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#1 2019-03-23 20:50:13
- Mindstormscreator
- Member
- Registered: 2012-07-01
- Posts: 186
[SOLVED] Initramfs unpacking failed: read error
I recently tried to boot my Arch partition on my Macbook Pro 2015 13' Retina after powering it off, and I get the error message in the title. I run a triple-booted setup with a UEFI FAT32 partition on /dev/sda1, macOS on /dev/sda2, Windows on /dev/sda4, and Arch root on /dev/sda5.
What I've tried so far:
Booting Arch from a flash drive and running `fsck -r` on my UEFI system partition (as well as the other partitions). Interestingly this seemed to "fix" the issue the last time I encountered this, but not this time.
Reinstalling linux kernel (and regenerating initramfs)
Reformatting the UEFI system partition as fat32 and copying the files back into it
Reinstalling GRUB
Downgrading linux
Clearing the NVRAM on the Macbook Pro
I'm pretty stumped, and any help would be very appreciated.
Last edited by Mindstormscreator (2019-03-24 03:48:01)
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#2 2019-03-23 21:06:01
- jamespharvey20
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- Registered: 2015-06-09
- Posts: 129
Re: [SOLVED] Initramfs unpacking failed: read error
I think this is a hardware issue, probably bad memory, but potentially something else like the CPU, motherboard, or hard drive. I'd run memtest from the Arch ISO for quite a while.
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#3 2019-03-23 21:57:03
- seth
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- From: Won't reply 2 private help req
- Registered: 2012-09-03
- Posts: 78,556
Re: [SOLVED] Initramfs unpacking failed: read error
Assuming you still can boot the other OS (what'd make a RAM issue less likely):
df -h /dev/sda1
file /mnt/sda1/initramfs-linux.imgOffline
#4 2019-03-24 03:47:49
- Mindstormscreator
- Member
- Registered: 2012-07-01
- Posts: 186
Re: [SOLVED] Initramfs unpacking failed: read error
So I randomly tried to install refind as a last-ditch effort (instead of using the Mac's internal bootloader accessed by holding down alt on boot), and everything seems to work perfectly. So, I'm inclined to say it's some issue related to the internal bootloader. Regardless, I only care to use what works in this case, so this is solved for me.
EDIT: I was thinking back on this and realized I had to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) to install refind. Maybe that alone allowed me to boot and macOS had re-enabled it during an update somehow.
Last edited by Mindstormscreator (2019-03-24 03:55:41)
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