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Easy Restore of Manjaro Grub in Multi boot system


mhbell

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As most of you probably know. Arch and most arch derivative distros Use a different grub2 which has the Intel Micro code in it and not in the OS. Because of this In my case Manjaros Grub boot loader has to be first in line. When updating on a multi boot system if Manjaro's Grub is replaced by another grub2 then manjaro won't boot unless you use Fallback mode. The arch manjaro Wiki has a long drawn out process to restore the grub boot loader. I found a faster easier way. I boot to fall back mode with manjaro and then use the cli in the terminal and use

sudo grub-install /dev/sda# whatever partion the EFI /ESP partition is on. In my case, /dev/sda2.

  This restores Manjaro / Arch Grub to the EFI and makes it #1 inline again. another way would be to use a 3rd party boot manager such as ReFind. There is another way booting up and using the GUI on another distro, but thats for another post. Hope this helps someone multi booting arch or a arch derivative.

Mel

 

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Archlinux does not use a different grub at all. They use the upstream source from the grub developers and you do not have to install any microcode if you do not want to. Arch literally uses mostly untouched, vanilla sources for their packages:

 

Quote

Simplicity

Arch Linux defines simplicity as without unnecessary additions or modifications. It ships software as released by the original developers (upstream) with minimal distribution-specific (downstream) changes: patches not accepted by upstream are avoided, and Arch's downstream patches consist almost entirely of backported bug fixes that are obsoleted by the project's next release.


In a similar fashion, Arch ships the configuration files provided by upstream with changes limited to distribution-specific issues like adjusting the system file paths. It does not add automation features such as enabling a service simply because the package was installed. Packages are only split when compelling advantages exist, such as to save disk space in particularly bad cases of waste. GUI configuration utilities are not officially provided, encouraging users to perform most system configuration from the shell and a text editor.

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_Linux#Simplicity

 

Now AUR packages can be installed on Manjaro, this is not supported by the AUR:

 

Quote

The Arch User Repository (AUR) is a community-driven repository for Arch users. It contains package descriptions (PKGBUILDs) that allow you to compile a package from source with makepkg and then install it via pacman. The AUR was created to organize and share new packages from the community and to help expedite popular packages' inclusion into the community repository. This document explains how users can access and utilize the AUR.

 

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository

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Now, Manjaro does make lots of custom changes to their packages. I am just pointing out that just because something is true for Manjaro, it usually does not reflect the same for Archlinux. 

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Well Security I have a couple of questions for you.

 

1. does not arch install the Intel micro code with grub?

2. I am not asking about a custom Grub, just the normal arch grub that would be installed when installing arch.

3. I know you are the resident Arch Expert, but have you personally installed other distros in a multi boot system on a HD or SSD and tried to boot Arch using the other distros Grub?

 

Below is a excerpt from another source. I am not the author.

Mel

Restoring Manjaro Grub after Ubuntu upgrade

 

 

On a multi-boot Linux computer where Ubuntu has already been installed, adding on Manjaro Linux installs its own version of Grub (that I’ll call Arch-Grub) that is different but compatible with that previously installed (that I’ll call Debian-Grub).

 

Updating Ubuntu to a newer version (or installing an older version) restores Debian-Grub, replacing the working Arch-Grub.  This will result in Debian-Grub showing both Ubuntu and Manjaro as options on booting.  Choosing Ubuntu from Arch-Grub works just fine.  However, choosing Manjaro from Debian-Grub will lead to a black screen with messages, e.g.:

Failed to execute /init (error -13)
… Starting init: /sbin/init exists but couldn’t execute it (error -13)
… Starting init: /bin/init exists but couldn’t execute it (error -13)
… Starting init: /bin/sh exists but couldn’t execute it (error -13)
… Kernel panic – not syncing: No working init found. Try passing init option to kernel …

… —[ end Kernel panic – not syncing: No working init found …

The reason that {Arch-Grub} is different from Debian-Grub is that it loads Intel microcode before the OS, rather than inside the OS.

Manjaro will load intel-ucode using grub.
Unlike other OS’s, it is not built into initd (initramfs) nor into kernel.
But it will load this separately (first) from /boot/intel-ucode.img

Thus, Arch-Grub does more work than Debian-Grub.  Arch-Grub will successfully start Ubuntu (based on Debian), but Debian-Grub will not successfully start Manjaro (based on Arch).  The resolution is to replace Debian-Grub with Arch-Grub to the multiboot system.



 

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Well Security you are probably right although it is hard for me to believe that all of the Arch derivatives that I have tried act the same way. I guess the only way to find out is to try and do a arch install without changing anything. If the arch install installs grub with the Intel Micro code then the problem would be the same. I have to assume you only use Arch and do not dual or multi boot other os's on your HD or SSD. Correct me if I am wrong.

Mel

 

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Security you are right. I just installed Arco Linux a Arch derivative and it gave me the choice of installing the Micro Code in grub or not. Several other Arch derivatives do not give that choice with Manjaro which does not.

Thanks for your time and info.

Mel

 

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6 minutes ago, mhbell said:

Security you are right. I just installed Arco Linux a Arch derivative and it gave me the choice of installing the Micro Code in grub or not. Several other Arch derivatives do not give that choice with Manjaro which does not.

Thanks for your time and info.

Mel

 

 

 

There you go. I do not know about the derivatives but I mostly know what happens in Archlinux.

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If it helps I have dual/multi/booted Arch with Windows 7 and several different linux distros on a UEFI system. I used rEFIND as I found it way way easier to set up than GRUB. rEFIND will also automatically find and show in the boot menu any os's you have on usb sticks if they use sytemd.

 

Hope that is of some use and belated birthday greetings to you. 😎

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4 minutes ago, abarbarian said:

If it helps I have dual/multi/booted Arch with Windows 7 and several different linux distros on a UEFI system. I used rEFIND as I found it way way easier to set up than GRUB. rEFIND will also automatically find and show in the boot menu any os's you have on usb sticks if they use sytemd.

 

Hope that is of some use and belated birthday greetings to you. 😎

Thanks, but I am aware of ReFind and Have used it in the past. I don't care for all of the Icons it displays and with 12 different Distros on my computer ReFind gets confusing. I like a list rather than Icons to choose whatever distro I want to boot.

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1 minute ago, mhbell said:

Thanks, but I am aware of ReFind and Have used it in the past. I don't care for all of the Icons it displays and with 12 different Distros on my computer ReFind gets confusing. I like a list rather than Icons to choose whatever distro I want to boot.

 

You can use it without icon if you want to. I just like the way it finds and displays usb distros plus its simplicity in use. I would find trying to manage twelve distros way way too confusing. 😲

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18 minutes ago, abarbarian said:

 

You can use it without icon if you want to. I just like the way it finds and displays usb distros plus its simplicity in use. I would find trying to manage twelve distros way way too confusing. 😲

Yes it does get confusing especially when having to Update or upgrade. I have pared it down to Mint Cinnamon Primary Distro, Siduction  Cinnamon and LXQT Scondary distro, LXLE (Light weight),  Manjaro cinnamon,  Fedora Cinnamon, Arco, and whatever Distro I am playing around with at the present time.( Pepermint) and Bodhi.

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