Manjaro not booting again

Technical Issues and Assistance
#1

I've just finished installing Manjaro completely from a fresh install, on a brand new hard drive entirely following the default install procedures. I've carried out no console commands at all, simply installed some standard software (all with several hundred, if not thousand users) and all from the package manager. Beyond that (and changing the look and feel of the desktop) I've done nothing else.

I've rebooted several time successfully during this process.

I just booted Windows (on the other hard drive) to do some work, restarted and now Manjaro does not appear on my boot menu (just the name of the hard drive it's on. When I boot to that hard drive the machine just reverts to Windows as if there were no bootable media.

I know you must hear this all the time from relatively new users, but I'm almost certain I haven't done anything to this set up that isn't completely normal use. And It was working fine prior to this (including shutting down and restarting).

If there's something wrong that I'm not aware of, I'd be grateful for any assistance. If not then I guess I need to know how one goes about reporting a bug.

Thanks

#2

Did Windows happen to update while you were using it?
Is fast boot/Secure boot off? (You said you've installed and booted already but might as well ask)

Would you mind posting your inxi -Fxxxz? Be sure to use the </> button or ``` before and after so it's formatted for easy reading.

Also might want to read over:

Some things to double check:

3 Likes
#3

you can thank windows for that. use a manjaro usb, when you get to the grub screen of the usb you can choose "detect bootloaders", after manjaro is booted.
sudo update-grub.

otherwise you can select manjaro as the first bootloader from bios

2 Likes
#4

No - I've disabled windows updates completely (have done for months, still on 7).

Yes.

I can't boot to the system. Is there some other way of accessing the information you need?

I will look over the articles you cited, thanks.

#5

Trying it now...

#6

Live usb. But @dglt's got you. :smiley:
I was in a hurry typing. My coffee was calling to me. :wink:

#7

No joy. Detect bootloaders just brings up "No EFI bootloaders detected"

#8

Can you run the live usb and get the inxi -Fxxxz?
Not sure if you're on desktop or laptop or how many drives you're working with.

#9 
System:    Host: manjaro Kernel: 4.19.13-1-MANJARO x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.2.1 Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.14.4 
           tk: Qt 5.12.0 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: Manjaro Linux 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: P8Z77-V PRO v: Rev 1.xx serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: 1805 
           date: 12/19/2012 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard K360 serial: <filter> 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-3450S bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 9 L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 22476 
           Speed: 1605 MHz min/max: 1600/3500 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1605 2: 1605 3: 1605 4: 1605 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: ASUSTeK P8H77-I driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0152 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.3 driver: intel unloaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa 
           compositor: kwin_x11 resolution: 1280x1024~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Desktop v: 4.2 Mesa 18.3.1 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.13-1-MANJARO 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579V Gigabit Network vendor: ASUSTeK P8P67 Deluxe driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: f080 
           bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:1503 
           IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 5.24 TiB used: 90.8 MiB (0.0%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sde type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Cruzer Blade size: 7.45 GiB serial: <filter> rev: 1.01 
           scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sdf vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 500GB size: 465.76 GiB speed: 1.5 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           rev: 2B6Q scheme: GPT 
           ID-3: /dev/sdg vendor: Samsung model: SSD 840 Series size: 232.89 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           rev: 6B0Q scheme: MBR 
           ID-4: /dev/sdh vendor: Toshiba model: DT01ACA100 size: 931.51 GiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 7200 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: A750 scheme: GPT 
           ID-5: /dev/sdi vendor: Seagate model: ST4000DM000-2AE166 size: 3.64 TiB speed: 3.0 Gb/s rotation: 5980 rpm 
           serial: <filter> rev: 0001 scheme: GPT 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 5.61 GiB used: 90.8 MiB (1.6%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: 27.8 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Info:      Processes: 198 Uptime: 2m Memory: 7.48 GiB used: 530.3 MiB (6.9%) Init: systemd v: 239 Compilers: gcc: 8.2.1 
           Shell: bash v: 4.4.23 running in: yakuake inxi: 3.0.28
#10

one of these drives is not like the other, one of these drives does not belong. :smirk:

what is installed on this drive? :point_up_2:

your other hard drives have a GPT/uefi partition table, but this one is MBR/bios. is this where you installed manjaro?

if you boot manjaro's install usb in UEFI mode, it installs as UEFI with a GPT partition table.
if you boot in legacy, it installs as legacy bios with MBR partition table.

