Arch Linux

zebaszp

Member

Registered: 2018-08-04

Posts: 3

rEFInd not working on rsync'd partition

Hi! This is my first post here on the forums!

I've migrated not too long ago from another distro, and things went really smoothly. I installed from the comfort of my old distro and made the hop without a hitch. I decided to install rEFInd instead of the GRUB I had before, and it worked like a charm.

I recently decided to delete my other distro entirely and move my root Arch partition into the old distro's root. I copied everything but although rEFInd detects the copied partition, it fails to boot.

What I did was:

1. Mounted the destination root on /mnt

2. rsync'd everything with:

   sudo rsync -xhaHAXSv --exclude="/lost+found" --delete / /mnt/

   (this ensures stuff like /proc, /tmp, /home, etc do not get copied since they're all mounts, and I can re-run it if it gets outdated)

3. Edited /mnt/etc/fstab and /mnt/boot/refind.conf to reflect the new root (using the appropriate /dev/sdaX / UUID)

4. Generate an initramfs for good measure (I tried both with and without this step), with:

   sudo arch-chroot /mnt mkinitcpio -p linux

When trying to boot, rEFInd fails with a message along the lines of:

Starting vmlinuz-linux
Using load options 'ro root=/dev/sda3 initrd=boot\initramfs-linux-fallback.img'
Error: Not Found while loading vmlinuz-linux

Not only is it surprising that it doesn't find "vmlinuz-linux" (it's in /boot along with refind.conf), it's also weird that it tries to load the "fallback" image rather than the default initrd (my working Arch install uses it just fine).

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

skunktrader

Member

From: Brisbane, Australia

Registered: 2010-02-14

Posts: 1,681

Re: rEFInd not working on rsync'd partition

Any reason why you have a backslash instead of a slash ?

zebaszp

Member

Registered: 2018-08-04

Posts: 3

Re: rEFInd not working on rsync'd partition

Any reason why you have a backslash instead of a slash ?

I honestly don't know why that is. It also prints backslashes with the working boot entry FWIW. I assumed it was a UEFI thing.

nl6720

The Evil Wiki Admin

Registered: 2016-07-02

Posts: 718

Re: rEFInd not working on rsync'd partition

It could be a missing filesystem driver. Does the new root have the same filesystem as the old one?
Post your:

/boot/refind_linux.conf
/etc/fstab

And the output of:

lsblk -f

it's also weird that it tries to load the "fallback" image rather than the default initrd (my working Arch install uses it just fine).

rEFInd 0.11.3 fixes this issue. Ignore it for now.

It also prints backslashes with the working boot entry FWIW

The use of slashes or backslashes is irrelevant, but what is this "working boot entry"?

zebaszp

Member

Registered: 2018-08-04

Posts: 3

Re: rEFInd not working on rsync'd partition

Sorry I didn't respond before.

it's also weird that it tries to load the "fallback" image rather than the default initrd (my working Arch install uses it just fine).

rEFInd 0.11.3 fixes this issue. Ignore it for now.

Indeed, reinstalling rEFInd fixed that. That's one less factor to worry about.

It also prints backslashes with the working boot entry FWIW

The use of slashes or backslashes is irrelevant, but what is this "working boot entry"?

I'm currently using this computer from a different partition, as I mentioned. My current working install sits on /dev/sda6, and I'm trying to rsync it to /dev/sda3.

It could be a missing filesystem driver. Does the new root have the same filesystem as the old one?

Yes, both are ext4. The rEFInd installer added that driver automatically just fine.

Post your:

/boot/refind_linux.conf
/etc/fstab

And the output of:

lsblk -f

I'll post the ones from the rsync'd partition (/dev/sda3). The only difference with the originals (from /dev/sda6) is that I changed sda6 for sda3 as well as the UUIDs where necessary in both files.

$ cat /mnt/boot/refind.conf

"Boot with standard options"  "root=/dev/sda3"
"Boot to single-user mode"    "root=/dev/sda3 single"
"Boot with minimal options"   "ro root=UUID=ef23e408-1c30-430b-a4ea-6ed153e4248d"

$ cat /mnt/etc/fstab

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/sda3
UUID=ef23e408-1c30-430b-a4ea-6ed153e4248d /         	ext4      	rw,relatime,data=ordered	0 1

# ESP
UUID=6445-8666  /boot/efi       vfat    umask=0077      0       1

# /dev/sda4
UUID=2b63d73d-03ae-4248-95e8-5b24eacd9995 none      	swap      	defaults,pri=-2	0 0

# home
UUID=7868f0bf-8b00-49e5-afb9-82180b0ccbd5 /home         ext4        defaults        0 2

$ lsblk -f

NAME   FSTYPE   LABEL UUID                                 MOUNTPOINT
loop0  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/telegram-desktop/251
loop1  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/insomnia/19
loop2  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/core/5145
loop3  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/spotify/16
loop4  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/core/4917
loop5  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/discord/69
loop6  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/android-studio/51
loop7  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/sublime-text/22
loop8  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/gtk-common-themes/319
loop9  squashfs                                            /var/lib/snapd/snap/insomnia/17
sda                                                        
├─sda1 vfat     ESP   6445-8666                            /boot/efi
├─sda2 vfat     OS    4666-7676                            
├─sda3 ext4     ROOT  ef23e408-1c30-430b-a4ea-6ed153e4248d 
├─sda4 swap           2b63d73d-03ae-4248-95e8-5b24eacd9995 [SWAP]
├─sda5 ext4           7868f0bf-8b00-49e5-afb9-82180b0ccbd5 /home
└─sda6 ext4     ARCH  47220963-951a-449f-a001-8aaea738b0e5 /

nl6720

The Evil Wiki Admin

Registered: 2016-07-02

Posts: 718

Re: rEFInd not working on rsync'd partition

Nothing looks particularly wrong from what I can see (you should set the "rw" kernel parameter and use UUIDs in /boot/refind_linux.conf, but that's not related to the current issue). Did you modify anything in /EFI/refind/refind.conf on the ESP?

From the looks of it rEFInd finds vmlinuz-linux (otherwise it wouldn't show that filename), but can't launch it.
For now try reinstalling the linux package.