Boot arch netinstall iso from grub2

http://www.panticz.de/MultiBootUSB
I found this blog post and I successfully did it with linux mint but I couldn't do it with arch. what are the correct grub2 commands?
I tried with:
set root=(hd0,1)
loopback loop /arch.iso
linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz26 iso-scan/filename=/arch.iso
initrd (loop)/boot/System.map26
I have no idea what System.map26 is and grub2 didn't choke when I offered it to him so I tried it. I couldn't find the normal initrd file.
Moreover, I know that there should be some boot=something parameter to the kernel in order for it to work but I couldn't guess the right one and I found no documentation about it.
If someone did it, I would appreciate your help
Thanks.

This is what I have:
menuentry "ArchLinux 2009-08 Core 64bit" {
set root=(hd0,1)
loopback loop /boot/iso/archlinux-2009.08-core-x86_64.iso
linux (loop)/boot/vmlinux26 iso-scan/filename=/boot/iso/archlinux-2009.08-core-x86_64.iso quiet
Get I get a "File not found" error.
*Edit*
I found /boot/grub/menu.lst (inside the iso) and found this:
title Boot Arch Linux Live CD
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 archisolabel=ARCHISO_KE1AECIE ramdisk_size=75%
initrd /boot/archiso_pata.img
There's the path for the initrd
*Edit #2*
"You need to load the kernel first." Well duh. You're supposed to do that grub.
Last edited by jordanwb (2009-11-10 19:37:19)

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Dual booting arch (usb) and ubuntu (grub2)

Greetings,
I'm trying to dual boot Arch linux (installed without a bootloader on a USB SSD) and Ubuntu 10.04 (installed on a hdd with GRUB2) but can't get Arch to boot. (Oh and I already have windows dualbooted)
The entry grub autogenerated:
menuentry "Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26] (on /dev/sdb3)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
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Why did it input root=/dev/sda3 as it says (on /dev/sdb3)?
The entry I figured would work:
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
set root=(hd1,0)
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Output from fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbc4264d9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13 5286 42353664 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 5286 19458 113831937 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
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/dev/sda7 6502 18971 100155392 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdb: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 111 787185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 112 685 4610655 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 686 974 2321392+ 83 Linux
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The content of /dev/sdb1
grub
kernel26-fallback.img
kernel26.img
lost+found
System.map26
vmlinuz26
- If I try to edit the root=/dev/sda3 to /dev/sdb3 it begins booting but doesnt find /dev/sdb3.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Oskar

Greetings,
I'm trying to dual boot Arch linux (installed without a bootloader on a USB SSD) and Ubuntu 10.04 (installed on a hdd with GRUB2) but can't get Arch to boot. (Oh and I already have windows dualbooted)
The entry grub autogenerated:
menuentry "Arch Linux [/boot/vmlinuz26] (on /dev/sdb3)" {
insmod ext2
set root='(hd1,1)'
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set 95d9208a-44e4-48ba-abd2-a365d1ac25ff
linux /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda3 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
Why did it input root=/dev/sda3 as it says (on /dev/sdb3)?
The entry I figured would work:
menuentry "Arch Linux" {
set root=(hd1,0)
linux /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdb3 ro
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
Output from fdisk -l:
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbc4264d9
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 13 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 13 5286 42353664 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda3 5286 19458 113831937 5 Extended
Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda5 18971 19458 3905536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 5286 6502 9764864 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 6502 18971 100155392 83 Linux
Partition table entries are not in disk order
WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
Disk /dev/sdb: 8019 MB, 8019509248 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 974 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/sdb2 14 111 787185 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3 112 685 4610655 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4 686 974 2321392+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 is the root partition
The content of /dev/sdb1
grub
kernel26-fallback.img
kernel26.img
lost+found
System.map26
vmlinuz26
- If I try to edit the root=/dev/sda3 to /dev/sdb3 it begins booting but doesnt find /dev/sdb3.
Thanks in advance for any help,
Oskar

Unable to Boot OVM Manager ISO from iLOM

Hi all,
I am trying to boot the OVM Manager ISO on a Fire X4150 using the console redirection but all that comes up is "Grub" and allows no further interaction. I've tried downloading the ISO multiple times, using an older version of the OVM installation ISO, and upgraded the iLOM firmware to the latest and greatest. When I use the OVM Server ISO, it boots up normally and starts the installation process. The machine that I am running the remote console from and has the ISO image is in the same rack as the server where I would want to install OVM Manager.
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Dual booting Arch and Ubuntu

