Arch Linux

x-yuri

Member

Registered: 2013-01-06

Posts: 160

[SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

I'm using the official ISO image. It displays the menu:

https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*a97m … P1NmxQ.png

The one on the left. I choose the first item, the menu disappears, and nothing happens. I tried adding "nomodeset", "nomodeset i915.modeset=0", "video=800x600" to options in /loader/entries/archiso-x86_64.conf, to no effect.

$ lspci -k
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] (rev 07)
        DeviceName:  Onboard IGD
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device 804e
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915
...

The image contains 2 partitions. For some reason I can't mount the first one read/write. Although my guess is that it's for BIOS motherboards. So I changed the other one.

Also, I tried to create a baseline image with archiso, and it failed:

# ./build.sh -v
...
[mkarchiso] INFO: Configuration settings
[mkarchiso] INFO:                   Command:   run
[mkarchiso] INFO:              Architecture:   x86_64
[mkarchiso] INFO:         Working directory:   work
[mkarchiso] INFO:    Installation directory:   arch
[mkarchiso] INFO:               Run command:   mkinitcpio -c /etc/mkinitcpio-archiso.conf -k /boot/vmlinuz-linux -g /boot/archiso.img

==> WARNING: work/airootfs is not a mountpoint. This may have undesirable side effects.
chroot: failed to run command 'mkinitcpio': No such file or directory

Should it not? It doesn't install `mkinitcpio`, or am I missing something?

moderator edit -- replaced oversized image with link.
Pasting pictures and code

Last edited by x-yuri (2020-06-23 21:18:26)

x-yuri

Member

Registered: 2013-01-06

Posts: 160

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

Okay, regarding archiso/baseline that's a known bug.

Now then, I made the official image boot by manually creating vfat partition on my USB drive, copying files from the *.iso, and assigning label ARCH_202006 to it. Do you have any idea why it doesn't boot after just dd'ing the image to the flash drive?

x-yuri

Member

Registered: 2013-01-06

Posts: 160

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

This totally looks like a bug, so I filed a bug report. If you have any ideas what I can check or confirm, you're welcome.

I wonder how many users are affected. That doesn't seem good if people can't install Arch Linux. Is there anybody who can boot from the official image on a UEFI motherboard?

c00ter

Member

From: Alaskan in Washington State

Registered: 2014-08-28

Posts: 395

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

No problem here with a new installation on a 4th Gen. Intel laptop from the June ISO, but there have been problems reported about it, if I recall correctly. The advice I read was to use the May ISO if the June issue was problemmatic. Have you looked for other problem posts regarding the June ISO?

---

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

x-yuri

Member

Registered: 2013-01-06

Posts: 160

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

I might be wrong, but I seem to have run into this issue before, but decided not to proceed.

I looked for similar issues, but found nothing that could shed light on this. This may be a display issue, but I seem to have tried a number of options.

Right now I can tell that if I manually choose to run EFI/boot/loader.efi, it succeeds:

https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/ … h#L156-159

My guess is that PreLoader.efi (bootx64.efi) is a wrapper around systemd-bootx64.efi (loader.efi). I tried to add a couple of print statements into it, but saw no output.

Speaking of the May ISO, it made me think of trying earlier versions of efitools. But to be sure it indeed makes sense to try the May ISO. Thanks for the suggestion.

x-yuri

Member

Registered: 2013-01-06

Posts: 160

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

Well, it turned out the official image works, sometimes. But loader.efi always works (never failed yet). And not sure if relevant, but every boot starts with:

[    0.81296] DMAR: [Firmware Bug]: No firmware reserved region can cover this
RMRR [0x000000008d800000-0x000000008fffffff], contact BIOS vendor for fixes
:: running early hook [udev]
Starting version 245.6-7-arch
...

ntony

Member

Registered: 2010-11-17

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

I have the same problem.
I am on Ryzen 3600 with nVidia 1660 SUPER.

What does it mean by "official image works, sometimes"? Now I only want to be able to install Arch on my new machine.

x-yuri

Member

Registered: 2013-01-06

Posts: 160

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

What does it mean by "official image works, sometimes"?

It means that, say, I reboot my machine, and tell it to boot from usb (official image). It succeeds (I get to the shell prompt). Then I reboot, and do the same thing. And it fails (nothing happens after choosing Arch Linux archiso x86_64 UEFI USB). And so on. It probably more often fails, than not. And there's a hope it's gonna be fixed UPD It is fixed.

There's a way that didn't failed so far. On my machine I'm not just able to tell it to boot from some USB drive. I can tell it which loader (file) to execute. The file that always works for me is EFI/boot/loader.efi.

Last edited by x-yuri (2020-06-23 21:19:02)

ntony

Member

Registered: 2010-11-17

Posts: 32

Re: [SOLVED] Arch Linux doesn't always boot from the official image (USB)

Using April's ISO image worked for me. And I have to use `linux-lts` kernel. Otherwise, my new installation failed to start.