Arch Install - Stuck in GRUB

I downloaded the latest arch iso and burned it to a cd. When trying to boot off of the cd however I'm left in grub and it doesn't go ahead and load up the arch kernel. I'm not too familiar with grub so I have no idea what to do to actually get the cd to boot into bash allowing me to go ahead with setup. I havn't had this problem before.
I am installing arch over another installation; I just got a new motherboard and processor so technically I think grub is still in the MBR and maybe that's where I'm encountering problems? Although my primary harddisk is/always has been Windows and I've already reinstalled windows (theoretically replacing grub with the windows alternative).
Any help? The old cd (I burned it in May) still loads up fine but I'd rather install with the latest core packages. Thanks.

For me it sounds like this issue:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=51348
If it is the same problem (which seems to be a problem with grub and certain optical drives) you can just use an older installation cd.
Hope this solves your problem.

Similar Messages

First install, stuck at grub

Hello.
I'm installing Arch with CD on a laptop. It has only 1 hard disk, no partition.
After booting from CD I get to the grub> prompt.
What should I do? Everything I tried failed. setup, root, install on (hd0,0) all give errors.
root (hd0,0) gave unknown filesystem 0x7 error, while the rest give Can't mount partition error.
Thanks.

Try to add noapic acpi=off to the kernel line
R.

[Solved] Installing and using GRUB on LVM

New installation, no more windows, using LVM.
pvdisplay :
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda1
VG Name DesktopLVM
PV Size 243.14 MiB / not usable 3.14 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 60
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 60
PV UUID 9LXTZW-zZNI-dQ3W-RMTD-C3Fl-5blw-TbPwOo
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda2
VG Name DesktopLVM
PV Size 19.07 GiB / not usable 4.15 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 4882
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 4882
PV UUID bgu0dD-seVt-nz7i-3Vdi-PZ4U-MKKa-pk3i6V
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda3
VG Name DesktopLVM
PV Size 7.63 GiB / not usable 4.86 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 1952
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 1952
PV UUID lybKyF-aqIM-3tTA-FEH3-LRPn-cjI5-qqhG75
--- Physical volume ---
PV Name /dev/sda4
VG Name DesktopLVM
PV Size 438.82 GiB / not usable 3.84 MiB
Allocatable yes (but full)
PE Size 4.00 MiB
Total PE 112337
Free PE 0
Allocated PE 112337
PV UUID l1h3Hh-BkzT-Fj0q-9mDH-1IGx-DtI0-v8AGgS
lvdisplay :
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/DesktopLVM/boot
LV Name boot
VG Name DesktopLVM
LV UUID Je7Lat-TOzj-vWei-5fLe-4cc8-ZAUF-J2IGAu
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2013-08-01 16:54:03 +0000
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 256.00 MiB
Current LE 64
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 254:1
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/DesktopLVM/root
LV Name root
VG Name DesktopLVM
LV UUID xRK2SN-4IG1-RjNV-RHAl-qeXL-R8F3-k4SDQt
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2013-08-01 16:54:12 +0000
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 20.00 GiB
Current LE 5120
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 254:2
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/DesktopLVM/var
LV Name var
VG Name DesktopLVM
LV UUID Ej5zmm-7Q2x-HubD-JCBp-rg3F-g1oo-4rGBEn
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2013-08-01 16:54:21 +0000
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 8.00 GiB
Current LE 2048
Segments 1
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 254:3
--- Logical volume ---
LV Path /dev/DesktopLVM/home
LV Name home
VG Name DesktopLVM
LV UUID jU5Fdz-Tgdl-wPeE-ePOB-NaZk-CsGN-Xc8rkn
LV Write Access read/write
LV Creation host, time archiso, 2013-08-01 16:54:37 +0000
LV Status available
# open 1
LV Size 437.50 GiB
Current LE 111999
Segments 4
Allocation inherit
Read ahead sectors auto
- currently set to 256
Block device 254:4
The problem is when using grub-install :
sh-4.2# grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning.
/usr/bin/grub-bios-setup: warning: your core.img is unusually large. It won't fit in the embedding area.
/usr/bin/grub-bios-setup: error: embedding is not possible, but this is required for RAID and LVM install.
cat /boot/grub/grub.cfg :
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
load_env
fi
if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then
set default="${next_entry}"
set next_entry=
save_env next_entry
set boot_once=true
else
set default="0"
fi
if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
menuentry_id_option=""
fi
export menuentry_id_option
if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
save_env saved_entry
set prev_saved_entry=
save_env prev_saved_entry
set boot_once=true
fi
function savedefault {
if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
saved_entry="${chosen}"
save_env saved_entry
fi
function load_video {
if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
insmod all_video
else
insmod efi_gop
insmod efi_uga
insmod ieee1275_fb
insmod vbe
insmod vga
insmod video_bochs
insmod video_cirrus
fi
if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then
font=unicode
else
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod lvm
insmod ext2
set root='lvm/DesktopLVM-root'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='lvm/DesktopLVM-root' b881e4e6-ad72-495c-8ae1-610ec15d27c8
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root b881e4e6-ad72-495c-8ae1-610ec15d27c8
fi
font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2"
fi
if loadfont $font ; then
set gfxmode=auto
load_video
insmod gfxterm
set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
set lang=en_US
insmod gettext
fi
terminal_input console
terminal_output gfxterm
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Arch Linux, with Linux core repo kernel' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-true-b881e4e6-ad72-495c-8ae1-610ec15d27c8' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod lvm
insmod ext2
set root='lvm/DesktopLVM-boot'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='lvm/DesktopLVM-boot' edf3011c-e581-448e-baad-d1e03d5fb8f6
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root edf3011c-e581-448e-baad-d1e03d5fb8f6
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/mapper/DesktopLVM-root ro quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
menuentry 'Arch Linux, with Linux core repo kernel (Fallback initramfs)' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-fallback-b881e4e6-ad72-495c-8ae1-610ec15d27c8' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod part_msdos
insmod lvm
insmod ext2
set root='lvm/DesktopLVM-boot'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint='lvm/DesktopLVM-boot' edf3011c-e581-448e-baad-d1e03d5fb8f6
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root edf3011c-e581-448e-baad-d1e03d5fb8f6
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/mapper/DesktopLVM-root ro quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then
source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg
elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
### END /etc/grub.d/60_memtest86+ ###
Partially related, fdisk -l :
Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk label type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1bbed4e9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 498014 248976 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sda2 498015 40499864 20000925 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sda3 40499865 56500604 8000370 8e Linux LVM
/dev/sda4 56500605 976773167 460136281+ 8e Linux LVM
Disk /dev/mapper/arch_root-image: 1494 MB, 1494220800 bytes, 2918400 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/mapper/DesktopLVM-boot: 268 MB, 268435456 bytes, 524288 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/mapper/DesktopLVM-root: 21.5 GB, 21474836480 bytes, 41943040 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/mapper/DesktopLVM-var: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes, 16777216 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk /dev/mapper/DesktopLVM-home: 469.8 GB, 469757853696 bytes, 917495808 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
How do i install grub now ?
L.E. : do not include the boot partition into LVM.
Last edited by psycho (2013-08-01 18:58:18)