Hi, I would like to dual boot Arch and Ubuntu using GRUB2.
I already have Arch, set up as it's described in the Beginner's Guide, with GRUB2 installed. How would I go about dual booting Ubuntu, preferably without overwriting the existing bootloader?
I haven't tried anything yet, but the problem that I can see is resizing my /home; is this possible on the Ubuntu liveDVD? If not, would I be able to resize /home with my gParted liveCD?
Unfortunately, I have no backup media to use, so I wouldn't be able to transfer anything away as a backup.
Here is my partition table:
%lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 30G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 12G 0 part [SWAP]
├─sda3 8:3 0 5M 0 part
└─sda4 8:4 0 889.5G 0 part /home
sda1 is my root partition, sda2 is swap, sda3 is GRUB's boot partition, which I was told that I needed in the guide, and sda4 (/home) occupies the "rest of the disk".
I am using a GPT-partitioned drive, as I read this has many advantages and I do not plan to triple-boot Windows.
So, can someone tell me what I do if I want to dual boot Ubuntu? I'm very sorry if this should have been posted on the Ubuntu forums, but I'm just more familiar with Arch, and I already have it installed. Please ask if you need any other files like my fstab. I have my Ubuntu liveDVD, GParted live CD (and Arch CD) at hand.
Thanks in advance, rberyl.
(Also, does anyone else think it's a bit of a backwards thing to put the output of "date -u +%W$(uname)|sha256sum|sed 's/\W//g'" as a sign-up question? )
Last edited by rberyl (2012-12-29 11:45:23)

Hi rberyl,
You can change your partitions using an inbuilt tool like cfdisk, or if you'd prefer a GUI gparted can be installed from the Arch repos. This will allow you to shrink sda4, and set up the new partitions for your Ubuntu OS. Although this shouldn't cause any data loss, its best practice to back up just in case.
When installing Ubuntu, be sure to opt-out of bootloader creation. I think you have to use the alternate installation media to get this option. You can add your Ubuntu partition to the existing bootloader by running osprober (available from the repos) and then running grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg . Alternatively, you can manually edit your GRUB config. See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GR … NU.2FLinux for instructions.
Good luck!
Last edited by smazza (2012-12-29 16:04:08)

Boot arch from iso and grub2

Hello,
I'm trying configure grub2 for boot iso image of arch but don't work:
My grub.cfg entry is:
menuentry "ArchLinux ISO" {
loopback loop (hd0,3)/iso/arch.iso
linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz26 findiso=/iso/arch.iso lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 archisolabel=ARCHISO_KE1AECIE ramdisk_size=75%
initrd (loop)/boot/archiso_pata.img
boot
Arch start correctly boot fail and hope 30 seconds for image of /dev/archiso, I think.
Is the above entry correct?.
Regards.

I wouldn't really call it a bug. It is more like an enhancement that Arch Linux does not currently have, AFAIK.
example:
menuentry "Arch Linux 2009.08 netinstall 64bit" {
loopback loop /boot/iso/archlinux-2009.08-netinstall-x86_64.iso
linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 archisolabel=ARCHISO_OHD8FOH5 ramdisk_size=75%
initrd (loop)/boot/archiso_pata.img
What happens with the grub2 is as follows:
loopback loop /boot/iso/archlinux-2009.08-netinstall-x86_64.iso
1) mount the iso image as a loopback
linux (loop)/boot/vmlinuz26 lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 archisolabel=ARCHISO_OHD8FOH5 ramdisk_size=75%
2) load the kernel from the iso image (and pass command line options)
initrd (loop)/boot/archiso_pata.img
3) load the initd from the iso image
The problem comes after this.
Once the kernel and the initd are loaded grub2 leaves the picture, as well as the loopback iso image.
The loaded kernel starts the boot process and looks for the files/filesystem it expects to be there.
But it can't find it because the iso loopback device is gone (or as far as it knows, never was there to begin with).
To get around this problem many distros include kernel command line options such as:
iso-scan/filename, findiso, and isofrom
These command line options are pretty much scripts to find and mount the iso image and use it as the root partition. Much like what we did with grub2.
I don't know if the command line options are part of the initd or the kernel itself, but either way I would like to see it as part of Arch Linux default iso.
If I knew how to modify the initd I would make a patch for it or the iso as a whole, but my knowledge doesn't go that far

Booting Arch-ISO from USB-Stick in UEFI mode fails

Hi there,
I'm running an Asrock H77M-ITX UEFI mobo. On this system I've already installed Arch on a Samsung 830 SSD (GPT formatted) - but in BIOS legacy mode because I've written the Arch-ISO image with "dd" to an USB-Stick (and UEFI boot mode wasn't even presented at boot).
Out of curiosity I've re-formatted the stick and copied Arch-ISO following https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Un … B_from_ISO.
Now I could start the ISO in UEFI mode, but it failed to start gummiboot with the "No loader found. Configuration files in \loader\entries\*.conf are needed." error message, concerning a problem with gummiboot.
Following some advice on the forum, I did this:
- install refind-efi 0.4.7-2
- copy /usr/lib/refind/refindx64.efi to [USB]/EFI/boot and renaming it to bootx64.efi (i.e. replacing the original bootx64.efi from gummiboot)
- Create a new file in the same directory ([USB]/EFI/boot/) called refind.conf
- Add this to it:
textonly
scanfor manual
menuentry Arch {
loader /arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz
initrd /arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
options "gpt loglevel=7 add_efi_memmap none=UEFI_ARCH_x86_64"
With this I can launch Arch-ISO from the USB-Stick in UEFI mode and I can choose Arch from rEFIND. Then Arch-ISO starts booting but it always stops at the same point with this message:
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] No Caching mode page present
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Assuming drive cache: write through
sd 6:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk
ERROR: '/dev/disk/by-label/' device did not show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you are finished
sh: can't access tty: job control turned off
[rootfs /]#
sdb is the USB-Stick from which I start Arch-ISO. Again - I didn't use dd to write the ISO to the stick.
Maybe this is pretty easy to solve, but I have to admit that I'm somewhat stuck
Last edited by swordfish (2012-11-19 21:31:43)

