[arch-general] Install problem

[Dave Reisner]

On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 07:45:19PM +0000, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> today I did a fresh install using the december release of the
> install media. Everything done 'to the book' (the install guide
> wiki page). Bootloader is syslinux.
> 
> When booting the freshly installed system, I get the syslinux
> menu, select Archlinux or fallback, things seem to be normal
> for a few seconds then everything stops. After some time I get
> a message that /dev/sda3 (which is the / partition) can't be
> found and I'm dropped into an emergency shell.

Use a persistent identifier such as a LABEL or UUID tag, rather than an
unreliable kernel name. Not convinced this is the problem, but it's
better to let /init figure out what device this really corresponds to in
the kernel.

> No LVM or RAID, just a single SATA disk with
>
>   sda1 = /boot (100M, ext2)
>   sda2 = swap (2G)
>   sda3 = / (~250G, ext4)

Assuming this is native SATA and not setup in compat mode, your image
needs to contain the modules 'ahci', 'sd_mod', and 'ext4' (ignoring
dependencies which I assume mkinitcpio found, added).  Make sure the
kernel version for the image matches whatever the installer gave you
(3.6.10-1-ARCH if you stuck with [core]). 'lsinitcpio -a' will nicely
lay all this out for you.

You'll probably find your problem/solution here which will involve
rebuilding the initramfs. Make sure /boot is mounted...

> Partioning done with cfdisk.

Unrelated, I suggest you don't use cfdisk until util-linux 2.23. cfdisk
still expects disk geometry to be measurable in cylinders, heads and
sectors -- an idea that's been obsolete for nearly 2 decades. fdisk and
parted are both better choices if MBR is sufficient.

d