Arch Linux

bertho

Member

Registered: 2015-02-05

Posts: 5

[Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

I'm currently running Arch on 120GB SSD with /home, /var and swap on a 500GB HDD. I just bought a 240GB SSD with the intention of doing a fresh install of Arch on it (from my current system) and moving all my videos onto it as well, while keeping the HDD the same and putting the old SSD into my son's computer to give it a bit of a performance boost. The problem is, when I plug the new SSD into my computer, I get this:

:: running early hook [udev]
starting version 218
:: running hook [udev]
:: triggering uevents...
:: performing fsck on '/dev/sdb2'
:: mounting '/dev/sdb2' on real root
mount: unknown filesystem type 'swap'
You are now being dropped into an emergency shell
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off

/dev/sdb2 is my / partition, and my swap is /dev/sda2, so I was thinking it was screwing up the drives with the third one connected, but my /etc/fstab uses UUIDs, so that shouldn't happen. I'm booting directly into Arch from UEFI (no Grub) if that makes a difference. I've tried using a different SATA port, and same result. If the new drive is in, it won't work. If I take it out, everything is fine again.

Any clues?

Last edited by bertho (2015-03-05 02:51:18)

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,763

Website

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

Try removing the swap entry from /etc/fstab -- systemd should mount swap partitions automatically.

Are you using gummiboot or have you written the NVRAM entries manually?

If you are using gummiboot, post the config files; also post the output of:

# efibootmgr -v

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Are you infected with Wetiko?

Raynman

Member

Registered: 2011-10-22

Posts: 1,539

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

/dev/sdb2 is my / partition, and my swap is /dev/sda2, so I was thinking it was screwing up the drives with the third one connected, but my /etc/fstab uses UUIDs, so that shouldn't happen.

Any chance you have "root=/dev/sdb2" in your kernel commandline?

bertho

Member

Registered: 2015-02-05

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

Commented out the swap entry and it made no difference.

Sorry, I meant to include the output of efibootmgr before.I wrote the entry manually.

BootCurrent: 0002
Timeout: 1 seconds
BootOrder: 0002,000A,000B,0009,0000,0001
Boot0000* SATA: SSD2SC120G3LC709B121    BIOS(11,0,00)
Boot0001* SATA: HL-DT-ST BD-RE  WH14    BIOS(10,0,00)
Boot0002* Arch Linux    HD(1,800,100000,149aa1c7-ee8e-495a-932d-499cf6b158bd)File(\vmlinuz-linux)r.o.o.t.=./.d.e.v./.s.d.b.2. .r.w. .i.n.i.t.r.d.=./.i.n.i.t.r.a.m.f.s.-.l.i.n.u.x...i.m.g.
Boot0009* UEFI: Built-in EFI Shell      Vendor(5023b95c-db26-429b-a648-bd47664c8012,)AMBO
Boot000A* UEFI: IP4 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller  ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(15,0)PCI(0,0)MAC(MAC(448a5b5da0c2,0)AMBO
Boot000B* UEFI: IP6 Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller  ACPI(a0341d0,0)PCI(15,0)PCI(0,0)MAC(MAC(448a5b5da0c2,0)030d3c000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000004000000000000000000000000000000000AMBO

Not sure what the deal is with all those periods, but I'm in the system right now, so obviously it's working right...

Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2014-02-20

Posts: 7,763

Website

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

@Raynman is right -- you have "root=/dev/sdb2" in your NVRAM entry.

It would probably be simpler to use gummiboot and define the root partition using the PARTUUID in the Arch.conf configuration file:

# /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
title          Arch Linux
linux          /vmlinuz-linux
initrd         /initramfs-linux.img
options        root=PARTUUID=blah rw

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

If you make the entries manually using efibootmgr I don't think it's possible to define the EFI system partition using a UUID.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/EF … bootmgr.29

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Are you infected with Wetiko?

bertho

Member

Registered: 2015-02-05

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

Okay, that last link says I can use the UUID for root, at least. I'll try that after dinner and report back on whether I had to go with gummiboot or not. I don't think the EFI partition is a problem or I wouldn't have gotten to the point where it was trying to mount root, right? Thanks, guys!

bertho

Member

Registered: 2015-02-05

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

Okay, so it didn't work using the PARTUUID , so I installed gummiboot, and that didn't work either (except for once - I'm not sure what happened but I realized after shutting down that the drive was already connected. Weird). I played around a little then it hit me - I was using the UUID from fstab, not the actual PARTUUID. Changed the entry in gummiboot and I'm good now. Would probably have worked straight through efibootmgr, but I had gummiboot installed already and I'm going to wipe that drive once I get my new one setup anyway... At least I have a head start on any EFI issues I run into this time around. ;-)

Thanks again.

bertho

Member

Registered: 2015-02-05

Posts: 5

Re: [Solved] Can't boot with new (blank) SSD installed

One last note: Looking in GParted, the new drive assumed the /dev/sda position and bumped both of my other drives down a letter, so a quick and easy fix would've just been to change it to /dev/sdc2.