Install arch on lvm on usb

I wonder if it is possible to install arch on lvm on a usb key. I tried to do so. And it seemed I had installed it successfully. I am quite sure I've done everything right following the "LVM" and "Installing Arch Linux on a USB key" wiki. But when I boot from the usb (it can boot), it still failed to find the root which lies in an logical volume. In the error message, it first told me:
the root device does not exit, attempting to create it;
but failed and unable to detect or create the root device
then thrown me into the ramfs recovery shell.
In this shell, I can not find the device (which is a logical volume containing the root) I specified in the grub menu.lst under /dev/mapper.
Any idea?

I also have this problem.
What seems to go wrong on my arch here is that the lvm2 hook is initialised and scans for volumes before the usb disk has been detected.
I did some googling, but to no avail. All I found was this bug report dating back from 2006.
Some suggested to add rootdelay=10 or more, but it waits after lvm scans for physical volumes, so that doesn't help. I also read that a newer version of udev might help. But, surely the setup would have installed the newest version?
Edit: it's indeed the newest udev version.
I also found the following which looks promising: http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.ho … evel/14400. I don't know how to include this in the ramfs though, time for more googling!
Edit2: I seem to have fixed my problem! I compiled the udev-wait-for-device.c file and wrote a new hook for initcpio called usb-wait that calls the udev-wait program to wait for my root device. Here's a tar ball of it: usb-wait.tgz. Extract to the root of the target system and modify deviceName in /lib/initcpio/hooks/usb-wait to the device it should wait for. That did the trick for me, I hope it does for others as well.
PS: I use a 64 bit Arch
Last edited by limyreth (2010-01-09 20:37:51)

Similar Messages

Is it suitable install Arch Linux on a USB key?

I want to install Arch Linux on a USB key following the wiki https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _a_USB_key
But I now heard that Arch Linux will be very very slow than LiveUSB because of USB's bad I/O speed. Is it real?
Forgive my poor English, thank you!

Actually I spent some times to study USB, and I concluded out that it is relate with USB's performance, as example, USB 3.0 is better than USB 2.0, SLC is better than MLC.
So the better performance of USB the more suitable to install Arch Linux. However, it will costs me much money to buy expensive USB:)
@Mr Green What's your blog? Is this http://archbang.org/?

Installing Arch w/ LVM: how to mount and when to edit mkinitcpio.conf?

Hi,
about half way down this script (link at bottom) the guy has
genfstab /mnt >> /etc/mnt/fstab
should it be
genfstab /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
because I keep getting "file or directory not found" with /etc/mnt/ but the reverse worked.
I don't know jack about linux so I figured I better check in with you all first before I continue.
Thanks!
http://blog.portnumber53.com/2012/10/30 … installer/
Last edited by hbc2 (2014-07-28 03:36:11)

