Reboot to black screen 'reboot and select proper boot device', cant reinstall GRUB

[smps]

I restarted the computer and ended up on a black screen with the text ‘reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected device and press key’

I checked the Bios and hard disk was still the primary boot option. Tried to reboot again with the same black screen message.

I have tried to follow the instructions in

GRUB/Restore the GRUB Bootloader

with no success. And might have screwed something even more, hard to tell.

Here’s what I get with chroot

$ manjaro-chroot -a
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1.  Check your device.map.
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1.  Check your device.map.
==Mounting (ManjaroLinux) [/dev/sda1]
 --mount: [/mnt]

When Reinstalling GRUB

pacman -Syu grub

I get ERROR

ERROR: mkdir /var/lock/dmraid

Could someone give me a hand please

Here’s info on the disks and partitions:

$ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 119.24 GiB, 128035676160 bytes, 250069680 sectors
Disk model: LITEON IT LMT-12
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xa58e37ea

Device     Boot Start       End   Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1  *     2048 250069679 250067632 119.2G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EZEX-21M
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xe2f31cf8

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1        2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdc: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10EZEX-21M
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x109dbbdd

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1        2048 1953523711 1953521664 931.5G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdd: 14.32 GiB, 15376000000 bytes, 30031250 sectors
Disk model:  SanDisk 3.2Gen1
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device     Boot   Start     End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sdd1  *         64 8443023 8442960   4G  0 Empty
/dev/sdd2       8443024 8451215    8192   4M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/loop0: 90.12 MiB, 94494720 bytes, 184560 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/loop1: 1.13 GiB, 1213464576 bytes, 2370048 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/loop2: 1.84 GiB, 1972195328 bytes, 3851944 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/loop3: 858.86 MiB, 900575232 bytes, 1758936 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

$ lsblk -o PATH,PTTYPE,PARTTYPE,FSTYPE,PARTTYPENAME

PATH       PTTYPE PARTTYPE FSTYPE   PARTTYPENAME
/dev/loop0                 squashfs 
/dev/loop1                 squashfs 
/dev/loop2                 squashfs 
/dev/loop3                 squashfs 
/dev/sda   dos                      
/dev/sda1  dos    0x83     ext4     Linux
/dev/sdb   dos                      
/dev/sdb1  dos    0x83     ext4     Linux
/dev/sdc   dos                      
/dev/sdc1  dos    0x83     ext4     Linux
/dev/sdd   dos             iso9660  
/dev/sdd1  dos    0x0      iso9660  Empty
/dev/sdd2  dos    0xef     vfat     EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
/dev/sde                            
/dev/sr0           

$ df -h
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
dev             7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev
run             7.8G  146M  7.7G   2% /run
efivarfs        128K   55K   69K  45% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/sdd        4.1G  4.1G     0 100% /run/miso/bootmnt
cowspace        256M     0  256M   0% /run/miso/cowspace
overlay_root     12G  255M   12G   3% /run/miso/overlay_root
/dev/loop0       91M   91M     0 100% /run/miso/sfs/livefs
/dev/loop1      1.2G  1.2G     0 100% /run/miso/sfs/mhwdfs
/dev/loop2      1.9G  1.9G     0 100% /run/miso/sfs/desktopfs
/dev/loop3      859M  859M     0 100% /run/miso/sfs/rootfs
overlay          12G  255M   12G   3% /
tmpfs           7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs           7.8G  4.0K  7.8G   1% /tmp
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-journald.service
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-udev-load-credentials.service
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-sysctl.service
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-vconsole-setup.service
tmpfs           7.8G  2.8M  7.8G   1% /etc/pacman.d/gnupg
tmpfs           1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /run/credentials/systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
tmpfs           1.6G   96K  1.6G   1% /run/user/1000

$ lsblk --fs
NAME  FSTYPE   FSVER     LABEL            UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 squashfs 4.0                                                                   0   100% /run/miso/sfs/livefs
loop1 squashfs 4.0                                                                   0   100% /run/miso/sfs/mhwdfs
loop2 squashfs 4.0                                                                   0   100% /run/miso/sfs/desktopfs
loop3 squashfs 4.0                                                                   0   100% /run/miso/sfs/rootfs
sda                                                                                           
└─sda1
      ext4     1.0                        e1728b6d-a13d-4a3e-9981-75282cbd7f6c                
sdb                                                                                           
└─sdb1
      ext4     1.0                        ec85517a-8199-423f-be1c-2d42e427b918                
sdc                                                                                           
└─sdc1
      ext4     1.0                        4f5d1e14-9cb8-494c-86b6-ab6655bc8892                
sdd   iso9660  Joliet Ex MANJARO_KDE_2421 2024-12-16-11-21-39-00                     0   100% /run/miso/bootmnt
├─sdd1
│     iso9660  Joliet Ex MANJARO_KDE_2421 2024-12-16-11-21-39-00                              
└─sdd2
      vfat     FAT12     MISO_EFI         97A3-D79B                                           
sde                                                                                           
sr0

