Tried what you suggested with no succes, pasted on the liveiso boot/grub but nothing different happened
i tried installing then after the bootloader error, in the termial with install-grub and it says:
grub-install cannot find efi directory
tried something to create and mount that directory but probably not doing it right
couldnt install grubâŚ
At that point, the installer isnât looking at the liveiso any more. You would need to copy the i386-efi folder to the running file system.
âCanât find efi directoryâ implies that it canât see the efi partition. This needs to be mounted at /boot/efi during manual partitioning. The EFI partition is normally a fat32 or vfat partition about 500MB, often labeled SYSTEM.
Since you were able to boot the x205ta with the liveISO, try running it and see if it works well. Try streaming a you tube video, etc.
but how do you do that?
âduringâ the installation process?
so when the installer formats the drive i can then access there and create the folder?
If you use the installler to wipe the drive, it is supposed to create all the necessary partitions and mount points.
The canât find efi directory is a different problem from how/where to add the i386-efi folder. To add that folder just start the liveISO and open the file manager. One of the folders should be filesystem. Navigate there and add the folder to /boot/grub/, creating any needed directories as required. Most likely this will need to be done in a terminal as root. Then run the installer.
As to how to partition, I refer you to the arch wiki. The installer lets you manually choose partitions which partitons to use for the installation. Iâve never used the installer to create partitions. I do use GPT partition tables which works well for uefi devices.
yes ive try that but it didnt work.
running lsblk, the root is mounted in a tmp/calamares-root-25345numbers3478
when i try to install grub through terminal after the unfinished installation i cant get any folder to be recognized as efi folder, tried the tmp one, but no, should i change the mount point of that tmp, im a little lost of how to proceed
Can you post the results of lsblk and blkid? An inxi -Fxxxza would also be helpful.
Another thought is to chroot into the installation, add the i386-efi folder and then run grub install. My concern is whether there is an EFI partition or some other problem. The EFI partition needs to be mounted to /boot/efi/ for grub install to succeed. Changing the calmares root wonât fix that, but knowing where root is matters for mounting /boot/efi.
lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
loop0 7:0 0 1.9G 1 loop /run/archiso/bootmnt
loop1 7:1 0 1.7G 1 loop /run/archiso/airootfs
sda 8:0 1 28.9G 0 disk
ââsda1 8:1 1 4.3G 0 part /run/archiso/img_dev
mmcblk2 179:0 0 29.1G 0 disk
ââmmcblk2p1 179:1 0 300M 0 part /tmp/calamares-root-scb85lpx/boot/efi
ââmmcblk2p2 179:2 0 25.9G 0 part /tmp/calamares-root-scb85lpx
ââmmcblk2p3 179:3 0 2.9G 0 part
blkid
/dev/mmcblk2p1: LABEL_FATBOOT=âNO_LABELâ LABEL=âNO_LABELâ UUID=âCA3F-186Fâ BLOCK_SIZE=â512â TYPE=âvfatâ PARTUUID=âdf23fcfd-0468-204c-a6c3-75ec80e01ed3â
/dev/mmcblk2p2: UUID=â15f36180-1127-4329-a4ae-af87d8118b87â BLOCK_SIZE=â4096â TYPE=âext4â PARTLABEL=ârootâ PARTUUID=â0e75e84b-0191-654c-b402-1e3b2ada80ccâ
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT=âENDEAVOUROSâ LABEL=âENDEAVOUROSâ UUID=â7BB6-D2A3â BLOCK_SIZE=â512â TYPE=âvfatâ PARTLABEL=âENDEAVOUROSâ PARTUUID=â0e900782-ab48-4951-b77b-b5924440f70câ
inxi -Fxxxza
System: Kernel: 5.15.5-arch1-1 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 11.1.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=(loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-linux img_dev=/dev/sda1
img_loop=/ISOs/Linux/EndeavourOS_Atlantis-21_4.iso earlymodules=loop
Desktop: Xfce 4.16.0 tk: Gtk 3.24.29 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm 4.16.1 vt: 1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: EndeavourOS
base: Arch Linux
Machine: Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: X205TA v: 1.0 serial:
Mobo: ASUSTeK model: X205TA v: 1.0 serial: UEFI: American Megatrends v: X205TA.212
CPU: Info: Quad Core model: Intel Atom Z3735F bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Silvermont family: 6 model-id: 37 (55)
stepping: 8 microcode: 832 cache: L1: 224 KiB L2: 4 MiB
flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 10671
Speed: 1217 MHz min/max: 500/1833 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1528 2: 1310 3: 717 4: 1437
Graphics: Device-1: Intel Atom Processor Z36xxx/Z37xxx Series Graphics & Display vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0f31 class-ID: 0300
Device-2: Chicony USB2.0 VGA UVC WebCam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.1:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b483
class-ID: 0e02
Display: server: X.Org 1.21.1.1 compositor: xfwm4 v: 4.16.1 driver: loaded: intel unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 361x203mm (14.2x8.0") s-diag: 414mm (16.3")
Monitor-1: eDP1 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 133 size: 260x140mm (10.2x5.5") diag: 295mm (11.6")
Drives: Local Storage: total: 58.02 GiB used: 9.68 GiB (16.7%)
ID-1: /dev/mmcblk2 maj-min: 179:0 vendor: Samsung model: MBG4GC size: 29.12 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B type: SSD serial: rev: 0x7 scheme: GPT
SMART Message: Unknown smartctl error. Unable to generate data.
