Arch Linux

acottrell

Member

Registered: 2013-12-17

Posts: 37

rEFInd gotcha

I just installed Arch on a Lenovo X13 Yoga (dual boot with Windows 11) from a USB stick. In general the Installation Guide is very good and clear but I did find one gotcha to do with rEFInd. I've installed rEFInd before manually but this time I thought I'd try using refind-install, of which the relevant entry in the Arch wiki says, "For many systems it should be sufficient to simply run [this program]".

refind-install ran without any errors, but when I rebooted independently of the installation media I got this rather distressing message:

ERROR: device '' not found. Skipping fsck.
ERROR: Unable to find root device ''.
You are being dropped to recovery shell

It transpires that the reason for this is that the refind_linux.conf automatically written to /boot contains something like these three lines

"Boot with standard options"  "archisobaseddir=arch archisolabel=ARCH_202207"
"Boot to single user mode"    "archisobaseddir=arch archisolabel=ARCH_202207 single"
"Boot with minimal options"   "ro root=/dev/nvme0n1p5"

So the first two entries (including the default) reference the installer ISO and not the HD. It suffices to reboot from the ISO, navigate to /boot, delete the unwanted lines from refind_linux.conf, then reboot from the HD. But it looks scary at first.

My suggestion would be to mention this point in https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd and also refer to it in the "Boot loader" section of the Installation Guide.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: rEFInd gotcha

So it seems you skipped the big red box starting with the word "Warning" that covers exactly this point already and is in the exact same (sub)section as the one you already quoted, just a couple lines down?

Last edited by Trilby (2022-08-06 19:06:23)

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

acottrell

Member

Registered: 2013-12-17

Posts: 37

Re: rEFInd gotcha

Ouch! Yes, I missed that.

All the same, I think it could be clearer. For example, instead of just saying "For many systems it should be sufficient to simply run refind-install" it could add something like "EXCEPT when you're operating under chroot from live installation media, see the Warning below." Even then, I'm not sure the warning is quite explicit enough. I mean, if you run refind-install in the course of installing Arch from an ISO image you're bound to end up with a broken refind_linux.conf.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,523

Website

Re: rEFInd gotcha

I'm not sure the warning is quite explicit enough

In what way could it be more explicit?  It specifically mentions that this will be a problem when run from the installation iso and gives the solution.  And it's a big red box.  Our wiki does not have blinking elements or popups (thankfully on both counts) so I'm not sure what more could be done.

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

acottrell

Member

Registered: 2013-12-17

Posts: 37

Re: rEFInd gotcha

My main point is that the warning could be referenced in the same stanza as "For many systems it should be sufficient to simply run refind-install". My subsidiary point is just that "make sure the kernel parameters in it are correct for your system" (below) doesn't fully reflect the fact that the first two lines of the auto-generated refind_linux.conf will _surely_ be wrong and will prevent a successful reboot. But I'll leave it at that; you're free to ignore my suggestions.

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,645

Re: rEFInd gotcha

The appropriate place to discuss changes to the wiki is the Talk page for the section you wish to change: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Talk:REFInd

This is not an Installation issue or a technical question. Closing.