Yes, both the Beginners guide and the Installation guide excellent. I studied them (and others) for about two weeks before even downloading the install iso. Also, I’ve read the Arch Way and it’s for me.
The script that I dug up wasn't just random. It turned up in a google search when I was looking for more info on setting up LVM partitions. The first half of that script turned out to be nearly identical to the notes that I had made from reading those guides as well as the LVM guide.
The Beginners and LVM guides are great (!) I learned a lot and I appreciate their attempt to be linear step by step. I also understand the LVM can’t be placed “inside” the Beginners guide since not everyone will want LVM.
However I ran into a spot of confusion regarding the mounting of the partitions between the Beginners Guide and the LVM guide – and that’s what lead me to the question about the path in that guy’s script (“/etc/mnt” vs “/mnt/etc”). Also, the LVM guide seems to indicate editing “/etc/mkinitcpio.conf” (note the path) at a point BEFORE I run “pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel” and genfstab.
Below are the linear install steps that I attempted. In summary, I’m not sure about the mounting or when/where to edit mkinitcpio.conf.
Boot the install iso and set up the partitions.
[All GOOD]
Create physical volume, Vol group and logical vols
pvcreate /dev/sda2
vgcreate arch /dev/sda2
lvcreate -L 1G -n boot arch
lvcreate -C y -L 4G -n swap arch
lvcreate -L 100G -n root arch
lvcreate -L 100G -n home arch
[All GOOD]
Create file systems and mount logical volumes
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/arch-root
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/arch-boot
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/arch-home
mkswap /dev/mapper/arch-swap
mount /dev/mapper/arch-root /mnt
[All GOOD]
Here's where my confusion starts:
Beginner's Guide (in "Mount the partitions" section) seems to indicate this way:
mkdir /mnt/boot
mkdir /mnt/home
mount /dev/mapper/arch-home /mnt/home
mount /dev/mapper/arch-boot /mnt/boot
LVM Guide (in "Create file systems and mount logical volumes") seems to indicate this way:
mount /dev/mapper/arch-home /home
mount /dev/mapper/arch-boot /boot
I'm not sure which of the above I need to go with. (Probably just a matter of preference?)
Then the LVM Guide seems to want me to "Edit [/etc/mkinitcpio.conf] and insert lvm2 between block and filesystems" but how should I access that file at "/etc"? I think I'd have to run "pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel" first but the LVM guide seems to indicate doing this right after I mount the logical volumes - I probably misunderstand something here. (I can't find it anyway at this point using either mount method above.)
The rest I'll do right out of the beginners guide:
pacstrap -i /mnt base base-devel
swapon /dev/mapper/arch-swap <<<<< I suspect I need this here before running genfstab to get the entry in the table
genfstab -U -p /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
nano /mnt/etc/fstab
Then I'll follow the rest of the beginners guide and edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf during the "Create an initial ramdisk environment" step/
(I actually got to the point in the beginners guide where I should be editing the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf after pacstrap but I could not find it and suspect either I didn't mount correctly or messed up the chroot step.)
Last edited by hbc2 (2014-07-28 03:48:52)

Help installing Arch BAse to bootable USB flash

Hi,
I have installed a slimmed ArchLinux base to a USB mass storage gadget (ballpoint pen with 256 Mb) and manged to boot into it by using a simple initial ram-disc to setup the USB drivers and then pivot_root/chroot into the Arch root partition.
This has given me a partially functional Arch base system with an ADSL connection and pacman working, but also with limitations some of whom are as follows:
* The /dev directory does not have the initctrl pipe and the usual links to devices (hda1, hda2 or sda1, sda2 etc), only the directories with the device nodes (discs/disc0/part1 etc).
* User interrupt (CTRL-C) doesn't work.
* CTRL-F2 etc don't open new consoles.
* Reboot and I think halt also don't work since init cannot run.
* The /etc/rc.sysinit and rc.mutli scripts seems to run successfully.
Since in my fumbling ways I got thus far, I thought I should ask for help hoping to end up with a normally functioning install so I can operate successfully from my Ballpoint ArchLinux!
My thanks in advance!

noprob wrote:if I'm not mistaken the AMLUG Live CD 0.4.2 has this option concerning usb booting.
I believe it is referred to as a thumb hard drive or something similar. :?:
Thanks, I will have a look at this today.

Installed Arch on external usb drive: Drive errors after reboot

I installed Arch on my external usb hard drive and everything seemed to be working fine. After rebooting though, I had a bunch of filesytem errors (ext3) and the system was unstable. I am guessing that this has to do with the unloading of the usb modules at shutdown. If this happens to early, then the root drive doesn't have a chance to shutdown properly, hence the filesystem errors.
Anyone know how to solve this?
Thanks!

EtreCheck looks at your log files for any kernel I/O errors. That is what it is reporting. EtreCheck just reports what it finds and tries to avoid judgements exception the most extreme cases. The drive might be OK. I am seeing more reports of this than I would have expected. It may just be a problem with Yosemite. It really prefers SSD disks in all cases. On my own machine, I have seen a slow external drive exhibit classic failure symptoms and sounds when connected via USB2. But then when I switched to FW800, it was fine. Other people are reporting that when they downgraded back to Mavericks, their disk errors went away.
So, I don't have a good answer for you. The drive might be bad, and it might be fine. Yosemite is definitely having problems with it. You may experience performance problems with that drive attached.