1 Like
#11

No, this is the drive that has windows on it, has had for six years at least.

#12

And where/what is sda, sdb, sdc, sdd?
You have up to sdi? 9 drives? How many OS's? Tell us. Important.
Yank out all irrelevant non-OS drives and tell us what are the drives/partitions/OS's.
Your windows in bios-legacy and you install manjaro in uefi? (that's what you said, I think)
And you cannot detect manjaro efi bootloader that you installed in uefi?
You sure you installed manjaro in uefi? You sure you boot live media in uefi?

Windows, you say is msdos and sde and it is in bios-legacy?!! It is not sda?
How can it boot ? Do you select that drive at bios setup (in bios-legacy) to boot windows then?

After yanking out plenty drives, boot up live manjaro (in uefi if you installed manjaro in uefi) and at terminal PRINT out
(1)

sudo parted -l

explain drives and partitions (OS, /home, whatever..)

(2)
and use file manager to go to manjaro installed OS and print out /etc/fstab

People, it is not easier to have many drives (unless you're petsam - still not easier, just the same as having 1 drive)

2 Likes
#13

In Archlinux is a limitation described which could be relevant here:

Bootloader UEFI vs BIOS limitations

Most of the linux bootloaders installed for one firmware type cannot launch or chainload bootloaders of the other firmware type. That is, if Arch is installed in UEFI/GPT or UEFI/MBR mode in one disk and Windows is installed in BIOS/MBR mode in another disk, the UEFI bootloader used by Arch cannot chainload the BIOS installed Windows in the other disk. Similarly if Arch is installed in BIOS/MBR or BIOS/GPT mode in one disk and Windows is installed in UEFI/GPT in another disk , the BIOS bootloader used by Arch cannot chainload UEFI installed Windows in the other disk.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dual_boot_with_Windows#Bootloader_UEFI_vs_BIOS_limitations

#14

sda, b, c, d are all drives added by a card reader that I've had installed on the computer for years. I just reads sd cards (of different sorts), but it seems to permanently assign them drives, always has done.

Two. Windows 7 and Manjaro 4.19. Both on SSDs. One backup disk hard drive, and one disk hard drive with all my films on it. I wanted a larger SSD, so bought a new one at the same time as moving to Linux. The idea is to drop Windows entirely and use the othe SSD as a spare, don't need it really.

Correct. Installed windows years ago.

Correct, and yes, I'm pretty sure as I've installed it twice now, and booted to the live USB a dozen times, so I'm as sure as I can be that I'm booting to/installed to UEFI.

BIOS keeps changing the boot order. and the drive letters (sd[x]) seem to reflect this. Windows used to sda. Then I installed Manajro, and that was sda. After it failed to boot, I went into the BIOS and the drive that has Manjaro on it has been relgated to a lower position.

Just going to try your suggestions now, but thought I'd get these answers to you first.

Thanks.

#15

This sounds really promising, but could it explain why Manjaro has bboted fine (and then Windows booted fine)...for a while? Is this the sort of thing that might build up trouble? I have booted both OSs fine at least three or four times during the setting up.

#16

Sorry for the additional post, but I'm not immediately sure how to do this. Do I follow the chroot instructions given me in a previous topic to get to the installed OS? Because, if so, chroot (nor manjaro-chroot) didn't work, neither offered me my main partition as an option - see https://archived.forum.manjaro.org/t/mhwd-chroot-not-recognising-efi-partition/91964

#17

Try mhwd-chroot

#18

Wollie is generally correct.
Mentioned countless times

if gpt use uefi
if msdos use bios-legacy
do not mix gpt and msdos
do not mix uefi and bios-legacy

exceptions apply - to the brave or foolish

I read somewhere you had problems chrooting.
Just boot up the livecd OS (I read somewhere you have problems booting live OS, but I read, I think, you solved it by disabling secure boot) and use the file manager of that booted live OS and go to the installed manjaro partition (not live OS) and peek into its /etc/fstab. PRINT that out for us.

You don't have to chroot. It is more difficult and may cause some issues if not done properly.

1 Like
#19

If you have not invested already too much time in fine tuning of your Manjaro installation I would recommend to reinstall it in BIOS mode. Then you can use GRUB to boot both systems and not enter your PC-Bios to switch between the systems.

#20

Wollie is again generally correct.
But must add that it is important to 'create partition table' (msdos for bios-legacy) before doing the installation. I also suspect that we should not use 'erase disk' at the installer as (I suspect) this clears the partitioning table.

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