[arch-general] Install Archlinux on HP Elitebook
David C. Rankin
drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com
Wed Dec 20 08:00:32 UTC 2017
On 12/18/2017 08:36 AM, news at 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.
For specific example, on my HP Elitebook Pro 8760w, which installing grub
within Arch, the following mbr (bytes 0-446) are written:
hexdump -Cv mbr_arch_446.bin
00000000 eb 63 90 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |.c..............|
00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 |................|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01 00 00 00 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 ff fa 90 90 f6 c2 80 74 05 f6 c2 70 |...........t...p|
00000070 74 02 b2 80 ea 79 7c 00 00 31 c0 8e d8 8e d0 bc |t....y|..1......|
00000080 00 20 fb a0 64 7c 3c ff 74 02 88 c2 52 be 80 7d |. ..d|<.t...R..}|
00000090 e8 17 01 be 05 7c b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 5a 52 72 |.....|.A..U..ZRr|
000000a0 3d 81 fb 55 aa 75 37 83 e1 01 74 32 31 c0 89 44 |=..U.u7...t21..D|
000000b0 04 40 88 44 ff 89 44 02 c7 04 10 00 66 8b 1e 5c |. at .D..D.....f..\|
000000c0 7c 66 89 5c 08 66 8b 1e 60 7c 66 89 5c 0c c7 44 ||f.\.f..`|f.\..D|
000000d0 06 00 70 b4 42 cd 13 72 05 bb 00 70 eb 76 b4 08 |..p.B..r...p.v..|
000000e0 cd 13 73 0d 5a 84 d2 0f 83 d8 00 be 8b 7d e9 82 |..s.Z........}..|
000000f0 00 66 0f b6 c6 88 64 ff 40 66 89 44 04 0f b6 d1 |.f....d. at f.D....|
00000100 c1 e2 02 88 e8 88 f4 40 89 44 08 0f b6 c2 c0 e8 |....... at .D......|
00000110 02 66 89 04 66 a1 60 7c 66 09 c0 75 4e 66 a1 5c |.f..f.`|f..uNf.\|
00000120 7c 66 31 d2 66 f7 34 88 d1 31 d2 66 f7 74 04 3b ||f1.f.4..1.f.t.;|
00000130 44 08 7d 37 fe c1 88 c5 30 c0 c1 e8 02 08 c1 88 |D.}7....0.......|
00000140 d0 5a 88 c6 bb 00 70 8e c3 31 db b8 01 02 cd 13 |.Z....p..1......|
00000150 72 1e 8c c3 60 1e b9 00 01 8e db 31 f6 bf 00 80 |r...`......1....|
00000160 8e c6 fc f3 a5 1f 61 ff 26 5a 7c be 86 7d eb 03 |......a.&Z|..}..|
00000170 be 95 7d e8 34 00 be 9a 7d e8 2e 00 cd 18 eb fe |..}.4...}.......|
00000180 47 52 55 42 20 00 47 65 6f 6d 00 48 61 72 64 20 |GRUB .Geom.Hard |
00000190 44 69 73 6b 00 52 65 61 64 00 20 45 72 72 6f 72 |Disk.Read. Error|
000001a0 0d 0a 00 bb 01 00 b4 0e cd 10 ac 3c 00 75 f4 c3 |...........<.u..|
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 aa 45 7d ff 00 00 |.........E}...|
000001be
However, when installing grub from suse (Leap 42.2) the mbr is fully populated:
00000000 eb 63 90 10 8e d0 bc 00 b0 b8 00 00 8e d8 8e c0 |.c..............|
00000010 fb be 00 7c bf 00 06 b9 00 02 f3 a4 ea 21 06 00 |...|.........!..|
00000020 00 be be 07 38 04 75 0b 83 c6 10 81 fe fe 07 75 |....8.u........u|
00000030 f3 eb 16 b4 02 b0 01 bb 00 7c b2 80 8a 74 01 8b |.........|...t..|
00000040 4c 02 cd 13 ea 00 7c 00 00 eb fe 00 00 00 00 00 |L.....|.........|
00000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 01 00 00 00 |................|
00000060 00 00 00 00 ff fa 90 90 f6 c2 80 74 05 f6 c2 70 |...........t...p|
00000070 74 02 b2 80 ea 79 7c 00 00 31 c0 8e d8 8e d0 bc |t....y|..1......|
00000080 00 20 fb a0 64 7c 3c ff 74 02 88 c2 52 be 80 7d |. ..d|<.t...R..}|
00000090 e8 17 01 be 05 7c b4 41 bb aa 55 cd 13 5a 52 72 |.....|.A..U..ZRr|
000000a0 3d 81 fb 55 aa 75 37 83 e1 01 74 32 31 c0 89 44 |=..U.u7...t21..D|
000000b0 04 40 88 44 ff 89 44 02 c7 04 10 00 66 8b 1e 5c |. at .D..D.....f..\|
000000c0 7c 66 89 5c 08 66 8b 1e 60 7c 66 89 5c 0c c7 44 ||f.\.f..`|f.\..D|
000000d0 06 00 70 b4 42 cd 13 72 05 bb 00 70 eb 76 b4 08 |..p.B..r...p.v..|
000000e0 cd 13 73 0d 5a 84 d2 0f 83 d8 00 be 8b 7d e9 82 |..s.Z........}..|
000000f0 00 66 0f b6 c6 88 64 ff 40 66 89 44 04 0f b6 d1 |.f....d. at f.D....|
00000100 c1 e2 02 88 e8 88 f4 40 89 44 08 0f b6 c2 c0 e8 |....... at .D......|
00000110 02 66 89 04 66 a1 60 7c 66 09 c0 75 4e 66 a1 5c |.f..f.`|f..uNf.\|
00000120 7c 66 31 d2 66 f7 34 88 d1 31 d2 66 f7 74 04 3b ||f1.f.4..1.f.t.;|
00000130 44 08 7d 37 fe c1 88 c5 30 c0 c1 e8 02 08 c1 88 |D.}7....0.......|
00000140 d0 5a 88 c6 bb 00 70 8e c3 31 db b8 01 02 cd 13 |.Z....p..1......|
00000150 72 1e 8c c3 60 1e b9 00 01 8e db 31 f6 bf 00 80 |r...`......1....|
00000160 8e c6 fc f3 a5 1f 61 ff 26 5a 7c be 86 7d eb 03 |......a.&Z|..}..|
00000170 be 95 7d e8 34 00 be 9a 7d e8 2e 00 cd 18 eb fe |..}.4...}.......|
00000180 47 52 55 42 20 00 47 65 6f 6d 00 48 61 72 64 20 |GRUB .Geom.Hard |
00000190 44 69 73 6b 00 52 65 61 64 00 20 45 72 72 6f 72 |Disk.Read. Error|
000001a0 0d 0a 00 bb 01 00 b4 0e cd 10 ac 3c 00 75 f4 c3 |...........<.u..|
000001b0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 e3 15 05 00 00 00 |..............|
000001be
And it is specific to however grub2 is configured, built, whatever on Arch. I
contacted HP, I had an extensive thread on this list, see thread from 10/28/16
with subject:
Single Drive Fresh Install (mbr/grub2) Fails to boot (can boot existing from
.iso??)
I never found the reason and just kept my install usb key handy and would
"Boot Existing OS", then hist "tab" and change the drive number to boot my
Arch install. Totally bizarre.
I even though of writing the bytes from the suse mbr to the arch mbr (since
the filesystem locations are the same on each disk), but never got around to
doing it.
Hopefully you will find the solution that evaded me.
--
David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
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