Arch: Install to & run from External USB Hard Disk Drive (HDD)

I wanted to play with ArchLinux 2009.02, but replacing the existing Debian-Lenny on the laptop's HDD wasn't an option. So I experimented with installing Arch on an external USB Hard Disk Drive.
I have tried to make this "newbie-friendly", so I hope the more experienced will forgive the detail.
Materials:
Three year old Dell Inspiron 6000
CPU = 2.0 GHz Pentium
RAM = 2.0 GB
Internal HDD = 80 GB
Internal CD/DVD R/RW
External USB HDD = Freecom FHD-2 Pro 80 GB
Archlinux 2009.02 install CD
Steps to install:
1. I put the Archlinux install CD in the drive and connected the external 80 GB HDD in the USB port.
2. When the Dell laptop was booted, I pressed F2 to enter the BIOS setup. I edited the boot sequence to the following:
Internal CD/DVD
External USB device
Internal HDD
On the Dell, you can also press F12 to select the preferred boot device for that boot.
3. I started the laptop and the Archlinux installation menu came up and I proceeded with installation following the "Official Arch Linux Install Guide" and the "Beginners Guide".
4. Used km to change to UK keyboard layout and then began the installer script (/arch/setup). I was installing from the core CD so I skipped the network steps.
5. HDD preparation.
This was fairly straightforward with two cautions:
(a) Make very sure that the external HDD (sdb) is selected for the operations.
(b) Remember to set the Bootable Flag for the first (/) partition on the HDD.
I chose 20 GB for /, 2 GB for swap and the remainder for /home.
6. The package selection and installation was fairly straightforward.
7. Configuration of System
This was section was straightforward with one warning:
USB had to be added to the HOOKS in the /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file!
I found this to be essential for my external USB HDD to function as a bootable device. Otherwise I got the same sorts of errors relating to unrecognisable file system types that other people have reported in the forum.
The relevant line from the end of the edited /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file is below:
HOOKS="base udev autodetect pata scsi sata usb filesystems"
8. Installation of GRUB was the other point where caution and/or correction was necessary.
When it asked where GRUB should be installed, I had to select sdb (my external USB HDD) and not any of the particular partitions on sdb. If the root partition sdb1 was selected then the laptop won't boot from the external USB HDD.
The GRUB /boot/grub/menu.lst as written by the installation routine specifies hd(1,0) which doesn't work when you try to reboot from the external USB HDD. When you boot Arch from the external USB HDD, as far as Arch is concerned - at that point in time - the external USB HDD is the first drive in the system. To fix this:
(a) When the Arch boot menu comes up, press e to edit the grub entries.
(b) Change the first line to hd(0,0)
(c) To the end of the kernel line add rootdelay=8
(d) Press b to boot the system with these temporary corrections.
(e) Once your Arch system has booted, edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst to make the above changes permanent.
The relevant portion of my /boot/grub/menu.lst looks like the following:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26.img
# (1) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux Fallback
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/... ro rootdelay=8
initrd /boot/kernel26-fallback.img
9. The laptop happily and consistently boots Arch Linux from the external USB HDD when it's plugged in before startup/booting.
Running Arch from the external USB HDD seems as quick as running Debian from the internal HDD.
So if there is a performance penalty associated with using an external USB HDD, my wife and I haven't noticed.
In summary, the three essential points to address during installation to an external USB HDD are:
Remember to set the bootable flag for the first partition.
Add USB to the HOOKS for /etc/mkinitcpio.conf file.
Correct the /etc/grub/menu.lst file.
I hope this is helpful.
Ted

Hi Rookie,
As you say, it is worth remembering the rootfstype= option for the kernel line just in case someone still has problems with GRUB after making all the other changes.
I was working with the most recent Arch 2009.2 release.
I only got messages about unrecognisable file system type when I tried booting with the "stock" or "as-installed" GRUB (before I edited /boot/grub/menu.lst). After editing /boot/grub/menu.lst to identify the drive correctly and add rootdelay, GRUB was able to do the rest and everything worked OK without any error messages.
Best wishes,
Ted

[SOLVED] Install Arch Linux on USB Stick!