Your first partition starts at block 63. Grub has gotten so bloated that it now writes to not only the MBR, but also to the space from the MBR (after sector 0) to the start of the first partition, which these days is sector 2048. This new start point is for alignment purposes.
You either need to recreate your first partition and let fdsik align it to sector 2048, or you need to create a grub bios boot partition (as though you were using GPT).
Honestly, although grub2 can handle this, I think putting /boot inside the LVM is a bad idea. It just makes you totally reliant on grub2 with no other bootloader choice. For example, if something in some poorly designed program decided to write some crap to the area between the MBR and the first partition (which applications have been known to do), and you had a USB flash drive with syslinux on it (which the Arch live media has), then you could not set it up to boot your disc.
I think you should use the pvremove command to take that first partition out temporarily, then create two new partitions. One for /boot and one to add back. But this is not going to be very straight forward since you already have four primary partitions. It might be better to convert your partitions to GPT (which is super easy using gdisk) because then you are limited to only 128 primary partitions instead of a measly four. If you do that though, then you will have to make three new partitions if you want to continue to use grub2. You will additionally need the grub bios partition mentioned above. The grub2 wiki page had more info on this. But then you should make the /boot partition and then the partition to add back.
At the very least, you are going to have to remove the first partition so that it can be resized, and then add it back. Hopefully, you have not already filled the LVM space, so that you can easily shift things around.

[SOLVED] Advice for Arch install with rEFInd dual boot Lenovo laptop?

