[SOLVED] Removing archiso's UEFI boot failed using xorriso

I'm trying to remove UEFI boot support of the latest archiso since I have to boot the install CD on my MacBook2,1 (which doesn't support UEFI, only supports 32-bit EFI).
I follow this guide but this is the xorriso output:
libburn : SORRY : Neither stdio-path nor its directory exist
xorriso : FAILURE : Cannot aquire drive 'stdio:~/archiso.iso'
xorriso : aborting : -abort_on 'FAILURE' encountered 'FAILURE'
Can anyone help me with this?
Last edited by mirakulous (2013-05-30 09:34:04)

Hi,
as upstream programmer of xorriso i would really appreciate
to see this fixed in the wiki ... or yielding a bug report
if xorriso is to blame.
I tried the following with success on my quite outdated
GNU/Linux system:
$ wget http://mirror.de.leaseweb.net/archlinux … 1-dual.iso
# mount -o loop /dvdbuffer/archlinux-2013.05.01-dual.iso /mnt/iso
$ xorriso -as mkisofs -iso-level 3 \
-full-iso9660-filenames\
-volid "ARCH_201305" \
-appid "Arch Linux CD" \
-publisher "Arch Linux <https://www.archlinux.org>" \
-preparer "prepared like a BAWSE" \
-eltorito-boot isolinux/isolinux.bin \
-eltorito-catalog isolinux/boot.cat \
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
-isohybrid-mbr "/dvdbuffer/archlinux-2013.05.01-dual.iso" \
-output "$HOME/archiso.iso" "/mnt/iso/"
(I do not have SYSLINUX development installed, but the ISO image
bears a suitable -isohybrid-mbr template at its start. So i use
that one.)
This yields
GNU xorriso 1.3.0 : RockRidge filesystem manipulator, libburnia project.
xorriso : UPDATE : 107 files added in 1 seconds
xorriso : NOTE : Copying to System Area: 32768 bytes from file '/dvdbuffer/archlinux-2013.05.01-dual.iso'
libisofs: NOTE : Aligned image size to cylinder size by 55 blocks
Written to medium : 260608 sectors at LBA 0
Writing to 'stdio:/home/thomas/archiso.iso' completed successfully.
The original ISO reports on inquiry of its content
$ xorriso -indev /dvdbuffer/archlinux-2013.05.01-dual.iso -toc
Boot record : El Torito , ISOLINUX isohybrid MBR pointing to boot image
Boot catalog : '/isolinux/boot.cat'
Boot image : '/isolinux/isolinux.bin' , boot_info_table=on
Boot image : '/EFI/archiso/efiboot.img' , platform_id=0xEF
The repacked one reports no EFI boot image that is reachable
via El Torito
$ xorriso -indev /home/thomas/archiso.iso -toc
Boot record : El Torito , ISOLINUX isohybrid MBR pointing to boot image
Boot catalog : '/isolinux/boot.cat'
Boot image : '/isolinux/isolinux.bin' , boot_info_table=on
If this does not work for archlinux users, then please tell
me the version of xorriso that fails, the necessary preparations,
the program arguments used, and the messages of xorriso.
Have a nice day
Thomas

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] UEFI boot configuration using efibootmgr

Hello All,
I've been having a very frustrating time with efibootmgr on my HP Laptop.
I've been searching around for some information regarding the OS Bootmanager in UEFI boot and cannot find anything that works for me.
I'm trying to get efibootmgr to load the boot entries in the order that I specify, but, although it lists exactly what I want in the terminal, when it comes to a reboot, the OS Bootmanager is failing and writing new entries every boot and I cannot fathom why.
Please could someone point me in the direction of a good guide to UEFI boot/OS Bootmanager and it's configuration using efibootmgr? I have read info found in the Archwiki, but was hoping for something focussing on efibootmgr alone as a configuration tool.
Many thanks for your help,
Frazer
Last edited by frazer (2014-03-10 22:21:14)

It's likely that the firmware (or maybe Windows, if you're booting into Windows between boots and haven't mentioned that fact) is changing the boot order. Unfortunately, some EFIs do that, or worse.
I recommend you start by upgrading your firmware. (In some cases, this will wipe out all your boot entries, so be prepared.) If the problem continues, either file a bug report with the manufacturer or return the hardware for a refund and buy something else. The manufacturers have had a long enough time to work out such major problems with their firmware, and returning defective hardware is really the only thing we as consumers can do that will get the manufacturers' attention.
If you must keep the hardware and a firmware update doesn't help, you may just need to find a workaround. If you need advice on doing that, you'll need to provide more details about what your setup is -- in particular, what you want the boot manager's boot list to look like (as in "efibootmgr -v" output once it's configured) and how the firmware is reshaping that when you reboot.

