[SOLVED] Help me install Arch on my W540

Hi guys,
I'm trying to install ArchLinux on my Lenovo W540. I've installed Arch on so many other Notebooks and desktop computers before but they all had a non UEFI Bios. This one is a bit tricky.
I dd'ed the arch iso on my usb and booted it up.
The result is a freeze during booting from the usb: http://i.imgur.com/hUMT36E.jpg
Can anyone help me install Arch on my W540? Or tell me what the problem is?
Thanks in advance
--lmnsqshr
Last edited by lmnsqshr (2014-10-29 20:37:33)

Ok, I got a solution but this will probably piss off some people googling for "how to install Arch Linux on Lenovo W540" because it's not a reproducable solution (sorry).
TL;DR: USB flash drive was corrupt.
After booting from the USB, I changed the boot parameters of the x86_64 entry and added a "nomodeset". This would prevent the graphical drivers from loading, because the problem was apparantly with the nouveau-module.
The live system booted and I got to the point where I partitioned my SSD. The command "mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1" got me some I/O errors so I thought the USB flash drive might be corrupted (it was pretty old).
I dd'ed the arch iso on a new USB flash drive which somehow could load the nouveau module without any problems. And now I'm running my beloved Arch on my W540.
/EDIT: I just remembered that I also disabled the integrated card reader in the BIOS.
Last edited by lmnsqshr (2014-10-29 20:49:01)

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My memory has slipped a bit: the following is more to the point than my reference to md=0!
Member
Registered: 2009-09-02
Posts: 17
E-mail
Re: [SOLVED] usb /boot, RAID5 /root, mkinitcpio.conf help request
The array stabalized and I was able to reboot with the following entry in my menu.lst:
# (0) Arch Linux
title Arch Linux
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/md0 ro
initrd /kernel26.img
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Offline

[SOLVED] Trying to install Arch Linux from harddisk using /dev/sda2

Hi
I'm trying to install Arch using my swap partition, following this wiki entry: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ha … stallation
What I've done:
Downloaded ISO: archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-i686.iso
Command: swapoff /dev/sda2
Command: fdisk /dev/sda and changed the system type to 83 (Linux) on /dev/sda2
Now it looks like:
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 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
Disk identifier: 0x00017e5b
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1060289 530144+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 1060290 3164804 1052257+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 3164805 105579179 51207187+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 105579180 488392064 191406442+ 83 Linux
It complained about device was busy, but it still seemed to have changed the system type, so I did partprobe as it wrote.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.
[root@swamp ~]# partprobe
<no output>
Next I did:
[root@swamp ~]# dd if=archlinux-2010.05-netinstall-i686.iso of=/dev/sda2
327680+0 records in
327680+0 records out
167772160 bytes (168 MB) copied, 4.3025 s, 39.0 MB/s
[root@swamp ~]# mkdir /mnt/sda2
[root@swamp ~]# mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
mount: warning: /mnt/sda2 seems to be mounted read-only.
[root@swamp ~]# ls -al /mnt/sda2
total 150466
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 240 May 16 15:54 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Nov 5 01:40 ..
dr-xr-xr-x 3 root root 556 May 16 15:52 boot
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 448 May 16 15:54 isomounts
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 8192 May 16 15:54 overlay.sqfs
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 154058752 May 16 15:54 root-image.sqfs
And unmounted it again.
The wiki page says to type: fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck, but I get no such file while trying to open sda2fsck.
[root@swamp ~]# fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.18
e2fsck 1.41.12 (17-May-2010)
fsck.ext2: No such file or directory while trying to open /dev/sda2fsck
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>
Can I ignore the above and continue modifying grub?
Thanks :-)
Last edited by valvet (2010-11-08 14:49:07)

fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck makes no sense because /dev/sda2fsck is not a deivce. If the wiki says that, then it is wrong. It's only doing a fsck anyway so probably not really needed. If you are just formatting th swap partition then use, mkfs.ext{234}.
edit:
from the wiki
# fsck -f /dev/sda2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 3A: Optimizing directories
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/sda2: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/sda2: 243/78936 files (8.2% non-contiguous), 310519/314880 blocks
The first like should just be
# fsck -f /dev/sda2
Last edited by sand_man (2010-11-05 06:46:01)

[SOLVED]How to install Arch Linux UEFI to dual-boot?