---

Mod edit: I've properly formatted the terminal output for you. Please see this for the future:

[HowTo] Provide System Information

This tutorial is superseded by this one. Remember all Tutorials are wiki posts that can be edited by TL2 (Trust Level 2) members and above. Welcome to Manjaro! To allow all of us helpful people on this forum TO HELP YOU, we need some basic information about your system. This probably means you described the symptoms of your problem, but now we need some more information to know where the origin of your issue is exactly. Someone else probably linked you to…

[Mirdarthos]

Perhaps this helps:

[HowTo] Resolve an unbootable Manjaro (black screen, login failed, cant boot, etc)

When we have problems gaining access to our systems it is difficult to gather information, let alone fix any problems. Here we will cover common causes and solutions to ‘manjaro wont boot’. TTY If your desktop does not load properly then you might still be able to use most, if not all, functionality by dropping to a non-graphical TTY. By default your system will have multiple TTYs, with each corresponding to an Fx key. Your desktop is assigned to one as well - most often F1. You can change…

[megavolt]

@smps

I restarted the computer and ended up on a black screen with the text ‘reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected device and press key’

Check the boot priority in the BIOS. Grub does not simply disappear. If grub was broken, you would at least get an emergency shell. In this case, the BIOS cannot find the hard disk.

[smps]

Both options failed. Could not access grub menu.

I use live usb.

[smps]

Boot priority is hard drive, removable device, cd

[megavolt]

@smps

When Reinstalling GRUB

pacman -Syu grub

Note: This doesn’t reinstall grub, it just reinstalls the package of grub. Read further…

@smps

GRUB/Restore the GRUB Bootloader - Manjaro

[smps]

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

Installing for x86_64-efi platform.
grub-install: error: failed to get canonical path of `/boot/efi’.

[megavolt]

@smps

grub-install: error: failed to get canonical path of `/boot/efi’.

You have a BIOS, not a modern EFI.

If /dev/sda1 is Manjaro, then this should be done while in chroot:

 grub-install --force --target=i386-pc --recheck --boot-directory=/boot /dev/sda 

[smps]

@megavolt

grub-install --force --target=i386-pc --recheck --boot-directory=/boot /dev/sda

…

Installing for i386-pc platform.
grub-install: error: failed to get canonical path of `overlay’.

[megavolt]

@smps

grub-install: error: failed to get canonical path of `overlay’.

Again:

@megavolt

this should be done while in chroot

[smps]

so, i would need to enter it like

sudo manjaro-chroot -a
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
grub-probe: error: cannot find a GRUB drive for /dev/sdd1. Check your device.map.
==> Mounting (ManjaroLinux) [/dev/sda1]
→ mount: [/mnt]

[smps]

grub-install --force --target=i386-pc --recheck --boot-directory=/boot /dev/sda
Installing for i386-pc platform.
Installation finished. No error reported.

promising!

[smps]

Same black screen after reboot

[megavolt]

@smps When booting the ISO, scroll down with arrow key on the grub boot menu and boot from the local disk “installed BIOS System” or what ever, instead of starting the ISO as a live session.

[smps]

No such option, only these two and an option to edit boot options.

Boot with opensource drivers
Boot with propietary driver

Both leed to live environment.

[megavolt]

@smps

No such option, only these two and an option to edit boot options.

Really?

[smps]

No such option.

Ubder the boot options there’s edit boot options, help and detect efi bootloaders.

And an option to enter boot options wit ‘e’ or grub command line with c

[megavolt]

@smps

Ubder the boot options there’s edit boot options, help and detect efi bootloaders.

Ah ok… that makes sense when you boot the ISO in EFI mode while your local installation is in BIOS mode. I guess the same happens with UEFI Settings. It tries to boot an EFI partition, but couldn’t find one, since it is pure BIOS, therefore the error message. Sorry, but this only UEFI related, can’t guide you here, since I have no idea what system you have.

[smps]

Thanks for trying, I appreciate it a lot. I reinstalled manjaro on sda.

[smps]

Just an update if anyone else happens to end up in the same hole.

The installation failed as well and it seems to be an Acer specific problem. I’m also suspicious of the encryption of the previous manjaro installment and how it might prevent fixing these things, even the formatting of the partition for new install. It is a mess.

`> The bootloader could not be installed. The installation command

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

returned error code 1.`

Here’s what to do about it (when I find motivation to care about manjaro again) Manjaro Bootloader installation error