Arch Linux

tolstoi

Member

Registered: 2009-07-23

Posts: 7

arch install on usbstick

Hi,
I'm new to Arch and I wanted to test it on an 8GB usbstick. I installed it from a linux host and so far everything went fine... except that I can't boot.

After grub loading and a few other things I get the message:
Kinit: not able to mount rootfs (and so on) (8,2)

The usbstick contains a boot partition (usually always sdb1) and an ext4 / partition (sdb2). Installing grub on the stick worked. I also added the rootfstype=ext4 option to the kernel.

It seems as if it can't find the root partition for some reasons:
- is it my fstab?
- filesystem not recognized?
- something missing in mkcpio.conf?

I took care of the nodes as explained in the installation guide. They show up as they are supposed to be.
While booting it seems as though only the hard disk of my host machine is recognized and not the stick.

Cheers

Joerg

oib111

Member

Registered: 2009-06-20

Posts: 87

Re: arch install on usbstick

Try editing mkinitcpio.conf and add the usb hook to your HOOKS line and then regenerate your kernel26.img.

tolstoi

Member

Registered: 2009-07-23

Posts: 7

Re: arch install on usbstick

Thanks, that was the problem. I had all the hook lines enabled. Commenting all out except one and adding usb did it.

Cheers

plurt

Member

Registered: 2008-10-16

Posts: 88

Re: arch install on usbstick

cool, another one [solved]

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When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane I say.
FAQ / Beginners Guide / The Arch Way

jamesbond007

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2009-06-14

Posts: 150

Re: arch install on usbstick

@tolstoi: How well does your arch installation on the usb stick work?

I have done an installation on a usb stick myself. It generally works well, but there is one problem: Every few minutes the system seems to kind of freeze for about 10 or 15 seconds. During this period of time, really nothing happens: The system is not responsive to keyboard input or mouse clicks and running processes are completely paused. If for example a system upgrade is running (pacman -Syu) and pacman is currently downloading a package, then the text progress bar stops to move for that period of time.

It is imortant to mention that the problem also exists if the system is running without any GUI (X-Server not started). So this is definitely not an X-Server or graphics driver or KDE issue.

What I have tried so far is adding "noatime" to /etc/fstab. But that did not improve the situation.

I would be interested if...

1) ...you (tolstoi) also experienced a similar problem?
2) ...someone has any idea what the cause of this problem is?
3) ...someone has any idea how to avoid or fix that?

Thanks in advance for all your answers.

Regards,
jamesbond007.