine ?

Many thanks, Tom

I have struggled with this issue and Arch for a year. The problem is grub2 on Arch fails to write anything to bytes 0x04 - 0x63 of the mbr, while other distros don't seem to have that problem.

More of a workaround than a solution, but I stopped using grub altogether once they upgraded to grub2. (The complexity of the grub2 config file as compared to the simplicity of the grub-legacy menu.lst file is what eventually turned me away.) I've started using syslinux in recent years, and have been quite happy with it. HTH, DR

Have you tried arch with systemd-boot instead of grub2? (I always use systemd-boot since a while😉) Greets Marcel Gesendet von meinem Smartphone Am 21.12.2017 09:28 schrieb <news@contrepoison.ch>:

Le 2017-12-20 15:45, David Rosenstrauch a écrit :

...

On 2017-12-20 3:00 am, David C. Rankin wrote:

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I have struggled with this issue and Arch for a year. The problem is grub2 on Arch fails to write anything to bytes 0x04 - 0x63 of the mbr, while other distros don't seem to have that problem.

More of a workaround than a solution, but I stopped using grub altogether once they upgraded to grub2. (The complexity of the grub2 config file as compared to the simplicity of the grub-legacy menu.lst file is what eventually turned me away.) I've started using syslinux in recent years, and have been quite happy with it.

HTH,

DR

Hello everyone,

I have good news ... sort of. After a full reset (OS+BIOS) here is the result : [1] Archlinux : not able to boot. [2] Obarun : not able to boot. Yet this distro uses syslinux, not grub... [3] OpenSuze : not able to boot. David : maybe a difference between Leap 42.2 and 42.3 ? [4] Debian : not able to boot. I tried Debian and Subgraph. [5] Ubuntu : booting and functionnal (as functionnal as Ubuntu can be).

I'll install Ubuntu and see what I can install from there. Archlinux with syslinux I guess. Note : all these USB stick were made with dd. Even Ubuntu was unable to boot with an Easy2Boot stick with imgPTN image and so one.

Tom

Hi, just a guess, since you've mentioned `dd` - did you do

# wipefs -a /dev/sdX

where X is the USB stick? Distro ISOs always left the USB sticks in an unusable state until I execute the above. On 21.12.2017 09:27, news@contrepoison.ch wrote:

Le 2017-12-20 15:45, David Rosenstrauch a écrit :

...

On 2017-12-20 3:00 am, David C. Rankin wrote:

...

I have struggled with this issue and Arch for a year. The problem is grub2 on Arch fails to write anything to bytes 0x04 - 0x63 of the mbr, while other distros don't seem to have that problem.

More of a workaround than a solution, but I stopped using grub altogether once they upgraded to grub2.  (The complexity of the grub2 config file as compared to the simplicity of the grub-legacy menu.lst file is what eventually turned me away.)  I've started using syslinux in recent years, and have been quite happy with it.

HTH,

DR

Hello everyone,

I have good news ... sort of. After a full reset (OS+BIOS) here is the result : [1] Archlinux : not able to boot. [2] Obarun : not able to boot. Yet this distro uses syslinux, not grub... [3] OpenSuze : not able to boot. David : maybe a difference between Leap 42.2 and 42.3 ? [4] Debian : not able to boot. I tried Debian and Subgraph. [5] Ubuntu : booting and functionnal (as functionnal as Ubuntu can be).

I'll install Ubuntu and see what I can install from there. Archlinux with syslinux I guess. Note : all these USB stick were made with dd. Even Ubuntu was unable to boot with an Easy2Boot stick with imgPTN image and so one.

Tom

-- Regards, Oleksii Vilchanskyi PGP:0x8D3A0E046BDE941F2A53867CE3FD952D48C0B338

may be off-topic but i came by this article to install and run arch on UEFI without grup: http://www.alaux.net/articles/uefi-and-linux-killed-my-grub-and-that-s-good 22.12.2017, 20:14, "Eli Schwartz via arch-general" <arch-general@archlinux.org>:

On 12/20/2017 09:45 AM, David Rosenstrauch wrote:

...

 More of a workaround than a solution, but I stopped using grub  altogether once they upgraded to grub2.  (The complexity of the grub2  config file as compared to the simplicity of the grub-legacy menu.lst  file is what eventually turned me away.)  I've started using syslinux in  recent years, and have been quite happy with it.

Kind of offtopic for this thread, but "the grub2 config file is too complex" is not actually a valid reason to stop using grub... because it isn't even true in the first place.

I blame grub-mkconfig for this, as an automated tool for generating grub.cfg without any user interaction at all, it is rather grotty. But to make a fair comparison with syslinux, refind, systemd-boot and others, you'd need to compare the quality of the grub-mkconfig autogenerated output to the quality of the (refind|syslinux|systemd-boot)-mkconfig autogenerated output.

