Arch Linux

ninian

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From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

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Cloned working Arch image to another machine and it won't boot

Okay, I know I'm being a bit naughty, but I've cloned numerous Linux partition images to different machines and always managed to get them working before, with appropriate tweaking (grub, fstab, xorg.conf, etc). Linux is wonderful compared to Windows in this respect!

What I have got working: a fully updated Arch system, cloned from a Compaq Evo D500 system to a HP Vectra VL800 system.

What I haven't got working: cloning the above from the Compaq Evo D500 system to an ESys E320 Via 1.2GHz laptop system. I reinstalled GRUB (booting first from Arch Install CD, with 'arch root=/dev/sda2', then 'grub-install /dev/sda') and rebooted. The GRUB menu displays fine, and I select Arch; about 4 lines of messages appear very fast on the screen and then nothing - no hard disk activity and nothing whatsoever on the screen. No keypresses work (including Ctrl+Alt+Del) and I've got to power off.

However, when I boot from the Arch Install CD with 'arch root=/dev/sda2', it does take me into the normal desktop system, apparently working quite happily. So, it looks as though the Install CD kernel + the rest from my hard disk installation = working system! I tried reinstalling the kernel ('kernel26' package) and that worked fine, but nothing has changed when I boot from GRUB.

I would be most grateful if some kind person could indicate how I might avoid having to re-install Arch from scratch on this laptop. (I'd managed to clone Mepis 7 onto this machine successfully a few weeks ago.)

PS: I checked that GRUB's device.map was okay; also tried the boot parameters: noapic acpi=off pci=routeirq etc)

Last edited by ninian (2008-03-02 19:23:02)

eerok

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2005-03-20

Posts: 171

Re: Cloned working Arch image to another machine and it won't boot

Try a chroot and update the kernel, forcing mkinitcpio to make a fresh initrd for that machine.

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noobus in perpetuus

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: Cloned working Arch image to another machine and it won't boot

Try a chroot and update the kernel, forcing mkinitcpio to make a fresh initrd for that machine.

Thanks, eerok. Will experiment with what you suggest and report back.

eerok

Member

From: Canada

Registered: 2005-03-20

Posts: 171

Re: Cloned working Arch image to another machine and it won't boot

If you need details, this is how I'd do it from a livecd:

# mkdir /whatever
# mount -t fstype /dev/xxx /whatever
# mount /dev/ /whatever/dev/ --bind
# mount /sys/ /mnt/whatever/sys/ --bind
# mount /proc/ /mnt/whatever/proc/ --bind
# chroot /whatever
# pacman -S kernel26

Supply the right details for "whatever," "fstype," and "/dev/xxx" of course, and choose the kernel you want if it's not the stock kernel26.

The whole idea is to make sure the initrd is appropriate for the machine.  When I copied an Arch partition even on the same machine I had to do this because the new partition had a different filesystem.

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noobus in perpetuus

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: Cloned working Arch image to another machine and it won't boot

@eerok,

Many thanks for the extra details.
Here's what I've found: everything works when I downgrade the kernel (and dependent packages) from 2.6.24 to 2.6.22. If I then upgrade the kernel, I get the same problems again. So it looks as though the new kernel doesn't like my laptop!

I also found this bug report: http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/9014
with some similar symptoms. But specifying 'ext3' on the MODULES= line in mkinitcpio.conf didn't change anything, so I think this must be a different problem.

Well, thanks for the help and at least I have a (relatively recent) working system!

ninian

Member

From: United Kingdom

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 726

Website

Re: Cloned working Arch image to another machine and it won't boot

Seems from http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 18#p334218 that there is a problem with the 2.6.24 kernel on Via C3 Nemiah boards, which is what my laptop uses, alas!

Downgrading the kernel to 2.6.23 or 2.6.22 seems the only solution at this time. I'm running Arch fine with a 2.6.22 kernel at the moment, and a Sidux 2007-04.5 live CD with a 2.6.23.12 kernel works too.