I've installed Arch Linux on to a USB stick. The stick is partitioned as GPT, and there are two partitions - an EFI boot partition, formatted as FAT32, and a boot partition formatted as EXT4.
When I insert the USB stick into my (Lenovo Z50-70) laptop, it boots to the GRUB boot menu, and everything is fine. However, when I try it on an older machine - a Viglen omnino, I get a black screen with the word
GRUB _
on it, where the underscore after GRUB
is blinking. If I press any key, this disappears and the computer boots into Windows 7.
Here is the BIOS boot menu for the Viglen, together with all the options I've selected:
Boot menu type [Advanced]
Boot Drive Order [SanDisk Cruzer E]
[SATA: WDC WD3200]
[SATA: Optiarc DV]
[IBA GE Slot 00C8]
Boot to Optical Devices [Enable]
Boot to Removable Devices [Enable]
Boot to Network [Enable]
USB Boot [Enable] -- Note: changing this causes boot to Windows
Boot USB Devices First [Disable] -- Note: changing this setting does nothing
UEFI Boot [Enable]
The SanDisk Cruzer is the USB drive I am trying to boot into. I think it must be a BIOS problem because it's all working fine on my computer. The USB stick boots in UEFI/GPT mode, which should be fine on the Viglen, since it has a UEFI Boot option (see above). My laptop is 64 bit, while the Viglen is 64 Architecture capable.