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#1 2025-10-09 17:31:46

efog4
Member
Registered: 2025-10-09
Posts: 4

arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

currently using Alienware Aurora R5; BIOSv1.0.18; Aptio Setup Utility

I have two storage options: stock HDD (sda) and an aftermarket SSD (sdb); before I learned what UEFI was my plan was simply to just have all the linux stuff on the SSD and the windows stuff on the HDD but i learned two efi partitions is bad so then the plan became mount the boot directory to the HDD EFI partition, then root and swap are on the SSD (which yah yah ik booting from the ssd would be faster but i dont care, prioritizing not having to move everything around).

my research has led me to this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dual_boot_with_Windows (currently a big mess) which im pretty sure i followed all of 2.1.2 and it didnt work.

and this: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-t … nux-system

Following the instructions from the dell support page did not do anything except prevent me from booting windows again.

I ensured to disable secure boot and that uefi was enabled. i installed grub on sda and sdb because the tutorial i was following only had sda and i didnt know what to do, then i installed probe os, probed, generated a grub config, and uncommented disable_os_probe=false then rebooted. Everytime i select 'arch' from the F12 boot options on startup the screen goes black, my computer fans make a big puff, and the computer just reboots over and over again which i can only imagine means its saying "critical failure, rebooting" over and over. I think my main issue is with GRUB and having linux across two disks? because everything else seems to be working great, ive successfully installed arch linux several times! Its just booting archlinux has been unsuccessful.

I also deleted the original  500mb EFI partition on the HDD and replaced it with a 2GB partition via the install medium and windows still boots so i can only assume i did that correctly.

some questions i have:
if run my usb medium again and just immediately run chroot will my user and password i set up still be there? or does initiating an install wipe everything? I am still on windows 10, is it advisable to sort windows out before installing linux instead of potentially updating to 11 after the fact? Would it be better to move the EFI partition to the SSD, does windows know how to handle something like that happening? I am also confused about RAID, when my computer doesnt boot in secure mode i see a brief screen flash that says raid volumes: none defined, and that both of my disks are non-raid disks so then why does changing sata from raid to AHCI prevent my windows from booting?


Part of my issue is because no one tutorial has exactly what i need ive been hodgepodging between the wiki, this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68z11VA … c3RhbGw%3D, and chatting with large language models so now i am here!


update: I have learned you can infact have two EFI if you infact have different disks... i think my next steps are getting some kind of booter that can communicate with the BIOS i already have and if that doesnt work ill just return to my original plan and repartition the ssd to have an EFI if any one has directions for dealing with the BIOS i already have on boot and just make the entry labeled 'arch' work properly please let me know!

Last edited by efog4 (2025-10-10 00:26:22)

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#2 2025-10-09 18:48:59

c>rust
Member
Registered: 2025-09-07
Posts: 13

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

efog4 wrote:

if run my usb medium again and just immediately run chroot will my user and password i set up still be there

yes it will still be there (if you havent corrupt anything)you dont need password since you already have root=)
I'm not very experience with dual boot or archlinux in general but
grub doesnt do much and there isnt much to break(mostly the root patition to mount in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX)

efog4 wrote:

Everytime i select 'arch' from the F12

i assume that you're not refer to the grub menu, if grub menu didnt show up try to reinstall grub
I like this vid  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxeriGuJKTM cause it is uptodate and intuitive
in my case (with grub on systemd-boot) even if u srew up our root part it should still show a emergency console (same for busy box I think)
so it's not your grub config

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#3 2025-10-09 19:21:23

efog4
Member
Registered: 2025-10-09
Posts: 4

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

c>rust wrote:

i assume that you're not refer to the grub menu, if grub menu didnt show up try to reinstall grub

Correct assumption, I have the ability to press F2 and F12 on boot and thats how i have been accessing the install medium and there is literally a new entry labeled 'arch', i am a little confused on if grub is supposed to replace this or come before or after or how it even works with the BIOS and additionally i discovered about efibootmgr here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_boot_stub so i'll read up and see if i can figure something out between that and this more specific tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J_Z_pzzbMo

thank you for your insight!