Oh, wait. None of those have any such tool, and you are *required* to write your own handwritten config. :p

And in fact, you can do the same exact thing with grub2 as well! Consider my grub.cfg reproduced below, or Earnestly's example grub.cfg at https://ptpb.pw/mk7y (courtesy of #archlinux on freenode):

``` set color_normal=light-gray/dark-gray set color_highlight=dark-gray/light-gray set menu_color_normal=light-gray/dark-gray set menu_color_highlight=light-blue/dark-gray

set timeout=1 set default=0 set btrfsroot=53731b6e-8cce-467c-bf07-be1b04207846

# Use UEFI's Graphics Output Protocol. insmod efi_gop

menuentry "Arch Linux" {     linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=$btrfsroot rw     initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux.img }

menuentry "Arch Linux Fallback" {     linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=$btrfsroot rw     initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img }

menuentry "Arch Linux ck kernel" {     linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-ck root=UUID=$btrfsroot rw     initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-ck.img }

menuentry "Arch Linux ck kernel Fallback" {     linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-ck root=UUID=$btrfsroot rw     initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-ck-fallback.img }

menuentry "Arch Linux LTS kernel" {     linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=UUID=$btrfsroot rw     initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-lts.img }

menuentry "Arch Linux LTS kernel Fallback" {     linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=UUID=$btrfsroot rw     initrd /boot/intel-ucode.img /boot/initramfs-linux-linux-fallback.img } ```

Consider the simplicity of this grub.cfg. A couple simple variable flags for setting colors and timeout, then the dead-simple menuentry for booting, replicated a couple times for each kernel/initramfs I have.

If you want, you can split out each menuentry into separate conf files and `source` them.

And if you *really* want to get fancy, sure, grub has an *optional* shell language you can use for weird fancy stuff. It's hardly mandatory, though, just because the familiar Debian-style autogenerator produces obtuse content like all autogenerators.

I hate when people spread this misinformed FUD about grub, but I suppose it is largely grub's fault for encouraging the use of beginner tools and making it seem intimidating to even learn how it works. :(

...

Hmm, I think I will invest the time in updating the Wiki page. This travesty cannot continue, I must make sure people are well-informed.

(Also people really should use grub. It's quite nice to have a bootloader which supports encrypted boot and loading kernels from basically any filesystem without having to mount the ESP as /boot. I also get to use a small 2MB partition for the ESP, which is possible if you format it as fat12 which technically isn't supported by the standard but chances are it will work anyway because of recycling filesystem code that supports both on a generic level.)

-- Eli Schwartz

I migrated from grub2 to syslinux. When using grub2 I manually edited grub.cfg. I removed all the useless crap from grub.cfg and never used the config for the config and all that auto-configuration features of grub2. However, I've got a dual head setup and syslinux isn't able to display the menu on my HDMI LCD monitor, if the VGA CRT monitor is connected, but turned off. Apart from this I dislike chainloading and sync of /boot when maintaining other Linux installs in a systemd-nspawn container is a PITA. IOW syslinux is far away from being perfect, OTOH syslinux.cfg is clean and self-explaining: [rocketmouse@archlinux ~]$ cat /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg # http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/Doc/menu PROMPT 0 TIMEOUT 600 UI menu.c32 MENU HIDDEN MENU CLEAR MENU COLOR screen 0;30;40 MENU COLOR border 0;30;40 MENU COLOR title 1;37;44 MENU COLOR unsel 0;37;40 MENU COLOR hotkey 1;37;40 MENU COLOR hotsel 7;37;40 MENU COLOR sel 7;37;40 MENU COLOR disabled 1;37;40 MENU COLOR scrollbar 0;30;40 MENU COLOR tabmsg 0;30;40 MENU COLOR cmdmark 0;31;40 MENU COLOR cmdline 0;37;40 MENU COLOR timeout_msg 0;37;40 MENU COLOR timeout 1;37;40 # Used hotkeys: ^8 ^A ^C ^e ^H ^M ^P ^Q ^R ^t ^V DEFAULT Rt MENU TITLE HAL 9000 LABEL Toolbox MENU LABEL Toolbox MENU DISABLE MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Hardware MENU LABEL ^Hardware Detection COM32 hdt.c32 LABEL Memtest MENU LABEL Memtest^86+ LINUX /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/memtest86+.bin LABEL Reset MENU LABEL R^eset COM32 reboot.c32 MENU SEPARATOR MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Arch Menu MENU LABEL Arch Linux MENU DISABLE MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Threadirqs MENU LABEL Arch Linux ^threadirqs LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro threadirqs INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img LABEL Pussytoes MENU LABEL Arch Linux Rt ^Pussytoes LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-rt-pussytoes APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux-rt-pussytoes.img LABEL