Extended partition on old MBR HDD makes Windows 7 UEFI boot fail

There seems to be a bug in Windows 7 Pro x64 that prevents it from booting on a GPT partitioned HDD when the same machine also has an MBR partitioned HDD with an extended partition.
I have a UEFI bootable PC with two HDDs:
Disk 0 is GPT partitioned and contains Windows 7 Pro x64 and openSUSE systems.
Disk 1 is MBR partitioned and contains Windows XP Pro x64 systems and bootable ISO images.
Both the disks also have separate partitions for data and for booting.
They are normally booted via rEFInd on disk 0 as follows:
UEFI => rEFInd => Windows 7 or GRUB2.
UEFI => rEFInd => disk 1 MBR => GRUB4DOS.
I had previously installed Windows 7 when it was first released, but abandoned it in favour of XP and openSUSE instead. With the end of support for XP I decided to re-install W7. Before doing so I unplugged disk 1 to ensure that W7 booted completely
independently of XP. After installing W7 I installed SP1 and all the Windows updates. The new W7 system could be booted without problem via rEFInd => \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
However when I plugged in disk 1 W7 would no longer boot. It displayed the message "Windows is Loading Files" as the bar progressed twice before returning to the rEFInd menu. On selecting W7 again it presented the option to "Launch
Startup Repair", but on doing so it too just displayed "loading files" and returned to the reEFInd menu.
I UEFI booted from the installation DVD and ran Repair. When re-booted W7 presented a menu with choice of new and recovered systems, but both failed as before. Neither could be booted in safe mode. Booting directly from the UEFI firmware menu
into W7, instead of via rEFInd, gave similar results.
Investigations showed that the problem is caused by the extended partition on disk 1. If it is deleted, or just hidden by changing the partition type from 0x0F to 0x00, then W7 boots OK. Plugging in an external USB HDD with logical partitions also
prevents W7 from booting.
This all seemed to be similar to the problem described in KB979374, so I downloaded the hotfix (404153_intl_x64_zip.exe), which is supposed to be applicable to Windows 7 as well as WindowsServer 2008 R2. However when the hotfix was run it displayed "The
update is not applicable to your computer" and logged the following error:
error 2149842967 "" (Command line: ""C:\Windows\system32\wusa.exe" "<pathname>\Windows6.1-KB979374-x64.msu" ")
Is this because the version of files mentioned in KB979374 is older (6.1.7600.20617) than the version of Winload.exe in my system (6.1.7601.17556)?
According to http://www.techienewsnetwork.com/247/22/ SP1 included hotfix 979374, but it doesn't appear in the list of Installed Updates given in my W7 control panel. Should it, are hotfixes included in a service pack listed individually? If
not is there any way to tell whether or not hotfix 979374 has been applied?
How can W7 be booted without having to change the partition type code of extended partitions every time, is there a newer hotfix that will fix the problem in Windows 7 SP1?
Almost all the references I can find to this problem are at least 2 years old, which suggests it might have been fixed. Does anyone else with an up to date Windows 7 SP1 have this problem with extended partitions. An easy test is to plug in an external
HDD with logical partitions and see if W7 will still boot.
I don't want to convert disk 1 to GPT as that would make XP un-bootable. Also GRUB4DOS only supports MBR, and it is very useful for booting ISO images as well as XP.
Cheers.

Hi Wade,
To be sure that openSUSE, XP, or any other software on my PC isn't part of the problem I decided to do a new install of Windows 7 on a blank HDD. As I don't have a spare one I had to backup everything on disk 1 (MBR) and then wipe it, including the MBR,
with zeros (using AOMEI Partition Assistant).
I unplugged the original disk 0 so that the PC had just single completely blank HDD (previously disk 1), UEFI booted the Windows 7 DVD and installed W7 again. Unfortunately at this first attempt W7 partitioned the blank HDD as an MBR disk and booted
in legacy BIOS mode, even though I had booted the DVD in UEFI mode. So I deleted all the partitions it had just created and converted the disk to a GPT one.
The next time I installed W7 it was a UEFI one, with an EFI system partition. After installing SP1 and re-booting it a few times to make sure it was working OK I plugged in the external HDD with an extended partition before re-booting. The result
was exactly the same as reported above for the main GPT disk: it briefly flashed "Starting Windows" then displayed "Loading files" for a few seconds as the bars progressed; when Startup Repair was launched it failed as well.
After removing the HDD I booted the new W7 and added some missing drivers and installed all the Windows Updates, including the optional ones. Many hours later the result was a new up to date installation of Windows that worked perfectly (no errors in
any log files), with no other software on the PC. However as soon as the external HDD was plugged in it failed to boot, as described previously.
I then ran Bootrec from the DVD, trying all the commands, but the results were exactly the same: everything worked successfully but no Windows installations were found, and it didn't fix the problem.
The documentation on how to use Bootrec describes how to backup the BCD store that is on the C: drive (e.g. "ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old"). However the BCD store for UEFI based systems is in the EFI system partition, NOT on the C: drive. This suggest
that Bootrec does not apply to UEFI based systems.
Are you sure that the MBR is used when booting in UEFI mode? From what I have read in several places (not MS pages) the protective MBR on the GPT isn't used, but instead the UEFI firmware runs \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi which looks in the BCD store
in the EFI partition. Can you point me to any MS documentation please that explains exactly how UEFI booting works for Window 7, including its use of the MBR.
Do you have a Windows 7 system that can boot from UEFI when an MBR disk with an extended partition is attached. If so how is your installation different from the one I have just set up, i.e. Windows 7 installed on a PC with just
a single empty GPT HDD?
Do you work at Microsoft? If so perhaps you could find out if anybody with a straightforward UEFI booted Windows 7 has problems when an MBR HDD with an extended partition is attached.
Sorry for the delay in responding, but a lot of work was involved.

