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#1 2018-09-21 22:44:32

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

[SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hello,

I have a new laptop which has Windows 10 installed. It is a HP OmenX laptop with nvidia 1080[mobile] (GP104M), i7-7700HQ, 24GB ram.

I want to have a dual boot with ARCH. So I got a brand new SSD for ARCH alone.
I partitioned it, made my ARCH live-USB, and installed ARCH on this new SSD, EFI mode. Hereby the list of disks.

$ lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
loop0         7:0    0   1.9G  1 loop /run/archiso/sfs/root-image
sda           8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1        8:1    0 889.6G  0 part 
├─sda2        8:2    0  12.9G  0 part 
└─sda3        8:3    0    29G  0 part ####This is the HDD partition for SWAP####
sdb           8:16   1  29.9G  0 disk 
├─sdb1        8:17   1     2G  0 part /run/archiso/bootmnt
└─sdb2        8:18   1    64M  0 part 
nvme1n1     259:0    0 238.5G  0 disk ####This is the SSD for ARCH####
├─nvme1n1p1 259:1    0   500M  0 part 
├─nvme1n1p2 259:2    0    50G  0 part /mnt
└─nvme1n1p3 259:3    0   188G  0 part /mnt/home
nvme0n1     259:4    0 238.5G  0 disk ####This is the SSD for WINDOWS####
├─nvme0n1p1 259:5    0   260M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p2 259:6    0    16M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:7    0 237.2G  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p4 259:8    0   980M  0 part 

I had no problems installing ARCH, just in case I will state the most important steps I followed:
- Format the previously prepared partitions in the new SSD, define and mount SWAP
- Mount the root partition and home partition
- pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
- pacstrap /mnt grub-bios
- generate the fstab file
- Access my installation using arch-chroot, modified locale.gen, set time and zone,  defined hostname
- Installed the efibootmgr following:
mkdir /boot/efi
mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /boot/efi
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --bootloader-id=GRUB --efi-directory=/boot/efi
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
mkdir /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
cp /boot/efi/EFI/GRUB/grubx64.efi /boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
- mkinitcpio -p linux #### I did have a couple warnings for missing firmware modules aic94xx and wd719x but I solved it installing the modules from AUR, So now I have No warnings####

At this point I should have been able to access my new installation. It was not the case. When I reboot the system it totally freezes on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..."

So I went on an continued with the installation from arch-chroot saying to myself that maybe it is the drivers for my nvidia card, so I installed: pacman -S nvidia-utils

But no luck.
I am stuck, and don't know what to do to get past this blockade.

I leave here my /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Any ideas? Or any other information needed? I would really appreciate if you could help me.

#
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# It is automatically generated by grub-mkconfig using templates
# from /etc/grub.d and settings from /etc/default/grub
#

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/00_header ###
insmod part_gpt
insmod part_msdos
if [ -s $prefix/grubenv ]; then
  load_env
fi
if [ "${next_entry}" ] ; then
   set default="${next_entry}"
   set next_entry=
   save_env next_entry
   set boot_once=true
else
   set default="0"
fi

if [ x"${feature_menuentry_id}" = xy ]; then
  menuentry_id_option="--id"
else
  menuentry_id_option=""
fi

export menuentry_id_option

if [ "${prev_saved_entry}" ]; then
  set saved_entry="${prev_saved_entry}"
  save_env saved_entry
  set prev_saved_entry=
  save_env prev_saved_entry
  set boot_once=true
fi

function savedefault {
  if [ -z "${boot_once}" ]; then
    saved_entry="${chosen}"
    save_env saved_entry
  fi
}

function load_video {
  if [ x$feature_all_video_module = xy ]; then
    insmod all_video
  else
    insmod efi_gop
    insmod efi_uga
    insmod ieee1275_fb
    insmod vbe
    insmod vga
    insmod video_bochs
    insmod video_cirrus
  fi
}

if [ x$feature_default_font_path = xy ] ; then
   font=unicode
else
insmod part_gpt
insmod ext2
if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root  49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
else
  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
fi
    font="/usr/share/grub/unicode.pf2"
fi

