[solved] grub won't boot unless live cd is inserted

Hey everyone,
I'm trying to get Arch working on my home computer, however I'm having troubles getting grub to boot. After following the beginner's guide and running through the usual steps, I restarted my computer to boot into my dual-booted Arch/Windows computer. However, every time I try to boot, it fails, reboots, and tries again. Here's what I see on my screen moments before it reboots:
Loading Operating System..
Boot from CD/DVD :
GRUB loading..
After that, it reboots. However, if I insert a live CD of arch and select "Boot existing OS", I get
Booting..
GRUB Loading..
Welcome to GRUB!
and then it goes straight to grub. Does anyone know how I could best start to debug this issue, so that I don't need the live cd just to boot into grub every time?
Thanks!
Last edited by bacongobbler (2014-01-04 10:49:51)

jasonwryan wrote:
bacongobbler wrote:I have my CD set as first to boot, but that hasn't been the issue before. I've had both Ubuntu and Debian installed in this configuration and grub would boot in both cases, but not the case with arch.
And what happens if you change it?
It was a hard drive boot priority issue. It had nothing to do with the CD having first boot priority or not. I have two drives, and it was attempting to boot from /dev/sdb first, which was the incorrect drive. Switching boot priority between the two drives fixed this. I'll update the topic.
Last edited by bacongobbler (2014-01-04 10:48:34)

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(solved) Grub won't boot Vista

Hi!
Just installed Arch Linux and it is great. But after installing Arch I'm not able to boot Windowas Vista. I googled it and added Windows to /boot/grub/menu.lst. Now there is an entry for Vista, unfortunately the bootprozess fails.
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Booting `Microsoft Vista'
root (hd0)
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Error 15: File not found
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# /boot/grub/menu.lst
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# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/sda (hd0)
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# /dev/sda3 (hd0,2)
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# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+
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title Arch Linux Fallback
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Last edited by hendrikalexander (2009-11-30 19:24:34)

Remove the savedefault and see if you can boot into Vista
I don't know if this makes a diffrenence but in the wiki makeactive comes before chainloader+1
title Microsoft Vista
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makeactive
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Last edited by M177ER (2009-11-30 19:16:09)

[SOLVED] Grub won't boot into Arch...

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Last edited by PumpkinJack (2011-08-26 07:59:37)

edit:
ok here it is:
# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst
# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS
# Linux Grub
# /dev/fd0 (fd0)
# /dev/sda (hd0)
# /dev/sdb2 (hd1,1)
# /dev/sda3 (hd0,2)
# FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# | 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024
# ----+--------------------------------------------
# 256 | 0x301=769 0x303=771 0x305=773 0x307=775
# 32K | 0x310=784 0x313=787 0x316=790 0x319=793
# 64K | 0x311=785 0x314=788 0x317=791 0x31A=794
# 16M | 0x312=786 0x315=789 0x318=792 0x31B=795
# +-------------------------------------------------+
# for more details and different resolutions see
# https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GRUB#Framebuffer_resolution
# general configuration:
timeout 5
default 0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue
# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/6ab6f3ca-2c64-4264-97aa-10819e4561ed ro
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/6ab6f3ca-2c64-4264-97aa-10819e4561ed ro
initrd /initramfs-linux-fallback.img
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#title Windows
#rootnoverify (hd0,0)
#makeactive
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Last edited by PumpkinJack (2011-08-26 02:42:08)

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[SOLVED] Grub Problems Can boot Arch w/ grub edits only