WonderWoofy wrote:See what the difference is between archiso and archboot maybe? Seriously, have you made any effort whatsoever?
Of course. Read:
The "Main Page" ( https://www.archlinux.org/ ) states:
"You've reached the website for Arch Linux, a lightweight and flexible Linux® distribution that tries to Keep It Simple."
"Keep It Simple". Yeah!
In line with that, the "The Arch Way" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/The_Arch_Way ) states:
"The following five core principles comprise what is commonly referred to as the Arch Way, or the Arch Philosophy, perhaps best summarized by the acronym KISS for Keep It Simple, Stupid."
The ArchWiki ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/ ) links to several other pages, such as these:
The "Forum Etiquette" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Forum_Etiquette ) states under "Ineffective Discussion":
"Arch is a Do It Yourself community" and "treat others as you would be treated; respect them and their views". I am very much a "do it yourself" person -- that's why I like The Arch Way. I also go by the Golden Rule stated here.
Now, everyone is a newbie at some time. I and other posters here are obviously newbies with respect to ArchLinux. Even experts were newbies at one time. Newbies, by definition, do not necessarily know what they're doing, or where to find information. Hence, Arch's "Beginners' Guide" and such. Hence, posts on this board from newbies asking for help.
As regards initial installation of ArchLinux, and consistent with the above, the FAQ ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/FAQ ), under "Q) Arch needs an installer. Maybe a GUI installer", states:
"A) Since installation doesn't occur often (read the rest of this article to know more about what rolling release means), it is not a high priority for developers or users. The Installation Guide and Beginners' Guide have been fully updated to use the command-line method. If you're still interested in using an installer, consider using Archboot."
So the basic installation instructions explicitly state that Archboot is not needed.
The "Installation Guide" ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installation_Guide ) says nothing about either Archboot or Archiso.
The "Beginners Guide" ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners%27_Guide ) says nothing about either Archboot or Archiso.
The "Archboot" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archboot ) is consistent with the above information, because it states:
"Archboot is a set of scripts to generate bootable media for CD/USB/PXE.
It is designed for installation or rescue operation."
The "Archiso" page ( https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Archiso ) states:
"Archiso is a small set of bash scripts that is capable of building fully functional Arch Linux based live CD and USB images. It is a very generic tool, so it could potentially be used to generate anything from rescue systems, install disks, to special interest live CD/DVD/USB systems, and who knows what else."
So the pages describing both Archboot and Archiso clearly state that these tools are oriented towards already-existing installations -- even though it seems that they might be used, in certain circumstances, for initial installations.
I happen to be very new at playing around with installing Linux distros (although I've used Unix/Linux as a regular user for more than 30 years), and am brand new with respect to ArchLinux. I only began playing with it this past Saturday. So I would expect a bit of useful help as opposed to "RTFM!" I will soon get past the need to RTFM for basic tasks, but I have a way to go.
The fact is that for me and a number of other new ArchLinux users, the installation guides simply do not work. C.f. my post https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=153170 . I've done a lot of googling as well as searching the archives on this board, and others have come up against the same show-stopping installation problems that I have. I and others have posted to several recent threads on this board, trying to get past the problems, so far with no success.
Now, the.ridikulus.rat had written:
"You guys are using Archboot's kernel options for Archiso. Thats the issue in both the cases."
Given that neither of these sets of scripts were used by me or swordfish, this comment is not useful.
Given the above, can you or anyone else tell us what Archiso or Archboot might do to help us with our installation problems? Also, can you tell us how we, as newbies, ought to have found out how these might help?
Alan

Trying to boot arch from win7 with EasyBCD; "boot device not found"

