Arch Linux

bsquared

Member

Registered: 2011-06-27

Posts: 33

Help Request: Bootable Thumb Drive : ERROR: Failed to mount real root

Hello,

I am trying to get Arch on a USB thumb drive and have gotten pretty close.

I have managed to get it booting to USB by LABEL, I get dumped with message:

ERROR: Failed to mount real root device
Bailing out, you're on your own. Good luck.

/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off
mount: mounting /dev/disk/by-label/USB-SYSTEM on new_root failed: no such device

But If I list /.../by-label the device is there.

[RAMFS /]# ls  /dev/disk/by-label/
BOOT  HOME  SWAP  SYSTEM USB-BOOT USB-SWAP  USB-SYSTEM

I'm not sure what to do to continue any ideas?

Regards,
Brian

Last edited by bsquared (2011-07-21 19:39:38)

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swanson

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2011-02-05

Posts: 759

Re: Help Request: Bootable Thumb Drive : ERROR: Failed to mount real root

Check that the hook usb is in initrd. Otherwise add it to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and rebuild the initrd. More here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CF … rd_install

the_isz

Member

Registered: 2009-04-14

Posts: 280

Re: Help Request: Bootable Thumb Drive : ERROR: Failed to mount real root

Some time ago, I wrote an article on how to install Arch on a USB stick from an
existing Arch installation, maybe it helps you:

http://archlinux.me/theisz/2009/06/07/g … a-journey/

Kind regards

bsquared

Member

Registered: 2011-06-27

Posts: 33

Re: Help Request: Bootable Thumb Drive : ERROR: Failed to mount real root

@ the_isz - Thanks for the read, but no help.
@swanson - That usb hook was added, this error happens just after the usb module scans the bus. Listing by-label while in RAMFS shows the USB devices.

Also while in initrd environment:

[RAMFS /]# blkid
/dev/sda1: LABEL="BOOT" UUID="d71a5da8-fbdd-4ab9-ba5a-fa2adcda137b" TYPE="ext2" 
/dev/sda2: LABEL="SWAP" UUID="3a437fef-b143-4626-a74c-2332d3a83470" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sda3: LABEL="SYSTEM" UUID="702e29ad-3f8a-4590-9c97-36a4f0b0262b" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sda4: LABEL="HOME" UUID="2ef17520-7602-4855-acee-331535fdb0c7" TYPE="ext4" 
/dev/sdb1: LABEL="USB-BOOT" UUID="3a563c48-850d-410a-afb9-bcd01ed567a5" TYPE="ext2" 
/dev/sdb2: LABEL="USB-SWAP" UUID="980f4f7e-24a2-4347-8595-c61d8f72accf" TYPE="swap" 
/dev/sdb3: LABEL="USB-SYSTEM" UUID="b6d09c53-aed8-494e-b017-df4c3c66b64b" TYPE="ext2" 

lists all partitions, that is USB and hard drive, but attempting to manually mount sdbn (USB partitions) failed.

[RAMFS /]# mount /dev/sdb3 /new_root
mount: mounting /dev/sdb3 on /new_root failed: no such device

Regards,
Brian

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xjwellsx

Member

From: Ohio

Registered: 2011-07-06

Posts: 9

Re: Help Request: Bootable Thumb Drive : ERROR: Failed to mount real root

When installing Arch have you tried doing it by UUID instead of LABEL? Thats what I did to get Arch on a thumb drive.

Last edited by xjwellsx (2011-07-13 00:00:17)

bsquared

Member

Registered: 2011-06-27

Posts: 33

Re: Help Request: Bootable Thumb Drive : ERROR: Failed to mount real root

@xjwellsx - I am not trying to install directly to USB thumb drive.  I have already installed to a hard drive.  Then I rsync'd and modified files on USB thumb drive.

Last edited by bsquared (2011-07-13 16:55:36)

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