[SOLVED] Fresh install, Two failures and hang

Question

Solution: Needed to mount my boot partition (EF filesystem) to /boot/efi instead of /boot. Using rEFInd
Hi, so I've read the beginners guide inside and out and I'm having the most difficult time installing arch.
I've probably wiped it at least a dozen times and everything seems like it is going to start up and I get a few failures on startup which results in a hang afterwards
1)
[FAILED] Failed to start Create Volatile Files and Directories.
see 'systemctl status systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service' for details.
2) (this one cycles 6 times before hang)
[FAILED] Failed to start login service.
See 'systemctl statuse systemd-logind.service' for details.
x6
Then I get
[OK] Reached Target Multi-User System.
[OK] Reached target graphical interface.
then the hang where I can't do anything but hold down my power button.
I tried restarting the system with my liveCD (usb) and mounting up my directories and looking into the systemd files but they just say they load ok and there aren't any issues.
I've scoured google and really can't find anything to fix this issue. Any advice would be welcome for sure!
I know I can install Arch on this laptop because I was successful once. But then I wiped it to try out OpenSUSE, and since then I can't get passed these errors.
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by 15goudreau (2014-06-28 16:45:53)

Answer 1

15goudreau wrote:
efibootmgr displays
BootCurrent: 0004
timeout: 2 seconds
bootorder: 0001,0000,0002,0003,0004
boot0000* linux boot manager
boot0001* linux boot manager
boot0002* CD/DVD Drive
boot0003* Hard drive
boot0004* UEFI:Sandisk U3 Titanium 3.27
Edit: Because there are two linux boot managers that prompted me to explore them in my options. The first one 0000 returns an error saying a bootable device needs to be inserted. The second one 0001 loads the boot screen but displays the error. My harddrive just displays a blinking cursor that doesn't do anything. Almost as though after the errors I get through the linux boot manager, it passes on to my hard drive and it can't do anything....
ran the create microsoft directory code and such. Rebooted. No change. I'm going to run the other debug things you mentioned.
Tried booting from UEFI shell. When I ran cd \EFI\arch I get "target directory not found" and \EFI\archlinux also gets target directory not found
OK it is not entirely clear what the boot process is doing here and it looks like the most likely problem is a gummiboot config error.  Your boot order in the efibootmgr command shows that entry 0001 is the first one that it will try which you have as "linux boot manager" - which presumably will find the gummiboot entry but perhaps it is not configured correctly.  Certainly you don't have any \EFI\arch or \EFI\archlinux directories since you previously quoted the contents of the /boot/EFI/ directory using the ls -l command. in \EFI\ there are only a Boot and a Gummiboot directory.
I am not clear why you had to run the command that created the boot entries twice but presumably the entry at boot0000 is likely invalid from the first attempt. You can use the efibootmgr command to delete nvram entries as well as recreate them.  I expect it might be a good idea to delete entry 0000, and maybe also 0001 and then create a new entry yourself using the efibootmgr command.
When you say that entry 0001 "loads the boot screen" - do you mean that it does successfully start the gummiboot bootloader but that gummiboot then fails to load the kernel? If so then that would suggest that the problem lies with the gummiboot configuration files, but that the uefi boot process does start correctly and loads gummiboot.  If that is the case then I would probably delete the nvram entry 0000 and then make sure that the default order was showing that the first entry that will be tried will be gummiboot (which seems to have its entry as "linux boot manager".  I don't use gummiboot myself so I don't have knowledge of what its boot screen looks like. 
You can use the efibootmgr command to write a new entry similar to :
efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sdX -p Y -l /EFI/Gummiboot/gummiboot.efi -L "Gummiboot"
where sdX is the drive you have for ESP, and Y is the partition number. So in your case sdX is sda and Y is 3 if your partitions are as you reported previously. Using this command will then give an entry in the nvram called Gummiboot rather than "linux boot manager".  For the meaning of the parameters see the output of the command "man efibootmgr".
Check the man command for efibootmgr to see how to remove and reorder the boot entries in nvram. Make sure that the entries and boot order are sane before trying to reboot. Also make sure you only delete the entries that you created and not the ones that will boot to the usbkey or the CD.
If this does start Gummiboot correctly then you need to diagnose why gummiboot is not loading the arch kernel correctly. You can follow the wiki page at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gummiboot and set up a manual entry to load the arch kernel as the file /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf containing:
title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrd /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=14420948-2cea-4de7-b042-40f67c618660 rw
Here the PARTUUID value to the right of the = sign is the value relating to your root partition which is in your case the output of
blkid -s PARTUUID -o value /dev/sda1
Perhaps this will help pinpoint where the problem lies.  Certainly it is looking increasingly like your gummiboot config files are where the boot fails.
If you did want to try to launch your arch kernel from the uefi shell then boot to uefi shell v2 as you seem to have tried before. In your case you will need to tell the uefi shell where the kernel and initrd files are so presuming that your files system is defined as fs0 then from the shell in your case it would then be:
> fs0:
> cd \EFI\
> vmlinuz-linux root=PARTUUID=14420948-2cea-4de7-b042-40f67c618660 rootfstype=ext4 add_efi_memmap initrd=EFI/initramfs-linux-img
Since the kernel and initrd files in your case are named  vmlinuz-linux and initramfs-linux-img respectively.  Again the numerical value of the PARTUUID is as before the output of the blkid I quoted before.
You only need to change directory to \EFI\ since your kernel and initrd are in /boot in your case.  All of these commands have to be carefully adapted to your specific case and can't just be cut and pasted from the wiki entry which only has sample commands in many cases.
I hope this helps.
Last edited by mcloaked (2014-06-23 16:53:35)