Arch Linux

dr_04

Member

Registered: 2026-09-29

Posts: 1

Cryptography setup failing

The below is the sequence of events I am listing which caused the error:

1. Two days ago I did a system upgrade after which I had rebooted the machine just to find myself with a nvidia driver error.

2. I enter the refind menu (f2 to edit the configuration), removed the below nvidia parameters from the boot flags,

   nvidia_drm.modeset=1 nvidia.NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1

   so I can enter the system and fix the nvidia issue.

3. I was able to get my KDE login screen, I logged in and re-ran

    sudo pacman -Syu && sudo mkinitcpio -P 

   Then i rebooted the system again, after which I got a very different unrelated error which is pasted below.

[  OK  ] Started Rule-based Manager for Device Events and Files.
[  OK  ] Started Journal Service.
Starting Create System Files and Directories...
[  OK  ] Finished Create System Files and Directories.
[  OK  ] Finished Coldplug All udev Devices.
[  OK  ] Found device APPLE_SSD_SM0256G 1.
Starting Cryptography Setup for ssd4...
Starting Virtual Console Setup...
Please enter passphrase for disk APPLE_SSD_SM0256G (ssd4): (press TAB for no echo) [   63.452593] usbhid 7-2:1.3: couldn't find an input int
.......................
[FAILED] Failed to start Cryptography Setup for ssd4.
See 'systemctl status systemd-cryptsetup@ssd4.service' for details.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Local Encrypted Volumes.
[  OK  ] Reached target System Initialization.
[  OK  ] Reached target Basic System.
[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/38f2a230-8515-4a08-87c6-13c86a441d20.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Cryptography Setup for ssd3.
[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/bd00eb99-90de-4149-972a-0339e5347578.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd Root Device.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for /sysroot.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd Root File System.
[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/482b399a-9256-4f19-9f7e-030816219268.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Cryptography Setup for ssd1.
[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/c8ec182f-6bdd-4c1a-95eb-e41b9a51ca01.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Cryptography Setup for ssd2.
[  OK  ] Stopped target Basic System.
[  OK  ] Stopped target System Initialization.
[  OK  ] Reached target Initrd File Systems.
Stopping Dispatch Password Requests to Console...
[  OK  ] Stopped Dispatch Password Requests to Console.
[  OK  ] Stopped Dispatch Password Requests to Console Directory Watch.
[  OK  ] Started Emergency Shell.
[  OK  ] Reached target Emergency Mode.
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(8) man page for more details.

Press Enter to continue.

Reloading system manager configuration.
Starting initrd.target

My setup

• I have 4 ssds which are pooled together using btrfs, totalling around 1.2TB. All the 4 ssds are LUKS encrypted with the same password. One of the SSDs is from a old Apple Macbook Pro (2015), I bought a connector for that and put it in a PCIE slot, hence the "APPLE_SSD" something shown in the logs above. It is a proper pc build, not an apple computer. This setup was working pretty well from a long time, and is definitely not the cause for the error. Also, Im 100% sure that the password I typed is correct.

• I did a  manual arch installation, and installed the linux-cachyos kernel alongside the linux-lts kernel. The above error only occurs with the linux-cachyos kernel, the linux-lts kernel is working great, which is what Im using right now, although the password I typed is the same.

what ive already tried

• numerous system upgrades and initramfs rebuilds, but the issue is same.

• entered the system using lts kernel, did a

  sudo -Rns linux-cachyos linux-cachyos-headers

  , deleted the initramfs and vmlinuz* for linux-cachyos, reinstalled the kernel. The issue is the same.

• removed autodetect from the mkinitcpio.conf, ran

  mkinitcpio -P

  , and rebooted. Same issue.

refind_linux.conf
"Boot Arch Linux" "rd.luks.name=402b399a-9256-4f19-9f7e-030816219268=ssd1 rd.luks.name=c8ec182f-6bdd-4c1a-95eb-e41b9a51ca01=ssd2 rd.luks.name=38f2a230-8515-4a08-87c6-13c86a441d20=ssd3 rd.luks.name=7ecd3660-98af-442c-b95c-47d2e90e8070=ssd4 rd.luks.options=discard root=UUID=bd80eb99-90de-4149-972a-0339e5347578 rootflags=subvol=@v_arch_root rw nvidia_drm.modeset=1 nvidia.NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1"

boot directory

╰─$ pwd && tree
/boot
.
├── amd-ucode.img
├── initramfs-linux-cachyos.img
├── initramfs-linux-lts.img
├── refind_linux.conf
├── refind_linux.conf.bk
├── vmlinuz-linux-cachyos
└── vmlinuz-linux-lts

1 directory, 7 files

This issue is just weird. I have been using this btrfs setup for few months now, with the linux-cachyos kernel too, and I have not changed much in the hardware/config aspect. This is the first time ive seen this happen. I need to know why this happened and how to fix it, please help.