I am trying to plan an Arch install on a new laptop for dual boot with Windows 8.1, but I know there is a potential to cause huge problems so I have been trying to read and learn about the hard disk partition structure and how I might install the rEFInd boot files so that I am still able to boot Windows once Arch is installed. (Unfortunately for some tasks such as updating the maps on my satnav box Windows is essential). However I am really quite unsure if I am doing the right thing in the way I am thinking about the Arch install so I would appreciate any help from experts on the forum.
The laptop is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p which came with Windows 8 pre-installed, with the option to upgrade to Windows 8.1. The upgrade was completed without issue and I then looked into the question of hard drive partitions and boot. I had read posts on the Ubuntu forums about users who had installed Ubuntu on this same laptop and ended up being unable to boot Windows afterwards so I wanted to tread very carefully before executing anything which might cause really major damage. I had also read on the Lenovo forums replies about people who had replaced the hard drive and installed linux only to find that they could not boot to the recovery partitions, with replies from Lenovo moderators saying that if the partition structure had been changed then the laptop would have to be sent back to Lenovo for a factory repair.
On this laptop to get into the bios or boot options you do not just press the power button and hit an F key, but instead there is a special small "OneKey Recovery" button next to the power jack, which opens up with options for BIOS setup and boot options as well as normal boot or recovery. This OneKey Recovery button is therefore needed to boot a usbkey - the power button only allows it to boot to windows presumably until/unless a different bootloader and NVRAM entry is amended.
I have done all the initial ( safe!)changes necessary to move to the point at which I can execute the Arch install. From within Windows (switched off fastboot, and shrunk the "C:" drive to make space for linux partitions). I have also switched off Secure Boot from the BIOS, and made sure that Windows still boots up fine.
The current arch install iso (February 2014) boots under uefi just fine - and of course once booted I have access to the gdisk programme. That certainly showed the pre-existing partitions on the drive (8 partitions with partition number 2 being the EFI partition, and three recovery partitions!) with a GPT partition table, and it should therefore be possible to make the necessary new linux partitions in the now unallocated space on the disk that was freed up with the internal disk management facility within Windows 8.1. So at that point I created three partitions for a root partition (type 8300), a swap partition (type 8200) and another type 8300 partition which will become /opt in the installed Arch system.
In order to try and not make any changes to the partition structure I let the three new linux partitions be number 9, 10 and 11.
I am told that for a GPT disk it is a definite no-no to try to create more than one EFI partition. So I will need to use the existing EFI partition to place the rEFInd files and the kernel once I install Arch.
In this (Y510p) laptop the EFI partition contains the following structure:
BOOT/ - containing only boot.sdi
BOOTSECT.BAK
EFI/ which contains two directories Boot/ and Microsoft/
so EFI/Boot/ contains only Boot64.efi which is likely a fallback copy of the Windows 8.1 bootloader
and EFI/Microsoft/ contains a Boot/ directory - so
EFI/Microsoft/Boot/ contains loads of language specific directories like en-GB/
plus bootmgfw.efi (which I believe is the Windows main efi loader file)
bootmgr.efi
memtest.efi
The scheme that I am planning to use which I have previously used in pure Arch uefi machines, is that /boot is a directory in the root partition, /. That way /boot is an ext4 directory and will contain the kernel and initramfs plus the rEFInd linux config file.
Then I can mount the EFI (vfat) partition as /boot/efi and so I can then make a /boot partition under /. Then the EFI /BOOT/ directory would be seen in Linux as /boot/efi/BOOT/ and the Windows efi stuff would be in /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/Microsoft/Boot/ in which case I would presume that I have to make a new directory in /boot/efi/EFI/refind/ and put the refind stuff including the filesystem drivers there, and let the kernel go into the (ext4) /boot/ directory which would be preferred! However I am not 100% confident that this is what will work and I need to read more before trying to do the install. The thing that concerns me is how the system will handle the uefi boot process, and whether it would auto-detect the Windows efi file as well as the Arch refind efi file once the system has started up?
... and then there is the issue of the NVRAM entries and I am no longer confident that if I use the usual tools to create an entry (efiboomgr or bcfg), that I will get a successful dual boot system!
There is still a chance that I would irrevocably damage being able to boot to the Windows and Recovery partition boot options by messing up the EFI and/or the NVRAM so I have to tread very very carefully with this.
If anyone has gone through this kind of dual boot install with a Windows 8 or 8.1 machine using rEFInd for the bootloader, and can offer advice or help here I would very much appreciate it. I have another pure Arch system which uses rEFInd that works extremely well, but it seems that dual boot with uefi is a rather more complex animal than a pure linux system!
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-02-22 10:06:03)

vipin wrote:I have recently bought the y510p , im planning to install Arch , this is my 4th laptop , i had installed Arch in all the other 3 with no problems, but im a bit worried with the installation as this is the first laptop which has EFI , im a linux user for the past 6 years , i started with fedora , now i like Arch , mike documentation is excellent, i just had one question when i had grub , it automatically finds the new kernel when i update (grub.conf/menu.lst gets updated), does rEFInd also do that.
When there is an update to the rEFInd package you need to copy the files across to your ESP from the files contained in /usr/share/refind/ usually you need to copy the refind_x64.efi binary as well as the icons, fonts, and drivers directories. Since there is flexibility in how you configure the kernel and initrd files in terms of where they are located whether you need to do anything else when a new kernel update arrives depends on how you set your system up. If you have the /boot directory as your ESP partition which will then have the kernel and initrd files updated by default then there no need to do anything else when there is a kernel update. If the ESP is then at /boot/EFI and within that is your refind/ directory then that is where the replacement files go if refind-efi gets a pacman update. So it is actually fairly straight forward. If you configure rEFInd to look for kernels in some other directory than /boot/ then you may need to copy the files there after a kernel update but there is more information in the arch wiki about this.
During a refind-efi package update there are helpful files in the pacman output (and log) reminding you of what you need to do. eg for the latest refind-efi update you get:
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded radvd (1.12-1 -> 1.13-1)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd UEFI application has been installed at /usr/share/refind/refind_*.efi
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Other UEFI applications have been installed at /usr/share/refind/tools_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] UEFI drivers have been installed at /usr/share/refind/drivers_*/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] Copy the efi application (according to your UEFI ARCH)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] and /usr/share/refind/refind.conf-sample to a sub-directory of <EFISYS>/EFI/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] as refind.conf and add an entry to firmware boot menu using efibootmgr
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] or mactel-boot (for Macs)
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Icons have been installed at /usr/share/refind/icons/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] rEFInd Fonts have been installed at /usr/share/refind/fonts/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] HTML Documentation is available at /usr/share/refind/docs/html/
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET] More info: [url]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UEFI_Bootloaders#Using_rEFInd[/url]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [ALPM-SCRIPTLET]
[2014-06-18 18:48] [PACMAN] upgraded refind-efi (0.8.1-1 -> 0.8.2-1)
I hope that helps.
By the way you can also boot uefi using grub and in fact you can get rEFInd to chainload grub as a backup bootloader as an added safety factor and have both rEFInd as well as grub installed simultaneously. How that can be done is explained in the thread at https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=181906
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-06-25 17:41:12)