[SOLVED] Can't setup UEFI boot

Hi, I'm in the process of installing a newly bought laptop (Sony Vaio SVS1311P9EB). I'm able to boot from the install media and to install the system but when it comes to setting up the boot I run into some issues.
The HDD is formated with GPT with a EFI partition on /dev/sda3 (there is actually on on sda1 as well, but I think that one is for system recovery. It does lack the boot flag) and the arch system root on /dev/sda6, the partitions in between is used by Windows 7 (pre installed from factory). Works perfectly by the way...
The BIOS is set to use UEFI, "Boot mode" = UEFI. However even though i run 'modprobe efivars' the kernel can't detect any EFI variables, in fact the directory /sys/firmware/efi doesn't even exist.
This causes problems when I run (from the newbie install guide);
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=arch_grub --recheck
and
efibootmgr -c -g -d /dev/sda -p 3 -w -L "Arch Linux (GRUB)" -l '\EFI\arch_grub\grubx64.efi
The error both times are;
Fatal: Couldn't open either sysfs or procfs directories for accessing EFI variables
If I reboot the computer the BIOS ignores arch (not surprising I guess) and just jumps straight to Windows.
Any ideas how I can get around this problem?
Last edited by nojan (2012-11-07 22:27:12)

The module loads fine, but that directory does not get created. If I'm reading the wiki correctly that means that UEFI isn't being used, however that doesn't make any sense since the BIOS is setup to use UEFI
Edit: Found this link; http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions … 175411129/. Seems that the guys at H2O BIOS has decided to hardcode the paths to UEFI system files. Renaming the windows file solved the problem, although it is hack alert on the highest level!
Last edited by nojan (2012-11-07 20:20:24)

[Solved] x86_64 2010.05 USB boot fails at 'Select Packages'

This step always fails with the error "Pacman preparation failed!". tty7 shows the error
:: Synchronizing package databases...
error: failed to update core (no servers configured for repository)
error: failed to synchronize any databases
Now I emptied the /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist file and added few working mirrors from this link https://www.archlinux.de/?page=MirrorSt … y;sort=asc
After this I was able to do a pacman -Sy in another terminal and even upgrade pacman to 3.4.0-2. Obviously my internet connection is working at this point and pacman is working when run manually. I fail to understand why the aif installer is repeatedly failing as above. Can someone please help?
Thanks.
Last edited by mntester (2010-08-03 22:24:57)

It was the original mirrorlist that came on the distro boot image. I got the same error before modifying the file. Reading some other posts about how mirrors are not synced or unavailable could cause similar issues, I just kept 3 servers in the file that I believe are working and they are uncommented.
Last edited by mntester (2010-08-03 02:02:20)

HP ENVY H8-1414 beeps at boot up due to the lack of a UEFI boot source

I recently messed up my Windows installation, due to this I ordered recovery DVDs from HP. Following the instructions I was supplied with, I inserted the DVD into my computer to try to boot off of it. It did not show up in the list of boot sources when I went to the boot menu. I then realized that this likely had something to do with me disabling UEFI boot and using the legacy boot option, so I went into the BIOS to switch it to the UEFI boot option. Now when I turn it on all I get is 6 beeps, which is because my motherboard is trying to boot into a UEFI OS, but there is not one available. So my question is, what should I do now? I can't change it back to legacy boot since that requires Windows (you have to go through Windows to get to the bios) and I can't boot into Windows because it doesn't recognize the reinstall disk as a UEFI enabled device.

