Arch Linux

grumpy

Member

Registered: 2025-04-02

Posts: 8

Yet another rewind cant find loader

ok after struggling for two days I need help. This is so stupid aggravating. I have /dev/sda1 as the efi partition. /dev/md126 (sometimes md127, ain't that nice?)  is the root / in /efi/EFI/rewind/rewind.conf it have:

menuentry "Arch Linux" {
    icon /EFI/refind/icons/os_arch.png
    loader /vmlinuz-linux
    initrd /initramfs-linux.img
    options "root=UUID=6ca61124-306f-4c46-a8b8-0900bb2f866c rw add_efi_memmap"
}

I've tried with and without /boot in front of loader and initrd paths, add_efi_memmap. With and without a volume. nothing works. It's a realpainto have to keep rebooting to the livecd and mount things just to edit a file and reboot. It always gives:

starting vmlinuz-linux
Using load options 'root=UUID=6ca61124-306f-4c46-a8b8-0900bb2f866c rw add_efi_memmap initrd=\initramfs.img'
Invalid loader file!
Error: Not Found while loading-vmlinuz

Does that mean it can't find the file or the file is invalid it like it says? Which is it? What's not found? the loader? the kernel? the initrd? something else? This thing really sucks for error messages. And before some wise guy posts :"read the manual" I did. Arch and rewind. It's confusing as hell. As you can probably tell I'm not in a good mood after struggling with this for two days. How to get it working? This is a mul;ti-boot with Gentoo and that works. It found everything automatically and there's a folder on the ESP efi/EFI/gentoo/grubx64.efi . Does rewind make this when you run rewind-install? There's rewind/rewind.conf and also rewind_linux.conf in /boot where kernel and initramfs are. what a confusing mess. Help.

Last edited by grumpy (2025-04-02 17:58:32)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,725

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

First off, rewind == refind?

Assuming that's true, you're telling refind the kernel and initramfs are on the root of the ESP, which they're not. They're in the /boot dir of your root partition. Can refind even access the array?

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-04-02 18:01:57)

grumpy

Member

Registered: 2025-04-02

Posts: 8

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

rewind == refind?

Lol...I've been at this too long, my brain is fried.

Assuming that's true, you're telling refind the kernel and initramfs are on the root of the ESP,

How am I doing that? you mean if I don't put /boot in front of the paths it defaults to ESP? I'm not mentioning ESP anywhere. what is "root of the ESP" anyway?

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,725

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

From https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/REFInd#Configuration

If volume is not specified it defaults to volume from which rEFInd was launched (typically EFI system partition).

As it says, you have to give it the path on the volume you specify. Right now, you're telling it that it's in the root directory of the default volume (ESP) which you apparently are mounting to /efi:

in /efi/EFI/rewind/rewind.conf it have:

Last edited by Scimmia (2025-04-02 22:18:24)

grumpy

Member

Registered: 2025-04-02

Posts: 8

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

ok so i put /boot in front of it and it still doesnt work also put /arch-root/boot in front of paths ands still doesnt work. how to get this to work? its pretty sad that there's millions of people working on computers all over the world for decades and this is the best we can come up with?

Last edited by grumpy (2025-04-02 22:37:32)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,725

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_(computing)

You have to understand what volumes are and what mounting is.

grumpy

Member

Registered: 2025-04-02

Posts: 8

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

can someone helpful offer some insight? if you cant offer anything other that condescending "read the manual" type of posts then just don't post

Last edited by grumpy (2025-04-02 22:40:34)

Scimmia

Fellow

Registered: 2012-09-01

Posts: 13,725

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

Except I've already explained it twice. If you're missing the basics, nobody here is going to do it for you. As I said, I don't even know if refind can access whatever md setup you have. Do you even know if this setup is possible?

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 2,120

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

well - let me try to hint you to the exit of the roundabout you keep drivin circles around:

/dev/md126 (sometimes md127, ain't that nice?)

so you have at least two md raid arrays (if you would have just one the 127 would be consistent and not randomly switch with 126) and your kernel and initrd within the /boot folder on that array
so in order to load them you need a bootloader capable of accessing an md raid array
I don't know for sure but on a quick search I wasn't able to find if and how reFind (seriously: even after sinking two days into struggle with it please at least try to keep it right - otherwise the next reply would be "there's no bootloader called reWind") is able to
so you end up with two options:
1) get the kernel and initrd out of the array but onto the esp
2) use a bootloader capable of accessing an md raid array

usually I'm the one with such lines as "sorry not sorry to be the one yelling out loud 'this an YOU issue'" - but seriously: gentoo is about as complex as Arch (at least since it became a regular binary distro instead of a source distro) ... I wonder how you got it running but struggle with something as simple as Arch
the install is pretty much the same up to the point of pacstrap vs dnf and merges back right at installing the bootloader
so if you have refind working fine with an md raid array for gentoo then just copy that setup

also: your attitude is off - it's clearly an YOU issue as you may have read the wiki but seem to struggle understanding it - hence you came here asking us the spent our free time to try to help you with an issue we have very little information about
so the first step would be to give an overview of your setup as with /dev/mdX although it gives some information it also shows you failed at understanding the important parts of the wiki dealing with how to setup arch on an array
for the sake of simplicity: why not ditch the array - use a regular partition with ext4 for the OS and then mount the arrays?
your struggle is why I recommend against installing the os on any kind of virtual device like an raid array or a crypto container - although both are still rather simple with the propertools and configs

Last edited by cryptearth (2025-04-03 06:31:21)

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 75,332

Re: Yet another rewind cant find loader

I wonder how you got it running but struggle with something as simple as Arch

get the kernel and initrd out of the array but onto the esp

also put /arch-root/boot in front of paths ands still doesnt work

The OP has cleary no idea whatsoever about anything they're doing.
They'll have stupidly followed some youtuber and by sheer dumb luck put the gentoo kernel and initramfs onto the ESP but the Arch ones onto the raid.

usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/btrfs_x64.efi
usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/ext2_x64.efi
usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/ext4_x64.efi
usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/hfs_x64.efi
usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/iso9660_x64.efi
usr/share/refind/drivers_x64/reiserfs_x64.efi

refind doesn't ship w/ any dmraid drivers and if the OP had added them from soemwhere else they would have pointed that out and not consistenly talked about "rewind"

@grumpy, get used to ReadTheFuckingWikis that are thrown at you.
Doing this by trial-and-wherehaveallmyfilesgone will only ever make you grumpier.
And that *is* the helpful insight you're looking for: You've no idea what you're doing and that has to change.

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