EDIT: title was 'Dual boot with Win7, easybcd + syslinux, getting "Boot error"'. Narrowed down the issue to something unrelated to Arch, and felt this was more accurate. The Arch install is sound, it's getting win7/EasyBCD to load it that's the issue.
I got a new work computer and am trying to recreate my formerly successful setup, which I documented here some time ago. Unfortunately... I'm having issues. Just a note up front from scouring the internet for ideas: I cannot use syslinux (or any other bootloader) to chainload Win7 vs. the other way around! The computer drive is encrypted with McAfee Endpoint Encryption, and doing anything whatsoever with the MBR from outside of Windows will brick my computer. Just wanted to add that, as almost all issues involving dual boot inevitably bring about the suggestion to "just chainload windows from grub/syslinux/etc."
With that out of the way, here's the process I used:
drive setup
Here's the partition scheme:
- /dev/sda1: SYSTEM (pre-existing)
- /dev/sda2: C:, Win7 (pre-existing)
- /dev/sda3: /boot, ext2 (created)
- /dev/sda4: /, encrypted Arch root, cryptsetup/ext4 (created)
My process for creating the partitions is as follows:
- shrunk C: down from the Win7 built-in partition utility
- created two unformatted partitions with no drive letter using Minitool Partition Wizard, setting the partition ID to 0x83 for both
- booted from USB drive of the Arch installation .iso (downloaded Friday 5/29)
- booted x86_64 arch
# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 238.5 GiB, 256060514304 bytes, 500118192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x1e6513b3
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/sda1 * 2048 2101247 2099200 1G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2 2101248 177278975 175177728 83.5G 7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3 177278976 177541119 262144 128M 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 177541120 500103167 322562048 153.8G 83 Linux
# modprobe dm_crypt
# cryptsetup -c aes-xts-plain64 -s 512 -h sha512 -i 5000 -y luksFormat /dev/sda4
# cryptsetup open /dev/sda4 root
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/root
# mkfs.ext2 /dev/sda3
installation
I just followed the Arch installation guide but documented my steps to a text file just to be sure...
# mount /dev/mapper/root /mnt
# mkdir /mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sda3 /mnt/boot
### connect to internet
# pacstrap /mnt base
# genfstab -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
# arch-chroot /mnt
# echo arch_zbook > /etc/hostname
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago /etc/localtime
### uncomment en_US.utf-8 in /etc/locale.gen
# locale-gen
# echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
### add encrypt before "filesystem" in /etc/mkinitcpio.conf hooks
# mkinitcpio -p linux
# passwd
# pacman -S syslinux
# cp -r /usr/lib/syslinux/bios/*.c32 /boot/syslinux
# extlinux -i /boot
### the above echoes "/boot is device /dev/sda3"
Then I edited /boot/syslinux/syslinux.cfg:
LABEL arch
MENU LABEL Arch Linux
LINUX ../vmlinuz-linux
APPEND root=/dev/mapper/root cryptdevice=/dev/sda4:root crypto=sha512:aes-xts-plain64:512:: rw
INITRD ../initramfs-linux.img
EDIT: I deleted the contents of /boot, reinstalled syslinux, linux, and mkinitcpio, and repeated the above with `extlinux -i /boot/syslinux`, noting that syslinux.cfg points to ../vmlinuz-linux. Same result.
Just to double check proper syslinux setup, here's the dir contents:
# ls /boot
initramfs-linux-fallback.img
initramfs-linux.img
ldlinux.c32
ldlinux.sys
lost+found
syslinux
vmlinuz-linux
# ls /boot/syslinux
cat.c32
chain.c32
cmd.c32
cmenu.c32
config.c32
cptime.c32
cpu.c32
cpuid.c32
cpuidtest.c32
debug.c32
dhcp.c32
disk.c32
dmi.c32
dmitest.c32
elf.c32
ethersel.c32
gfxboot.c32
gpxecmd.c32
hdt.c32
hexdump.c32
host.c32
ifcpu64.c32
ifcpu.c32
ifmemdsk.c32
ifplop.c32
kbdmap.c32
kontron_wdt.c32
ldlinux.c32
lfs.c32
libcom32.c32
libgpl.c32
liblua.c32
libmenu.c32
libutil.c32
linux.c32
ls.c32
lua.c32
mboot.c32
meminfo.c32
menu.c32
pci.c32
pcitest.c32
pmload.c32
poweroff.c32
prdhcp.c32
pwd.c32
pxechn.c32
reboot.c32
rosh.c32
sanboot.c32
sdi.c32
sysdump.c32
syslinux.c32
syslinux.cfg
vesa.c32
vesainfo.c32
vesamenu.c32
vpdtest.c32
whichsys.c32
zzjson.c32
EasyBCD and boot attempt
At this point, exited the arch-chroot, unmounted/closed my partitions, and rebooted into Win7. Using EasyBCD, I added a entry for a syslinux bootloader, pointing it to "Partition 3 (Linux - 128MiB)."
I reboot, get the EasyBCD menu, but then the lone words "Boot error" on a black screen. Any key press takes me to some sort of BIOS boot thingy which tells me to "Please install an operating system!" I think this is something built into the laptop BIOS, not anything from the syslinux side. Selecting "Boot existing OS" from the Arch install USB doesn't give me any options at all.
From what I can tell, I'm using the same procedure that I ended up with on this former troubleshooting exercise.
Thoughts
I'm really struggling to understand what I'm doing wrong. I originally had a couple variations on logical/extended partitions since I need my eventual setup to hold a shared TrueCrypt partition so I can access my work files from both Win7 and arch. I tried /boot as primary and Arch/TC as logicals, as well as a primary TC partition with boot/root as a logical drive combination. I've simplified to just primary partitions (as shown above) to troubleshoot.
It's quite difficult to troubleshoot as I don't know if this is an installation issue or an EasyBCD one. Is there a way to manually try and boot my HD arch install from the install USB? I wanted to try that using the "Boot existing OS" option, but am wondering if it fails since only /dev/sda1 features a bootable flag and it's encrypted so only the HP BIOS can handle it? I thought about making /dev/sda3 bootable, but from my reading I can only have one bootable flag on a Windows system.
On that note, I checked my BIOS settings and the MBR is set to "Legacy mode" vs. the othe UEFI alternatives, so I don't think that's an issue. I also used blkid to confirm that it's using an MBR (output was "dos").
I will try UUIDs in /etc/fstab and syslinux next, as there are some other posts (example) talking about this as a potential issue (and, indeed, I sometimes get my HD as /dev/sdb* when booting from the arch USB drive. I can also try grub2 in case it's a syslinux issue.
Thanks for any ideas/suggestions. Does anything look awry in my description/setup above? I can chroot and do stuff just fine... so I think the install appears to be sound; it's just booting it!
Last edited by jwhendy (2015-06-06 04:38:09)

