Arch Linux

bca_xcvbn

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] - Arch install - LVM on LUKS not booting

Hi,
I am trying to install Arch, using this guide (but looked at others as well): https://gist.github.com/PHPCore1/c3c99c … a8bc5a3453

There are a couple of differences, like there is no Windows, secure boot is disabled.

lsblk:

$ lsblk
NAME                    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1                 259:0    0 476.9G  0 disk  
├─nvme0n1p1             259:1    0   500M  0 part
├─nvme0n1p2             259:2    0     2G  0 part
├─nvme0n1p3             259:3    0     2G  0 part  
├─nvme0n1p4             259:4    0  78.1G  0 part  
├─nvme0n1p5             259:5    0 326.1G  0 part  
└─nvme0n1p6             259:6    0  68.3G  0 part  
  └─cryptlvm            253:2    0  68.3G  0 crypt 
    ├─vg0-swap          253:3    0     4G  0 lvm   
    └─vg0-root          253:4    0  64.3G  0 lvm

EFI lives on nvme0n1p1, boot is p3 and p6 is the encrypted partition with lvm, with only two lv, swap and root.

In /etc/mkinitcpio.conf, I have:

MODULES=(ext4)
HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap sd-vconsole block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

In /etc/default/grub, I have:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=UUID=119edd8d-5eaa-454a-b539-e8830d7e9598d:cryptlvm root=/dev/vg0/root"

blkid | grep nvme0n1p6:

/dev/nvme0n1p6: UUID="119edd8d-5eaa-454a-b539-e8830d7e9598" TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTLABEL="Linux LUKS" PARTUUID="573365d8-427d-406d-b533-a3170e889d5d"

Menuentry in /boot/grub/grub.cfg:

menuentry 'Arch Linux' --class arch --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os $menuentry_id_option 'gnulinux-simple-9c8d0d99-b54c-42a1-a82b-ffdef9f30d99' {
	load_video
	set gfxpayload=keep
	insmod gzio
	insmod part_gpt
	insmod ext2
	search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root a04debfd-e52b-4b17-b408-aea60a76fd4d
	echo	'Loading Linux linux-lts ...'
	linux	/vmlinuz-linux-lts root=/dev/mapper/vg0-root rw cryptdevice=UUID=119edd8d-5eaa-454a-b539-e8830d7e9598d:cryptlvm root=/dev/vg0/root loglevel=3 quiet
	echo	'Loading initial ramdisk ...'
	initrd	/amd-ucode.img /initramfs-linux-lts.img
}

What happens is that after "Loading initial ramdisk...", the screen goes blank for some time (if I remove the quiet option then it shows that it started booting) then eventually says "Timed out waiting for /dev/mapper/vg0-root", but it never asks for the luks password.

After trying to work it out for a few hours now, I'm hoping that the knowledgeable people here can point me to something that's obvious, yet I have missed?

Last edited by bca_xcvbn (2025-11-23 10:49:33)

twelveeighty

Member

Registered: 2011-09-04

Posts: 1,420

Re: [SOLVED] - Arch install - LVM on LUKS not booting

Random installation guides are not supported here. Start over by using the official installation guide. If you get stuck with that guide, we can help.

bca_xcvbn

Member

Registered: 2025-11-22

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] - Arch install - LVM on LUKS not booting

Random installation guides are not supported here. Start over by using the official installation guide. If you get stuck with that guide, we can help.

Right, thanks. That actually helped, surprisingly.

For those looking for a solution to the same problem (LVM on LUKS not booting): following the official guide, mentioned in the reply, is not easy, but should be working (with the LVM on LUKS guide here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Dm-cry … VM_on_LUKS).

In this case, in /etc/mkinitcipio.conf, instead of:

MODULES=(ext4)
HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap sd-vconsole block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

I needed:

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

And in /etc/default/grub, instead of:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=UUID=119edd8d-5eaa-454a-b539-e8830d7e9598d:cryptlvm root=/dev/vg0/root"

I needed:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.luks.name=119edd8d-5eaa-454a-b539-e8830d7e9598d=cryptlvm root=/dev/vg0/root"

Last edited by bca_xcvbn (2025-11-23 10:34:55)