Arch install experience / install CD uses devfs path names

Hey, all I'm new to the forums, very happy arch user. I can't remember how I found arch, it must've been fate. I did my share of distro hopping. Actually, I plunged into the deep end with my first Linux install by choosing to run Gentoo. To their credit I was able to get it installed by relying on their solid documentation, even though I was an absolute novice at the time. Still I had to leave Gentoo because on the whole I'm too impatient to compile every single program from source.
I then drifted to Mandrake for a short time, and then Fedora for a longer time. I became intimately familiar with dependency hell, and tracking down specific versions of libraries. I like using a few bleeding edge programs that are compiled out of CVS or SVN, and I found that it was a nightmare satisfying dependencies and dealing with package conflcts. I also ran Ubuntu for literally about 5 minutes. I won't get into why that lasted such a short time.
I was on irc the the other day in a dev channel for bmpx, attempting to get the newest version of bmpx to run (still am). One of the devs asked me if I was running FC4 (Fedora Core 4). My response:
Me: "I don't think I'd have a snowball's chance in hell of getting this working under FC."
Dev: "I'm running FC5."
I had to swallow my words. Here I am, a proud arch user with a seg faulting bmpx while the dev is running it on FC. Moral of the story: that guy must be a magician. That or FC is much more up to date now. Still, nothing could convince me to abandon pacman and go back to RPMs. Pacman is a Godsend. The whole ABS system is beautiful.
I just recently reinstalled a fresh version of arch after something of a hiatus. A while ago I borked my system (I had an ugly situation with my partition table, among other things) and I didn't get around to resurrecting my install for a while.
Now this was before Xorg7, and uDev, and ArchCK's move to initramfs. Obviously I was upgrading after those things were introduced. To further enrich this unhealthy mix, I have an ATI Radeon 9800, 2 ethernet cards (onboard), and 2 sound cards (PCI, and onboard). It might go without saying that I had a rocky install experience. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle blindfolded. Then I came to the Arch site and read about all the changes. Even then it was a messy experience, what with uDev simultaneously loading modules and whatnot (turns out that this can be a problem on systems with multiple soundcards or NICs). Finally after a boatload of troubleshooting, and much reading of the Wiki and the forum, I got everything setup. Queue angelic choir: I even got 3d acceleration via fglrx to work thanks to Iphitus's drivers, and posts in the forum by Cerebral.
So I'm once again a happy arch user, but I'm glad it wasn't my first arch install. My first install was ultra smooth by comparison.
If you're still reading you're probably wondering if I'm going to make a point. Well since, I'm new to the forum I figured I'd give a little background for anyone interested, and a little hope to to anyone wrestling with their install.
Actually I do have a question which I alluded to in the subject of this post. I did an FTP install from a CD I downloaded several months ago.
The Grub installer gives this message:
"Arch Linux supports two /dev device systems, DevFS and uDev. You can select the one you want by modifying your bootloader's configuration."
Obviously now only uDev is supported so that message is outdated. Plus the auto-generated fstab and menu.lst use the DevFS device paths by default.
So my question is do the newer install CDs generate fstab and bootloader config files using the uDev naming scheme or do they still default to DevFS? I realize I was using an older CD, but it was confusing not knowing that DevFS had been completely abandoned.
Also there should be an initrd line added to the autogenerated bootloader config (can't remember if it's there or not).
Maybe these issues have already been addressed in newer install CDs. Hopefully they have for the sake of first-time installers.
Whew okay I'm done, thanks guys.

jesus franco wrote:It seems you have 0.7 even though 0.7.1 fixes all those devfs,initrd issues.
Yea I think I do have the 0.7 CD. I just do FTP installs anyway so I didn't bother downloading a new CD. I was kinda guessing that the newer CD probably sorts out the uDev / DevFS issue but I wasn't sure. Nothing to worry about then!

Is the Arch install process the same as Mint's?

1.)Taking into consideation that it took me a few trys to even register for the forum (facepalms) and that I have only ever been a Mint user, how does the Arch install process compare to that of Mints?
2.)Will the install for a duel boot with Windows 7 be just as easy with Arch as it is with Mint?
3.)Are my questions an indication that I am probably not ready for Arch? (laughs)
4.)I really only use the Linux half of my duel boot when I am on unsecure networks while travleing and it makes me feel safer etc.. and when I do use it it's really just for browsing the internet. Should I just stick with Mint if thats all I really do?
I have heard only good things about Arch and if it's not going to make me want to rip out my hair, I would certinly like to reaplce Mint with Arch. Thank you for your time and help.