A bit of progress, though this couldn't be much more awful in my opinion. Installed Arch to an sdcard to use as a bootloader, only to find that I can't boot from an sdcard, even though the HP docs say there's an sdcard boot option in the BIOS (which there's not). If the BIOS were in UEFI mode, there is an sdcard option listed in the boot order, but not in legacy mode. Sigh.
I don't have another sdcard laying around that's big enough to install Arch on, as I'm using my sole 8g drive for the installation media (and no optical drive). Sigh.
I did, however, through trial and error get my sdd arch install to boot using the installation drive's "boot existing OS" option! Took me a while to figure it out. In my opinion the drive/partition numbering is quite odd. Using the Hardware Information tool, the usb stick shows up as the first drive (so I'd assume hd0), but it can't be as "hd0 3" got me into the sdd installation. I'd have assumed hd0 0 was /dev/sda1, but that must be incorrect, as hd0 3 is /dev/sda3.
So, where I'm at now:
- going to re-partition how I originally intended (with truecrypt shared storage as a primary partition and boot/root as logical partitions)
- reinstall arch
- try to boot using the above procedure from the installation media
If that goes well, I'll try to find some teensy tiny usb stick to use as a bootloader device unless someone has any insights on why I can't boot by chainloading from Windows. I think at this point I've narrowed it down to a BIOS or drive numbering or EasyBCD issue, so maybe this post isn't a good fit for the Arch forums after all. Sorry for all the noise/updates... just wanted to provide the updated information as I uncovered it.
Thanks if you have any ideas or things I could try.

Boot 2011.08.19 installation media from grub2 via loopback

I have been trying to get the new installation media to boot from grub2 using loopback. The kernel and ramdisk load fine but it fails when it gets to the loopback mounting hook. I receive the following error message:
::Setup a loop device from iso/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso located at device /dev/disk/by-label/MULTIBOOT
losetup: /dev/loop0: No suck file or directory
It then tries booting of of a CD, fails, and throws me to the minimal shell.
Has anyone gotten loopback booting of the install media working?
My grub2 entries are:
set drive_label=MULTIBOOT
menuentry "ArchLinux 2011.08.19 i686" {
set isofile="iso/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso"
loopback loop /$isofile
echo 'loading kernel...'
linux (loop)/arch/boot/i686/vmlinuz lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 ramdisk_size=75% img_dev=/dev/disk/by-label/$drive_label img_loop=$isofile
echo 'loading ramdisk...'
initrd (loop)/arch/boot/i686/archiso.img
menuentry "ArchLinux 2011.08.19 x86_64" {
set isofile="iso/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso"
loopback loop /$isofile
echo 'loading kernel...'
linux (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz lang=en locale=en_US.UTF-8 ramdisk_size=75% img_dev=/dev/disk/by-label/$drive_label img_loop=$isofile
echo 'loading ramdisk...'
initrd (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
Last edited by billyburly (2011-08-27 19:48:24)

You are welcome.
Oh, but in your case you also need to remaster iso. (I was think when I test these things directly with qemu, passing arguments -kernel/-initrd/-append )
mkdir -p /tmp/archlinux/{mnt,iso}
mount /path/to/your/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso /tmp/archlinux/mnt
cp -a /tmp/archlinux/mnt/* /tmp/archlinux/iso
umount /tmp/archlinux/mnt
Now repack initramfs in /tmp/archlinux/iso/arch/boot/{i686,x86_64}/archiso.img
cd /tmp/archlinux/iso/arch
find -type f ! -name checksum.md5 -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum > checksum.md5
mkisofs -r -l \
-b isolinux/isolinux.bin -c isolinux/boot.cat \
-uid 0 -gid 0 \
-udf -allow-limited-size -iso-level 3 \
-input-charset utf-8 -p "prepared by mkarchiso" \
-no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
-publisher "Arch Linux <http://www.archlinux.org>" \
-A "Arch Linux Live/Rescue CD" \
-V "ARCH_201108" \
-o "/tmp/archlinux/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso" "/tmp/archlinux/iso"
isohybrid "/tmp/archlinux/archlinux-2011.08.19-core-dual.iso"
cd /tmp
rm -r /tmp/archlinux/iso
Good Luck.
Last edited by djgera (2011-08-27 23:02:20)

Booting from iso from usb drive

I want to boot arch from iso from my thumb drive. Based on the wiki article on Grub, I've put this entry to my grub.cfg:
menuentry "Arch Linux x86_64" --class iso {
set isofile="/iso/archlinux-2014.05.01-dual.iso"
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/vmlinuz archisolabel=ARCH_201405 img_dev=/dev/disk/by-label/IKAROS img_loop=$isofile earlymodules=loop
initrd (loop)/arch/boot/x86_64/archiso.img
Grub seems to load the kernel fine, but the kernel then fails to mount the drive with the following message:
:: Setup a loop device from /iso/archlinux-2014.05.01-dual.iso located at device /dev/disk/by-label/IKAROS
:: Mounting '/dev/disk/by-label/IKAROS' to '/run/archiso/img_dev'
[ 9.556128] FAT-fs (sdb1): IO charset iso8859-1 not found
mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdb1,
missing codepage or helper program, or other error
In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
dmesg | tail or so.
ERROR: Failed to mount '/dev/disk/by-label/IKAROS'
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you are finished
sh: can't acces tty: job control turned off
[rootfs /]#
I know I could dd the iso on the usb stick and probably avoid this, but I like my setup with several isos in a directory and appropriate grub entries. Does anybody know how to fix this?
Last edited by Remedan (2014-05-02 19:23:41)

