Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 12:55:48

Yesterday I've tried to install Arch for the first time. I got archlinux-2024.03.01-x86_64.iso and used BalenaEtcher to flash it on a 128GB USB drive, I think its USB 2.0.
I rebooted my computer, went into UEFI BIOS settings and set the USB to first priority, saved and rebooted, and the arch grub menu came up, bottom options are different: [ https://i.ibb.co/KwhwRTT/Virtual-Box-Ar … -16-39.png ]. But after I select Arch-Linux, the screen goes blank for a few seconds and I get the following error:

[ 0.554348] Initramfs unpacking failed: invalid magic at start of compressed archive
[ 0.892855] ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve synbol [_SB.PCI0.SAT0.SPT0._GTF.DSSP], AE_NOT_FOUND (20230628/psparse-529)
[ 0.894726] ACPI BIOS Error (bug): Could not resolve symbol [_SB.PCI0.SAT0._GTF.DSSP], AE_NOT_FOUND (20230628/pspargs-330)
[ 0.894769] ACPI Error: Aborting method _SB.PCI0.SAT0.SPT0._GTF due to previous error (AE_NOT_FOUND) (20230628/psparse-529)
_

[ https://ibb.co/ScSBrWX ] <-- picture of the error (Idk how to embed hyperlinks)

I shutdown my computer and went back to my Mint installation, and:
tried to re-flash my USB (no change)
re-downloaded the ISO (no change)
ran the memory test in the Arch Grub menu (passed with no problem)

my specs are (according to Mint):

processor: Intel© Core™ i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz × 4
memory: 15.6 GiB
total HD space: 1.3TB
graphics card: NVIDIA Corporation GM204 [GeForce GTX 970]
firmware is UEFI I think

I'm kind of a newbie and Idk what else to do, so any help would be MASSIVELY appreciated!

Last edited by FRVNT (2024-03-03 15:16:42)

nl6720 · 2024-03-03 13:20:43

FRVNT wrote:

I rebooted my computer, went into UEFI BIOS settings and set the USB to first priority, saved and rebooted, and the arch grub menu came up, bottom options are different: [ https://ibb.co/jvz3ysg ].

That's not Arch's GRUB menu. It looks like you didn't set the boot priority correctly.

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 15:13:52

nl6720 wrote:

FRVNT wrote:
I rebooted my computer, went into UEFI BIOS settings and set the USB to first priority, saved and rebooted, and the arch grub menu came up, bottom options are different: [ https://ibb.co/jvz3ysg ].
That's not Arch's GRUB menu. It looks like you didn't set the boot priority correctly.

Oh I just got a wrong image, its the same as the one you sent. Ill edit mine.

seth · 2024-03-03 15:17:30

b/c of the initramfs decompression issue, can you boot when adding "maxcpus=1" to the kernel parameters?

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 15:27:16

I will try but how do I do that? (acc wait Ill just use google)

Last edited by FRVNT (2024-03-03 15:30:42)

seth · 2024-03-03 15:31:05

Select the boot entry, press "e", you can now edit the boot entry. The line that has "BOOT_IMAGE=…" in it is the one where you'd append that (without the quotes)

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 15:58:26

seth wrote:

Select the boot entry, press "e", you can now edit the boot entry. The line that has "BOOT_IMAGE=…" in it is the one where you'd append that (without the quotes)

I went back to the menu, hovered over the top option (arch installation medium) and pressed 'e' like you said, but I cant find a line containing "BOOT_IMAGE=". It looked like this: https://ibb.co/3TFLqG3

Last edited by FRVNT (2024-03-03 16:00:33)

seth · 2024-03-03 16:01:49

The line that starts w/ "linux /arch/boot/x86_64/…"

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 16:13:27

Im on that menu again, so what exactly do I write? Do I go to the end of that line and have to just write " maxcpus=1", do I have to write "BOOT_IMAGE=maxcpus=1" or something else? Im kinda afraid of messing something up

Last edited by FRVNT (2024-03-03 16:14:33)

seth · 2024-03-03 16:17:06

Just " maxcpus=1" (nb. that the line in your photo wraps)
You can't really break things here, if the kernel doesn't understand the parameter, it'll hand it to the userspace - which also doesn't understand the parameter and won't do anything with it, even if the system would boot.

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 16:23:53

Alright so it should look like "linux /arch/boot/...._UUID) maxcpus=1"

I did that and then hit ctrl+x but I still got my original error.

Last edited by FRVNT (2024-03-03 16:24:25)

cryptearth · 2024-03-03 17:26:59

As I've seen it too many times now: Why do people try to run Arch on 10+ years old hardware?
Arch is a rolling release distribution following current linux development rather closely. It's just mean to support "ancient" hardware anymore.
You should try something more time-appropriate like Debian 7.
Linux isn't magic - it can't keep old hardware alive forever. At some point you just have to accept: The hardware is just too old for modern software - either upgrade the hardware or stick to old software. It's that simple.

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 17:44:28

That sucks because I read in the guide that "Arch Linux should run on any x86_64-compatible machine with a minimum of 512 MiB RAM,...A basic installation should take less than 2 GiB of disk space..."