if loadfont $font ; then
  set gfxmode=auto
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
  set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
  set lang=en_US
  insmod gettext
fi
terminal_input console
terminal_output gfxterm
if [ x$feature_timeout_style = xy ] ; then
  set timeout_style=menu
  set timeout=5
# Fallback normal timeout code in case the timeout_style feature is
# unavailable.
else
  set timeout=5
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###
menuentry 'Arch Linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple$
        load_video
        set gfxpayload=keep
        insmod gzio
        insmod part_gpt
        insmod ext2
        if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root  49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
        else
          search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
        fi
        echo    'Loading Linux linux ...'
        linux   /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc rw  quiet
        echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
        initrd  /boot/initramfs-linux.img
}
submenu 'Advanced options for Arch Linux' $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-advanced-49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fa$
        menuentry 'Arch Linux, with Linux linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_$
                load_video
                set gfxpayload=keep
                insmod gzio
                insmod part_gpt
                insmod ext2
                if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
                  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root  49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
                else
                  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
                fi
                echo    'Loading Linux linux ...'
                linux   /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc rw  quiet
                echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
                initrd  /boot/initramfs-linux.img
        }
        menuentry 'Arch Linux, with Linux linux (fallback initramfs)' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu -$
                load_video
                set gfxpayload=keep
                insmod gzio
                insmod part_gpt
                insmod ext2
                if [ x$feature_platform_search_hint = xy ]; then
                  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root  49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
                else
                  search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc
                fi
                echo    'Loading Linux linux ...'
                linux   /boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc rw  quiet
                echo    'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
                initrd  /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img
        }
}

### END /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###
### END /etc/grub.d/20_linux_xen ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###
### END /etc/grub.d/30_os-prober ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###
if [ -f  ${config_directory}/custom.cfg ]; then
  source ${config_directory}/custom.cfg
elif [ -z "${config_directory}" -a -f  $prefix/custom.cfg ]; then
  source $prefix/custom.cfg;
fi
### END /etc/grub.d/41_custom ###

Last edited by gudnait (2019-01-11 17:49:17)

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#2 2018-09-22 00:35:22

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

You should boot from the installation image and arch-chroot into the installation.
Check

efibootmgr -v

I presume you have a mess to load the rootfs.
Additionally you may look into the journal, but I doubt the systemd could reach that point.


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#3 2018-09-22 01:53:12

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hi TheSaint,
Thank you for the fast reply,

I did that and got:

# efibootmgr -v
BootCurrent: 0007
Timeout: 0 seconds
BootOrder: 0000,0002,0001,0005,0007,0006
Boot0000* Windows Boot Manager	HD(1,GPT,621f498e-f5e7-4492-a046-e8e792a5445d,0x800,0x82000)/File(\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi)WINDOWS.........x...B.C.D.O.B.J.E.C.T.=.{.9.d.e.a.8.6.2.c.-.5.c.d.d.-.4.e.7.0.-.a.c.c.1.-.f.3.2.b.3.4.4.d.4.7.9.5.}...&................
Boot0001* Solid State Disk	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1d,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-25-38-B1-81-B3-0E-F9)/HD(1,GPT,621f498e-f5e7-4492-a046-e8e792a5445d,0x800,0x82000)..BO
Boot0002* GRUB	HD(1,GPT,cdbe7b05-8d97-4125-9e15-e85a3cb5c324,0x800,0xfa000)/File(\EFI\GRUB\grubx64.efi)
Boot0005* Solid State Disk	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x1b,0x0)/Pci(0x0,0x0)/NVMe(0x1,00-1B-44-8B-44-46-55-C2)/HD(1,GPT,cdbe7b05-8d97-4125-9e15-e85a3cb5c324,0x800,0xfa000)..BO
Boot0006* USB Drive (UEFI) - Samsung Flash Drive 1100	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(18,0)/CDROM(1,0xe0,0xf9410)..BO
Boot0007* USB Drive (UEFI) - Samsung Flash Drive 1100	PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x14,0x0)/USB(18,0)/HD(1,MBR,0x314e3728,0xe0,0x20000)..BO

Don't mind the boot-order for the time being, that is not the problem. I do manage to enter the GRUB (where I don't have the windows10 option yet.) Once I select the ARCHLinux option in the GRUB, I get completely stuck on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." no blinking and nothing works.

Indeed I don't think the systemd is lunched.

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#4 2018-09-22 12:42:35

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

OK, the figure is that the BIOS found grub. But grub don't find a kernel or the initramfs.
Can we see how is organized your /boot (aka ESP) ?


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#5 2018-09-25 00:35:42

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hello, TheSaint,
I am sorry to have taken a long time to answer, I was away camping in the nature... smile

So, Here how my /boot is organized:

. mounted the partitions
. arch-chrooted in and went to /boot

boot]# ls
efi  grub  initramfs-linux-fallback.img  initramfs-linux.img  vmlinuz-linux

Is it ok? any ideas?