I had 3 Linux OS's installed on this computer, Arch and 2 versions of Ubuntu on one hard drive.
The MBR belonged to Ubuntu, using grub2. I decided to get rid of the older Ubuntu (sda8 and 9) and add it's HDD space to my Arch home (sda12). Used the current Gparted live to modify the partitions and all went well, but of course, the numbers changed getting rid of 2 partitions.
No boot upon restart so I decided to get Arch's grub back to the MBR with the new partition numbering scheme.
Using a live CD, I used the grub shell, find /boot/grub/stage1.....etc, etc. and after a bit of fumbling, grub indicated success in the shell. When I was through though, a reboot was not successful, although the current stable grub was now written to the MBR. I edited the lines using grub edit option, and got Arch to boot, and figured out the correct partition numbers. Next I edited the menu.lst to reflect the new sda numbers.
Now rebooting results in a long delay when grub should be on the screen, and the numbers on the Arch entries reflect the old numbers still!! I double checked thinking I forgot to save the edits to the menu.lst file, but they are correct. I can boot Arch, but have to edit the lines each time.
The current partitions are as follows. I edited the terminal output to show details.
[jeff@Arch2009p2 ~]$ sudo fdisk -l
Password:
Disk /dev/sda: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000383e7
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 91201 732572001 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1 255 2048224+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 (ubuntu /) 256 1471 9767488+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 (ubuntu /home) 1472 22321 167477593+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 (arch boot) 22322 22325 32098+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 (arch /) 22326 23627 10458283+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 (arch /home) 23628 91201 542788123+ 83 Linux
I have a few questions regarding a separate boot partition for Arch.
Should the grub> root (hd0.0) command be directed to the root or boot partition.
My handy printed emergency guide says: Set grubs root device to the partition containing the boot directory.
OK.....Writing it out now, it seems clear, so I'll try reinstalling grub from a live CD.
Why does grub have incorrect partition numbers even though the menu.lst is correct?
There are only 2 OS's on this box now, and one contains grub2.
Is current grub able to interact with grub 2 if I screwed something up on the install?
Last edited by jeff story (2010-05-24 20:05:06)

OK
I managed to fix the problem of grub not reading/using the menu.lst file. Not sure WTF it was reading and where that file was located!
The problem seems to have been the most insignificant detail.
When using the grub terminal, I did not execute the quit command when I was through. I just closed the terminal and rebooted.
After repeating the following code via live CD a few times:
$ sudo grub
grub> find /grub/stage1
grub> root (hd0,7)
grub> setup (hd0)
Grub still didn't read the current menu.lst.
This morning I got things to work correctly and grub to read the current menu.lst by adding a quit command and returning to the linux shell prior to rebooting.
I used the following commands:
$ sudo grub
grub> find /grub/stage1
grub> root (hd0,7)
grub> setup (hd0)
grub> quit

[SOLVED] Arch won't boot after I created a separate /var parition

Arch won't boot after I created a separate /var parition on an existing installation.And let me confess: it was maybe stupid trying to do it on an existing install.
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Having realized I had borked my system, I removed the /var line from fstab and restored /var from the tar file I made earlier. Again I did this from a live cd. Rebooted into my arch system, and again similar issues, namely that after fsck and messages informing a few services had started, the screen keeps blinking.
The live cd I used for reorganizing my partitions was elementary OS freya. They have GParted in there. I also have an arch install iso lying aroung from May 2013. If necessary, I can download the latest version. I am currently typing from a Windows installation I dual boot from.
I don't know how to extract any boot logs as I am locked out of the system. Here is my fstab in any case:
# Filesystem information
# /dev/sda5 LABEL=fs_root
UUID=b9d739cf-fd8c-46dd-a919-bd827dc47c66 / ext4 rw,noatime,data=ordered 0 1
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# /dev/sda6 LABEL=fs_home
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I would greatly appreciate any help.
Last edited by richcocoa (2015-05-03 18:04:44)

Have you moved everything from /var to /new_var (i named it for learning purpose)? You shoud copy content from /var but not on the fly but booting from arch iso cd, and than you shoud mount your / into arch-chroot environement, mount all of your mount points and than copy content from default /var to new /var. The copying should be done with this
cp -rax
and you can add -v switch to verbose output. I have my own /var moved the same way.
The simples way is:
-boot the arch iso cd
-mount all of your mount point (i created here in this step /new_var to move /var to a new place, and this /new_var i put in /etc/fstab as /var later)
-copy /var to /new_var with -rax or -vrax (recursive, archive, this filesystem or verbose, recursive, archive, this filesystem switches)
-umount all of it
-reboot.
Last edited by firekage (2015-05-02 07:49:20)