Hey,
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Thanks for any help in advance!
Regards, Matteussz
Last edited by Matteussz (2015-02-11 20:41:37)

Hey,
Writing to you on my working dual-boot with ArchLinux (Windows 8.1 64-Bit, UEFI)
So first step I've done is creating free space of an existing partition in the windows disk management (windows button and r and then type diskmgmt.msc). At this step, you have to record which partition your efi partition is (just take a look at your efi partition and remember the mb of this partition for later)
Then go into the uefi settings (bios) and disable secure boot as well as fast boot, otherwise it could cause data crash.
Boot your Arch Live CD and follow the beginners guide all the way along till you reach the disk management.
If you want to have swap, you can create yours right now, should be a primary partition of about 4gigs.
Next partition is gonna be your home, system partition (I've didn't created two partitions for home and for the system but you could do this as well as just go with one partition) this partition gonna be formatted in ext4
Next step, you have to mount your windows-efi partition in /boot/efi but don't format it dont remeber if it asks you how to use the partition but if so, just use as fat32.
After the disk management go ahead with your arch installation and follow the beginners guide. (Make sure you're using the grub bootloader)
After finishing the installation, restart your system, hopefully you will recognize the opening grub menu. (but dont scare, windows wont show in the grub menu at this time so you have to boot your arch)
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[Solved]Can I install arch without a swap partition ?

I only have one primary partition free to install arch, with 3 primary partition and 1 extend partition, I have no other choice except install without swap partition.
Is there any suggestion? I will try it until I get a U storage to write .img in.
Last edited by sailor (2009-03-17 00:47:31)

Sure, it's perfectly possible to use any linux system without swap. including arch.
There are 2 ways to do disk partitioning in /arch/setup:
1) autoprepare. with this method, you pick a disk (a disk you want to use entirely). you will be asked some questions (including how big swap should be). this method will create the partitions with the sizes you mention (/boot, swap, / and /home) optionally you can add additional fs'es
2) manual. the installer can launch cfdisk for you if you need to alter partitions (if you want this), and after that you can define pretty much your stuff the way you like it (eg no swap) iirc. i'm not 100% sure though.
Frankly I don't understand why you say "I have no choice", if you don't have enough partitions, you can always create additional ones.

[SOLVED] Can I install Arch on the same PC, without a CD/USB/Netboot

Hello
I'm kinda bored, and then I like to reinstall Arch over and over.. but I lack a CD/USB stick and/or another PC to do a PXE install, therefor..
Can I set up my current installation to boot into a new arch install when I reboot somehow?
Thanks.
Last edited by valvet (2010-11-08 14:50:16)

hokasch wrote:Sure.. two examples:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fa … nux_System (use swap for the iso and convert it back later)
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/In … ting_Linux
or extract kernel & initrd from archboot image, save it somewhere and create a grub entry - works fine for net installs
Ok I thought it was solved, but I was wrong.. here's what I did, hopefully you or someone else can help.
Downloaded the netinst image (160mb), copied:
/mnt/iso/boot/archiso.img > /boot/archiso.img
/mnt/iso/boot/vmlinuz26 > /boot/vmlinuz26-test
Edited /boot/grub/menu.lst according to /mnt/iso/boot/isolinux.cfg
# test
title Arch test install
root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26-test
initrd /archiso.img archisolabel=ARCH_201005 tmpfs_size=75% locale=en_US.UTF-8
Now, whenever I boot this.. it says "Waiting 30 seconds for device /disk-by/uid.. lots of dots here.
Ideas? I'd like to avoid making a new partition as suggested in the wiki, as it requires me to load a live cd of sorts anyway, so I can shrink one of my partitions.
Thanks :-)!
Last edited by valvet (2010-10-31 19:48:05)

