Arch grub bootloader

hey guys, ive got some problems with the arch install process. ive followed the install guide and everything werks im installing arch alongside win10. ive created a swap partition and a root partition and ive got an efi partition from win already. installed grub and checked if my fstab is correctly set and everythings fine. also updated mkconfig. now when i boot, the grub command line is showing and it does not give me any boot options. thanks for your helo

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wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dual_boot_with_Windows
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Is your partition table gpt?

yes it is

did you run os-prober before grub-mkconfig

no, i thought that's just to detect additional oses and is not needed if i just want to boot into arch first, is that wrong?

Did you run grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg?

>also updated mkconfig.

yes

halp pls

>ls
(hd0,gpt1) (hd0,gpt2) (hd0,gpt3)
>ls (hd0,gpt1)/
nothing that matters
>ls (hd0,gpt2)/
usr/ etc/ boot/ bin/ home/ ...
^ this is it!
>set root=(hd0,gpt2)
>linux /boot/vmli root=/dev/sda2 rw
>initrd /boot/init
>boot

i would have to put that in everytime i boot no?

Just get Ubuntu retard

i dont want amazon up in my shit namefag

Then get any of the other *buntus, they don't have that problem.

but its bloated

Boot and fix it?

fix what? thats the problem i dont know whats wrong

Reinstall grub, reinstate the config file, check paths, check the configuration file, you can do it

did that 3 times

Hey user,

I've had the same problem every time I installed arch. I find that grub is a pile of wank. I would recommend syslinux, it works flawlessly for me and without problems, simply follow the instructions on the wiki and it doesn't do any of that grub prompt wank.

The install usb uses syslinux. Notice you can press 'tab' on one of the menu items and change it. Good for fucking around easily without booting to liveCD if you get it wrong in the config.

Did you disable secure boot in bios?

alright i guess ill try that, thank you

no

Computers that come with newer versions of Windows often have Secure Boot enabled. You will need to take extra steps to either disable Secure Boot or to make your installation media compatible with secure boot (see above and in the linked page).
wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dual_boot_with_Windows

I very highly doubt this matters concering OP's problem, seeing that OP got to a grub prompt, but without boot menu.

By 'no', I'm sure OP meant "I didn't check, I don't know about this option" - as opposed to "no - it's not disabled".

It seems the mbr is simply not finding his /boot. This happens all the time.

No worries. Of course, remember writing a new MBR to your HDD will overwrite your windows bootloader. Same with grub, syslinux, any bootloader. I find syslinux is easier to config though.

Boot into your arch liveCD.
Use wifi-menu to easily connect to wifi.
Mount the root partition of your installation to /mnt or whatever you like.
Arch-chroot into this directory, essentially logging into your install through the liveCD.
Login as root.

pacman -R grub
pacman -S syslinux
syslinux-install_update -i -a -m

If the unlikely scenario happens in which this doesn't work, the manual install is fairly straightforward. in /usr/lib/syslinux/bios there's some .c32 files, basically commands for syslinux - all of which you can just copy directly to /boot/syslinux.

Then you can use the dd command ( it writes data ) to write the MBR file at /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/mbr.bin to your HDD.

dd bs=440 count=1 if=/usr/lib/syslinux/bios/mbr.bin of=/dev/sdX

sdX = your HDD, i.e. sda, sdb, sdc. You can sey this with fdisk -l

If you installed automatically syslinux.cfg will already be in /boot/syslinux, or if you did it manually, on the wiki you can see some examples, just change them to suit your needs if necessary.

Also - make sure you install base-devel. It has 'make' and all that shit.

After all works, install xorg + a wm

Use nano or another text editor to make an xinitrc in this format

#!/bin/sh
< insert commands you want to run when x starts >
exec lxde ( or whatever wm you installed)

Then you can start x with startx. It's in the xorg-xinit package.

thank you, is there a way to uninstall grub after? and the partition is gpt and i use uefi, does that change anything

lmao fucking spergies using arch have you guys tried using something that works

Yes, Arch.

For GPT you just install gptmbr.bin instead of mbr.bin, not sure if the script does it automatically. However this doesn't matter, since syslinux support for UEFI is not good. Particularly for your situation- it can't chainload EFI's, or in other words, can't open windows boot manager. So you wont be able to boot into windows with UEFI.

It seems it will be necessary to play with grub.

pacman -S grub
pacman -S efibootmgr

grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=grub

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

If you have problems,

grub rescue prompt arch install

This search term is useful for getting ideas. But if you still end up getting just a grub rescue prompt, then some background on the issue is that the GRUB is very liely just not finding your /boot files. And you can use this info to try and fix the issue.

Just use systemd-boot, embrace lennart

In my experience, the problem is very rarely (actually, for me, never) anything to do with BIOS or your system.

Also - I was searching around - and I found this post, which reminded me of something...

"In brief, on an EFI-based system, you do not install anything in the MBR; instead, you install a Linux EFI boot loader or boot manager in the EFI System Partition (ESP) and set it as the EFI's default boot program using a tool such as efibootmgr (in Linux), bcfg (in an EFI shell), bcdedit (in Windows), or the EFI's own user interface. "

You can use efibootmgr if you want, but I've never used it so I have no advice for such a thing.

But - I have used bcdedit to fix this problem before. You can fuck with all the boot stuff from a cozy gui in windows. It could be an option worth looking into.

im confused, ive got a b350f rog strix motherboard, thats uefi right? not bios

have you tried checking if there are generals that cater to your very question

I'm almost certain you can boot via UEFI or BIOS in most modern motherboards. At least - in mine, which is maybe 5 years old, I can boot via whichever I choose. What matters is what Windows expects.

In your windows, you can check the BIOS mode by running msinfo32. It's in the system summary section. If this is UEFI, then your windows is running in UEFI mode, and you will need to use a UEFI bootloader. If it is instead legacy bios, then you can just use syslinux or whatever.

Make sure the fstab is right (usually not a problem on Arch)

it is i checked many times, it has my swap my root and my boot partition, uids are all correct

just install manjaro
does everything for you

I had this problem too when I installed arch 1 week ago
The issue was that the linux kernel was somehow missing....
I'd try to pacstrap the "linux" package and run grub-mkconfig again
Merry christmas!

merry christmas and many thanks

Well this seems like the most relevant thread for this question:
So i tried launching ubuntu from a usb on my old gateway laptop, everything works starting from the BIOS screen until boot, but once it boots it goes into a boot loop and the screen keeps flashing the logo.
pls help, am new to Linux.

sounds like an init script failing just reinstall and make sure you update and upgrade before you restart

>reinstall
Will do, i'll delete files from the USB before i do that. and then reuse that unetbootin application.
>make sure you update and upgrade before you restart
update and upgrade what? the Ubuntu or windows or what?

>willingly using grub by choice

This. Use systemd-boot.

boot the OS as a live CD after the install look up how to chroot if you don't know then type
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo grub-mkconfig -o