MDD Won't boot unless CD tray is out

I've got a strange problem I've never seen before. I've got a dual gig MDD with combo drive that won't boot correctly unless the CD tray is out/ejected. If the tray is empty and closed, the system won't boot. If it's open, it does. Simple as that.
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OK, the Norton "thang" has been beaten to death...
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MacPro3,1 won´t boot Linux Live CD´s

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When i try to boot arch the grub screen comes up for a second and then my computer restarts. I followed this tutorial to the letter: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69X9ZYA41xU
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Last edited by unilx (2012-01-30 19:09:37)

Well i managed to get arch to boot by editing the /boot/grub/grub.cfg directly. For some reason, running the command grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
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set root='lvm/arch-rooti'
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set root=(arch-boot)
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set root=(arch-boot)
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[SOLVED] Grub Entry to boot via UUID

I'm trying to get my system booting by UUID but I am having issues with the grub entry as it won't boot. The following is the non uuid one that works:
# (2) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux sda5
root (hd0,4)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda5 ro
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
And below are the two that I have tried for uuid:
title Arch Linux by UUID (sda5)
uuid 857136db-0356-46bd-9fff-0126b575218b
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=857136db-0356-46bd-9fff-0126b575218b
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
and
title Arch Linux by UUID (sda5)
uuid 857136db-0356-46bd-9fff-0126b575218b
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/857136db-0356-46bd-9fff-0126b575218b
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
Can someone point out which bit is wrong?
Thanks
Last edited by morphjk (2011-10-11 04:08:53)

Try:
title Arch Linux by UUID (sda5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/857136db-0356-46bd-9fff-0126b575218b
initrd /boot/initramfs-linux.img
You may need the root (hd0,4) line as well. I think that is required to tell Grub where to find it's intermediate files. It would go in front of the kernel line.
Edit: I assume, of course, that your UUID is correct You might check that.
Last edited by ewaller (2011-10-11 03:16:48)

[SOLVED] System won't boot (boots fine in fallback mode)

HI guys,
I just rebooted my headless server for the first time in a while, but it won't boot up.
I just sits at this screen:
Please note the system does boot using fallback mode.
(also, nothing to do with the latest boot problem - systemd-sysvcompat is installed and boots fine in fallback)
Last edited by kaipee (2013-05-18 21:23:13)

That screen shot looks like its booted to me? I see a login prompt

[Solved] PC won't boot any longer...

I updated last night and since I got a new kernel (3.3.2-1), I decided to boot... But it won't boot anymore... It gets to the point where the boot menu should appear and then just stops... No error messages or anything else, just hangs there...
I am using Syslinux as boot manager and BIOS for disk access... Does anyone know of any reason this has happend?
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Last edited by bjorntj (2012-04-18 21:50:11)

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I just thought I should check if it was only me or not first... I will try different thing tonight to get my PC booting again....
BTJ
Last edited by bjorntj (2012-04-18 13:10:56)

G4 PowerBook won't boot unless I press Option key - powers off after 20secs

(Originally posted as topic "will only boot when in Verbose mode")
When booting up, my PowerBook only gets as far as the initial black screen and audio chime. After approx. 20 seconds the hard disk/super-drive dies with a high-pitched squeak, just before it was supposed to show the grey screen and then the Apple logo.
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I'm pretty sure it's not an issue with the OS.
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(I've already done all the above suggestions using Single user mode etc.)
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http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=501768
suggests using fdisk to make the boot disk 'active'.
+A common mantra provided here to newbies for setting up for installation is:+
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+Make the partition ID=AF (signifies an HFS partition)+
+Make the partition Active+
+There is a built-in Unix utility in MacOSX that can be used to set your partition "Active". It is called Fdisk+
However, when I use Fdisk my disk reports a negative size:
fdisk: 1> p
Disk: /dev/rdisk3 geometry: -5415437/4/63 [-1364690128 sectors]
However, it also does this with another 1.5TB disk I have suggesting that the size of the disk is a problem. Is there another way to make the disk 'active' as this seems to be where the problem lies.

[solved] grub won't boot unless live cd is inserted

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