[arch-general] Single Drive Fresh Install (mbr/grub2) Fails to boot (can boot existing from .iso??)

[Juan Carlos Villegas Botero]

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.
>
>

-- 
photo 	
	
*Juan Carlos Villegas Botero*
Director de Desarrollo, Micoworker
juancarlos at micoworker.com <mailto:juancarlos at micoworker.com> (+57) 312 
3977780 <tel:%28+57%29%20312%203977780> www.micoworker.com 
<http://www.micoworker.com> Skype: juankvillegas <#>