elken wrote:I made it sometime last year and it has a load of ISOs on it but yes Arch was one of them. It was MultiCD sorry, not yumi. Like I said, it was a year ago. MultiCD was a piece of cake.
Well, with MultiCD I can create an image which can boot multiple isos and write it on the drive. The thing is, I want to be able to use the drive as a storage device also. So I'd like something that would allow me to have a FAT partition on the drive and boot from that.
But the core of my trouble is that the live arch doesn't seem to be able to handle the FAT partition.

How do I burn an .ISO from MSDN that Boot Camp will recognize?

Hello, I have a developers license that allows me to download the Windows 7 installers from the MSDN site in .ISO form. I can't seem to burn any of the installers to a disc that Boot Camp assistant will recognize as an installer DVD.
I have read and followed ALL of the solutions and still can not burn a recognizable disc. I have followed the IMGBURN instructions while in Parallels running Windows too.
Does anyone know how to create a compatible Boot Camp installer disc from the ISO's available on the MSDN network for Windows 7, preferably the 64-bit English Ultimate version?
I have tried the following instructions while in Windows 7 running in Parallels but they are either inaccurate or poorly written. If you have used these instructions with success, please translate into plain english because it just doesn't work in the VM I used.
1. Insert Windows Install disc into DVD drive
2. Using the build mode of imgburn, go to the advanced tab, then bootable disc and then select your DVD folder +--(saw that correction)+ in the extract boot image drop down list . Go ahead and extract the boot image and store it somewhere on your hard drive +(where is the extract button?)+
3. Go to the information tab and add your DVD drive as the source file
4. Options tab, check that file system is ISO9660 + IDF and UDF revision is 1.02 (should be anyway by default)
5. Go to Advanced tab, sub tab Restrictions and further sub tab ISO9660: Set Folder / File length to Level X and tick the four check boxes at the bottom (allow more than 8 directory levels, Allow more than 255 characters in path, Allow files without Extensions, Don’t Add ‘;1’ Version number to Files. (Note it’s this bit that actually solves the problem the rest is effectively just duplicating the existing disc)
6. Move to the bootable disc tab: Click the tick box to make the image bootable, emulation type to “none (custom)” and the browse and select the boot image you previously extracted from the windows disc. Finally set Sectors to load to 4.
7. Click the big create iso button to create the bootable iso. +(there is no big 'create' button, there is a build button though)+
8. And use that iso to burn a new install disc.
--THANKS, searching for the solution.

When I had boot issues with CDs, I would use BCD and create a bootable disc rather quickly. http://www.nu2.nu/bcd/ I can't verify that it works with Vista or Win 7, but you'd have to try it yourself. Very easy to use and hadn't failed me in the past.

Migrating from Arch to Dual Boot (Arch 64 + Win8.1 64).

Hello my friends.
I used to have a dual boot system (MBR, if I'm not mistaken), with Arch Linux on hda (1TB) and Windows 7 on hdb (300GB). I did this installation more than 3 years ago.
The disk with windows died recently, and because I need it for work (virtual machine is not an option), I decided to make a "refresh" on my machine.
I bought two new disks, a 240GB SSD and a 3TB HDD.
What I would like to do is to install both Windows 8.1 and Arch Linux on the SSD disk (100GB for Windows, 140GB for Arch, my main system), and use the 3TB (for Arch) and the 1TB (for Windows) disks as storage.
While doing a research on how to do the installation, some questions arised.
I know that I must (or at least should, for make the processe easier) install Windows first. I will install in the EFI mode, as my machine alread has it.
1. Which boot loader I should use when installing Arch Linux?
From what I'd read, to keep things simple, I should opt for a bootloader like gummyboat, that will recognise the Windows without manual intervantion. Is this right?
2. Will I have problems with the Windows Update?
I read here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=187194 that when Windows update, it mess with the EFI partition and will make the Arch stop booting (the boot will enter directly on Windows). Is this correct? Is this related only to "automatic" updates (and manual updates can be made without problem)? There is any way to avoid this?
3. After installing both systems, will Arch Linux recognize my 1TB disk?
My 1TB disk has my actual Arch linux installation, and data. I would like to copy this data to the 3TB disk and then, under Windows, format it to serve as my Windows storage disk.
I can do this BEFORE installing the system, or after. But the second option causes me some concerning regarding the rights and so on, so that I do not know if my "new" system" will be able to copy things from the old system.
Should I make the copy before installing Arch Linux?
I think this is it.
If you could helping me with these questions and pointing problems/flaws with my approach, I'll be immensely gratefull.
Chhers,
Eduardo.

