How to install arch 2009.08 from hard drive? Please enlighten me

plmday · 2009-10-24 13:41:39

OK, I admit I am impatient for the installation from the CD drive. Whenever possible and whatever distro I wanna try, I head first to try to install it from the hard drive. I don't remember how many times and how many distros I have done the same to, ubuntu, zenwalk, sidux, fedora, opensuse and of course arch. It rarely failed as long as I followed someone's guide, sth like "install any OS from hard drive", I do not exactly remember. And I did the same in the past with arch. But after 2009.08, it simply didn't work. I've read the article "fast install arch from existing linux system" in the wiki, it didn't work either (by the way, if someone can solve my problem, I think the article should be updated). After it boots, at some stage, it says "Use Hook [archiso]", then tell me "waiting for /dev/archiso for 30 seconds ..." then when the time due, it throws me into a ramfs shell. I've hacked for a long time, but no luck. Then I went back to download the 2009.02 iso, however, it works flawlessly.

I did find some differences in the menu.lst/isolinux.cfg between two version.

In 2009.02, we have

title  Boot Arch Linux Live CD                                                  
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 usbdelay=5 ramdisk_size=75%   
initrd /boot/archiso_pata.img

While in 2009.08, it is

title  Boot Arch Linux Live CD                                                  
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 archisolabel=ARCHISO_AHCOHH6O ramdisk_size=75%                                                                
initrd /boot/archiso_pata.img

I know I can install arch from usb, but I simply wanna know what's wrong here, so guys, if you have any idea, don't hesitate to enlighten me.

vacant · 2009-10-24 17:10:37

plmday wrote:

I've read the article "fast install arch from existing linux system" in the wiki, it didn't work either (by the way, if someone can solve my problem, I think the article should be updated

Yes, I liked installing without burning a CD. I started that wiki page back in 2004!
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=7916

After a few years, others added wiki pages for sliglhtly different methods and some kind soul amalgamated the lot.
It does say at the start of the page that it has been superceded, so that page won't be updated.

I haven't tried the amalgated guide as I keep an Arch Install Image on a USB stick.

Last edited by vacant (2009-10-24 17:11:18)

plmday · 2009-10-25 06:23:41

Hi, vacant, thanks for the reply. I did not notice you are the author of the article. Actually I missed the head of the article which directs me to another (the amalgamated one you mentioned). I take a look at it, it seems to make things complicated. I still miss the old days: you simply download the iso, mount it and copy all the contents into a separate partition, edit your current grub, then reboot and everything works. I don't understand how Arch could be so evolved to exclude this simple installation scheme. I am not complaining the development of Arch. In my opinion, a distro as flexible as Arch should provide as much installation strategy as possible. In this respect, I think we can learn from Ubuntu or sidux (in sidux, it provides a very convenient kernel parameter called "fromiso" which allows you to install sidux from the plain iso, that means, you even don't have to mount it and copy the contents out of it to a separate partition).

Last edited by plmday (2009-10-25 06:25:44)

Arch Linux

#1 2009-10-24 13:41:39

How to install arch 2009.08 from hard drive? Please enlighten me

#2 2009-10-24 17:10:37

Re: How to install arch 2009.08 from hard drive? Please enlighten me

#3 2009-10-25 06:23:41

Re: How to install arch 2009.08 from hard drive? Please enlighten me

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