Last edited by efog4 (2025-10-09 19:23:03)

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#4 2025-10-10 06:07:52

c>rust
Member
Registered: 2025-09-07
Posts: 13

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

efog4 wrote:

Correct assumption, I have the ability to press F2 and F12 on boot and thats how i have been accessing the install medium and there is literally a new entry labeled 'arch', i am a little confused on if grub is supposed to replace this or come before or after or how it even works with the BIOS and additionally i discovered about efibootmgr

(bios|uefi)>(grub|systemd-boot|or other  boot loader)>(busybox init|systemd init)
did you manage to see grub menu
use like "gist" login and upload your "/etc/defaut/grub"

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#5 2025-10-11 08:45:53

efog4
Member
Registered: 2025-10-09
Posts: 4

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

c>rust wrote:

did you manage to see grub menu

Yes! both the grub menu is working (i think) and even the arch entry from my BIOS is working... except i think something is weird with the luks i set up following the tutorial from LLTV because I specifically wrote down the decryption phrase on a piece of paper and I keep entering it because on boot i am now prompted with "Enter passphrase for hd2,gpt1 (long string of characters):" and I am typing in verbatim what I wrote and its not letting me in ?. Gonna take a break and try going through the usb medium again as now all i can get into is grub rescue>

if its any importance after trying three times it says:

error: no such cryptodisk found, perhaps a needed disk or cryptodisk module is not loaded.
error:disk 'lvmid/02nky0-AuSz-J9FI-aGzc-1DYI-tZKH5-9hwkkA/40FKya-cx9E-Kee17HTu-hnxx-T8No-e81UCb' not found.
Entering rescue mode...

I am going to wait to mark as solved until i successfully boot? but im new here so let me know if i should just change it now as its solved on a technicality haha

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#6 2025-10-11 13:14:01

c>rust
Member
Registered: 2025-09-07
Posts: 13

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

can you upload
it can be done with out GUI

#pacman -S gist
//create an account on https://gist.github.com
$gist --login
$blkid|gist #upload your disk layout and uuid
#cat /etc/default/grub|gist #upload your grubconfig
#cat /etc/mkinitcpio.conf |gist
$pacman -Qe|gist #upload packages explicitly installed

of course replace the dir if on image
pase the link on your gist account here

Last edited by c>rust (2025-10-11 13:48:25)

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#7 2025-10-12 21:57:40

efog4
Member
Registered: 2025-10-09
Posts: 4

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

c>rust wrote:

can you upload

Yes! Thank you for your patience and walking me through that, I wiped the disk and tried the install one more time just to be sure i didnt make any silly errors:

disk layout and uuid

/dev/sdb2: UUID="9492c45e-f3a2-4f59-8851-01b33935ede1" TYPE="swap" PARTUUID="c414fbd6-822e-40af-bf25-561f6884ca33"
/dev/sdb3: UUID="3ef1c6fb-578b-4b77-8d94-d71683c0a0e9" TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTUUID="8e277163-0cd1-48d6-820b-37c1c101560b"
/dev/sdb1: UUID="820dbcd0-5f91-44ea-904d-9f3d76e61c4e" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="cb6dd97a-b690-41c3-84fb-e2e8a4cccc0f"
/dev/sdc1: LABEL="ARCH" UUID="22A2-2E68" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="003ce57a-01"
/dev/sda4: BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="9230292030290D33" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="399e2b8d-5eb6-4460-99f4-4338d328f276"
/dev/sda5: LABEL="Image" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="CA8EA3A98EA38D0F" TYPE="ntfs" PARTUUID="a323d70a-2e4a-44b2-a9fb-ab129d159576"
/dev/sda3: LABEL="OS" BLOCK_SIZE="512" UUID="FADC8A84DC8A3AC1" TYPE="ntfs" PARTLABEL="Basic data partition" PARTUUID="c332c0a1-776e-4bc9-9332-d7f2dcc7cefc"
/dev/sda1: LABEL_FATBOOT="ESP" LABEL="ESP" UUID="CA38-3750" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTLABEL="EFI system partition" PARTUUID="53cd6864-ef40-48db-ad8a-df5191267e68"
/dev/loop0: BLOCK_SIZE="1048576" TYPE="squashfs"
/dev/mapper/volgroup0-lv_root: UUID="817a1ca8-af8d-48b7-9b56-224938e1c210" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/volgroup0-lv_PROJECTION: UUID="6c5dbdd8-b7f9-40f1-8365-f756363ba5a2" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"
/dev/mapper/lvm: UUID="MYbJkv-AMIf-qFju-w8DX-OBfn-EnNX-lNp3zv" TYPE="LVM2_member"
/dev/sda2: PARTLABEL="Microsoft reserved partition" PARTUUID="6a67d595-3710-4d1f-80ce-23bfe6f27cee"