COMPUTER INFORMATION: HP ENVY PRODUCT NUMBER: H3Z00AA#ABAMODEL NUMBER: H8-1414 Frank, I do not receive ANY error messages at ANY time. The monitor never comes on. The monitor and graphics card are good as I have chacked them in another system. The MotherBoard does not have on-board video. (Angelica 1.2) I receive 6 beeps, usually indicates video, and then nothing. However, it is not a video hardware issue. I am 100% positive of this as the video card worked previously and works in another system. At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit F10 and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit F1 and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit F8 and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit F6 and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit F2 and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit F12 and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit ESC and I get 6 beeps, then nothing.At boot monitor does not turn on (I have tried multiple monitors and keyboards) I hit DEL and I get 6 beeps, then nothing. I have tried every USB port on the machine using the same combinations from above.I have tried VGA and DVI outputs.I have removed the CMOS pin from one and two and placed on 2-3 and back to 1-2 after 10 seconds.I have removed the CMOS battery for 5 minutes and then replaced. I have tried placing a UBCD disc in the DVD drive for boot.I have tried placing a Windows 7 Enterprise dvd in the DVD drive for boot.I have tried placing a linux disc in the DVD drive for boot. This has to be a bios issue, I would think. My concern is two things. First, the keyboard does not seem to stay active during boot continuosly. Therefore, I am not sure if the system is getting a key command. I have tried several keyboards and even found a legacy USB keyboard from many many years ago. Same thing with all of them. The system does not have a PS/2 port. I have also tried using several monitors pulling out a legacy 15 inch VGA monitor to a new Dell 24 inch using DVI and VGA. I know the system is not bad and there is no hardware that is bad. I know this with 100% certainty. The system worked, but the harddrive was crashing (internal mechanical issue from within the harddrive). I removed the harddrive and connected to my other system to save data before a complete drive failure. After recovering 90% of the data, the drive completely failed. Therefore, the drive was pulled from a working system.

[Solved] archiso UEFI boot doesn't work.

I just followed the instruction on https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/UE … B_from_ISO, but it doesn't work as intended. It shows just 3 menu,
Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI USB
UEFI Shell x86_64 v1
UEFI Shell x86_64 v2
I thought, the first option is the way to go, but
Error loading \arch\boot\x86_64\vmlinuz: Not found
In fact, there is no \arch directory. The iso file downloaded was not broken, so I think something's missing either in the article or in the iso file.
edit : I found that, the name of 'arch' directory was changed to something like "?????????". I don't know why, but when I changed it to "arch" again, it works like a charm.
Last edited by kreoso (2012-11-01 16:54:57)

Exactly the same thing happened to me. I think there's some filename encoding issue because I wasn't able to rename ????????? to arch, instead I moved to arch2 then renamed arch2 to arch. Happy to say that worked for me too.
I should add that the same USB stick worked first time with my laptop, it was only when trying to boot my desktop in the same way that I hit this issue, so it seems sensitive to BIOS manufacturer/version.
Last edited by malcolmsparks (2012-11-04 19:46:32)

[SOLVED] Wiki page for GPT disks and booting arch using UEFI

Hi guys, I am new to archlinux. I installed archlinux x86_64 just yesterday and I like its customisability. I also like arch wiki. Nowhere else have I seen such extensive documentation, especially about things like HAL, UDEV etc. with proper instructions. Thanks to all archers.
I have installed Archlinux x86_64 in my Dell India Studio 1537 laptop along with Windows 7 Professional x64. Both the OSes boot in UEFI-GPT setup (my UEFI is tianocore.sourceforge.net EDK DUET UEFI64 firmware booting from USB). I boot Archlinux using my own compiled grub2-bzr compiled for both BIOS and UEFI-x64. I have a 1 MB BIOS Boot Partition as required by grub2 for BIOS-GPT booting. My Archlinux system can boot both from bios and from uefi, while Windows can boot only using UEFI.
The official Archlinux installation guide talks about only MBR (or msdos disklabel) partitions and booting from BIOS based systems. With 2TB drives becoming common place and UEFI being implemented (search for Phoenix SecureCore Tiano's 1 second POST operation), I think a proper wiki page describing differences between MBR and GPT, why GPT is better, how to setup arch to boot from GPT. Another page describing steps to setup arch to boot from UEFI (either as a separate page or as an extension of GRUB2 wiki page) is also needed.
Some details regarding Pure GPT (not a Hybrid GPT/MBR setup) and/or UEFI setups :-
Partitioning tools -
GNU Parted for filesystem related tasks
GPT fdisk tool - http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ , http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/ , pacman -S gdisk (in extra repo) - for non-filesystem related tasks
util-linux-ng fdisk does not support GPT disks
Bootloader - GRUB2 - vanilla grub-legacy does not support GPT and does not support UEFI (Fedora's patched grub-legacy does support both GPT and UEFI) and syslinux does not support GPT (I may be wrong here - seems a gptmbr of syslinux does help in booting from gpt but not sure).
For GRUB2 - Need BIOS Boot Partition to embed GRUB2's core.img in GPT disks - size about 1 MB max - no filesystem
In GPT fdisk partition type code - EF02
In GNU Parted or GParted - bios_grub flag on
For UEFI-GPT booting this special partition is not needed as no embedding takes place. This is needed only in case of BIOS-GPT booting.
Incase of custom kernel configuration - enable CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION for GPT support
CONFIG_EFI for UEFI support (for UEFI even above option required)
CONFIG_EFI_VARS for UEFI Runtime Variables support (optional)
Note: Although GPT is part of UEFI specification, a UEFI system is not needed to boot from/use GPT. BIOS based GPT booting is possible with GRUB2 or Fedora's patched grub-legacy (but not vanilla grub-legacy provided by archlinux). It is also possible to boot Linux in UEFI-MBR setup (again using grub2) but I have not tried it.
Even without UEFI and less than 2TB harddrives, GPT based partitioning has many advantages - secondary GPT header and Partition table, CRC32 checksums. Unique Disk GUID and Filesystem-independent Unique Partition GUIDs, multiple primary partitions (default is 128 partitions, but it can be changed). The only problamatic OS is Windows which does not allow GPT booing unless one has UEFI based system. It allows only UEFI-GPT or BIOS-MBR setups. In linux it just depends on how the bootloader is configured - not a problem with grub2.
I also propose that incase of Auto-prepare Hard Drive, the installer default to GPT for "archlinux only" installs ( ie no dual-boot or triple-boot etc.).
I did not use the official archlinux iso but used archboot 2010.04 R3 as it gave an option of installing to GPT and also provided GRUB2 during bootloader install. I have never edited any wiki page before, thats why I request some one else to start a wiki page with the information given above.
I don't know whether this is the right place, but any Windows (Vista or 7 x64 versions) and Linux dual-boot user who has UEFI-based system with GPT partitioning and wants to get rid of Hybrid MBR setup (to boot Windows) can follow this post http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofive … hp/t186440 (outside this forum) - this link describes the way to make Windows boot natively in UEFI-GPT setup. After doing this one can install arch using GRUB2 compiled for UEFI x86_64, and Windows will also see
Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-30 19:32:48)

