Arch Linux

Suuny12344

Member

Registered: 2026-09-26

Posts: 3

Failed to start Switch root

Hello! I wanted to optimize my boot time and stop using grub. Then I tried setting this up https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_boot_stub to make my boot time faster. But It gave me an error I tried with a different uuid and I am getting no where can someone help me. Here are the console outputs! "[  OK  ] Reached target Switch Root.
         Starting Switch Root...
[FAILED] Failed to start Switch Root.
See 'systemctl status initrd-switch-root.service' for details.
You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view
system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, or "exit"
to continue bootup,

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.
See sulogin(0) man page for more details.

Press Enter to continue." Oh and keyboard does not work I have to force turn of pc by holding power, and then spam f12 to select the grub entry to get into my os.

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 78,473

Re: Failed to start Switch root

I wanted to optimize my boot time and stop using grub.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#Custom_grub.cfg

I tried setting this up https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_boot_stub

What specifically? Are you trying to boot a UKI? Did you generate one?

to make my boot time faster

Don't hold your breath - unless you system is booting in 20ms and you want to get that down to 15ms, skipping grub won't help you.

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Suuny12344

Member

Registered: 2026-09-26

Posts: 3

Re: Failed to start Switch root

i got 30 seconds or something and I wanted to optimize it im using the efi boot stub with the efibootmanager

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 78,473

Re: Failed to start Switch root

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Improv … md-analyze

What's the output of

efibootmgr --unicode

and what exactly did you do to use that?
(You can boot the install iso and arch-chroot or inspect the efi from there)

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc

Suuny12344

Member

Registered: 2026-09-26

Posts: 3

Re: Failed to start Switch root

BootCurrent: 000A
Timeout: 2 seconds
BootOrder: 0001,000A,0000
Boot0000  Windows Boot Manager  HD(1,GPT,a60a3091-fe2b-48a6-9831-0c3e997ee733,0x1000,0x100000)/\EFI\MICROSOFT\BOOT\BOOTMGFW.EFI䥗䑎坏S
Boot0001* CachyOS EFISTUB       HD(1,GPT,a60a3091-fe2b-48a6-9831-0c3e997ee733,0x1000,0x100000)/\VMLINUZ-LINUX-CACHYOSroot=UUID=e447ca09-6f6b-4bdb-9700-c4717c7b8268 rw initrd=/initramfs-linux-cachyos.img
Boot000A  UEFI OS       HD(1,GPT,a60a3091-fe2b-48a6-9831-0c3e997ee733,0x1000,0x100000)/\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI

I used this command to install it "sudo efibootmgr --create \
      --disk /dev/nvme0n1 --part 1 \
      --label "CachyOS EFISTUB" \
      --loader /vmlinuz-linux-cachyos \
      --unicode "root=UUID=e447ca09-6f6b-4bdb-9700-c4717c7b8268 rw initrd=/initramfs-linux-cachyos.img""

seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 78,473

Re: Failed to start Switch root

https://bbs.archlinux.org/misc.php?action=rules

ls -lR /boot
lsblk -f

Is that a manual transcription?

…VMLINUZ-LINUX-CACHYOSroot=UUID…

Also, unrelated, see the 3rd link below.

I'll re-iterate that the bootloader will not have drastic impact on your boot time (artificial delays to select an entry aside, of course)

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How to upload text · How to boot w/o GUI · Disable Windows Fast-Start! · Fix your xinitrc