Arch Linux

Karmen91

Member

Registered: 2025-05-19

Posts: 2

[SOLVED]Installer attempts to mount '' to /run/archiso/bootmnt in QEMU

I have ssh access to a headless machine running Debian from a tmpfs and I'm attempting to install Arch on an unpartitioned SSD connected to the machine at /dev/sda.

For this I'm intending to boot the Arch install media within QEMU, where the drive specified to QEMU is /dev/sda itself, and then follow along with the typical wiki Installation Guide to partition and install the system on /dev/sda. I've done a similar process with Ubuntu in the past and ended up being able to boot just fine from the SSD later on bare metal.

Verified checksum and signature of ISO. With the ISO in my current directory, and also mounted at /iso/, I'm running:

qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
  -nographic \
  -m 8096 \
  -bios /usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
  -drive index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,file=/dev/sda,format=raw \
  -cdrom archlinux-2025.05.01-x86_64.iso \
  -kernel /iso/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz-linux \
  -initrd /iso/arch/boot/x86_64/initramfs-linux.img \
  -append console=ttyS0,9600,n8

I believe this must not be a compatible setup for an Arch install, as when booting from the install media the VM immediately outputs:

:: running early hook [udev]
Starting systemd-udevd version 257.5-2-arch
:: running early hook [archiso_pxe_nbd]
:: running hook [udev]
:: Triggering uevents...
:: running hook [memdisk]
:: running hook [archiso]
:: running hook [archiso_loop_mnt]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_common]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_nbd]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_http]
:: running hook [archiso_pxe_nfs]
:: Mounting '' to '/run/archiso/bootmnt'
ERROR: '' device did not show up after 30 seconds...
   Falling back to interactive prompt
   You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you are finished
sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
[rootfs ~]#

Its attempting to mount an empty string.

lsblk from within the VM shows:

[rootfs ~]# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
fd0    2:0    1     4K  0 disk
sr0   11:0    1   1.2G  0 rom
vda  254:0    0 111.8G  0 disk
[rootfs ~]#

suggesting the ssd is attached to the VM just fine as vda and isn't part of the issue?

I've seen a similar error when attempting to boot from USB, but in this case everything on the host system including the iso is stored in a mounted tmpfs.

Any corrections would be greatly appreciated!

Last edited by Karmen91 (2025-05-19 21:54:24)

astralc

Member

Registered: 2022-09-17

Posts: 102

Re: [SOLVED]Installer attempts to mount '' to /run/archiso/bootmnt in QEMU

you are overriding the normal ISO command line (and maybe the partitions layout?) because you booting directly the kernel and not from the cdrom.

Because you have shell access and existing linux, you can use arch-install-scripts directly, without qemu.

Karmen91

Member

Registered: 2025-05-19

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED]Installer attempts to mount '' to /run/archiso/bootmnt in QEMU

That makes total sense - I'm new to using qemu and made an assumption about what the -kernel param did rather than looking it up myself. My apologies and thanks very much for your help!

Booting directly from the cdrom in qemu:

 qemu-system-x86_64 -enable-kvm \
  -nographic \
  -m 8096 \
  -bios /usr/share/ovmf/OVMF.fd \
  -drive index=0,media=disk,if=virtio,file=/dev/sda,format=raw \
  -cdrom archlinux-2025.05.01-x86_64.iso

This presents the GRUB menu.
I can then hit e and append the previously used kernel option here to get the virtual serial output working correctly (without this, i can't see any output once I select a boot option):

console=ttyS0,9600,n8

archiso then loads normally, I get a prompt for archiso login, I provide the username root (slightly strange to me because I remember this being automatic in the past, but no big deal i think?), and I'm presented with the interactive prompt as normal.

After I've confirmed I can get a working install using qemu, I'll format everything and try again using arch-install-scripts directly like you suggested for practice's sake.

Thank you very much for taking the time to help me solve my issue!