So, here is the deal. I want to install Arch Linux on a USB Stick so I can plug it at any computer and have my system... with me
I've had a little bit experience with Arch so I know a few things about it... used it for a few months before on a real system.
My USB stick is a HighSpeed 17-20 MBPS and it's 16 GB capacity.
So how do I do it?
Last edited by 1lj4z1 (2012-04-05 07:25:53)

I'm using occasionally Arch installed on HDD-USB, I've just added usb hook to mkinitcpio.conf and removed autodetect (more modules=more hardware supported). So far it worked on 3 different computers (all of them have one main HDD so no grub issues, but it's no biggie if it doesn't boot right away, you can always edit grub on-the-fly by pressing "e")
About USB stick: installing on USB stick is not the same as running it in LIVE mode! Consider yourself warned.
If you just install it you really should read about SSD optimizations because USB flash cells also have limited read/write cycles (actually is less robust and sophisticated than SSD). Something to look at: noatime mount option, disable swap if not necessary, profile-sync-daemon and so on...
1lj4z1 wrote:Well I don't need to chroot, i am running it live. I'll see about mkinitcpio.conf but I can't understand what you mean rebuilding initramfs? What is that exactcly?
It means if you fiddle with mkinitcpio you should run:
# mkinitcpio -p linux
afterwards or bad things will happen
Last edited by masteryod (2012-03-27 15:37:13)

Running Arch from a live USB with persistence, on an intel Atom tablet

Hello,
I may have bitten off more than I can chew here. I am not a noob to linux, but I am a noob to Arch. I have found a few resources around but none of them quite match with what I want to do, and as such I don't want to overcomplicate what I'm doing by following instructions geared towards other objectives (such as performing a full install on a tablet).
The title I think captures it, but I will just state again what it is I want to do in a little bit more detail. I have a 2-in-1 tablet (an acer switch 10, if anybody cares) with an intel Atom processor which runs windows 8.1. I don't want to install Arch linux to the tablet, but rather have a USB with persistence that I can just plug in when I want to boot into Arch rather than windows. I've done this with several linux distros on my standard laptop, but never with Arch and never to run on a tablet. Unfortunately, I think this is made harder than it needs to be by the fact that I don't have a functioning normal laptop at the moment - if I did I would simply do all of this on there, from a linux distro. But as it happens, I only have this tablet, and it is only running windows.
I created the live USB using the software Rufus, and it boots correctly on my friend's laptop, however I have been having trouble getting it to boot from my tablet. There seem to be several things in the way of this, and I am slowly making my way through them. Firstly, I have disabled secure boot, and placed a UEFI 32-bit bootloader into the appropriate folder on the USB drive. So far this has only allowed me to avoid the automatic boot into windows that I don't experience on a normal laptop, instead taking me to the bootloader, but I don't yet know what to do from there.
So, this probably isn't entirely relevant or specific to Arch, but since I am using Arch I thought I would post this here (since more Arch specific stuff might come up as I get further). If anybody has any insight to help me out, that would be great. Otherwise, I will just continue and post any progress I have made here, and maybe this will help the 5 other people in the world who are trying to install Arch to a live USB, from windows, using only an atom-CPU tablet .
Last edited by phulcq (2014-08-18 17:00:26)

SUCCESS! Just loaded up flash media encoder and connected to
one of my flash streaming servers. The little 9" laptop handled it
beautifully. This is on the battery, wireless internet. I did
notice one thing though, I set the FPS to 30, and the highest it
would go was 15-16. Not sure if its throttling the fps because of
battery power, the ~36mbps wireless connection or what, but I'm
happy with the results! I'll try again on the battery and plugged
into the gigabit eithernet we have here at the office and report
the results. Check out the images.
The specs of the laptop are:
Dell Inspiron 9"
Windows XP Pro SP3
Intel® Atom Processor® N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K
cache)
1gb ram
16gb solid state drive
1.3mp camera
http://www.bluefocusmedia.com/test_stream/intel_atom_streaming001.jpg
http://www.bluefocusmedia.com/test_stream/intel_atom_streaming002.jpg
http://www.bluefocusmedia.com/test_stream/intel_atom_streaming003.jpg