Welcome to arch, skodabenz! Offering documentation on third post - all thumbs up
You could start the wiki page in your user-space with what you have, and then invite others to join working on it. Just register a wiki account, navigate to the page you want to start, for example:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/User:skodabenz/GPT
and click on "edit this page".
As noted in the other thread, arch's legacy grub is patched for gpt support. I don't know about UEFI, but you can always open a bug report asking for the patches from fedora to be included.
edit: the page from Rod Smith is a great resource. I was absolutely terrified at first by all this screwed up GPT/MBR stuff when I tried triple-booting Arch, Win and OS x, but he really does a great job explaining what it is all about.
Last edited by hokasch (2010-05-21 15:44:08)

Booting Arch-ISO from USB-Stick in UEFI mode fails

Hi there,
I'm running an Asrock H77M-ITX UEFI mobo. On this system I've already installed Arch on a Samsung 830 SSD (GPT formatted) - but in BIOS legacy mode because I've written the Arch-ISO image with "dd" to an USB-Stick (and UEFI boot mode wasn't even presented at boot).
Out of curiosity I've re-formatted the stick and copied Arch-ISO following https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … B_from_ISO.
Now I could start the ISO in UEFI mode, but it failed to start gummiboot with the "No loader found. Configuration files in \loader\entries\*.conf are needed." error message, concerning a problem with gummiboot.
Following some advice on the forum, I did this:
- install refind-efi 0.4.7-2
- copy /usr/lib/refind/refindx64.efi to [USB]/EFI/boot and renaming it to bootx64.efi (i.e. replacing the original bootx64.efi from gummiboot)
- Create a new file in the same directory ([USB]/EFI/boot/) called refind.conf
- Add this to it:
textonly
scanfor manual
menuentry Arch {
loader /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz
initrd /arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
options "gpt loglevel=7 add_efi_memmap none=UEFI_ARCH_x86_64"
With this I can launch Arch-ISO from the USB-Stick in UEFI mode and I can choose Arch from rEFIND. Then Arch-ISO starts booting but it always stops at the same point with this message:
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
ERROR: '/dev/disk/by-label/' device did not show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you are finished
sh: can't access tty: job control turned off
[rootfs /]#
sdb is the USB-Stick from which I start Arch-ISO. Again - I didn't use dd to write the ISO to the stick.
Maybe this is pretty easy to solve, but I have to admit that I'm somewhat stuck
Last edited by swordfish (2012-11-19 21:31:43)