[SOLVED] Can not install Arch on a VirtualBox

Dear all,
I would like to get familiar with Arch and have tried to install in on a Virtual Machine created with VirtualBox.
Unfortunately I can't even start the installation,
whenever I select Install Arch_64bit I just see a white cursor and nothing else happens.
I have found three logs file in my Virtual Machine folders, you can find them here:
http://pastebin.com/699gGph3
http://pastebin.com/0ryWVmaW
http://pastebin.com/2u9siij5
Can you please help me understanding what is wrong and how to fix it and install VirtualBox?
Thanks a lot in advance for the help,
Luca
Last edited by lucacerone (2014-01-06 14:41:18)

lucacerone wrote:The ISO thing seems more likely to me, because I never had troubles installing guest OS in my host machine (and yes it is Ubuntu)
I'll try that and let you know how it goes!
If the md5 checksout, you probably have a bad setting in your vm within virtualbox. Check it or delete and re-create.

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Thanks Guys, I am now having trouble with makepkg
I have unzipp ttf-ms-fonts
[anc@orac ttf-ms-fonts]$ ls
LICENSE PKGBUILD ttf-ms-fonts.install
When I run makepkg this error appears:
[anc@orac ttf-ms-fonts]$ makepkg
==> ERROR: Fakeroot must be installed if using the 'fakeroot' option
in the BUILDENV array in /etc/makepkg.conf.
So I check contents of /etc/makepkg.conf
--snip--
# BUILD ENVIRONMENT
# Defaults: BUILDENV=(fakeroot !distcc color !ccache check)
# A negated environment option will do the opposite of the comments below.
#-- fakeroot: Allow building packages as a non-root user
#-- distcc: Use the Distributed C/C++/ObjC compiler
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[Solved] Network problems installing Arch

Hello everyone. I'm trying to install archlinux-2013-03-01 and I can't get to even start the installing process due to network problems.
I'm using a wired connection with DHCP but when I ping google or something it gives me the 'bad address' error (not the 'unknown host' error). I typed 'dmesg | grep r8169' (r88169 is the module for my Gigabit Ethernet driver) and the output says it's loaded, so it's not a kernel module problem.
If I type 'ip link' it says my interface is called eth0. So then I type 'ip link set eth0 up' and it says is up but again, I can't ping anything.
If I nslookup something it gives me my home address.
I even tryed to load the .iso with the option ipv6.disable=1 and still nothing.
Any help will be appreciated, thank you.
Last edited by babel (2013-04-05 14:43:42)

Thank you both for your responses.
I thought this was weird too, but I can't see any interface with the new network device naming scheme. According to the wiki I must have an interface called something like epn2so but if I type 'ip link' I only see:
1: lo: <LOOPBACK> [some more info]
2: eth0: <BROADCAST, MULSTICAST, UP, LOWER_UP> [some more info]
link/ethernet [my mac address] brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
I think eth0 is the right name because if I type 'ip link set eth0 up' it gives me no errors and I can see ...UP, LOWER_UP> when I type 'ip link'.
@WonderWoofy: I don't have any Ip address when I type 'ip addr'. I don't know what could it be. This is the first time I have issues "configuring" internet with DHCP and believe me, I've tried hundreds of different distros and configurations.
PS: I wrote [some more info] because it's kind of a pain in the ass copy exactly all the output due to I can't ctrl + c anything in the installing procees. Should I copy the output of any particular command so you guys can see it? Thank you.

[SOLVED] Help on installing urxvt

I am fooling around with the i3 window manager, but the Mod1-enter doesn't work. Based on the config file it is calling /usr/bin/urxvt, which doesn't exist on my machine and I cannot find out how to install this library (pacman -S urxvt doesn't work). If you google urxvt all you get is articles on rxvt.
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Please append [SOLVED] to the title of this thread if you're done with it. You can do so by editing the opening post.