Installing Arch Linux on USB key: error while booting

Hello,
first of all, I must say I've followed the steps from this article on arch wiki to install archlinux on my USB key: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … _a_USB_key
So what I did is to use one of my 2 usb keys to INSTALL linux, and the second one to RUN linux. I used dd to write on the 1st usb, eveything worked fine when booting, then I do install arch on the my second usb following the stept from the link above, everything works until I get this error while booting (at the middle):
Waiting 10 seconds for device /dev/sdc/
Root device '/dev/sdc' doesn't exist. Attempting to create it.
ERROR: Unable to determine major/minor number of root device '/dev/disk/by-uuid/lotsofnumbers'
You are being dropped to a recovery shell
Type 'exit' to try and continue booting
/bin/sh: Can't contact tty; job control turned off
[ramfs /]#
To summarize I'll show you my conf files that could help you to resolve my problem:
/etc/fstab.conf
/dev/sdc1 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc2 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc3 /home ext3 defaults 0 1
So here I've sdc1 boot 32MB partition; sdc2 root 3GB partition; sdc3 home 978MB partition for a total of 4GB USB key~
I didn't make a swap partition as in the tutorial they are writing it's unnecessary for some kind of reasons.
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf
HOOKS="base udev usb autodetect pata scsi sata filesystems"
I've added to here, "usb" to the hooks
installed GRUB on my sdc, here is the menu.ist:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux (USB)
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sdc ro vga=773
initrd /kernel26.img
So, I boot GRUB without problems, start Arch Linux, but then I got this error above.
I've searched alot on some forums and read many stuffs, but sitll can't fix it and it seems complicated.
I've tried to boot with UUID, also, but didn't make difference. I tried to remove some parameter from the hooks, but unfortunately this wasn't working still. I've read somewhere to use chroot, but I didn't catch on how to do that and what was the use of chroot, I'm still noob user of arch linux and currently learning. Maybe it's the problem, as some forum were talking about creating a new image, but I still don't know how to make it. By the way, I'm not sure this could have fixed my current problem. I've also read somewhere it could be due to my lack of space, but I wrote you how I did partition my USB key, let me know if you have any suggestion please.

1. What I did is re-installing entirely from my installation disk or USB to test out different setting in my config files, because I don't know how to edit my .conf as I can't really finish to boot to the end and get in terminal mode? If there is a quicker way to edit files from any terminal to go into my current USB sdc to modify directly my file from there, I'd enjoy probably. So rebuilding the initpio, no, I just re-installed to test out different configs.
2. Yes, same error.
3. Tested out by-id/by-path and uuid = no difference
4. Didn't know about larch, it seems to be a nice tool, I'll check it out

[SOLVED] external USB HDD fails to install arch w/boot device ERROR

I've been working on installing arch linux via an external USB harddrive (specifically seagate free agent go 320GB) for 1 week now, and everytime I failed - until TODAY! thankfully I found this post, where user Dieter@be references this link, which displays BUG ID#17231 at the top titled "Can't boot LiveCDs 2009.08 (/dev/archiso doesn't show up)". the bug report states ::
I can't boot the LiveCDs 2009.08, neither netinstall nor core.
When it tries to access /dev/archiso it shows these messages:
:: Waiting for boot device ...
Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/archiso ...
ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, logout when you are finished
ramfs$
reading further thru this bug report, I found a very insightful post by Heiko Baums (cyberpatrol) where he says the following, and I quote ::
Problem found. The link /dev/archiso wasn't created.
After
ramfs$ cd /dev
ramfs$ ln -s sr0 archiso
ramfs$ exit
it continued booting correctly.
And sg was also loaded after this. ;-)
as you see, the bug report was for the CD version, not the USB version - yet, my issue with the USB bootdisk was the same, (no matter which boot disk I tried = netinstall, core, .img, .iso, etc) meaning I got the EXACT same error = "ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds ..." ! well, I figured that I'd try one of the new fancy ISOs found @ http://build.archlinux.org/isos/ - specifically I use/used archlinux-2010.03.04-netinstall-x86_64.iso.
upon running Unetbootin from windows 7, and choose to install the ISO archlinux-2010.03.04-netinstall-x86_64.iso to my first partition on my USB harddrive (that first partition being FAT32, and had already been set as bootable previously), that completed successfully. I rebooted, and choose to boot from USB drive, the ISOlinux bootloader came up as normal, I choose DEFAULT and off it went.... sure enough, it errored out at the same place as listed in the bug report ::
:: Waiting for boot device ...
Waiting 30 seconds for device /dev/archiso ...
ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds ...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, logout when you are finished
ramfs$
this time though, I issued the following 2 commands ::
ln -s /dev/sdb1 /dev/archiso
exit
from there, EVERYTHING worked as it should!
to recap: the solution for me was create a symbolic link pointing /dev/archiso => to my partition which held the archlinux netinstall (which is where I told Unetbootin to install it to)! done and done. I felt this needed to be posted here, as I could not find this solution after MANY google searches, archlinux wiki searches, forum searches, etc. honestly, I think it would be prudent to have this tidbit of information added to the Install from USB stick archwiki page as a side note to those that may run into this issue.
this is not the FIRST time I have run into this problem with a USB install of archlinux, but this is the FIRST time I found a fix! thanks to all the great posts I reference here, without this information I dont think I would have been able to install archlinux on my new alienware m11x laptop.
-peace-
PS: no amount of rootdelay=XX nor pmedia=usb nor usbdelay=XX would work in my above attempts either.
Last edited by fnord0 (2010-03-12 04:54:26)

