Arch Linux

rdata

Member

Registered: 2015-07-12

Posts: 9

[Solved] Installing into a subdirectory

I boot from a CD and then do :

mount /dev/sdc1 /m1
mkdir /m1/arch
pacstrap -d /m1/arch

And everything seems to install OK.  I skip the rest of the configuration steps (locale. keyboard etc) in the installation guide for the moment.

I add a new entry in menu.lst (main OS in this machine uses grub-legacy)

title Archlinux
root (hd1,0)
kernel /arch/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sdc1
initrd /arch/boot/initramfs-linux.img

then reboot, select Archlinux, and the booting process  works...up to the point where it can't find /sbin/init

"ERROR: root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init doesn't exist"

As far as I can tell, the installation isn't aware of the fact that root(so to speak) should be /arch instead of /

I also tried this :

1) Installed to /m1/arch as before
2) #arch-chroot /m1/arch  - works OK
3( #mkinitcpio -p linux

I was hoping that the recreated initrd image would include the correct paths somehow, but it didn't.  Again

"ERROR: root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init doesn't exist"

I found some information on how to create this kind of set up

http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions … -partition

but I could use some hints regarding arch in particular

TIA!

Last edited by rdata (2015-12-28 02:58:26)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 12,418

Re: [Solved] Installing into a subdirectory

Typo, or did you not set the root drive correctly?

Edit, what you're doing is going to require some real work unless you're using a filesystem that lets you mount a subvolume.

Last edited by Scimmia (2015-12-28 02:00:25)

WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 12,607

Website

Re: [Solved] Installing into a subdirectory

This isn't something that will just work out of the box, you will need a initcpio hook to mount the directory to /new_root in the initrd environment. Someone had a similar idea a long time ago, but the hook they wrote may need a rewrite.

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rdata

Member

Registered: 2015-07-12

Posts: 9

Re: [Solved] Installing into a subdirectory

Thanks Guys! Since pacstrap has this -d option, I thought the process was mostly automatic and maybe I was overlooking something obvious, but that doesn't seem to be the case. (I guess I could add a new (small) partition to the disk instead of using a subdir)

@Scimmia -  the machine actually has 3 drives - two (hd0, hd1) connected to the MB and the third connected to an addon controller. Arch is in hd1. Somehow hd1 ends being named sdc under arch. But I dont think that's an issue since grub is correctly tranfering control to the arch kernel.

edit : yes, sorry!, there was a typo at the begining, I wrote sdb1, should have been sdc1

Last edited by rdata (2015-12-28 02:58:13)