[arch-general] BTRFS USB key fails to boot

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[arch-general] migrating crypttab...

Kyle

31 Jul 2012 31 Jul '12

5:36 a.m.

Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

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Zhengyu Xu

31 Jul 31 Jul

7:19 a.m.

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote:

...

Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf? Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

7:27 a.m.

is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...

...
Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am

...
visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Zhengyu Xu

7:56 a.m.

I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-) Regards, Zhengyu Xu On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...

is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...
...
Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am

...
visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

8 a.m.

well, I will make a good try to add btrfs support to android kernel! I will start with siyah kernel for galaxy s2, I'm a kernel newbie, so any help is greatly appreciated! (I will also try to reformat some system partitions to btrfs...) trying to figure out the partition table of the android... sorry for being off-topic! On Jul 31, 2012 2:56 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...

I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-)

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...
...
Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am

...
visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Leonardo Dagnino

8:18 a.m.

Well, I don't think it will "destroy" the flash... As it is made of NAND flash, I suppose that it reacts pretty much like an SSD. Anyway, it should take a considerable time until it wears out, and if you use it only to install an OS, it won't have any writes, what means that it shouldn't wear out for some years (or at least I hope so) For what I remember, btrfs uses a pretty big amount of space, what means more writes. Leonardo Dagnino Obs.: NAND flash only has a limited amount of erases/writes, not reads. 2012/7/30 Zhengyu Xu

...

I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-)

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...
...
Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am

...
visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

8:21 a.m.

hm... I curently use ext2 and I have installation in a partition of my sd card. wich fs would be better than ext2, given that I need quich r/w but as less writes as possible? On Jul 31, 2012 3:18 AM, "Leonardo Dagnino" wrote:

...

Well, I don't think it will "destroy" the flash... As it is made of NAND flash, I suppose that it reacts pretty much like an SSD. Anyway, it should take a considerable time until it wears out, and if you use it only to install an OS, it won't have any writes, what means that it shouldn't wear out for some years (or at least I hope so) For what I remember, btrfs uses a pretty big amount of space, what means more writes.

Leonardo Dagnino

Obs.: NAND flash only has a limited amount of erases/writes, not reads.

2012/7/30 Zhengyu Xu

...
I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-)

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...
...
Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However,

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: the main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am

...
visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

8:49 a.m.

yaffs2 would be faster than ext2? On Jul 31, 2012 3:21 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...

hm... I curently use ext2 and I have installation in a partition of my sd card. wich fs would be better than ext2, given that I need quich r/w but as less writes as possible? On Jul 31, 2012 3:18 AM, "Leonardo Dagnino" wrote:

...
Well, I don't think it will "destroy" the flash... As it is made of NAND flash, I suppose that it reacts pretty much like an SSD. Anyway, it should take a considerable time until it wears out, and if you use it only to install an OS, it won't have any writes, what means that it shouldn't wear out for some years (or at least I hope so) For what I remember, btrfs uses a pretty big amount of space, what means more writes.

Leonardo Dagnino

Obs.: NAND flash only has a limited amount of erases/writes, not reads.

2012/7/30 Zhengyu Xu

...
I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-)

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...
...
Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However,

...
visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even

On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: the main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated.

...
~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Leonidas Spyropoulos

4:15 p.m.

On 31 Jul 2012 01:49, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...

yaffs2 would be faster than ext2? On Jul 31, 2012 3:21 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
hm... I curently use ext2 and I have installation in a partition of my

...

...
card. wich fs would be better than ext2, given that I need quich r/w but as less writes as possible?

...

...
On Jul 31, 2012 3:18 AM, "Leonardo Dagnino" wrote:

...
Well, I don't think it will "destroy" the flash... As it is made of NAND flash, I suppose that it reacts pretty much like an SSD. Anyway, it should take a considerable time until it wears out, and if you use it only to install an OS, it won't have any writes, what means that it shouldn't wear out for some years (or at least I hope so) For what I remember, btrfs uses a pretty big amount of space, what means more writes.

Leonardo Dagnino

Obs.: NAND flash only has a limited amount of erases/writes, not reads.

2012/7/30 Zhengyu Xu

...
I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-)

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

...
On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: > Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am > visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to

Usually you are limited by hardware not by the file system. the

...

...
...
...
...
...
filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. > ~Kyle

Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf?