FAT16 here. Parted Magic sees my USB drive as sdd. I tried your way and surprise, surprise, it didn't work.
ln -sf /dev/sdd /dev/archiso
mount -t vfat /dev/archiso /bootmnt
mount : Invalid argument
I thought maybe you meant mount -f vfat /dev/archiso /bootmnt instead. I tried it too, it resulted in a kernel panic.
What else can I try besides installing from a IDE/SATA CD drive ? Because this issue is NOT solved. At least not for me. Wonder if "archlinux-2010.04.05-netinstall-i686.iso" from the here will solve it (really hope so).
SOLVED IT HERE (with yet another image): http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=93645
Last edited by DSpider (2010-04-17 14:21:27)

How to partition a USB flash-drive to install Arch Linux?

Good afternoon,
Could anyone please guide me in the right direction, how would I go about partitioning my USB flash-drive in order to install Arch Linux onto my Acer Aspire One? I've found guides, but none of them are specific enough - the static assumption being that the OS is already partitioned onto your flash-drive, and that is not the case for me.
Much appreciated,
A Swiftly Tilting Planet

assuming your usb key is /dev/sdz
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdz
//cleans the usb drive
# fdisk /dev/sdz
// press m and read the help, make a partition, make it bootable
// you have to press (double check anyway):
// n, p, 1, <enter>, <enter>, a, 1, t, b, w
# mkfs.vfat /dev/sdz1
// formatting
The first passage can actually replaced to something more modest, like:
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdz bs=1024 count=1
Last edited by ezzetabi (2009-01-03 16:37:04)

Installing Arch on a USB Key Partition

I'm new to Arch Linux, and installed it on a partition on my USB Key to try it out (it's cool!.... so far). One problem though. It's an 8GB drive with two partitions. I installed Arch on the first partition (2.5GB) and the rest is for storage. This is fine on computers that run Linux, but Windows only recognizes the first partition and does not see the storage partition.
Is there a way I could copy my entire Arch filesystem so I could reformat my USB Key with the partitions in the correct order? I was looking into Partimage and CloneZilla. I am also open to other solutions.

Clonezilla worked fine! For anyone else who wants to restore an image of a partition to a different partition, make sure you read this:
http://drbl.org/faq/fine-print.php?path … tition.faq
Last edited by zangderak (2011-09-10 01:19:20)

Not able to install arch from USB stick.