grub config

# GRUB boot loader configuration

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=20
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Arch"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 cryptdevice=/dev/sdb3:volgroup0 quiet"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Preload both GPT and MBR modules so that they are not missed
GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="part_gpt part_msdos"

# Uncomment to enable booting from LUKS encrypted devices
#GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y

# Set to 'countdown' or 'hidden' to change timeout behavior,
# press ESC key to display menu.
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=menu

# Uncomment to use basic console
GRUB_TERMINAL_INPUT=console

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal
#GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `videoinfo'
GRUB_GFXMODE=auto

# Uncomment to allow the kernel use the same resolution used by grub
GRUB_GFXPAYLOAD_LINUX=keep

# Uncomment if you want GRUB to pass to the Linux kernel the old parameter
# format "root=/dev/xxx" instead of "root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/xxx"
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY=true

# Uncomment and set to the desired menu colors.  Used by normal and wallpaper
# modes only.  Entries specified as foreground/background.
#GRUB_COLOR_NORMAL="light-blue/black"
#GRUB_COLOR_HIGHLIGHT="light-cyan/blue"

# Uncomment one of them for the gfx desired, a image background or a gfxtheme
#GRUB_BACKGROUND="/path/to/wallpaper"
#GRUB_THEME="/path/to/gfxtheme"

# Uncomment to get a beep at GRUB start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"

# Uncomment to make GRUB remember the last selection. This requires
# setting 'GRUB_DEFAULT=saved' above.
#GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

# Uncomment to disable submenus in boot menu
#GRUB_DISABLE_SUBMENU=y

# Probing for other operating systems is disabled for security reasons. Read
# documentation on GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER, if still want to enable this
# functionality install os-prober and uncomment to detect and include other
# operating systems.
GRUB_DISABLE_OS_PROBER=false

mkinitcpio.conf

# vim:set ft=sh
# MODULES
# The following modules are loaded before any boot hooks are
# run.  Advanced users may wish to specify all system modules
# in this array.  For instance:
#     MODULES=(usbhid xhci_hcd)
MODULES=()

# BINARIES
# This setting includes any additional binaries a given user may
# wish into the CPIO image.  This is run last, so it may be used to
# override the actual binaries included by a given hook
# BINARIES are dependency parsed, so you may safely ignore libraries
BINARIES=()

# FILES
# This setting is similar to BINARIES above, however, files are added
# as-is and are not parsed in any way.  This is useful for config files.
FILES=()