What does (aka ESP) mean? If I speak Spanish?

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#6 2018-09-25 01:51:13

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

ESP smile
There could be an issue:
You have the files into the /boot directory, but they should be into a partition, which should be mounted later, as per /etc/fstab description.
So to have the whole figure of your system, please do a chroot again and report:

$ cat /etc/fstab

So if you have the kernel into the wrong place, that might cause a kernel panic. Because the updates should write the kernel into the ESP, which is the only partition that the BIOS find at boot time. Later the kernel wants to find its corresponding modules after mounting the rootfs.

Last edited by TheSaint (2018-09-25 01:52:02)


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#7 2018-09-26 11:48:37

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hello,
Ok, Thanks, now I understand what ESP is smile
I hereby report what you asked:

# cat /etc/fstab
# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/nvme1n1p2
UUID=49f1bdd5-dc66-4e8b-9ddc-340d21fad8fc	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 1

# /dev/nvme1n1p3
UUID=a0515922-e6f1-4d0d-ad28-82e09ce83ff0	/home     	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

# /dev/sda3
UUID=9cdb85f4-d881-4fdb-a1ac-730faa378690	none      	swap      	defaults,pri=-2	0 0

So according to what you say, there should be a 4th partition detected probably the 500MB fat32 partiton I created? /dev/nvme1n1p1?

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#8 2018-09-26 16:04:55

c00ter
Member
From: Alaskan in Washington State
Registered: 2014-08-28
Posts: 386

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Your output should look more like this example. Please not the /boot/efi partition.

[c00ter@baked ~]$ cat /etc/fstab
# /dev/sda2 UUID=e75fcfdc-832a-43e4-8642-5e13a082fcb6
PARTUUID=8444227d-5e39-4339-a1f3-d936d94b2a7a   /               ext4            rw,noatime,nobarrier,commit=60  0 1

# /dev/sda1 UUID=CE19-B1B1
PARTUUID=6ddef339-84c4-4408-9744-e36d4cb45d86   /boot/efi       vfat            rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro       0 2

# /dev/sda3 UUID=bf542706-f7d3-479e-a9b3-a2601ce2f540
PARTUUID=c2f04770-505d-4325-a1f6-012a9eca9049   /home           ext4            rw,noatime,nobarrier,commit=60  0 2

/swapfile               none            swap            defaults,pri=-2 0 0

[c00ter@baked ~]$ cd /boot
[c00ter@baked boot]$ ls
efi  grub  initramfs-linux-fallback.img  initramfs-linux.img  initramfs-linux-lts-fallback.img  initramfs-linux-lts.img  intel-ucode.img  vmlinuz-linux  vmlinuz-linux-lts

regards


UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

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#9 2018-09-26 23:36:41

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hello c00ter,

Thanks for the response,

How do I get from what I have to what you have? should I edit manually? Is there a command?

plus I see I am missing some files in /boot. are those important?

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#10 2018-09-27 08:38:01

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

c00ter gave the direction to settle your ESP into /boot, which is should be the default. /boot/efi is pretty uncommon. Even systemd-boot is working with /boot as default.

Then when you update or install the linux package, it will go into ESP. So the BIOS and the boot loader will know how to proceed the booting process.


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#11 2018-09-27 14:27:06

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hi TheSaint and C00ter,
I regret to tell you that I am too much of a noob to know how to do what you tell me.
I understand now that there is a problem with the ESP (I read the link you sent me and the ArchWiki about ESP). I created a 500MB GPT partition but probably missing the esp flag (i will put it as soon as I get home). When installing ARCH I mounted it to /boot/efi and installed the bootloader. beyond that I am lost.
I know that I am missing a partition that should be recognized by fstab, and that the devices are recognized inside the fstab also by the PARTUUID that I am missing in mine. How can I fix this?
could you please help me with that?
Thanks a lot!

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#12 2018-09-28 00:35:23

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

The /boot partition, which should be the ESP, it is necessary to be mounted just for kernel updates and booting related issues. Because new kernel will go in there and the system expect to find the modules for the booted kernel.

So, the boot process is that BIOS knows about ESP, will find the program recorded in the NVRAM an run it, which should be the boot loader. The boot loader (might be the kernel itself) boots a kernel, then the kernel will find the fstab and mount the system and change root over it. As it changed root it will look into the /usr/lib/modules for the modules which are mostly necessary to handle with the system hardware.
I hope you have a better idea about booting by EFI.


