well - given i've installed arch several times with different setups all resulting in bootable systems ... and the fact that when following other instructions the result was different ... the most likely cause was user error - either by doing something in a not correct order or not do required steps at all or executing wrong commands with wrong parameters

for grub on efi systems one need:
- grub
- efibootmanager

correct install command:

grub-install --efi-directory=<esp mount point> [--boot-directory=<extbootldr mount point>] [--bootloader-id=<other than default>] [--target=x86_64-efi]

where as only --efi-directory is semi-mandatory (i don't know its default from top of my head) while the other are optional unless you have a non-standard setup (the --target option became somewhat obsolete as usually the install detects the correct one - it's only required when you want to cross-install like prepare a efi grub on a legacy system or install legacy on a efi system)

nonetheless: here only the manual install guide and archinstall are supported - when you followed any other guide contact its author
(btw: as you not linked the video in question noone here can check it for any differences)

so, tl;dr: whatever it was - you did something different - and unless you can provide the exact history from boot of arch install media to reboot noone here can tell where you went wrong - although there are a few common pitfalls
also: if you're on a laptop that's not specifically designed to be used with linux chances are you ran into some quirks - as its common with laptops to go kaputt when you throw anything else at them than windows

I followed the OFFICIAL arch install guide. it worked with the video but not with the guide. The video in question is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8uMmsJQTZM . I have installed grub and efibootmgr with pacman in the arch-chroot. The command i have used is the following: # grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB and yes, i have generated the config file with  grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg  .

I formated the disk with sda1 (1gb) formatted in fat32 for the EFI partition and sda2 with the rest of the space (~200GB) formatted in ext4 for the root partition. then before going into arch-chroot i mounted them with:

mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot (created before with mkdir)
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt

i dont really know what ESP is, i get its the EFI system partition or something but i genuinely dont understand it. i assumed it was /boot since i mounted the ESP to /mnt/boot. also, grub said it installed without problems.

The PC in question is a normal PC with an msi board, a gtx 750 ti, and an i3 which i dont remember the generation.

Hope this helps to diagnose the issue, if you need any more info tell me.

Thanks in advance!

there we go - wrong order!

you have to mount root first!

in your case

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot

what happens when you do it your way:

first you create /mnt/boot in the temp fs of the install environment and mount the esp there
then you mount the new root partition to /mnt and by this you shadow the other mount
the new roit doesn't even have a /boot because you not created it yet

you always have to mount the upper one first - and then what's inside

the guide tells you exactly that:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Instal … le_systems

Last edited by cryptearth (Today 15:48:21)

Ok, i did it mounting the root first!

it didnt work... same problem as before. i followed the guide step by step. i dont get why its not working, the only thing i can think of is that the ESP that i have to put in the grub installer command isnt actually /boot...