Arch Linux

sleepforlife

Member

Registered: 2011-09-27

Posts: 108

systemd-boot cannot find ext4 filesystem, UUID not working

Hello, 

I installed Arch Linux on my Lenovo IdeaPad, but I cannot boot into the system. systemd-boot gives me the error "cannot find ext4 filesystem" and it seems unable to detect the UUID of my root partition. 

The problem is that I don’t have access to another computer or a USB stick to prepare a live environment. I only have my phone and the laptop itself. Because of this, I cannot run lsblk or blkid from a live ISO to check the correct partition. 

I tried editing the boot entry in systemd-boot by pressing e and replacing the root=PARTUUID=... option with guesses like root=/dev/sda2 or root=/dev/nvme0n1p2, but I’m not sure which one is correct. The system still fails to boot. 

My questions are: 
- How can I determine the correct root partition name without another computer or live USB? 
- Is there a reliable way to bypass UUID and boot directly with a device name in systemd-boot? 
- Once I manage to boot, how should I properly update /etc/fstab and /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf so that systemd-boot finds the root partition every time? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I’m stuck without another machine to troubleshoot this. 

Thanks in advance!

seth

Member

From: Don't DM me only for attention

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 73,153

Re: systemd-boot cannot find ext4 filesystem, UUID not working

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … ery_shells - but if you're already using the systemd initramfs instead of the busybox one you might run into a wall even w/ "init=/bin/sh"

I don’t have access to another computer or a USB stick to prepare a live environment

Why not and how did you install arch on that system itfp then??

replacing the root=PARTUUID=

PARTUUID and UUID are NOT the same - maybe that's just it?

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