Arch Linux

vlnst

Member

Registered: 2025-07-04

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] The root device is not configured to be mounted read-write!

Hello,

I'm experiencing an issue after switching from GRUB to UKI (Unified Kernel Image) boot. During boot, I get the error:
The root device is not configured to be mounted read-write! It may be fsck'd again later.
This error didn't occur when using GRUB with the same system configuration.

System Information:

Fully updated Arch Linux (pacman -Syu completed before posting)
Using encrypted root with device mapper
Booting directly from UEFI

Current Configuration:
/etc/kernel/cmdline:

loglevel=3 quiet bgrt_disable root=/dev/mapper/root cryptdevice=UUID=f15c5fed-4b2a-4714-82c2-75da858b3eec:root zswap.enabled=0 zram.num_devices=1

/etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset:

ALL_kver="/boot/vmlinuz-linux"
PRESETS=('default')
default_uki="/boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTx64.EFI"
default_options="--splash /usr/share/systemd/bootctl/splash-arch.bmp"

UEFI Boot Entry:

Boot0002* Arch Linux	HD(1,GPT,8fab1e41-c28a-46ca-9e2f-c7747372d9ba,0x800,0x200000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOTx64.EFI

The system boots successfully and the root filesystem appears to be mounted read-write by systemd eventually, but seeing this warning on every boot is concerning. The same kernel command line worked perfectly with GRUB without any warnings.
Is there a specific parameter I need to add to the kernel command line for UKI boot to eliminate this warning?

Last edited by vlnst (2025-07-04 13:34:30)

unixman

Member

Registered: 2015-03-12

Posts: 115

Re: [SOLVED] The root device is not configured to be mounted read-write!

add good old 'rw' to cmdline then see.

vlnst

Member

Registered: 2025-07-04

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] The root device is not configured to be mounted read-write!

Thanks, that fixed it.

I tried that, but it seems I forgot to run mkinitcpio -P afterward.