# HOOKS
# This is the most important setting in this file.  The HOOKS control the
# modules and scripts added to the image, and what happens at boot time.
# Order is important, and it is recommended that you do not change the
# order in which HOOKS are added.  Run 'mkinitcpio -H <hook name>' for
# help on a given hook.
# 'base' is _required_ unless you know precisely what you are doing.
# 'udev' is _required_ in order to automatically load modules
# 'filesystems' is _required_ unless you specify your fs modules in MODULES
# Examples:
##   This setup specifies all modules in the MODULES setting above.
##   No RAID, lvm2, or encrypted root is needed.
#    HOOKS=(base)
#
##   This setup will autodetect all modules for your system and should
##   work as a sane default
#    HOOKS=(base udev autodetect modconf block filesystems fsck)
#
##   This setup will generate a 'full' image which supports most systems.
##   No autodetection is done.
#    HOOKS=(base udev modconf block filesystems fsck)
#
##   This setup assembles a mdadm array with an encrypted root file system.
##   Note: See 'mkinitcpio -H mdadm_udev' for more information on RAID devices.
#    HOOKS=(base udev modconf keyboard keymap consolefont block mdadm_udev encrypt filesystems fsck)
#
##   This setup loads an lvm2 volume group.
#    HOOKS=(base udev modconf block lvm2 filesystems fsck)
#
##   This will create a systemd based initramfs which loads an encrypted root filesystem.
#    HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole sd-encrypt block filesystems fsck)
#
##   NOTE: If you have /usr on a separate partition, you MUST include the
#    usr and fsck hooks.
HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap consolefont block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

# COMPRESSION
# Use this to compress the initramfs image. By default, zstd compression
# is used for Linux ≥ 5.9 and gzip compression is used for Linux < 5.9.
# Use 'cat' to create an uncompressed image.
#COMPRESSION="zstd"
#COMPRESSION="gzip"
#COMPRESSION="bzip2"
#COMPRESSION="lzma"
#COMPRESSION="xz"
#COMPRESSION="lzop"
#COMPRESSION="lz4"

# COMPRESSION_OPTIONS
# Additional options for the compressor
#COMPRESSION_OPTIONS=()

# MODULES_DECOMPRESS
# Decompress loadable kernel modules and their firmware during initramfs
# creation. Switch (yes/no).
# Enable to allow further decreasing image size when using high compression
# (e.g. xz -9e or zstd --long --ultra -22) at the expense of increased RAM usage
# at early boot.
# Note that any compressed files will be placed in the uncompressed early CPIO
# to avoid double compression.
#MODULES_DECOMPRESS="no"

packages explicitly installed

base 3-2
base-devel 1-2
dosfstools 4.2-5
efibootmgr 18-3
gist 6.0.0-2
grub 2:2.12.r359.g19c698d12-1
linux 6.17.1.arch1-1
linux-firmware 20251011-1
linux-headers 6.17.1.arch1-1
lvm2 2.03.35-1
mtools 1:4.0.49-1
nano 8.6-1
networkmanager 1.54.1-1
nvidia 580.95.05-2
nvidia-utils 580.95.05-1
os-prober 1.83-1
sudo 1.9.17.p1-1.

partitions relevant to arch sda1, sdb1, sdb2, sdb3


PROJECTION is equivalent to home and sdc is the usb install medium
https://gist.github.com/errorfog

Last edited by efog4 (Yesterday 04:37:09)

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#8 Yesterday 09:59:36

c>rust
Member
Registered: 2025-09-07
Posts: 13

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

I don't know much about lvm
edit: you might want to add

cryptdevice=UUID=3ef1c6fb-578b-4b77-8d94-d71683c0a0e9:volgroup0 
root=UUID=817a1ca8-af8d-48b7-9b56-224938e1c210 #nomaly you dont need this cause grub will do it automaticly but just to be sure

your config seem fine i have no idea why cant you open the luks device( did it ask you for the passpraze repeatedly)

Last edited by c>rust (Yesterday 15:25:47)

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#9 Yesterday 11:52:11

Lone_Wolf
Administrator
From: Netherlands, Europe
Registered: 2005-10-04
Posts: 14,303

Re: arch installation; struggles with multiple disks and dual booting WIN

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 cryptdevice=/dev/sdb3:volgroup0 quiet"

Try replacing /dev/sdb3 by one of the methods listed on https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Persis … ng_methods

/dev/disk/by-uuid/ tends to work best .
(Also remove quiet to get more output on screen .)


Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

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