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

4:26 p.m.

well, I can format to ext4, but it would actually kill my sd On Jul 31, 2012 11:15 AM, "Leonidas Spyropoulos" wrote:

...

On 31 Jul 2012 01:49, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
yaffs2 would be faster than ext2? On Jul 31, 2012 3:21 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
hm... I curently use ext2 and I have installation in a partition of my

sd

...
...
card. wich fs would be better than ext2, given that I need quich r/w but as less writes as possible?

Usually you are limited by hardware not by the file system.

...
...
On Jul 31, 2012 3:18 AM, "Leonardo Dagnino" wrote:

...
Well, I don't think it will "destroy" the flash... As it is made of NAND flash, I suppose that it reacts pretty much like an SSD. Anyway, it should take a considerable time until it wears out, and if you use it only to install an OS, it won't have any writes, what means that it shouldn't wear out for some years (or at least I hope so) For what I remember, btrfs uses a pretty big amount of space, what means more writes.

Leonardo Dagnino

Obs.: NAND flash only has a limited amount of erases/writes, not reads.

2012/7/30 Zhengyu Xu

...
I've no idea on how btrfs performs with a flash disk actually. My btrfs partition just locates on a normal hdd so I have never thought about it :-)

Regards, Zhengyu Xu

On 2012-7-31, at 8:27, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας<01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...
is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy the flash because of the read/writes? On Jul 31, 2012 2:20 AM, "Zhengyu Xu" wrote:

> On Mon, 2012-07-30 at 17:36 -0400, Kyle wrote: >> Trying to install Arch on a USB key, I am having trouble getting a > bootable system. I created a basic BTRFS filesystem and mounted it with SSD > optimizations and compression. I didn't create any subvolumes or anything > else that is said to be problematic when booting to a BTRFS filesystem. > From that point, I followed the installation guide for a normal install. > However, after reading the documentation for GRUB and Syslinux, my newly > created install doesn't boot. I looked at the wiki entry for installing to > a USB key, but it is still written for AIF and grub-legacy. However, the > main difference I can find doesn't seem to apply, because although it > mentions that the USB key where grub-legacy is installed is always hd0,0, > grub2 is supposed to look for the UUID of the disk, which matches correctly > in /boot/grub/grub.cfg. I also tried setting up this install to boot using > Syslinux, but both bootloaders just drop me into some kind of shell and > refuse to boot. Unfortunately, since I am >> visually impaired and use speech to install and use Arch, I am unable to > see whether I am in a "normal shell" or a rescue shell, or even what kind > of issue the bootloaders are having that keeps them from finding a kernel. > Should I be using a different filesystem other than BTRFS, even though both > bootloaders are said to support it? Should I not be using compression on my > filesystem? Could this be a problem that is entirely unrelated to the > filesystem I'm using? Any help is greatly appreciated. >> ~Kyle > > Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf? > > Regards, > Zhengyu Xu > > >

Kyle

7:57 a.m.

According to Zhengyu Xu: #Did you add usb and btrfs to the hooks array in your mkinitcpio.conf? Forgot to mention it, but yes I did. According to "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας": #is it actually safe to format an usb flash to btrfs? won't it destroy #the #flash because of the read/writes? The BTRFS documentation and other related information indicate that a BTRFS filesystem mounted with the noatime and either the ssd or ssd_spread options is safe on solid state disks including nand-based USB flash, and all indications are that thisis either as safe or safer than ext4. I guess I could try a simple ext2 filesystem, but where's the fun in that? :) ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Kyle

1 Aug 1 Aug

5:38 a.m.

More information about my initial problem: I was able to take a picture of part of my screen using my phone, and Google is telling me that GRUB is loading into rescue mode with an error that says something about "unknown filesystem." Sorry, I can't get much more detailed than that, because the text conversion wasn't exactly perfect. My /boot/grub/grub.cfg is inserting the btrfs module, so I am at a total loss. Maybe I need to take out all the if syntax and only search for the UUID. i realize this is a somewhat nonstandard install, as I am trying to get a bootable USB key with a BTRFS filesystem using the Arch install media that I have written to another USB Key in a computer that is running Windows XP, but I do hope this is possible. Note that since this is a USB boot, I'm not at all concerned about booting the Windows XP OS on the hard disk, because I can boot it as long as I don't choose USB boot or remove the USB key from the computer. I hope I have provided enough information. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

5:43 a.m.

