Lenovo W530 - Stuck at "Loading initial ramdisk" after installation (Arch Linux)

[Automata]

I don't have the system up, but I have the output of vg/lv/pv change commands:

  --- Physical volume ---
  PV Name               /dev/mapper/lisp
  VG Name               lisplvm
  PV Size               118.76 GiB / not usable 2.00 MiB
  Allocatable           yes (but full)
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              30403
  Free PE               0
  Allocated PE          30403
  PV UUID               PJPVbs-Vzln-YL10-haYr-935E-rdN6-BJ4cCD

  --- Volume group ---
  VG Name               lisplvm
  System ID             
  Format                lvm2
  Metadata Areas        1
  Metadata Sequence No  3
  VG Access             read/write
  VG Status             resizable
  MAX LV                0
  Cur LV                2
  Open LV               0
  Max PV                0
  Cur PV                1
  Act PV                1
  VG Size               118.76 GiB
  PE Size               4.00 MiB
  Total PE              30403
  Alloc PE / Size       30403 / 118.76 GiB
  Free  PE / Size       0 / 0   
  VG UUID               Z2Jzqs-voW8-Ed62-Mjpa-1KAF-I8oe-Wk6HeF

  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/lisplvm/swap
  LV Name                swap
  VG Name                lisplvm
  LV UUID                Ur0sn3-ypEX-oboC-qJ6A-hkhQ-Obfc-wFSzog
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time archiso, 2012-08-05 12:57:22 +0000
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                4.00 GiB
  Current LE             1024
  Segments               1
  Allocation             contiguous
  Read ahead sectors     auto
  - currently set to     256
  Block device           254:4
   
  --- Logical volume ---
  LV Path                /dev/lisplvm/root
  LV Name                root
  VG Name                lisplvm
  LV UUID                kWFTMQ-g16w-TtjR-DdaK-MHIo-Fz5f-wl8qSm
  LV Write Access        read/write
  LV Creation host, time archiso, 2012-08-05 12:57:46 +0000
  LV Status              available
  # open                 0
  LV Size                114.76 GiB
  Current LE             29379
  Segments               1
  Allocation             contiguous

I certainly would not say that I know more about Linux than you. I didn't even know you could create hooks.

 

[Johnny5]

Well all my commands have been wrong. Everywhere I've been using lisp-root you would want to use lisplvm-root and the boot would have been

cryptdevice=/dev/lisplvm/root:root root=/dev/mapper/root

You may or may not have caught that I don't know. If Arch doesn't end up working maybe you want to try Gentoo? Given I don't know w/ the UEFI how much more of headache that would end up being though.

 

[Automata]

I want to stick with a rolling release and XFCE, so Gentoo would fit that. I don't like compiling everything from scratch, though. I'm completely willing to try other distros.

 

[Johnny5]

I find the Wiki for this on Gentoo is pretty good. The community one that is. Sabayon 9 may be a better choice if you don't want to put up with compiling everything though, and that installer I know does disk encryption for you automatically if you ask it to. I don't know how strong it is, but it will do it. It might be worth trying it out and if it works then comb through the config files and see how they set everything up.

 

[Automata]

I don't need this laptop to be uncrackable. I just want it to be very inconvenient for someone to steal my useless data or modify my operating system.

 

[Automata]

Starting the Gentoo install now. See you in 6 weeks!

Johnny, I want to say it again to make it perfectly clear: Thank you very much for your help so far. You've actually taught me quite a bit on how the newer versions of Linux boot and have been a great help in narrowing down exactly what is failing on this install. I've received absolutely no assistance on Arch's own forums, nor another popular Linux forum. It is reassuring that I can come back to my "home" forum to get help, even on complex issues.

 

[Johnny5]

I was happy to try and help, I like trying to figure those kinds of problems out.

And lol yah, Gentoo takes awhile to get up and running, but after that other than firefox and libreoffice most stuff does not take to long to build. Unless your using an atom, my netbook takes literally days on some things.

 

[Automata]

Nearly done with the install. The kernel, initramfs, and all basic programs are installed. I'm compiling GRUB2 now and very close to being able to reboot the system. As much fun as Gentoo is, I'd rather not run this as the final OS if I can avoid it.