I came from Mint to Arch, via Debian and LFS. With regards to Grub, I'm still using the same grub installed by Mint two years ago, even though I no longer have Mint on the system. However, I do use a separate /boot partition and I'm comfortable editing grub.cfg directly when required. It does, however, mean that I never have to worry about adding a new OS for dual boot. Having said that, it's certainly not something I would suggest to anyone with limited experience.
Don't let others put you off with the "Arch is high maintenance" thing. If I'm honest, I don't find Arch significantly more high maintenance than any other Linux distro, though certainly during install and initial set up it helps if you have a reasonably good understanding of how the system is configured. Whereas the likes of Mint and other pre-built general distros have most of the system configuration done for you out of the box, on Arch you have to walk the extra mile and do it yourself. Linux is like women. The more you have to do to get them, the more you will get out of them in the end
Nevertheless, I fully agree with the "Test in a VM and get comfortable" philosophy first. This will help when you eventually come to a full install significantly. I did two test installs before a complete one, noting down where I had to pay particular attention. Also make sure that you don't need any firmware files, especially for network, when installing for real, or at least get the files and put them on a USB stick. Nothing worse than installing a system them not having any network to get the firmware required to get the network working. Catch 22 anyone?
Last edited by Roken (2012-04-23 10:46:23)

Would I be able to load Arch from wubi based grub [solved]

Hello,
This one of my experience where I am trying to see if I can load Arch (installed on partition not like lookback disk) from grub that is installed on wubi installed ubuntu file.
So far, I could install Arch on disk without installing grub and added entries as follows. But somewhere I am missing something, it is not able to boot when I select option of Arch in the boot.
Could you help me.
Few additional details required to debug this issue:
1. grub.cfg file of ubuntu grub
menuentry 'Ubuntu' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos5'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos5 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos5 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos5 01CD7BB998DB0870
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01CD7BB998DB0870
fi
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-19-generic root=UUID=01CD7BB998DB0870 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-19-generic
submenu 'Advanced options for Ubuntu' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.5.0-19-generic' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.5.0-19-generic-advanced-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos5'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos5 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos5 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos5 01CD7BB998DB0870
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01CD7BB998DB0870
fi
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
echo 'Loading Linux 3.5.0-19-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-19-generic root=UUID=01CD7BB998DB0870 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro quiet splash $vt_handoff
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-19-generic
menuentry 'Ubuntu, with Linux 3.5.0-19-generic (recovery mode)' --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-3.5.0-19-generic-recovery-fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537' {
insmod gzio
insmod ntfs
set root='hd0,msdos5'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos5 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos5 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos5 01CD7BB998DB0870
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 01CD7BB998DB0870
fi
loopback loop0 /ubuntu/disks/root.disk
set root=(loop0)
echo 'Loading Linux 3.5.0-19-generic ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-19-generic root=UUID=01CD7BB998DB0870 loop=/ubuntu/disks/root.disk ro recovery nomodeset
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.5.0-19-generic
### END /etc/grub.d/10_lupin ###
menuentry 'Linux, with Linux core repo kernel' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-true-0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641'{
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,msdos8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos8 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos8 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641 ro quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
menuentry 'Linux, with Linux core repo kernel (Fallback initramfs)' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-core repo kernel-fallback-0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641' {
load_video
set gfxpayload=keep
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root='hd0,msdos8'
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root --hint-bios=hd0,msdos8 --hint-efi=hd0,msdos8 --hint-baremetal=ahci0,msdos8 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
else
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641
fi
echo 'Loading Linux core repo kernel ...'
linux /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641 ro quiet
echo 'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
2. lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 39.2M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 19.8G 0 part
├─sda3 8:3 0 205.1G 0 part
├─sda4 8:4 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 333.7G 0 part /host
├─sda6 8:6 0 233.4G 0 part
├─sda7 8:7 0 100.4G 0 part
├─sda8 8:8 0 100M 0 part
├─sda9 8:9 0 14.7G 0 part
├─sda10 8:10 0 21.4G 0 part
└─sda11 8:11 0 3G 0 part
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
loop0 7:0 0 29G 0 loop /
3. blkid
/dev/loop0: UUID="fc296be2-8c59-4f21-a3f8-47c38cd0d537" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/sda1: SEC_TYPE="msdos" LABEL="DellUtility" UUID="5450-4444" TYPE="vfat"
/dev/sda2: LABEL="RECOVERY" UUID="78C4FAC1C4FA80A4" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="OS" UUID="DACEFCF1CEFCC6B3" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda5: UUID="01CD7BB998DB0870" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda6: UUID="01CD7BB99CA3F750" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda7: LABEL="Windows 8" UUID="01CDBFB52F925F40" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda8: UUID="cdbb5770-d29c-401d-850d-ee30a048ca5e" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda9: UUID="0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda10: UUID="2e7682e5-8917-4edc-9bf9-044fea2ad738" TYPE="ext2"
/dev/sda11: UUID="6081da70-d622-42b9-b489-309f922b284e" TYPE="swap
Any help is appreciated
Last edited by ameyjah (2012-12-19 14:20:25)

If sda8 is a separate boot partition for Arch, you don't need /boot for the linux and initrd lines in the grub entry. E.g.
linux /vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=0f490b6c-e92d-42f0-88e1-0bd3c0d27641 ro quiet
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
Removing "quiet" will result in more informative failures. (There are debug options which will get even more info.)

