[arch-general] Install Archlinux on HP Elitebook

[Ken OKABE]

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 at archlinux.org> wrote:
> On Sunday 24 December 2017 9:06:58 PM CET Eli Schwartz via arch-general wrote:
>
>> 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