Problems after installing Arch [SOLVED]

Hello,
I attempted to follow the installation instructions to install Arch Linux. I followed those since they are faster than the Beginners Guide and didn’t meet some of my needs.
For example, I was also wanting to install an LVM partition (and I'll backup and set up dm-crypt+LUKS later after I get this issue solved), which the Beginner Guide didn't mention and there were a few other minor tweaks I wanted.
In my partition layout I have a 400MB boot (extra room for other kernels). followed by an LVM volume, which has one volume group with 4 logical partitions, these are: /, /home, /tmp, and /var.
The problem:
GRUB is not working, or at least it's not installed and configured correctly. When I boot up my computer, it says exactly, "GRUB", in the top-left corner of my screen and nothing happens. I have a poor understanding of the init/bootloader process in computers, which I am trying to learn slowly but steadily. I was re-reading the instructions for GPT specific partitions, which is what I use, and it says here:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual … stallation
That I'm supposed to have a "BIOS partition". This is interesting because I have no idea what this is for. Something came to mind when I was using cgdisk or gdisk, it would automatically allocate the first 2000-ish sectors (instead of 34 like the documentation was hinting), so this probably means something.... I don't know.
And then I read that the BIOS installation for GPT is supposed to be done before you install Arch Linux. Whoops! So can I fix this without having to reinstall Arch? I can probably mount all of my directories and chroot inside again after creating the BIOS partition so GRUB can be configured and reinstalled correctly. Maybe I can fix this. I don't know.
So I am trying to troubleshoot this problem, but is there anything I am understanding wrongly here? Is there some other reason why GRUB won't boot up? I tried Super GRUB 2 disk and that didn't work, there was just a blank screen when booting from grub.cfg. Any help or suggestions?
I am using x86_64 Arch Linux with the installed 3.6.4-1-ARCH Linux kernel.
Last edited by mrrhq (2012-11-08 22:31:49)

mrrhq wrote:In my partition layout I have a 400MB boot (extra room for other kernels). followed by an LVM volume, which has one volume group with 4 logical partitions, these are: /, /home, /tmp, and /var.
Be aware that logical partitions are a construct of the Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning system; however, the title of your thread, and some of the specifics, suggest that you're using the GUID Partition Table (GPT) system, which doesn't use logical partitions. If you're certain you used gdisk or cgdisk, and not fdisk or cfdisk, then you're using GPT and I'd simply accept your use of the word "logical" as an error. If there's any doubt in your mind about this, though, you should investigate further, since some of the issues and solutions depend greatly on which partitioning system you used.
That I'm supposed to have a "BIOS partition". This is interesting because I have no idea what this is for.
The BIOS Boot Partition holds a portion of the GRUB code. It's used on GPT disks but not on MBR disks -- on MBR, the equivalent code goes in an officially-unallocated area immediately after the MBR. The BIOS Boot Partition can sometimes be just a few kibibytes in size, but it's usually either 1MiB or 2MiB. (I've seen reports that some configurations now require over 1MiB, but I haven't investigated this claim.)
Something came to mind when I was using cgdisk or gdisk, it would automatically allocate the first 2000-ish sectors (instead of 34 like the documentation was hinting), so this probably means something.... I don't know.
No, these are unrelated issues. Most partitioning tools today, including gdisk and its siblings, align all partitions on 2048-sector (1MiB) boundaries so as to avoid performance penalties that can be incurred on Advanced Format disks, SSDs, and some types of RAID arrays. See this article I wrote on the topic some time ago.
That said, if you have nowhere else to put it, you could try creating a BIOS Boot Partition in that space. You'd need to change the alignment policy in gdisk or cgdisk to align on 1-sector boundaries to do so, although an 8-sector alignment would be safer for future changes if you've got an Advanced Format disk. The BIOS Boot Partition isn't really greatly affected by the alignment issues, so I wouldn't worry about leaving it unaligned. OTOH, if GRUB wants more then 1MiB on your system, this space would be too small, so it might be better to resize a partition to make room for the BIOS Boot Partition.
WonderWoofy wrote:From what I understand (I have not tried this though) grub2 is actually lvm aware. So you can put all partitions within the lvm, including boot. If this is the case, I see no reason why you would not also be able to put the 2MB bios boot partition in there as well.
GRUB 2 is LVM-aware, and it is possible to put your Linux /boot directory inside the LVM. If you want to do this, though, there's really no point to split /boot off into a separate logical volume (the LVM equivalent of a partition); you might as well just make it a normal directory off of the root (/) filesystem. I'm pretty sure it is not possible to put the BIOS Boot Partition inside the LVM. That's because the code to parse the LVM data structures is contained within the BIOS Boot Partition, thus creating a chicken-and-egg situation if you were to attempt it. Furthermore, the code to write to the BIOS Boot Partition looks for the partition type code in the disk's partition table, and there's no equivalent to that in the LVM data structures. (All this said, in principle you might be able to get something like this to work, but the result would be something similar, but not identical, to a BIOS Boot Partition.)
Although GRUB 2 can read a kernel from within an LVM, I still prefer to keep a separate /boot partition. The reason is that you might not always use GRUB 2. If you wanted or needed to switch to another boot loader in the future, it might not be LVM-aware, and might need /boot to be on a true partition, not in an LVM. (This is true of every EFI boot loader except for GRUB 2, for instance.) In fact, I routinely create two or three smallish partitions on my computers so that I can create multiple /boot partitions for multi-boot configurations or to help transition to a new installation should the need arise. This can help simplify things when the time comes to start fresh.

