Arch Linux

jaergenoth

Member

Registered: 2015-01-16

Posts: 85

Arch installation on a USB-drive boots in USB2.0, but not in USB3.0

Hello.

So I have an Arch Linux installation on an USB-drive.
It boots fine with USB2.0 on a BIOS or an EFI -machine. But when I try to boot it with USB3.0, systemd fails to mount root.

No logs are present because systemd doesn't have /var at that point.

What systemd outputs before failing to start an emergency shell (no /sbin/sulogin):

Start job running for dev-disk-by\x2duuid-my-roots-uuid
....
Start job failed for dev-disk-by\x2duuid-my-roots-uuid
Dependency failed for basic system

This is what I have in syslinux.cfg:

...

LABEL arch
    MENU LABEL Arch Linux
    LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
    APPEND root=UUID=da879642-fe9d-401c-a5e7-672b4bb3574a ro
    INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img

This is my fstab:

# /dev/sdf2 LABEL=root
UUID=da879642-fe9d-401c-a5e7-672b4bb3574a   /           ext4        rw,noatime,data=ordered 0 0

# /dev/sdf1
UUID=9493-2F75          /boot       vfat        rw,noatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro 0 0

# /dev/sdf3 LABEL=home
UUID=8105a3c4-3672-4eb6-8caf-4128e8ac768f   /home       ext4        rw,noatime,nosuid,nodev,data=ordered    0 0

I have no idea what to do next. I disabled journaling and fsck, though they didn't help at all.

KairiTech

Member

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2011-06-04

Posts: 275

Re: Arch installation on a USB-drive boots in USB2.0, but not in USB3.0

What motherboard are you using?

Some ASUS mobos have issues with USB3.0. My installs to a USB3.0 flash drive in a USB3.0 slot usually fail (flash drive seems to spontaneously disappear before the install is complete) but if I plug the 3.0 flash drive into and 2.0 slot the install completes successfully. Funny thing is once the install is complete I can move the 3.0 flash drive back to a 3.0 slot and boot AND update with no issues.

The most recent BIOS update claimed to have fixed these USB issues but not for my ASUS M5A99X EVO.

jaergenoth

Member

Registered: 2015-01-16

Posts: 85

Re: Arch installation on a USB-drive boots in USB2.0, but not in USB3.0

What motherboard are you using?

Some ASUS mobos have issues with USB3.0. My installs to a USB3.0 flash drive in a USB3.0 slot usually fail (flash drive seems to spontaneously disappear before the install is complete) but if I plug the 3.0 flash drive into and 2.0 slot the install completes successfully. Funny thing is once the install is complete I can move the 3.0 flash drive back to a 3.0 slot and boot AND update with no issues.

The most recent BIOS update claimed to have fixed these USB issues but not for my ASUS M5A99X EVO.

I tried to boot it on an Asus EEE PC 1215n. So the fault could be in the motherboard, I guess.

Last edited by jaergenoth (2015-01-16 14:04:53)