Scimmia · 2024-03-03 17:49:37

Don't listen to them, Arch should be fine on that machine.

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 17:51:20

Scimmia wrote:

Don't listen to them, Arch should be fine on that machine.

Oh ty Scimmia

seth · 2024-03-03 21:38:44

There's a recent-ish pattern of failures to decompress the initramfs. Limiting the amount of cores has been reliably successful in some cases (leading to the assumption it might be because of the multithreaded zstd decompress) but hasn't worked in several others.
At least one user was able to decompress images <= ~15MB but not larger ones - w/ the 6.7 kernels (no such problem w/ the 6.6 kernels)
However the general problem predates the 6.7 release. It's weird.

It's possibly a race condition and limiting the cores might have just slowed down the affected systems so much that they escaped the race.
The reason for the behavior isn't understood, but it is FOR SURE not the age of your hardware design.
Eg. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=290093 and https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=291171 are raptor lakes from 2022.

As you can see there, the behavior isn't even deterministic (on an installed system) - the relation between CPU and IO speed might be a factor
==> Incidentally: tried a different USB port?

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/ … compress.c hasn't changed in 4 years and nothing in https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commi … nitramfs.c looks even remotely like a possible culprit.

------------
@cryptearth, just as a reminder: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2151646

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 21:47:00

Thanks for the info and help Seth, if there's any other way I can help you figure this out I'll do it o7.
Tomorrow I will try changing the Arch version, to see what versions might work.

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 22:00:47

I just tried changing the port and nothing changed.
I will look up more about initramfs, zstd etc. so I can myself understand this better.

seth · 2024-03-03 22:19:49

I actuallly no longer think this is related to the specific compressor. The initramfs probably is corrupted in memory, pot. colliding w/ something else.
Can you boot w/ "acpi=off"?

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 22:46:54

I couldn't boot but the error message changed:
[ 0.475010] Initramfs unpacking failed: broken padding

FRVNT · 2024-03-03 23:04:43

Alright Ill discuss more tmrw, good luck finding a solution Seth!

seth · 2024-03-03 23:10:20

The next suggestion would be to remove the two ucode.img's from the initrd line…
(This might lead to issues down the road, but 1. you don't need the AMD one anyway and 2. we're more curious about what breaks the boot than early µcode updates at this point)
If that should work, you can also remove the acpi=off again.

FRVNT · 2024-03-04 17:08:58

Im back, I tried removing those two like you said and the error message stood the same.

cryptearth · 2024-03-04 19:00:59

FRVNT wrote:

That sucks because I read in the guide that "Arch Linux should run on any x86_64-compatible machine with a minimum of 512 MiB RAM,...A basic installation should take less than 2 GiB of disk space..."

Well - within reason. Fun fact: You need more than 2GB to even boot the current install image: the airootfs is 776MB compressed - and over 2GB expanded to RAM. And just a base install already takes up around 1.5GB.

Aside from all those other fools - the reality is that Arch is distribution actively developed with modern hardware in mind. If you want something to run on old hardware - or at least have a chance to get any install system up - you something way older - I'd say pre-2020. Maybe you have a chance to get up to some more recent stuff after you have a base setup running.

@all others
Well - get yourself such old hardware and try it yourself - or something like gentoo or go extreme with LFS - you'll see the hardware is just too outdated - it just lacks required physical implementations of modern instructions. Sure - you CAN do what a modern pc does with just NOT and OR gates and implement multiply as a loop of additions - but at some point it gets too complex - and that's exactly the issue OP has: The recent install images just require a cpu with specific instructions - and the 2600 seem to lack them.
Why you all are so stubborn with this "nah, it's not the old hardware" when it clearly is? If OP would try something more time-appropriate like Debian 7 or 8 it sure will work - but not arch - not the most recent 6.7 kernel ...

I just don't get you all ...

FRVNT · 2024-03-04 19:06:44

Well it is true that I haven't tried any older versions of Arch, so whether or not it is my hardware I might as well try that.

Arch Linux

#1 2024-03-03 12:55:48

Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#2 2024-03-03 13:20:43

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#3 2024-03-03 15:13:52

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#4 2024-03-03 15:17:30

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#5 2024-03-03 15:27:16

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#6 2024-03-03 15:31:05

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#7 2024-03-03 15:58:26

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#8 2024-03-03 16:01:49

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#9 2024-03-03 16:13:27

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#10 2024-03-03 16:17:06

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#11 2024-03-03 16:23:53

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#12 2024-03-03 17:26:59

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#13 2024-03-03 17:44:28

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#14 2024-03-03 17:49:37

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#15 2024-03-03 17:51:20

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#16 2024-03-03 21:38:44

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#17 2024-03-03 21:47:00

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#18 2024-03-03 22:00:47

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#19 2024-03-03 22:19:49

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#20 2024-03-03 22:46:54

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#21 2024-03-03 23:04:43

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#22 2024-03-03 23:10:20

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#23 2024-03-04 17:08:58

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#24 2024-03-04 19:00:59

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

#25 2024-03-04 19:06:44

Re: Error when trying to boot up Arch ISO from USB drive: invalid magic

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