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

[jeff.rollin]

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 at archlinux.org> Date: 29/10/2016  05:03  (GMT+00:00) To: General Discussion about Arch Linux <arch-general at archlinux.org> Cc: Juan Carlos Villegas Botero <juankvillegas at 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.
>>>
>>>
>>