[SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

tjb · 2017-09-06 19:50:33

I installed arch linux on my system (sda3) and it works (systemd boot manager efi on sda1). I tried to make a backup arch linux system on another partition (sda4), in case I destroyed the first one.

But the system I installed to the partition sda4 will not boot.

I get the same problem as in this thread: [url=https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=213833l [SOLVED] Arch fails to mount /boot partition on startup][/url]. And I think I made the same mistake: my actual boot partition (sda1) was not mounted to /boot when I was installing arch on sda4 from the original system.

But I don't want to erase what I already have on the boot partition.

My question: How do I fix my problem without overwriting what I already have in the boot partition.

I tried to add this entry to the boot loader, and booting this entry from the boot menu is what triggers the failure:

at loader/entries/arch_rescue.conf:
title Arch Linux Rescue
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/sda4 rw

It is basically a copy of this entry (which does work):

cat loader/entries/arch.conf:
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/sda3 rw

lsblk -f:

NAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID MOUNTPOINT
sda
├─sda1 vfat A2B0-8A93 /boot
├─sda2 swap 46954319-01df-4976-8fe5-d3df75822321 [SWAP]
├─sda3 ext4 0f5d9801-22d0-4aa7-848d-b2522060e236 /mnt/original_arch
├─sda4 ext4 214fbef9-4440-4825-9397-8d010d616909 /mnt/root2 (my new system)
├─sda5 ext4 5f6ca903-087a-49df-a1f8-326d61ddcc50
└─sda6 ext4 6c5bc8b7-03d8-46f4-8604-23a705d754f0 /home

Last edited by tjb (2017-09-07 18:16:02)

Blasphemist · 2017-09-06 20:33:42

Your using the same kernel files for both instances of Arch. The second instance should use /boot/efi as the mount point for the ESP. There is some work you have to do when using that mount point but it is described in the wiki. Say so if you have any trouble following that.

Slithery · 2017-09-06 20:36:20

Blasphemist wrote:

Your using the same kernel files for both instances of Arch. The second instance should use /boot/efi as the mount point for the ESP. There is some work you have to do when using that mount point but it is described in the wiki. Say so if you have any trouble following that.

Or instead you could keep the ESP mounted at /boot for both installations, but have them use different kernels - for example linux on the main install and linux-lts on the backup.

Last edited by Slithery (2017-09-06 20:36:40)

tjb · 2017-09-07 14:35:07

Thank you, the issue has been solved using your suggestions.

But I still don't understand why 2 instances of the same system can't use the same kernel files, shouldn't they be the same?

The final setup is as follows:

pacstrap was used to install a new base system on sda4, using the directions on the wiki as of the date of the first post

1. partition table as described above in first post.

2. Directory structure sda1 (the EFI boot partition):
/esp/EFI/arch_rescue/
initramfs-linux-fallback.img
initramfs-linux.img
vmlinuz-linux\
NOTE: these files were initially generated during installation with pacstrap and copied to the /boot directory, the contents of this directory was copied to another directory and then copied back to arch_rescue

3. fstab:

File Edit Options Buffers Tools Help
#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

# efivarfs
# MAKE SURE TO COMMENT THIS OUT efivarfs /sys/firmware/efi/efivars efivarfs rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0

# cgroup
# MAKE SURE TO COMMENT THIS OUT cgroup /sys/fs/cgroup/unified cgroup2 rw,nosuid,nodev,noexec,relatime 0 0

# gvfsd-fuse
# MAKE SURE TO COMMENT THIS OUT gvfsd-fuse /run/user/1000/gvfs fuse.gvfsd-fuse rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=100 0 0

# /dev/sda6
UUID=6c5bc8b7-03d8-46f4-8604-23a705d754f0 /home ext4 rw,relatime,data=ordered 0 2

# /dev/sda1
UUID=A2B0-8A93 /esp vfat rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remou\
nt-ro 0 2

### add boot directory
/esp/EFI/arch_rescue/ /boot none defaults,bind 0 0

4. The contents of the bootloader entry
/boot/loader/entries/arch_rescue.conf

title Arch Linux Rescue
linux /EFI/arch_rescue/vmlinuz-linux
initrd /EFI/arch_rescue/initramfs-linux.img
options root=/dev/sda4 rw

NOTE: the entries are written with respect to the root of the ESP (sda1 in my case)

Slithery · 2017-09-07 15:42:27

tjb wrote:

But I still don't understand why 2 instances of the same system can't use the same kernel files, shouldn't they be the same?

Only if the systems always both have the same version of the kernel installed - this won't be the case.

For example, you update the kernel on system A - this installs the new kernel to /boot and the new version of all the kernel modules to /usr/lib/modules on the root of system A.
When you now try and boot system B, it loads the new updated kernel from /boot, but the root fiesystem of system B doesn't contain any of the updated kernel modules so the boot will fail.

Last edited by Slithery (2017-09-07 15:43:17)

tjb · 2017-09-07 18:15:04

Thanks, makes perfect sense.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-09-06 19:50:33

[SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

#2 2017-09-06 20:33:42

Re: [SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

#3 2017-09-06 20:36:20

Re: [SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

#4 2017-09-07 14:35:07

Re: [SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

#5 2017-09-07 15:42:27

Re: [SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

#6 2017-09-07 18:15:04

Re: [SOLVED] Failure to boot a system installed on a new partition

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