[SOLVED]Shift my Arch install to a new (smaller) PC/HDD?

Hey all, I've looked around all sorts of forums for the answer to this, but none of them seem to cater exactly to my need, so I'll post my problem here!
Essentially I bought a new harddive. Well actually, I bought a whole new PC-worth of parts, but it's the harddrive causing problems.
I've had this Arch install for quite a while, and as such it's pretty well tweaked and messed about with, so I REALLY don't want to start again with a clean install, so I want to (For lack of a better terminology) Copy-paste my entire Arch install into the new harddrive.
I looked into Clonezilla, but there's a slight issue... My new drive is smaller than my old one. I know this was a dumb mistake on my part, but really I don't need anything bigger (Even with a load of movies, VM's and Wine games that can easily be deleted I'm only using 60-70GB of drive right now) And the only reason I really needed a new drive was because the new motherboard doesn't have an IDE slot, and my old drive is an IDE (I know there's adaptors for that, but they sound a bit dodgy at best)
My current partitions on my drive are also numbered a bit funny, which I think is where this went wrong when I attempted it, due to me distro-hopping a bit before landing on Arch.
So, is there an easy way to go about this, that I'm overlooking? Are there more config files that I should have editted (All I did upon clonezilla-ing the main partition was change the grub menu.lst file to say sda1 instead of sda3, and the same in fstab)
What I tried first time round, was to use Clonezilla, and only clone my /dev/sda3 partition (That's the one with Arch installed, sda1 is just an empty box that I occasionally store junk in) And this put a partition on the new drive, sda1, which was the reason for editting the menu.lst/fstab.
I then (Upon the above failing to boot) used GParted (Using a Mint LiveCD) To shrink my partitions down so they're approx. 65GB each (My current drive is 200GB, split equally in half, and my new drive is 160gb) Hoping Clonezilla would believe my drive was only 130GB (This still didn't work, it still told me the destination drive's too small)
Is there anything else I can do that I'm missing?
Last edited by Reded (2012-07-15 17:12:58)

Phew, thread is solved!
To R00KIE, your post actually helped me quite a lot - It turns out I was missing installing grub + regenerating initramfs
So how I did it:
GParted the new drive so it had a filesystem
Boot from a Ubuntu LiveCD,
mount both drives
copy-paste drive-to-drive (literally... used the cp command)
chroot into the new drive
adjust fstab/menu.lst
grub-install /dev/sda
mkinitcpo -p linux
reboot
PROFIT!
You're right ROOKIE, that whole process was far simpler than some websites make it out to be Thread closed!

[SOLVED] Triple Boot on Macbook 5,5 kills my arch install

I am currently trying to get a triple boot working on my mid 2009 macbook pro. I have 3 seperate partitions set up so that i can just launch the OS's with rEFInd.
Problem is.. as soon as I get all of them installed and up and running. I will try to boot cycle all of them to make sure everything is working as planned.
i boot OSX, everything is good
i boot Windows 7, again good to go.
as soon as i boot arch AFTER windows it kills the install it seems. the system will lock up at
starting version 217
/dev/sda6: recovering journal
/dev/sda6 clean, XXXXXX/xxxxxx files, XXXXXX/xxxxxx blocks
I am not quite sure how to find a log or anything since i cannot even boot into the system.
it ONLY happens after I boot into windows.
Already tested my ram per someone elses advice. everything turned out ok with that
the arch install works great if i only boot osx or arch.
I am not using bootcamp
i could chroot in and look for the log im just not sure where it would be.
i will gladly post that as well if i can get the location
Last edited by BoomZooka (2014-12-08 07:07:01)

ended up finally figuring out the issue
Figured out I couldnt see what was going on was, because I had a kernel parameter set as quiet for some reason. So it was not showing me anything which led me to run across a blog online that described system lockups at boot.
Added this to the kernel boot parameters in my grub.cfg on the linux line. After I did that everything booted like normal.
nomodeset reboot=pci
credits to http://dreamtimecircles.com/2013/10/06/arch/

INSTALL ARCHLINUX (new installation system by Arch Install Script)