WonderWoofy wrote:See what the difference is between archiso and archboot maybe? Seriously, have you made any effort whatsoever?
Of course. Read:
The "Main Page" ( https://www.archlinux.org/ ) states:
"You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple."
"Keep It Simple". Yeah!
In line with that, the "The Arch Way" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way ) states:
"The following five core principles comprise what is commonly referred to as the Arch Way, or the Arch Philosophy, perhaps best summarized by the acronym KISS for Keep It Simple, Stupid."
The ArchWiki ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/ ) links to several other pages, such as these:
The "Forum Etiquette" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Forum_Etiquette ) states under "Ineffective Discussion":
"Arch is a Do It Yourself community" and "treat others as you would be treated; respect them and their views". I am very much a "do it yourself" person -- that's why I like The Arch Way. I also go by the Golden Rule stated here.
Now, everyone is a newbie at some time. I and other posters here are obviously newbies with respect to ArchLinux. Even experts were newbies at one time. Newbies, by definition, do not necessarily know what they're doing, or where to find information. Hence, Arch's "Beginners' Guide" and such. Hence, posts on this board from newbies asking for help.
As regards initial installation of ArchLinux, and consistent with the above, the FAQ ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/FAQ ), under "Q) Arch needs an installer. Maybe a GUI installer", states:
"A) Since installation doesn't occur often (read the rest of this article to know more about what rolling release means), it is not a high priority for developers or users. The Installation Guide and Beginners' Guide have been fully updated to use the command-line method. If you're still interested in using an installer, consider using Archboot."
So the basic installation instructions explicitly state that Archboot is not needed.
The "Installation Guide" ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide ) says nothing about either Archboot or Archiso.
The "Beginners Guide" ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide ) says nothing about either Archboot or Archiso.
The "Archboot" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot ) is consistent with the above information, because it states:
"Archboot is a set of scripts to generate bootable media for CD/USB/PXE.
It is designed for installation or rescue operation."
The "Archiso" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archiso ) states:
"Archiso is a small set of bash scripts that is capable of building fully functional Arch Linux based live CD and USB images. It is a very generic tool, so it could potentially be used to generate anything from rescue systems, install disks, to special interest live CD/DVD/USB systems, and who knows what else."
So the pages describing both Archboot and Archiso clearly state that these tools are oriented towards already-existing installations -- even though it seems that they might be used, in certain circumstances, for initial installations.
I happen to be very new at playing around with installing Linux distros (although I've used Unix/Linux as a regular user for more than 30 years), and am brand new with respect to ArchLinux. I only began playing with it this past Saturday. So I would expect a bit of useful help as opposed to "RTFM!" I will soon get past the need to RTFM for basic tasks, but I have a way to go.
The fact is that for me and a number of other new ArchLinux users, the installation guides simply do not work. C.f. my post https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=153170 . I've done a lot of googling as well as searching the archives on this board, and others have come up against the same show-stopping installation problems that I have. I and others have posted to several recent threads on this board, trying to get past the problems, so far with no success.
Now, the.ridikulus.rat had written:
"You guys are using Archboot's kernel options for Archiso. Thats the issue in both the cases."
Given that neither of these sets of scripts were used by me or swordfish, this comment is not useful.
Given the above, can you or anyone else tell us what Archiso or Archboot might do to help us with our installation problems? Also, can you tell us how we, as newbies, ought to have found out how these might help?
Alan

[SOLVED, sort of] Yet another UEFI boot issue

Hello everyone,
Let me start by saying sorry for the long (first) post.
I've ended up with a UEFI boot problem I can't solve. I've searched the forum and internet and I realize I'm not the only one who ran into problems with UEFI. Unfortunately, the problems other have had seem not similar to mine. I've spent almost 2 days now trying to figure this out, and I'm getting nowhere (though I've learnt some more about UEFI, which I guess is good). I was hoping someone here can give me some hints on how to proceed.
So lets start with the background. I recently bought a new computer (Lenovo Thinkpad Edge E530 with Windows 8) and of course I want to run ArchLinux on it (been using ArchLinux for almost 7 years now and no plans on switching). Installation went ok with only a few problems during installation that I managed to solve (or so I thought). I must admit I didn't follow the guide fully. I didn't want to remove the Restore and Windows partitions, so I figured it would be safe to reuse the existing UEFI System Partition, as long as there was enough room, which there was. Anyway, I now have a computer I can boot into ArchLinux and also Windows 8, just the way I want it, almost. There is this one final issue I haven't been able to figure out how to solve.
The problem
Whenever I reset/power on the computer, I must press Enter during the initial screen (showing a Lenovo logo, and a message about pressing Enter to interrupt normal startup). If I don't press Enter before the timeout (a second or so), the screen will go white and that's it. No beep, no message, no nothing but a white screen. A power cycle is the only way to leave this state. Occasionally the screen will be a white bar at the top and random colours below, but I'm guessing this only represents what is in graphics memory at the time (0x00, 0xFF or any other random value).
If i do press Enter however, then I'm presented with a menu where I can select what to boot; rEFInd (which is preselected) along with Windows 8 and some restore and diagnostic entries. Pressing enter will take me to the preselected rEFInd, pressing enter again (or wait for timeout) will boot linux, and I'm in. Nothing weird there. And if I select Windows in rEFInd, then windows boot, just as expected.
There is no difference whether I'm switching from Windows to Linux or Linux to Windows or just reboot the same OS I was using again. The result is the same whatever I choose to boot.
So the question is: Why do I have to select rEFInd manually and go through all these menus? Should I not be able to just power it on and let it boot the preselected rEFInd entry and continue from there, without me helping it?
Trying to solve it
Searching here and on the internet gave me some ideas on what to try, so here is a list of my attempts:
efibootmgr show me there is a rEFInd entry, and that it is the first one in boot order
I copied refindx64.efi to /boot/efi/EFI/Boot/bootx64.efi (replacing an existing entry)
I've updated the EFI firmware (from Lenovo) to the latest and greatest
One other guy had almost the same issue, but with a single boot of Windows. He solved it with Microsoft Boot Manager (there is an Automatic Repair, or something). I even dared trying this, though I must admit I was a bit hesitant about letting some Microsoft program trying to repair my computer. Anyway, it said it couldn't repair my problem, nor did it say I had one, so I am none the wiser.
None of the above gave anything.
So, that's it. I guess I can live with having to press Enter on every power up/reset, but it is very annoying having to do so, and even more so when I forget it because then I'm forced to power cycle it. I hope someone reading this can figure out what's going on, because I am clueless.
Best regards,
Johan
Last edited by 6feet5 (2013-01-08 19:03:50)