Hello elken
While I could maintain the system under BIOS/MBR, and I don't had any problem with this in the last 2 years, I want to change my system to EFI/GPT.
I found that Windows under EFI must be under GPT (As pre-installed Windows 8.1), while under BIOS it must be under MBR. So, as my system is (will be) a DUAL one, and It is not a MAC system (that would allow to the EFI/GPT loader to chain a BIOS/MBR, I have to choose between EFI/GPT or BIOS/MBR.
Because my system can be setup under EFI/GPT, and because sooner or later BIOS/MBR will start to disappear, I want to change it now. This will mke it easier in the future to upgrade my system, I think.
Not to mention that GPT has some nice advantages over MBR. For example, GPT can handle my 3TB disk without problems, while MBR not. (At least, fdisk wasn't able to deal with it).
So, you could say that despite BIOS/MBR being fully funcional right now, it's a matter of personal taste (and learning) to me, this desire to completely change my system to EFI/GPT
For now, I decided to mantain the LINUX and WINDOWS separated (as they are now), i.e., on separate disks. This should solve the problem of windows messing with the boot loader when upgrading (point 2).
About the bootloader, I think I'll change to gummybot, to test it. I think I could still use grub 2 (I'm not entirely sure), but Gummybot seems simple and fair enough.
As an aside, I think I will try to migrate my system to the new HDF using rsync and making the necessary adjustments (like in fstab).
It seems not to difficult, and there are many documents out there on how to do this.
When I finish, I'll post here how I did and what worked and what not
Cheers,
Eduardo

Booting existing arch as rw from installcd

I recently tried reinstalling windows because I had messed up my windows boot sector that grub pointed to awhile back. Well I forgot that windows is picky and it would completely destroy my grub MBR and would not reinstall itself.. so my MBR is not setup correctly anymore. So I downloaded the latest arch installcd and booted it... well it is different from when i installed it of course. I am trying to boot my arch partition.. I figured out the [E]edit of the grub boot.. have it on the right partition and it boots. The problem I'm having is reinstalling grub or mounting this root as RW instead of RO... I changed that boot option in there from RO to RW but that does not seem to do anything. So I want to figure out why it keeps booting it as Read only and hits the emergency repair. When I follow the instructions of the emergency repair to boot RW instead of RO it still doesn't have an MBR to boot it RW.
I hope I'm not being a complete idiot.. please help me. I even tried booting the live and doing chroot.. but I'm even more confused with that.. grub install does not seem to work. So well I hope you don't look down on me.. I figured everything else of arch without asking. I don't know what to do.. I want my arch back, don't want to lose anything.
And P.S. I'm sorry for weird grammar I'm a little drunk... but I don't think it is messing me too much please help...

Hi jizzyjesus,
see this guide:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Reinstalling_GRUB

Trouble booting Arch from VirtualBox vm with Mac OS X host

Thank you in advance for your help.
I am trying to get Arch installed and running on a VirtualBox virtual machine within a Mac OS X host on my MacBook Air. For the last two days, I have tried many attempts (following various blogs for hints as to what subtle detail I must be missing), and they all have resulted in more or less the same result -- the bootloader never gets loaded. (See below for a description of what I see.) I tried one more time and recorded exactly what I have done so as to ask for help.
# selected "Boot Arch Linux (x86_64)" on boot from cd
$ pacman -Sy
$ gdisk /dev/sda # o n [enter] [enter] +1024M ef02 n [enter] [enter] [enter] [enter] w
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
$ mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
$ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
$ mkdir /mnt/boot
$ mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
$ pacstrap -i /mnt base # [enter] for default selection
$ genfstab -p /mnt > /mnt/etc/fstab
$ arch-chroot /mnt
$ pacman -Sy
$ echo first-arch > /etc/hostname # I'm skipping all the other config options, which I don't expect to be relevant at this time.
$ passwd # sorry, not telling
$ pacman -S grub-bios
$ grub-install --target=i386-pc --recheck --debug /dev/sda # I read in another blog that i386-pc is the correct option even though my OS is targed to x86_64
$ grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
$ exit
$ reboot
# I return to the menu (rebooting with cd still in) and select the "Boot existing OS" option. The result is an almost-blank screen with the text "Booting...\nGRUB ". Nothing else happens.
# I close the VM by clicking the 'x' on the window and choose the option to turn off. I start the VM again and remove the cd. Then I select the 'Reboot' option.
# The result is an almost-blank screen with the text "EDD: Error 0c00 reading sector 41571\nFailed to load COM32 module boot/syslinux/reboot.c32\nboot:"
I was once confused why 'syslinux' appears on the error screen when I'm installing GRUB, but this is also essentially the error that shows if I try to run the machine before setting anything up, so it must be some sort of default.
I have also tried preparing my system as if it used UEFI (although I understand VirtualBox doesn't use UEFI).
I have also tried installing syslinux instead of GRUB, and was able to boot from the CD by selecting the option "Boot existing OS", but the regular boot without cd still failed. Although that is a workaround, I am wondering if there is a way I can boot without the CD every time. (Not just for convenience, but because I'm sure I'm missing some detail and I would like to learn what that is.)
Again, thank you in advance for your help.