After many failed installations, I've resolved and written a mini-guide how to do an easy installation of Arch Linux. I've added it to Manualinux on point 44b.
However, I report it below, maybe could be useful to someone:
44b)INSTALL ARCHLINUX (new installation system by Arch Install Scripts)
Choice if install ArchLinux 32 or 64 bit, following type these commands:
-loadkeys it (choice your language)
-Use cfdisk to create your partitions
cfdisk /dev/sda o /dev/sdx
-Format Partitions Using mkfs and Create Swap
mkfs.reiserfs /dev/sda1
or
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkswap /dev/sda2
-Reboot system with installation cd
reboot
-Mount Partition:
cd /
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
-Make and mount swap partition:
swapon /dev/sda2
-Active wireless or ethernet connection
wifi-menu (choice your wireless connection, I suggest your to disable temporarely your password on router-modem)
dhcpcd (attach ethernet wire)
-Install Base System:
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel
-Install Grub2:
pacstrap /mnt grub-bios
-Install Syslinux:
pacstrap /mnt syslinux
-Generate fstab:
genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
-Login to arch-chroot:
arch-chroot /mnt
-Install package wifi-select
ip link set wlan0 up
pacman -S wifi-select
-Configure Network:
vi /etc/rc.conf
add interface="eth0"
add interface="wlan0"
-Edit Hostname:
vi /etc/hostname
and add desired hostname
-Set Timezone:
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Rome /etc/localtime
-Generate Locale:
vi /etc/locale.gen
enable:
it_IT.UTF-8 UTF-8
it_IT ISO-8859-1
it_IT@euro ISO-8859-15
-Execute locale-gen on shell:
locale-gen
-Configure Kernel:
mkinitcpio -p linux
-Configure Bootloader:
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
grub-install --recheck /dev/sda
-Set root password:
passwd root
-Exit from arch-chroot:
exit
-Unmount Partition:
umount /mnt
-Reboot your system
reboot
-If ethernet wire is attached:
dhcpcd
-If you want configure wireless network:
ip link set wlan0 up
wifi-select (if you have not password on router-modem)
pacman -Syu kde wicd wicd-gtk (insert kdm wicd in /etc/rc.conf)
reboot system and configure your router wireless/wifi connection
Reinsert wireless password on your router/modem
Last edited by Pantera (2012-09-17 20:14:31)

You don't need to install both grub and syslinux. You configure grub in "Configure Bootloader" so this step is unnecessary:
-Install Syslinux:
pacstrap /mnt syslinux
This next step doesn't configure the kernel, it creates an initramfs (see the Beginners' Guide):
-Configure Kernel:
mkinitcpio -p linux
Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2012-09-17 20:28:58)

Boot partition corrupted on encrypted install, trouble repairing GRUB

Long story short, my boot partition got thoroughly messed up. I have an encrypted install with luks and dm-crypt. I have tried many guides for fixing grub and none are working.
Here is where I'm running into trouble:
I've booted an arch install cd, modprobe'd dm_crypt, mounted my encrypted root with cryptsetup, run arch-chroot, mounted the boot partition to /boot, run grub-install /dev/sda, and then grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
When running grub-mkconfig I get 12 instances of "WARNING: Failed to connect to lvmetad: No such file or directory. Falling back to internal scanning." followed by "done". Upon reboot I am met with the grub prompt.
Any ideas?

OK. Well the wiki is usually more up to date and more accurate. However https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Chroot says it is OK to mount them after just simpler and safer to do so before.
I am not surprised grub is unhappy - it doesn't seem to have any entries at all in grub.cfg. I guess it doesn't even give you a menu? (I am not sure how it would make one.)
Did you remember to reinstall the linux package before generating grub.cfg? That's the only thing I can think right now would cause it to just find nothing at all. I've seen it generate entries which wouldn't work but it is acting as if there is nothing there whatsoever. What is the contents of /boot? (Not everything under /boot/grub. Just the top level.)
EDIT: I only asked what happened to /boot in case it suggested any deeper problem. "Corruption" could mean hardware failure, for example. Just wiping it is not that bad . Seen much worse lately, anyway. (You could have run it on / or /home, after all.)
Last edited by cfr (2013-07-31 02:06:39)

Copy my arch install from one HD to another HD, as is...

Is there a sure fire tutorial/way to copy the contents of my arch install as is on my one HD to the bigger faster other HD.
Yes, I have searched and read some articles. But, I have also in the past followed the advice of some tutorials and found myself knee deep in a huge pile of ****. So, I am asking if anyone has tried this personally on here and what was there method of madness. Please DO NOT forget to leave out important steps. The one I could think of recently was when I tried to resize my ext3 partition and the tutorial forgot to mention that I shouldn't re-write the FS once I re-created the partition. <-- yes I know idiot mistake. Lesson learned!
Thanks in advanced for any help you can offer me.
Last edited by jacko (2008-01-04 16:38:10)

I just boot using Arch install CD (with arch root=/dev/sd[xx] option) and then run mkinitcpio -p kernel26 and grub-install /dev/sd[x])
Wanna explain this a little more in depth, where do I add the option to boot arch with root=/dev/sdxx? I only used the LIVE CD once before, not to familiar with it. Just covering all my basis as well.
In the meantime I will get started on the rest of this procedure. Thanks for the link, seems to be pretty straight forward. I also like the idea about doing it from LIVE CD session, this way I know exactly what is getting copied over. Makes me feel a little better about this process.
Boot Arch Linux CD
As you follow these directions, you may find the Official Arch Linux Install Guide helpful as well. In addition, a printable copy is available.
Insert the CD into your CD-ROM drive and boot from it. You may have to change the boot order in your computer BIOS or press a key (usually F11 or F12) during the BIOS phase.
Some useful options when booting off the Arch Linux CD:
* ide-legacy if you have trouble with IDE drives
* noapic acpi=off pci=routeirq nosmp if your system hangs during the boot process
* memtest86+ if you want to check your memory for errors
* lowmem is useful for older machines. It requires only 96MB of system RAM vs 256MB for the normal install
Choose "Arch Linux Installation / Rescue System". If you need to change the boot options press e for editing the boot lines. The system will now boot and present a welcome text with some explanations when ready.
I answered my own question... thanks arch wiki!!!
Last edited by jacko (2008-01-04 20:23:07)