WonderWoofy wrote:@srs5694, have you thought about filing a bug report/feature request about the naming scheme here? I would imagine that something coming directly from the upstream developer would be something that they should take into consideration. Also, I imagine that renaming it to refindx64.efi kind of goes against the whole "vanilla packages" thing we tout around here... so it really makes me wonder why it is done in the first place.
I've just done that:
https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/33326
It's not been very important until recently; but I've been putting a lot of effort into the ancillary support scripts (install.sh and mvrefind.sh). They necessarily rely on the files having certain names, so installing them under other names robs users of functionality.
6feet5 wrote:I've decided to try and restore the whole unit, thinking it would take maybe an hour or two. It's been running now for almost 3 hours and only completed 20%.
Good luck with that!
FWIW, it seems that the number of EFI-related bug reports on Linux forums has gone way up recently. No doubt this is because EFI is now pretty much universal on new computers, so problems that used to affect one or two people now affect dozens or hundreds, and some of those post about them.

Using UEFI boot to override Lenovo BIOS limitation (X220)

Hi,
I purchased and installed a new wireless card (Intel Centrino N-6205) to replace the Realtek that came with my X220.
When I rebooted the system was halted by the BIOS (Unauthorized network card).
Basically the BIOS checks for a valid Lenovo signature on the card and refuses to boot.
I digged a bit and found some modified BIOSes on google, however I am not very tempted by this option.
I was wondering if UEFI boot would override this limitation.
Thanks for your replies.wE2wXQLV

UEFI will not get you around this issue. Lenovo whitelists their own wireless cards, so you cannot boot in any case with an unauthorized card. I have a Lenovo E430, and I also had that terrible realtek card. I found someone willing to help me on mydigitallife forums to modify a bios image to remove this whitelist. I got myself an Intel Centrino 6235, flashed the bios, installed the card, and I couldn't be happier with the results.
The only issue is that if there is ever a bios update where I think it solves an issue that appeals to me, I would have to get that new bios modified for me again. Though to date, I have not found any real bios issues that are worth going through this.
I linked to the thread where i found help on the Thinkpad E430 page that I wrote. Maybe you could use that as a starting point...

[SOLVED]dual boot-Failed to mount real root device

Hello,
Here is my drives partition info:
/dev/sda1 2,949,122,048 3,907,028,991 957,906,944 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sda2 2,048 901,117,951 901,115,904 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 * 901,117,952 1,925,115,903 1,023,997,952 f W95 Extended (LBA)
/dev/sda5 901,120,000 901,439,487 319,488 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 901,441,536 905,648,127 4,206,592 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7 905,650,176 1,925,115,903 1,019,465,728 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 1,925,115,904 2,949,122,047 1,024,006,144 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
/dev/sdb1 2,048 2,099,199 2,097,152 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 2,099,200 53,299,199 51,200,000 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 53,299,200 73,779,199 20,480,000 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 73,779,200 224,673,791 150,894,592 7 NTFS / exFAT / HPFS
I installed Opensuse 12.1 on /dev/sda5. It is booting with Grub, working with no problems. The computer boots directly to Grub menu.
THEN, I installed Arch linux (last release) on both sda and sdb following these mounting points:
/dev/sdb1 mounted as /boot Ext2
/dev/sdb2 mounted as / BTRFS
/dev/sdb3 mounted as /usr BTRFS
/dev/sda2 mounted as /home BTRFS
Intstallation went smooth until the end. Installed the bootloader.
Now, I am trying to configure GRUB to boot Arch.
Here is what I added on /boot/grub/menu.lst, in sda5 under Opensuse:
title Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz-linux]
root (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sdb1 ro
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
In Opensuse, i can check that vmlinux and grub/menu.lst are indeed in /dev/sdb1
My /etc/fstab is on /dev/sdb2
=============================== sdb2/etc/fstab: ==========
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nodev,nosuid 0 0
/dev/sda2 /home btrfs defaults 0 1
/dev/sdb1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdb2 / btrfs defaults 0 1
/dev/sdb3 /usr btrfs defaults 0 1
With this parameters, i got an message error when booting Arch:
Mounting /dev/sdb1 on /new_root failed: no such device.
Error : failed to mount the real root device.
So, at busybox prompt, I tried this command line :
ramfs # mount -t ext2 /dev/sdb1
Got an error : Can't read /etc/fstab
I tried too to give a uuid adress to sdb1 in my menu.lst file, but it didn't change anything, so I am sure partition number is correct.
It seems to me in fact that GRUB can't find fstab.
Two questions :
-Would it be better in fact to use only 1 GRUB file for both systems? If yes, shall I keep only the grub config from Opensuse?
-What do I wrong with Arch booting? Why can't I boot Arch?
EDIT :1- just realised there is no BOOT flag in my partiton table on /dev/sdb.
2- root is on /dev/sdb2, not sdb1.
1-I toggled my first partition bootable using fdisk
2-changed root to point to /dev/sdb2
Now booting into Arch login
Last edited by gabx (2011-11-22 22:33:09)