I'm sorry Kyle for screwing your topic... well, I think that you need an ext boot partition. then, try to add the btrfs to modprobe.d (I don't remember exactly how...) or to rc.conf (if using init scripts and not systemd) by adding "btrfs" to the MODULES array On Aug 1, 2012 12:38 AM, "Kyle" wrote:

...

More information about my initial problem: I was able to take a picture of part of my screen using my phone, and Google is telling me that GRUB is loading into rescue mode with an error that says something about "unknown filesystem." Sorry, I can't get much more detailed than that, because the text conversion wasn't exactly perfect. My /boot/grub/grub.cfg is inserting the btrfs module, so I am at a total loss. Maybe I need to take out all the if syntax and only search for the UUID. i realize this is a somewhat nonstandard install, as I am trying to get a bootable USB key with a BTRFS filesystem using the Arch install media that I have written to another USB Key in a computer that is running Windows XP, but I do hope this is possible. Note that since this is a USB boot, I'm not at all concerned about booting the Windows XP OS on the hard disk, because I can boot it as long as I don't choose USB boot or remove the USB key from the computer. I hope I have provided enough information. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

5:47 a.m.

PS: WOW man, how can you even install Arch by being visually impaired??? You must be GENIUS!!!! On Aug 1, 2012 12:43 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

...

I'm sorry Kyle for screwing your topic... well, I think that you need an ext boot partition. then, try to add the btrfs to modprobe.d (I don't remember exactly how...) or to rc.conf (if using init scripts and not systemd) by adding "btrfs" to the MODULES array On Aug 1, 2012 12:38 AM, "Kyle" wrote:

...
More information about my initial problem: I was able to take a picture of part of my screen using my phone, and Google is telling me that GRUB is loading into rescue mode with an error that says something about "unknown filesystem." Sorry, I can't get much more detailed than that, because the text conversion wasn't exactly perfect. My /boot/grub/grub.cfg is inserting the btrfs module, so I am at a total loss. Maybe I need to take out all the if syntax and only search for the UUID. i realize this is a somewhat nonstandard install, as I am trying to get a bootable USB key with a BTRFS filesystem using the Arch install media that I have written to another USB Key in a computer that is running Windows XP, but I do hope this is possible. Note that since this is a USB boot, I'm not at all concerned about booting the Windows XP OS on the hard disk, because I can boot it as long as I don't choose USB boot or remove the USB key from the computer. I hope I have provided enough information. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

5:50 a.m.

PS2: I'm not trying to say ANYTHING bad about you and I'm sorry, if I offended you, I just think that it's very difficult... On Aug 1, 2012 12:47 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

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PS: WOW man, how can you even install Arch by being visually impaired??? You must be GENIUS!!!! On Aug 1, 2012 12:43 AM, "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας" <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

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I'm sorry Kyle for screwing your topic... well, I think that you need an ext boot partition. then, try to add the btrfs to modprobe.d (I don't remember exactly how...) or to rc.conf (if using init scripts and not systemd) by adding "btrfs" to the MODULES array On Aug 1, 2012 12:38 AM, "Kyle" wrote:

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More information about my initial problem: I was able to take a picture of part of my screen using my phone, and Google is telling me that GRUB is loading into rescue mode with an error that says something about "unknown filesystem." Sorry, I can't get much more detailed than that, because the text conversion wasn't exactly perfect. My /boot/grub/grub.cfg is inserting the btrfs module, so I am at a total loss. Maybe I need to take out all the if syntax and only search for the UUID. i realize this is a somewhat nonstandard install, as I am trying to get a bootable USB key with a BTRFS filesystem using the Arch install media that I have written to another USB Key in a computer that is running Windows XP, but I do hope this is possible. Note that since this is a USB boot, I'm not at all concerned about booting the Windows XP OS on the hard disk, because I can boot it as long as I don't choose USB boot or remove the USB key from the computer. I hope I have provided enough information. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Kyle

6:07 a.m.