[solved] /boot/grub/grub.cfg installed as /boot/grub/grub.cfg.pacnew

Hello there,
With the latest update of grub-common I got the following message:
( 3/15) upgrading grub-common [################################################################] 100%
warning: /boot/grub/grub.cfg installed as /boot/grub/grub.cfg.pacnew
However, should I reflect the changes of grub.cfg.pacnew or simply ignore it because grub.cfg is generated automatically?
Last edited by orschiro (2013-05-29 05:08:19)

koz wrote:
cfr wrote:
Natanji wrote:I just broke my system with this, so I think the package should *at least* post a notice to the user asking him to run "grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg" - or simply doing so post-installation, even. I know, my fault, but it's still really easy to overlook...
Since automating it would make it virtually impossible to maintain a manually configured grub.cfg, I disagree. Arch does not do that stuff automatically. Even for those who do not hand edit the config file, it is likely to break things if people have more complex setups. (For example, in some cases, grub will not find an OS unless the partition is mounted and it might not be mounted.) Actually, not even Fedora does this automatically although I suspect that is considered a bug.
As for the warning, pacman does warn you. It tells you it has installed a *.pacnew file. That tells you two things: (1) you needed to customise the previous default config, and (2) the default config has changed. That copying the pacnew over your old config will break things is standard: blindly copying *any* pacnew over your old, customised file will break things. I agree that it breaks things in a bigger way in this case but the principle is exactly the same. That is not to say that I think a reminder would be out of place - other boot loaders'managers do post such messages. But being told about a pacnew or a pacsave file *is* notification from grub that user intervention is required and this is usually because somebody who knows the system and customisations made previously is required to adapt the changes to accommodate the update. i.e. it is usually because blindly overwriting stuff is very likely to break things.
It is automated! WTF?!
Not really. One can hand edit grub.cfg and the package does not interfere with that.
This is what pacman threw out at me:
warning: /etc/default/grub saved as /etc/default/grub.pacsave
warning: /boot/grub/grub.cfg saved as /boot/grub/grub.cfg.pacsave
( 1/11) upgrading cgminer [#######################################] 100%
( 2/11) upgrading e2fsprogs [#######################################] 100%
( 3/11) installing grub [#######################################] 100%
Copying /boot/grub/grub.cfg.pacsave to /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Is this intended??
It, thankfully, didn't break anything but this isn't what should have happened. I am sure it will ruin someone's day.
I agree this is strange. I have no idea why it moves your old config to a .pacsave and then copies that .pacsave back to grub.cfg. Effectively what it does is just make a copy of your config as .pacsave but I don't know why it does that.
It is in fact quite unlikely to break anything since it is very likely that an existing grub.cfg will work with the new version of grub. Obviously people should check but if somebody doesn't it is not likely to do any harm. I am not sure what you did to break your configuration but I doubt that you copied grub.cfg.pacsave to grub.cfg.

Trying to add Arch to GRUB2 with GRUB Customizer

Ok, I have GRUB2 and I installed Arch and now I'm inside my Mint 14 environment using GRUB Customizer trying to add Arch to Grub. How do I do that?

clfarron4 wrote:
Last time I tried doing this in ANY Ubuntu-based distribution, os-prober wouldn't pick up ArchLinux at all, regardless of whether Arch was mounted or not (rendering shulamy's question pointless). I do note that os-prober in Ubuntu would pick up Windows, regardless of whether the Windows partitions were mounted or not.
For these situations, the options I would say to you are EITHER:
1) Write the Arch entry manually into /etc/grub.d/40_custom on Mint; OR
2) Install Mint's grub onto the Mint partition, not the disk, install Arch's grub to the MBR/disk and chainload from Arch's grub into Mint's.
[As a side note, this seems to be a bug with Ubuntu's implementation of os-prober. In Fedora, Arch, Gentoo and so on, os-prober will quite happily find any and all installations of Arch.]
Wouldn't it be better in this case not to install Ubuntu's version at all and to just use Arch's? Why use one grub to load another, especially when grub really does not like being installed to a partition?

[Solved] Install Syslinux over Grub ?

Hi ! The title says what I want, I tried those two bootloaders inside a virtual machine, and I prefer much more the easy-to-read Syslinux configuration file.
The problem is that I already have GRUB installed on my Arch. The question is : How do I get rid of it ? Simply uninstalling the GRUB package and install Syslinux over GRUB in my MBR would be enough ?
Thanks in advance for the answer
Alexis.
Last edited by Alexis (2013-08-09 09:54:32)

jasonwryan wrote a nice piece about switching to
syslinux. It should still be relevant now.

Arch Install - Stuck in GRUB

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for