I find it interesting how you can use genkernel to build you an initramfs with luks/lvm2. However, I didn't use genkernel for the actual kernel. I did that stuff by hand, as everyone should.

 

[Johnny5]

Yah I understand. For all the said benefits of compiler optimizations for your specific architecture and the custom tailoring of the kernel, I really don't think it makes much of a difference on high end machines.

But the flexibility is what always keeps me running it. Plus headaches and system errors force me to learn and that is primarily why I use Linux to begin with. Anyway though, glad to hear its going smoothly.

 

[Automata]

Well, I wouldn't say it is going smoothly. I'd saying is going about as smooth as any Gentoo install.

Grub is exploding right now, waiting on a recompile.

 

[Automata]

Well lookee whats I gots here. Caughts myselves a penguin.






Would you agree that this is a initramfs issue? No matter what I pass through the kernel line, it always gets stuck. That leads me to believe it actually isn't getting that far, which means initramfs isn't doing its job properly.

I'm going to take an image of this hard drive and put Arch back on it in case I want to switch back to Gentoo to check a configuration. That way, I don't have to do this whole install thing again.

 

[Johnny5]

I can't read it, what does it say? Also did you do the encryption on this one or just a regular install?

 

[Automata]

This was with encryption and lvm with the exact same configuration and steps to setup the hard drives. The grub install line was even the same.

Sorry for the confusion, my comments below the images were actually towards Arch. The pictures were not meant to be read, just to illustrate that the kernel is attempting to boot; which is much farther than Arch was getting. In the second picture, it actually errored stating it can't find the root device, but I honestly don't care because that would be fixable if I did.

 

[Johnny5]

I'm just curious if you chose to compile the initramfs in the kernel or not? Because if you end up coming back to this install, and you choose to keep working with it, if you compile it in the kernel then thats one less variable to worry about in the grub.cfg.

Atleast your getting more input to the cause of the problem though.

Oh did you use the genkernel initramfs or follow the wiki one on writing ur own?

 

[Automata]

I chose to compile it separate from the kernel to keep it is similar to Arch as possible. I used "genkernel initramfs" because I started working on making my own and went "screw this" when I found that it does it for you. My goal wasn't to get a fully custom and optimized system, but rather one that works.

 

[Johnny5]

I understand. The reason I was asking was I saw some forum posts awhile back of people saying that the genkernel initramfs doesn't get along with luks sometimes. Gentoo is my favorite distro, don't get me wrong. But often alot of what is "provided" seems to cause bigger delimnas.

 

[Automata]

Just for fun, I'm mixing this up a bit. I used the Gentoo Grub configuration file and created three (fourth was done manually) entries, all with different configurations.

Arch kernel/initramfs: Stuck (was testing to see if it was a Grub configuration issue)
Arch kernel with Gentoo initramfs: Stuck
Gentoo kernel/initramfs: Boots (missing root device)
Gentoo kernel with Arch initramfs: It gets further than Gentoo or Arch has ever got by itself. I see it run the Encrypt hook, wait 10 seconds for the root device, hit LVM, wait 10 seconds for the root device, then freak out because it didn't load. This is the most screwed up setup and it is working the best.

What the heck is going on. Maybe it is the kernel since the Arch initramfs seems to be working? The third entry was appropriately named "Gentoo kernel (OHGOTWHAT mode)".

EDIT: Holy crap, I got it to ask for my crypt password (with the Gentoo kernel). It fails with "reload ioctl on failed: no such file or directory", but this is a first for either install! I think I forgot to compile the correct crypt type into the Gentoo kernel, so treat this like it worked!

 

[Johnny5]

lol I've done that many times. The other one I always forget (if your using genkernel I would be amazed if they don't have this selected for you but its worth noting):

Device Drivers ->

​

Multiple devices driver support (RAID and LVM) ->​

(under Device mapper support)​

*Crypt Target Support​

If you used the cipher recommended on the Gentoo wiki I don't believe that one comes built in on the genkernel.

 

[Automata]

I'm done for the night, but I'm going to compile my own kernel tomorrow to see if I can get Arch working. I'll make sure those are enabled.

 

[Automata]

Did a custom compile to make sure that LVM, encryption, and chipset drivers (including SATA) were enabled in the kernel (not set to module) and it does the exact same thing.