Arch Linux

TheAmazingGymShorts

Member

From: Pennsylvania

Registered: 2013-09-08

Posts: 12

Installation CD Fails To Boot

Hello everybody!

Well long story short, I had arch linux installed for a little over a year.  I since then have migrated distros twice for shits and giggles, though, it seems I am not able to re-install with the installation image.  It boots from the USB/CD just fine, but then I select the x86_64 option, and after it finishes what it's doing on the bottom of the screen (sorry, not extremely well versed in this and going off of memory) my computer shuts off and reboots back into the OS installed (which at the time was Ubuntu 14.04).  I since wiped that computer's hard drive to see if that would fix any issues, though so far it hasn't. 
I've had arch installed on that very computer multiple times, and to my knowledge I haven't changed anything about it.  So I just wanted to ask what would be causing this, and if you kind gents could help me fix it.

Thank you in advance!

sugartest

Member

Registered: 2014-07-09

Posts: 38

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

Hi,

I since wiped that computer's hard drive to see if that would fix any issues

First the thing I don't get is why you wiped your hard drive instead of re-doing the bootable USB. Sometimes (already happend to me twice) dd s**** his pants and USB doesn't boot properly (a lot less than UnetBootin that just can't boot an Arch). However if you had already successfuly installed Arch on that very laptop of yours a couple time means you probably shouldn't have wiped the HDD and do the following(explained here).

Restore the USB drive:

dd count=1 bs=512 if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx && sync

Create a new partition table using cfdisk:

cfdisk /dev/sdx

Format the USB drive:

mkfs.vfat -F32 /dev/sdx1

or for ext4

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx1

and if you want to rename it (absolutely not necessary)

dosfslabel /dev/sdx1 <your_usb_name>

Then you can then redo the USB with

dd bs=4 if=/path/to/archlinux of=/dev/sdx && sync

---

An Arch Linux enthousiast and a Linux fan in general, mostly interrested in command line use, security issues, code learning and networks.

TheAmazingGymShorts

Member

From: Pennsylvania

Registered: 2013-09-08

Posts: 12

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

Well the thing is, I know it's not the USB because I have also tried a CD that I used to install on a different computer and that one failed as well.  I also went to test other liveCD distros (to see if any others would cause this problem), so far elementary and deepin work fine, but opensuse causes a computer restart as well.

sugartest

Member

Registered: 2014-07-09

Posts: 38

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

Do you have any log output ?
You can get them with

journalctl -xn

if I'm not mistaken.
You might learn more about your problem looking into this log.

---

An Arch Linux enthousiast and a Linux fan in general, mostly interrested in command line use, security issues, code learning and networks.

TheAmazingGymShorts

Member

From: Pennsylvania

Registered: 2013-09-08

Posts: 12

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

Do you have any log output ?
You can get them with

journalctl -xn

if I'm not mistaken.
You might learn more about your problem looking into this log.

Well the thing is, it reboots before I can go anywhere.  As soon as I select the architecture.

sugartest

Member

Registered: 2014-07-09

Posts: 38

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

And did you try an older version of the .iso ?
I've had a problem like that on my new PC and it seemed that the command genfstab just didn't work, maybe you sould try :S

Sorry for the late answer!

---

An Arch Linux enthousiast and a Linux fan in general, mostly interrested in command line use, security issues, code learning and networks.

TheAmazingGymShorts

Member

From: Pennsylvania

Registered: 2013-09-08

Posts: 12

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

I'll try and find/use an older ISO.  I'll report back if it works or not.
And a late solution can still be a solution, so thank you .

Mink

Member

Registered: 2014-09-21

Posts: 3

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

Did you check the md5?  A corrupt iso can do that.
One time I had to download a linux iso 3 or 4 times to finally get a matching md5, and with that one I could finally install the distro.

Last edited by Mink (2014-09-21 18:46:12)

TheAmazingGymShorts

Member

From: Pennsylvania

Registered: 2013-09-08

Posts: 12

Re: Installation CD Fails To Boot

And did you try an older version of the .iso ?
I've had a problem like that on my new PC and it seemed that the command genfstab just didn't work, maybe you sould try :S

Sorry for the late answer!

I installed and tried the newest image to see if that would work and it did!  So you're idea kind of worked?  XD.  Thank you!

Last edited by TheAmazingGymShorts (2014-09-26 05:39:32)