[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)

Installing Arch on Asus Eee, Already Read the Wiki [Solved]

I'm attempting to install Arch on my Asus Eee 701 (4GB SSD model) and I made a mistake that I'm having trouble correcting. First, I accidentally wrote the image to my Eee's SSD, instead of my USB drive. I tried to install Arch with the installer on my SSD, set up the partitions (one for /, one for /boot, and one for /home), but when I issued the command, it told me that the disk was in use. It was then that I realized what I did. I used an Ubuntu LiveCD on another computer to burn the image file again, this time to my USB drive. I booted my Eee from the USB drive and tried to partition my SSD again, but this time, it tells me:
Device or resource busy
This disk is currently in use - repartitioning is probably a bad idea.
Unmount all file systems, and swapoff all swap partitions on this disk.
Use the --no-reread flag to suppress this check.
Use the --force flag to overrule all checks.
When I boot from my SSD, I get the same message, so I'm not even 100% certain that I booted from my USB drive before. My USB drive's activity light was on though.
Is there any way to fix this? Also, given that I have an SSD, what partitions should I set up and how big should they be? I can't find any concrete numbers in the wiki.
Thanks in advance for the help.
Last edited by Tyrian (2008-11-17 04:14:23)

I'll try that, thanks. What would happen if I dismounted the SSD with -f if it was in use?
EDIT: I just realized that when I go into the installer, it lets me set up partitions manually (I run the installer, pick "Prepare Hard Drive", "Partition Hard Drives", "/dev/sda"). But how should I set them up? When I test it by just making one 4GB partition, it tells me, "Wrote partition table, but re-read table failed. Reboot to update table." So I rebooted, and it appears to work. So I deleted that partition, made a 512MB one, rebooted, and repeated until I had 3 partitions in ext2, a 512MB (sda1, bootable), 512MB (sda2), and one roughly 2.5GB (sda3). I then went to "Set Filesystem Mountpoints", said "NONE" for the swap (due to the avoiding pitfalls section of the wiki), picked "/dev/sda1" as "/" in ext2, made "/dev/sda2" as ext2 called "/var", and made "/dev/sda3" in ext2 called "/home", then said "DONE". When I say "Yes" as the confirmation prompt, I get this message:
Error creating filesystem: mke2fs /dev/sda1
I hit enter and get dropped back to the "Prepare Hard Drive" menu. I followed this section of the Beginner's Guide too.
Is there any way to fix this?
Last edited by Tyrian (2008-11-15 18:37:10)

[SOLVED] mkdir: missing operand error when installing Arch

I am on my first attempt of installing Arch Linux and when i type the command /arch/setup i get the following error
Welcome to Arch Linux Installation Framework
/usr/lib/libui.sh: line 120: /usr/bin/dirname: Input/output error
mkdir: missing operand
Try 'mkdir --help' for more information.
ERROR: Cannot create log directory
I am attempting to install from an ISO cd i burned.
I am extremely new to this and searched the Installation section of the forum with no luck. Thanks for any help.
Last edited by gnuub (2011-05-18 03:30:07)

I am using the 2010.05-core image. I tried installing on a different machine and it worked. I swapped the harddrive and it worked this time, but i received the following error before the arch boot screen came up.
Buffer I/O error on device sr0, logical block 82944
I must have missed this error the first time by not paying attention, because the process continues after repeating the error a few times.

[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)

[SOLVED] Help me install Arch on my W540

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