Arch Linux

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

[SOLVED] Installed Arch Linux as a VirtualBox machine does not boot

I have download Arch Live iso and installed into a VirtualBox machine.

I have followed the installation guide point by point.

My /dev/sda structure is the following:

output fdisk -l screenshot

output lsblk -f screenshot

Before entering to arch-chroot i have mounted all the partitions as follow:

# mount /dev/VolGroup00/lvolroot /mnt
# mount /dev/VolGroup00/lvolhome /mnt/home
# mount /dev/VolGroup00/lvolvar /mnt/var
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot  (/dev/sda1 is my EFI system partition)

and then I have performed arch-chroot /mnt and perform the steps indicated in the installation guide.

I have installed GRUB boot loader.

After all done, I have exit arch-chroot environment and unmounted all the points, and finally I have rebooted.

When virtual machine reboots, GRUB boot loader menu is shown perfectly, so I select the correct entry but arch linux does not boot, below messages appear (these are the only lines that are shown):

Booting messages screenshot

If I perform a journalctl -xb I get some weird messages like time out waiting for device or dependency failed:

Journalctl output part 1 screenshot
Journalctl output part 2 screenshot

Last edited by toni (2021-06-28 00:38:20)

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: [SOLVED] Installed Arch Linux as a VirtualBox machine does not boot

I have finally solved. The problem was in /etc/fstab. It was not correctly generated. The UUID for EFI system partiton was incorrect due that first this partition was initially formatted as ext4 and then /etc/fstab generated, but since grub-install was not working on ext4, EFI system partition was formatted to FAT32 in order to grub-install to work but file /etc/fstab was not regenerated again. The UUID for the EFI system partiton is not the same when you format it as ext4 than when it is formatted as FAT32. So editing /etc/fstab again and correcting the UUID for the EFI system partition works ok now.

Slithery

Administrator

From: Norfolk, UK

Registered: 2013-12-01

Posts: 5,776

Re: [SOLVED] Installed Arch Linux as a VirtualBox machine does not boot

The UUID for the EFI system partiton is not the same when you format it as ext4 than when it is formatted as FAT32.

It won't be the same if you reformat it as ext4 either. A random UUID is generated every time a partition is formatted, only the PARTUUID remains the same.

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No, it didn't "fix" anything. It just shifted the brokeness one space to the right. - jasonwryan
Closing -- for deletion; Banning -- for muppetry. - jasonwryan

aur - dotfiles

toni

Member

Registered: 2011-10-15

Posts: 437

Re: [SOLVED] Installed Arch Linux as a VirtualBox machine does not boot

The UUID for the EFI system partiton is not the same when you format it as ext4 than when it is formatted as FAT32.

It won't be the same if you reformat it as ext4 either. A random UUID is generated every time a partition is formatted, only the PARTUUID remains the same.

Thanks for the clarification.