Hi all
First off I'm trying to install arch into my 8540w hp laptop. I have failed and here I'm seeking for help.
I have downloaded the latest arch iso image and put it into a usb stick for the installation
Here is how i prepared the usb.
tried :
sudo dd bs=4M if=archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdb
to write the iso in to the usb.
I have no success to boot up my 8540w machine (machine stalled on the HP logo)
I went through the wiki and found there some bugs which related to some old firmware (doesn't make any sense)
My laptop relatively new about 2 year old machine bios firmware upgraded a year ago. ( I have no problem to boot with my old Ibm T60)
To rectify the bugs Wiki guided me to:
1. sudo isohybrid.pl -offset 1 archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso
2. sudo dd if=archlinux-2013.06.01-dual.iso of=/dev/sdX
I have successfully boot up but the hope soon died
I'm getting these error messages:
mount: you must specify the filesystem type
ERROR;Failed to mount 'dev/disk/by-label/ARCH_201306"
here a snap shot of entire messages
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks
Last edited by archlux (2013-06-12 21:52:10)

The filesystem needs to be labeled ARCH_201306. If you dd the iso to the USB, this stays in tact, but it would seem that if you use the method mentioned by the wiki above this filesystem label is not preserved...
Does this machine have UEFI? If so, then you can make a UEFI USB live media and have at it that way. There are instructions on the UEFI wiki page.
FWIW, new and updated firmware does not equate to bug free. I have a Thinkpad E430 that is less than a year old, and the original firmware was not without its bugs. If I have a certain USB stick in the USB 3.0 ports the machine won't get past POST. For a couple bios versions aes-ni was totally borked. There have been other minor issues as well.

[SOLVED] BIOS not detecting USB Drives after i installed Arch

SOLVED: In BIOS under 'Advanced' disable 'Fast BIOS Mode'.
Original post:
Hi there!
I'm fairly new to the arch (and linux) scene and just setup my Samsung 530U3B with a brand new installation of arch. Everything went fine and the system is running flawlessly. Almost.
I just happend to notice that BIOS is not checking for USB drives anymore, it just somehow skips that part. If enter the boot selection, the bootable USB drive won't show up. Neither does it show up in BIOS setup. I tried to boot with the same USB drive that i used to install arch just yesterday, the live media does not boot - the drive doesn't even blink. The boot priority is set to usb drive first, the boot selection screen (hammering f10 during boot) doesn't give me any other option than to boot from the normal SSD. Also, prior to the arch installation (came with w7 installed) the BIOS screen would stay for about 2seconds and then proceed to boot - this doesn't happen anymore. When i press the power button greeted by the grub bootloader in about 1s.
I tried 2 different usb drives, both with the arch iso (same that i used to install the currently running OS, downloaded yesterday). The drives also show up once my arch is booted (starting to blink just after i hit enter in grub). Also, both drives boot without a problem on my desktop computer.
Anyone got any ideas?
I don't really now what kinda of information would be helpful so i'm just dumping stuff i know:
BIOS: Phoenix SecureCore Tiano Version 04XK
Machine: Samsung 530U3B
SSD: Samsung MZ7PC128HAFU-000
ISO used to install (checksum ok): archlinux-2012.07.15-netinstall-dual.iso
Last edited by araex (2012-07-26 16:57:47)

DSpider wrote:
The boot priority is set to usb drive first
Welcome to the forum.
If you just set the USB stick to be first in the boot order, the next option (from the list) takes its place the moment you unplug it. You need to set the BIOS to boot from your equivalent of "Removable Devices" first, "Internal Drives" second and "Optical Drives" third.
The USB stick doesn't show up at all. I set the priority as follows:
1. USB HDD
2. USB FDD
3. USB CD
4. SATA CD
5. SATA HDD
6. NETWORK
I used that same configuration to install arch. USB doesn't seem to initialize at all. Also, if i enter "usb" in the grub commandline, no devices are listed.
Thanks!
UPDATE:
I just figured it out. In my BIOS under 'Advanced' the 'Fast BIOS Mode' was enabled, once i disabled it, everything went fine. I don't remember changing that option. Silly me.
Sorry for your time
Last edited by araex (2012-07-26 16:56:30)

Install Arch in an USB Flash drive from an existing image

I want to minimize the amount of writes to the flash drive by avoiding directly installing Arch into it.
I would like to know if it would be possible to install arch into an small partition, configure it, and then make an image of it and dump it at the USB drive(like when creating the USB install).
Does it worth the while doing so?
Thanks!
Last edited by cristian.rosa (2009-03-05 14:41:11)

Sure. You could do that, then just rsync or cp -ax it onto the Flash drive and set up GRUB.

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