It was a very simple problem. I used the wrong uuid for my /
Correct entry in 40_custom is:
#!/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# 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.
menuentry "Arch Linux uuid" {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root 8516fa60-0d45-4f33-b269-817c5290f6cc
linux /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/9f32e668-2548-4ed4-a10b-3fbea66a6d95 ro vga=775
initrd /kernel26.img
Now the boot is working great. Next thing was that my /home and swap was not detected.
That was simply because /etc/fstab was still using /dev/sda etc naming. changing that to uuid solved that part as well.
To use uuid all the way and of cause the correct one solved everything
/Christer
Last edited by agkbill (2011-07-15 16:00:30)

Satellite C50-B with Win 8.1 - PXE error appeares using UEFI boot mode

I have a C50-b laptop running Win 8.1 and recently needed to boot it from a usb key so eventually found the way to do that (miss the bios first boot menu) and managed to do that.
My problem is even when I have returned to uefi and set the boot order to be local disk, cd, network it asks everytime do I want to boot for PXE IP4,IP6 then IP4 and IP6 again. I have also disabled secure boot
I think some value is missing when I switched to BIOS and back to UETI boot option but where is the laptop getting the setting to tell it to PXE/Network boot when its down the list and wake on LAN is disabled.

According to the automated support on the site I should do the following for Win 8
Switch on the notebook and immediately begin tapping the F2 key continuously.
When the system setup (BIOS) appears, stop tapping F2. Tap F9 once, select 'Yes', and press Enter.
Use the cursor keys to move to the Advanced menu.
Choose System Configuration and press Enter.
Ensure that Boot Mode is set to UEFI Boot.
Press Escape to return to the Advanced menu and choose the Security menu.
Set Secure Boot to Enabled.
Press F10 once, select 'Yes', and press Enter.

[SOLVED] UEFI-boot on Intel-NUC

Anyone got UEFI-boot working on Intel NUC?
In BIOS i have enabled UEFI and disabled secure boot.
With the latest bootable arch media it boots okay in UEFI-mode.
ls -l /sys/firmware/efi shows a list of files.
If i boot into UEFI shell v 2.0 (from the USB) i can start arch with
fs1:\EFI\arch_grub\grubx64.efi
I have followed the installation guide and created a EFI (fat32) partition on GPT.
I tried to add the entry with both efibootmgr and bcfg, but it doesn't seem like it's being read. I find the entries with bcfg boot dump, but not in intels BIOS under (boot drive order)
It only gives me "a bootable device has not been detected" on startup
Last edited by cybe-arch (2013-08-21 10:29:30)

cybe-arch wrote:
I have followed the installation guide and created a EFI (fat32) partition on GPT.
I tried to add the entry with both efibootmgr and bcfg, but it doesn't seem like it's being read. I find the entries with bcfg boot dump, but not in intels BIOS under (boot drive order)
Please tell us the exact commands you used, and the errors you get, I don't know if I have an answer after that, but now I definitely don't.

Satellite Pro C50: Installation of Win 7 using UEFI boot mode

I want to install Windows 7 Pro 64 bit on Sat Pro C50 (downgrade if you like - supplied with Win 8), but I want it UEFI booting, with GPT partitioning.
I am happy to wipe existing partitions if that solves problem.
I _have_ disabled Secure Boot.
Booting Win 8 install DVD works;
Setting CSM boot and booting from Win 7 DVD works - but this isn't what I want.
Setting back to UEFI boot and boot Win7 install media - locks up at "Starting Windows" screen.
Media _is_ good, works OK on other manufacturers' PCs.
I am not convinced this is a Microsoft problem.

Hi
On Toshiba notebooks where UEFI BIOS is available, its necessary to disable secure boot and to change the boot mode to CSM in order to boot from external sources and to install other systems than Win 8 or Win 8.1
Some workarounds in the internet describes the installation of Windows 7 in UEFI mode but I doubt this will be possible on Toshiba notebooks since the BIOS is different and modified for each notebook series.

[SOLVED] Removing archiso's UEFI boot failed using xorriso

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for