According to "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας": #PS: WOW man, how can you even install Arch by being visually #impaired??? #You must be GENIUS!!!! Lol I use Chris Brannon's Talking Arch install media. http://the-brannons.com/tarch I stand on the shoulders of giants. :) #PS2: I'm not trying to say ANYTHING bad about you and I'm sorry, if I #offended you, I just think that it's very difficult... No more difficult than it is for anyone else. I have speech using Speakup and the eSpeak speech synthesizer as soon as the install media boots. If I get this thing to the point where I can install a desktop environment, likely either GNOME or LXDE, I'll be able to get speech using the same eSpeak speech synthesizer and a screen reader called Orca. No, I'm not offended at all, and I am actually trying to let the world know just how easy it can be to install a Linux system without eyes. In this case, questions are a good thing(tm). Hope this helps. I'll try this install with a 100MB ext2 /boot, although GRUB isn't supposed to need this extra partition. Maybe I found a bug in GRUB's BTRFS module. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

6:15 a.m.

:-) nothing more to say (well the real challenge it to also have your hands tied on your back :-P ) um, well, grub in my opinion is pretty unstable... it's like a woman you never know! I always try to install grub in my arch installations, but sometimes it "just fails"! so, syslinux could be an option too... does it support btrfs at all? can you send us the photo? On Aug 1, 2012 1:07 AM, "Kyle" wrote:

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According to "Δημήτρης Ζέρβας": #PS: WOW man, how can you even install Arch by being visually #impaired??? #You must be GENIUS!!!!

Lol I use Chris Brannon's Talking Arch install media. http://the-brannons.com/tarch I stand on the shoulders of giants. :)

#PS2: I'm not trying to say ANYTHING bad about you and I'm sorry, if I #offended you, I just think that it's very difficult...

No more difficult than it is for anyone else. I have speech using Speakup and the eSpeak speech synthesizer as soon as the install media boots. If I get this thing to the point where I can install a desktop environment, likely either GNOME or LXDE, I'll be able to get speech using the same eSpeak speech synthesizer and a screen reader called Orca. No, I'm not offended at all, and I am actually trying to let the world know just how easy it can be to install a Linux system without eyes. In this case, questions are a good thing(tm). Hope this helps.

I'll try this install with a 100MB ext2 /boot, although GRUB isn't supposed to need this extra partition. Maybe I found a bug in GRUB's BTRFS module. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Tom Gundersen

6:25 a.m.

On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 11:43 PM, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

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I'm sorry Kyle for screwing your topic... well, I think that you need an ext boot partition. then, try to add the btrfs to modprobe.d (I don't remember exactly how...) or to rc.conf (if using init scripts and not systemd) by adding "btrfs" to the MODULES array

Kyle: a btrfs module (in rc.conf or otherwise) should not be necessary. In my experience, life is much easier with /boot on an ext partition (I tend to stick with ext2, but that's just because I don't have much confidence in boot loaders). Also, usind syslinux rather than grub is usually much simpler (assuming you don't require some feature that is only required by grub. Cheers, Tom PS If you have more debug output, you could put picturesup somewhere, and I'm sure we could do a better job at interpreting it than Google (I didn't even know Google could do that to be honest).

Δημήτρης Ζέρβας

6:32 a.m.

+1 for the ext2 boot partition why isn't it necessary? is it loaded by default? because udev isn't running... On Aug 1, 2012 1:25 AM, "Tom Gundersen" wrote:

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On Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 11:43 PM, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

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I'm sorry Kyle for screwing your topic... well, I think that you need an ext boot partition. then, try to add the btrfs to modprobe.d (I don't remember exactly how...) or to rc.conf (if using init scripts and not systemd) by adding "btrfs" to the MODULES array

Kyle: a btrfs module (in rc.conf or otherwise) should not be necessary.

In my experience, life is much easier with /boot on an ext partition (I tend to stick with ext2, but that's just because I don't have much confidence in boot loaders).

Also, usind syslinux rather than grub is usually much simpler (assuming you don't require some feature that is only required by grub.

Cheers,

Tom

PS If you have more debug output, you could put picturesup somewhere, and I'm sure we could do a better job at interpreting it than Google (I didn't even know Google could do that to be honest).

Tom Gundersen

6:38 a.m.

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 12:32 AM, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας <01ttouch@gmail.com> wrote:

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why isn't it necessary? is it loaded by default? because udev isn't running...

btrfs, like all the other fs modules, should be loaded on-demand when "mount" is called. -t

Kyle

7:06 a.m.