A few days ago, i have installed it myself on a Mac. Everything works fine and i just followed the installation guide like you (but i used syslinux...).
But i am curious about your partition-mounting.
I think, grub looks on /dev/sda1 to boot up. But you installed arch to /dev/sda2.
I would try to use "pacstrap -i /mnt/boot base" to install arch on /dev/sda1 ...
(If that does not work, you could try installing it without a special boot partition)

[SOLVED] Wiki page for GPT disks and booting arch using UEFI

Hi guys, I am new to archlinux. I installed archlinux x86_64 just yesterday and I like its customisability. I also like arch wiki. Nowhere else have I seen such extensive documentation, especially about things like HAL, UDEV etc. with proper instructions. Thanks to all archers.
I have installed Archlinux x86_64 in my Dell India Studio 1537 laptop along with Windows 7 Professional x64. Both the OSes boot in UEFI-GPT setup (my UEFI is tianocore.sourceforge.net EDK DUET UEFI64 firmware booting from USB). I boot Archlinux using my own compiled grub2-bzr compiled for both BIOS and UEFI-x64. I have a 1 MB BIOS Boot Partition as required by grub2 for BIOS-GPT booting. My Archlinux system can boot both from bios and from uefi, while Windows can boot only using UEFI.
The official Archlinux installation guide talks about only MBR (or msdos disklabel) partitions and booting from BIOS based systems. With 2TB drives becoming common place and UEFI being implemented (search for Phoenix SecureCore Tiano's 1 second POST operation), I think a proper wiki page describing differences between MBR and GPT, why GPT is better, how to setup arch to boot from GPT. Another page describing steps to setup arch to boot from UEFI (either as a separate page or as an extension of GRUB2 wiki page) is also needed.
Some details regarding Pure GPT (not a Hybrid GPT/MBR setup) and/or UEFI setups :-
Partitioning tools -
GNU Parted for filesystem related tasks
GPT fdisk tool - http://rodsbooks.com/gdisk/ , http://sourceforge.net/projects/gptfdisk/ , pacman -S gdisk (in extra repo) - for non-filesystem related tasks
util-linux-ng fdisk does not support GPT disks
Bootloader - GRUB2 - vanilla grub-legacy does not support GPT and does not support UEFI (Fedora's patched grub-legacy does support both GPT and UEFI) and syslinux does not support GPT (I may be wrong here - seems a gptmbr of syslinux does help in booting from gpt but not sure).
For GRUB2 - Need BIOS Boot Partition to embed GRUB2's core.img in GPT disks - size about 1 MB max - no filesystem
In GPT fdisk partition type code - EF02
In GNU Parted or GParted - bios_grub flag on
For UEFI-GPT booting this special partition is not needed as no embedding takes place. This is needed only in case of BIOS-GPT booting.
Incase of custom kernel configuration - enable CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION for GPT support
CONFIG_EFI for UEFI support (for UEFI even above option required)
CONFIG_EFI_VARS for UEFI Runtime Variables support (optional)
Note: Although GPT is part of UEFI specification, a UEFI system is not needed to boot from/use GPT. BIOS based GPT booting is possible with GRUB2 or Fedora's patched grub-legacy (but not vanilla grub-legacy provided by archlinux). It is also possible to boot Linux in UEFI-MBR setup (again using grub2) but I have not tried it.
Even without UEFI and less than 2TB harddrives, GPT based partitioning has many advantages - secondary GPT header and Partition table, CRC32 checksums. Unique Disk GUID and Filesystem-independent Unique Partition GUIDs, multiple primary partitions (default is 128 partitions, but it can be changed). The only problamatic OS is Windows which does not allow GPT booing unless one has UEFI based system. It allows only UEFI-GPT or BIOS-MBR setups. In linux it just depends on how the bootloader is configured - not a problem with grub2.
I also propose that incase of Auto-prepare Hard Drive, the installer default to GPT for "archlinux only" installs ( ie no dual-boot or triple-boot etc.).
I did not use the official archlinux iso but used archboot 2010.04 R3 as it gave an option of installing to GPT and also provided GRUB2 during bootloader install. I have never edited any wiki page before, thats why I request some one else to start a wiki page with the information given above.
I don't know whether this is the right place, but any Windows (Vista or 7 x64 versions) and Linux dual-boot user who has UEFI-based system with GPT partitioning and wants to get rid of Hybrid MBR setup (to boot Windows) can follow this post http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/lofive … hp/t186440 (outside this forum) - this link describes the way to make Windows boot natively in UEFI-GPT setup. After doing this one can install arch using GRUB2 compiled for UEFI x86_64, and Windows will also see
Last edited by skodabenz (2011-01-30 19:32:48)

Welcome to arch, skodabenz! Offering documentation on third post - all thumbs up
You could start the wiki page in your user-space with what you have, and then invite others to join working on it. Just register a wiki account, navigate to the page you want to start, for example:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/User:skodabenz/GPT
and click on "edit this page".
As noted in the other thread, arch's legacy grub is patched for gpt support. I don't know about UEFI, but you can always open a bug report asking for the patches from fedora to be included.
edit: the page from Rod Smith is a great resource. I was absolutely terrified at first by all this screwed up GPT/MBR stuff when I tried triple-booting Arch, Win and OS x, but he really does a great job explaining what it is all about.
Last edited by hokasch (2010-05-21 15:44:08)

Boot arch netinstall iso from grub2

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