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#13 2018-10-20 17:01:17

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Hello again,
I took my time to read and understand the guides you gave me. It took a really long time, I am sorry.

So I still have the same problem. I am unable to to boot to Arch, still stuck on "Loading initial Ramdisk..."

What I did was to format all and reinstall step by step.

1. I formated the partitions adding the "esp" and "boot" labels to the 500MB made sure that it had the "EFI System" type, the other partitions were formated ext4 made sure that it had the "Linux filesystem" type
2. I mounted all partitions and installed ARCH and generated the fstab

mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/nvme1n1p2 /mnt
mount /dev/nvme1n1p3 /mnt/home

pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab

#At this point my fstab only takes into consideration the UUID like the one I had before. So I used the

blkid

command to know the PARTUUID and manually modified the fstab to be exactly like the one cOOter posted

so it looks like:

# /dev/nvme1n1p2 UUID=619556a1-014b-4bfc-bd33-5993d21fb451
PARTUUID=9dce9bc8-bcf2-4572-9c16-598045c9923f	/         	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 1

# /dev/nvme1n1p3 UUID=69bca618-239d-45af-8895-0701fc4c0645
PARTUUID=736b8587-ab37-4dee-a9cd-cce6e2a4e6ea	/home     	ext4      	rw,relatime	0 2

# /dev/nvme1n1p1 UUID=41F4-FAC7
PARTUUID=cdbe7b05-8d97-4125-9e15-e85a3cb5c324      	/boot     	vfat      	rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro	0 2

# /dev/sda3 LABEL=SWAP UUID=8c410300-fbdf-4400-9775-b4989cc458d1
PARTUUID=a15fd4f5-88eb-4b15-9b3d-7be0ee43efb5	none      	swap      	defaults,pri=-2	0 0

3. Then I accessed my installation to configure: time, location, hostname, password, user
4. Then I installed the boot manager, so still arch-chrooted I ran

pacman -S grub efibootmgr dosfstools os-prober mtools
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot --bootloader-id=GRUB
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
mkinitcpio -p linux

There were in total 3 warnings:
. while mkinitcpio -p linux, I got 2 warnings for missing firmware modules for aic94xx and wd719x. (once before I installed both modules and made no difference)
. while grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg, I got 1 warning: failed to connect to lvmetad falling back to device scanning.

It all seem ok. But still freezes on "loading initial Ramdisk"

Any ideas?

Is there a way to know why the bootloader isn' t finding what it should??

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#14 2018-10-21 23:42:44

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

You should restart the installation image and chroot into the installation.
Try to remake the grub.cfg and post it here.
The mkinicpio always issue those two warning, which are mostly harmless.
Another chance it might be to switch to another boot loader, such as systemd-boot.


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#15 2018-10-21 23:54:08

circleface
Member
Registered: 2012-05-26
Posts: 639

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /mnt/boot
mount /dev/nvme1n1p2 /mnt
mount /dev/nvme1n1p3 /mnt/home

Those are mounted out of order.  Make sure you mount /mnt first, then the other two.

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#16 2018-10-22 10:58:48

TheSaint
Member
From: my computer
Registered: 2007-08-19
Posts: 1,523

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Adding

$ tree /boot

after chroot may help.


do it good first, it will be faster than do it twice the saint wink

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#17 2019-01-11 14:56:47

gudnait
Member
Registered: 2018-09-14
Posts: 45

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

After a long battle of learning, reading, I could finally install Arch in my laptop.

What I did was: let it rest for a month, then starting from 0 once again taking into consideration all what I learned here.

I mounted in order the disks,
used /tree /boot to be sure of the structure
Used all the learned concepts
Followed  (as before) the installation guide from Arch

And this time it was a success.

I presume that the pickle was:

- a bad turn when installing and configuring Grub, As now I knew exactly what I was doing (before it wasn't really the case.)

I thank a lot @TheSaint @circleface @c00ter for all the help and time invested, i assure you it was really useful!! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

See you around!

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#18 2019-01-11 15:01:48

V1del
Forum Moderator
Registered: 2012-10-16
Posts: 21,425

Re: [SOLVED] Freeze on "Loading Initial Ramdisk..." HP OmenX laptop

Glad to hear, have fun on Arch.

Please remember to mark the thread as [SOLVED] by editing the title in your first post (you might have to shorten it a bit): https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … ow_to_post

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