According to Tom Gundersen: #On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 12:32 AM, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας <01ttouch@gmail.com> #wrote: #> why isn't it necessary? is it loaded by default? because udev isn't #> running... # #btrfs, like all the other fs modules, should be loaded on-demand when #"mount" is called. Additionally, both GRUB and syslinux, according to the documentation, support finding a bootable kernel and initrd image that are stored on a BTRFS filesystem. The only potential problem I read about had to do with using a /boot subvolume, but I wasn't creating any subvolumes at the point where I was installing the bootloader. I was planning to create a subvolume for /home, but this shouldn't have caused a problem with either bootloader, and it wasn't even created yet anyway. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Leonardo Dagnino

8:47 a.m.

For what I understood, messing with the initcpio won't change anything, because GRUB doesn't even get to load it. Leonardo Dagnino 2012/7/31 Kyle

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According to Tom Gundersen: #On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 12:32 AM, Δημήτρης Ζέρβας <01ttouch@gmail.com> #wrote: #> why isn't it necessary? is it loaded by default? because udev isn't #> running... # #btrfs, like all the other fs modules, should be loaded on-demand when #"mount" is called.

Additionally, both GRUB and syslinux, according to the documentation, support finding a bootable kernel and initrd image that are stored on a BTRFS filesystem. The only potential problem I read about had to do with using a /boot subvolume, but I wasn't creating any subvolumes at the point where I was installing the bootloader. I was planning to create a subvolume for /home, but this shouldn't have caused a problem with either bootloader, and it wasn't even created yet anyway. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Kyle

6:57 a.m.

According to Tom Gundersen: #Kyle: a btrfs module (in rc.conf or otherwise) should not be necessary. I didn't think so, since I added btrfs to my HOOKS array in /etc/initcpio.conf right after filesystems, although that may not be necessary either. Better safe than sorry. #In my experience, life is much easier with /boot on an ext partition #(I tend to stick with ext2, but that's just because I don't have much #confidence in boot loaders). Trying this now. Hopefully it will work. I guess nothing special is needed for /boot, and it mostly does more harm to flash than good to use a journal in such a tight space, so I am also thinking ext2 is best here. #Also, usind syslinux rather than grub is usually much simpler #(assuming you don't require some feature that is only required by #grub. As long as syslinux will support installation onto a USB key, and the docs indicate it should work, I may be able to simplify the process by using syslinux. I tried it once the other day and it didn't work either, but I'm thinking I did something wrong in the installation, and I didn't even think to take a picture with my phone. I also wasn't using an ext2 /boot partition then, and I think syslinux works better that way. #PS #If you have more debug output, you could put picturesup somewhere, and #I'm sure we could do a better job at interpreting it than Google (I #didn't even know Google could do that to be honest). Thanks. The best I got from Google Goggles was interpreted as something like Welcome to GRUB. Error: unknown filesystem. Entering rescue mode. I have already repartitioned the disk to do another install, and the pictures my phone takes in Google Goggles don't stay saved anywhere, but I will put whatever I can get up somewhere if I can't get syslinux working with the ext2 /boot partition. Thanks for the help. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

Kyle

9:58 a.m.

According to Tom Gundersen: #Also, usind syslinux rather than grub is usually much simpler #(assuming you don't require some feature that is only required by #grub. Thanks Tom for suggesting syslinux. I now have a bootable system using syslinux, an ext2 /boot partition and BTRFS on the rest of the disk. Syslinux will probably work without the separate /boot, as I did find the mistake I made when installing it earlier. I installed syslinux using syslinux-install_update -iam but had already set the first partition as legacy-bios-bootable Because of this, syslinux-install_update stopped after failing to set the attribute that was already set and never wrote the boot code. After installing it with syslinux-install_update -im it correctly wrote the boot code and gave me a bootable Arch Linux USB key. Some time in the future, I may try to forego the /boot partition and use only a single BTRFS partition just for fun, but for now, since it ain't broke, I ain't gonna fix it. :) Thanks very much for all the help. ~Kyle -- Kyle is a droid. The whole world knows it. This e-mail shows it.

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Kyle
Leonardo Dagnino
Leonidas Spyropoulos
Tom Gundersen
Zhengyu Xu
Δημήτρης Ζέρβας