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: Kingston model: DataTraveler 3.0 size: 28.9 GiB block-size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A serial: rev: PMAP scheme: GPT
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
Partition: ID-1: / raw-size: N/A size: 256 MiB used: 109.1 MiB (42.6%) fs: overlay source: ERR-102
Swap: Alert: No swap data was found.
Info: Processes: 206 Uptime: 38m wakeups: 29548 Memory: 1.86 GiB used: 1.6 GiB (86.2%) Init: systemd v: 249
target: multi-user.target tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 888 lib: 208 Shell: Bash
v: 5.1.12 running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.09
can you explain more what do you mean by chroot into the installation? because i think i tried that but the installer keeps all the root folder in that tmp, and when i tried to add something when the installer was doing its thing, i think that i crashed the installation by creating that folder on the fly
The partitions appear to be OK. Your EFI partition is mounted at /boot/efi so that is good. The error looks like the grub installer canât find the i386-efi grub modules.
Try this to see if the install otherwise succeeded.
- Boot to the grub menu using the liveUSB
- type the letter âcâ to get to a grub command line
- type
ls (hd1,gpt2) - the results should be something like
lost+found/ /boot /dev/ home/ proc/ ...
- if you see the root partition (the directories above) then type the following at the grub command line.
configfile (hd1,gpt2)/boot/grub/grub.cfg
- with luck, this will take you to the EndeavourOS grub menu of your install. Pick an option and boot to the desktop
- At the desktop use lsblk to check the mount points.
- Now it should be possible to put the i386-efi folder under /boot/grub/
- Then open a terminal and type
grub-install
- if there were no errors you are finally done.
Itâs late here, Iâll check back in the morning.
1 Like
correction⌠the manjaro calamares also fails even though i followed up a tutorial for installing on uefi32
Well thatâs not good! That likely means there is some new problem since the tutorial was written. Old techniques donât always survive the evolving nature of Linux.
One thing to check is that the boot flag is set for the mmcblk2p1. This can be done in gparted. Many people claim setting this flag is not necessary, but⌠On my similar system, both the esp and boot flags are set and the partition label is SYSTEM.
Another tactic would be to install a different distro that does support uefi32 such as MX-Linux. Re-use the MX-Linux partitions to re-install Endeavour. When grub-install fails, it wonât matter because the MX-Linux bootstrap will still load Endeavourâs grub because it is still pointing to the same root partition. Donât let the installer format the partitions when re-installing, otherwise the UUIDs will change. If that fails too, Iâm out of ideas.
It might be helpful to look over this link for majaro_KDE_asus_X205TA. This is more recent than the tutorial and it is specific to your device. The Manjaro bootstrap would be able to load Endeavourâs grub menu⌠Google is littered with how to install linux on uefi32, though most threads are now too old.
1 Like
ok, but haw do you re-use the partition without formating them?
The installer should offer an option to do something else when it asks about using the disk. Something else (bottom option) leads to manual partitioning. All you have to do is to set the mount points for each partition. Uncheck the format check boxes.
mmcblk2p1 mounts at /boot/efi
mmcblk2p2 mounts at /
mmcblk2p3 should be set to swap
ok thanks.
on the previous link it says:
Before starting calamares from the live-usb session modify the /usr/lib/calamares/modules/bootloader/main.py file and change this line to: check_target_env_call(âŚ[grubinstall] --target ⌠, ââno-nvramâ, ââremovableâ])
the "target ⌠" should be like that with ⌠or should i put a something boot/efi ?
Iâm guessing that the goal is to add the --no-nvram and --removable arguments to what is already there. Iâll admit itâs a little vague and Iâm not sure what to recommend. grub install will default the boot-directory to /boot/efi.
1 Like
ok, trying now 
Noup⌠same thing⌠i also tried with rebornOs and althought it doesnt use calamares the installation completes but on reboot goes to grub command line
probably wont try the thing of installing mx and then endeavourOS, because i want to have a cleaner way to install if I need to format and install again.
Just to give more info I was trying the manjaro i3 edition, perhaps theres something different there
Thanks a lot for the help but until the arch uefi32 bootloader process gets fixed or improved wont consider it cause its very tedious
anyway still using endeavourOs on another machine and going great there.
Have a nice day jbMacAZ!
1 Like
Indeed. Installing linux on âunsupportedâ hardware is its own hobby!