Cornflower MENU LABEL Arch Linux Rt ^Cornflower LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-rt-cornflower APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux-rt-cornflower.img LABEL Rt MENU LABEL Arch Linux ^Rt LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux-rt APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux-rt.img LABEL Arch MENU LABEL ^Arch Linux LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux APPEND root=LABEL=archlinux ro INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img MENU SEPARATOR MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Other Menu MENU LABEL Other Linux MENU DISABLE MENU SEPARATOR LABEL Moonstudio MENU LABEL Ubuntu X ^Moon Studio lowlatency LINUX /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/vmlinuz-lowlatency APPEND root=LABEL=moonstudio ro INITRD /.boot/ubuntu_moonstudio/boot/initrd.img-lowlatency LABEL Light MENU LABEL Ubuntu ^Q LightScribe Rt LINUX /.boot/ubuntu_q/boot/vmlinuz-3.6.5-rt14 APPEND root=LABEL=q ro nomodeset INITRD /.boot/ubuntu_q/boot/initrd.img-3.6.5-rt14 LABEL Suse MENU LABEL ^Vintage SUSE 11.2 Rt LINUX /.boot/suse11.2/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31.6-rt19 APPEND root=LABEL=suse11.2 INITRD /.boot/suse11.2/boot/initrd-2.6.31.6-rt19

On Sun, 24 Dec 2017 12:25:05 -0700, Leonid Isaev via arch-general wrote:

What are those ctrl-* characters (like ^Q)?

Ok, the config isn't entirely self-explaining ;). The ^ marks the hotkey. In this case pushing the q-key without the Ctrl-key directly boots the particular Linux install. It's also possible to select a menu entry by using the cursor up and down keys instead of using the hotkey.

On 12/24/2017 12:43 PM, David Rosenstrauch wrote:

Usually an example/stub config file is provided, which makes it very easy to adapt it to your needs.

Yes, grub2 really and truly sucks in this regard.

Not misinformation, or FUD, just a difference of opinion.  In my opinion - and in my experience - the grub legacy menu.lst and the syslinux.cfg scripts are short, simple, and very easy to understand while the grub2 config scripts I've run into are extremely long, complicated, and hard to understand.

I'd say it is the grub authors who are spreading the FUD, but I really do feel that the common grub.cfg example is misdirection in action. A difference of opinion would be if two people looked at the same grub.cfg and one person said "this is too complicated" and the other said "this is nice and simple". :) I agree that grub-mkconfig examples are weird and complicated. TBH I have no idea what they're doing, and they kind of scare me.

...

Hmm, I think I will invest the time in updating the Wiki page. This travesty cannot continue, I must make sure people are well-informed.

I welcome any effort you make in trying to make the grub config simpler and more understandable.  I have no inherent bias against the tool, and would be open to using it if I felt that it was becoming as easy to use as grub-legacy or syslinux.

I'll see what I can do. :D The current wiki page buries all information about the ability to manually create a grub.cfg, in the "Tips and tricks" sub-page as a tiny blurb. -- Eli Schwartz

The preparation of GRUB and UEFI boot partition for Linux Installation process is always bothersome. Although currently I usually prepare 256MB of FAT32 partition-1, sometimes it is the best manner that you simply have a boot-loader in an external USB drive, especially when you have a hard time just to boot a LinuxOS. Have a working USB stick for - UEFI The rEFInd Boot Manager http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ - GRUB2 Super Grub2 Disk https://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/ The below is my personal installation method (UEFI). Create 2 USB sticks: the latest UbuntuLive and rEFInd Boot UbuntuLive and download Arch ISO unsquashfs airootfs.sfs (extract Arch file system dir from the ISO image) systemd-nspawn to the extracted Arch file system (better than chroot) pacstrap to the target partition (partition-2) exit and return to Ubuntu live systemd-nspawn to the newly installed target Arch file system set up Arch reboot the PC using rEFInd which should discover the newly installed Arch of course, on Ubuntu or later on Arch, you can "cp -ax" all files in rEFInd dir to 256MB of FAT32 (boot flaged) partition-1, so that external rEFInd USB stick is no longer needed. On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 9:47 PM, Jagannathan Tiruvallur Eachambadi via arch-general <arch-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

On Sunday 24 December 2017 9:06:58 PM CET Eli Schwartz via arch-general wrote:

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The current wiki page buries all information about the ability to manually create a grub.cfg, in the "Tips and tricks" sub-page as a tiny blurb. Last time I read the wiki page I remember it explicitly stating not to write grub.cfg manually and it cab break your system/boot. Given that warning and the complex looking default configuration many people are turned away from grub2. I too went to syslinux and it has been way easier. Having an entry in the wiki for simpler grub.cfg would make a good case for grub2 :)

-- Kind regards Jagan