archlinux
/etc/fstab boot-hang
Hi. I was testing on dell latitude I got from workplace. Newer ssd, entreprise type.
I wanted to test something other than Ext4 (which I never had any issues with). So tried both BTRFS and XFS. But both were hanging on first boot (for about a minute or so) due to zram0 line in /etc/fstab. Then say skipped UUID or failed UUID. And I can still get in to correct: When commenting out the zram0 line. Boot works fast again.
Was just wondering if I made a mistake or if it's something to do with installer ? Not entirely sure how it all works just wanted to try give some feedback.
zram0 253:0 0 4G 0 disk [SWAP] nvme0n1 259:0 0 238.5G 0 disk ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 1G 0 part /boot └─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 237.5G 0 part /
"archinstall-language": "English",
"audio_config": {
"audio": "pipewire"
},
"bootloader": "Grub",
"custom_commands": [],
"disk_config": {
"btrfs_options": {
"snapshot_config": null
},
"config_type": "default_layout",
"device_modifications": [
{
"device": "/dev/nvme0n1",
"partitions": [
{
"btrfs": [],
"dev_path": null,
"flags": [
"boot",
"esp"
],
"fs_type": "fat32",
"mount_options": [],
"mountpoint": "/boot",
"obj_id": "bbcfc292-5ce8-4b4f-a31a-60ca314ea461",
"size": {
"sector_size": {
"unit": "B",
"value": 512
},
"unit": "GiB",
"value": 1
},
"start": {
"sector_size": {
"unit": "B",
"value": 512
},
"unit": "MiB",
"value": 1
},
"status": "create",
"type": "primary"
},
{
"btrfs": [],
"dev_path": null,
"flags": [],
"fs_type": "xfs",
"mount_options": [],
"mountpoint": "/",
"obj_id": "80f89869-58a4-4a29-9cd5-6dae2540fe12",
"size": {
"sector_size": {
"unit": "B",
"value": 512
},
"unit": "B",
"value": 254984323072
},
"start": {
"sector_size": {
"unit": "B",
"value": 512
},
"unit": "B",
"value": 1074790400
},
"status": "create",
"type": "primary"
}
],
"wipe": true
}
]
},
"hostname": "karch",
"kernels": [
"linux"
],
"locale_config": {
"kb_layout": "fr",
"sys_enc": "UTF-8",
"sys_lang": "en_US.UTF-8"
},
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Unmounting all existing partitions: /dev/nvme0n1
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Unmounting: /dev/nvme0n1p1
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Unmounting: /dev/nvme0n1p2
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - INFO - Wiping partitions and metadata: /dev/nvme0n1
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - INFO - Creating partitions: /dev/nvme0n1
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Type: primary
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Filesystem: fat32
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Geometry: 2048 start sector, 2097152 length
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Type: primary
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Filesystem: xfs
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Geometry: 2099200 start sector, 498016256 length
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Formatting filesystem: mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/nvme0n1p1
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - partition information found: {"name":"nvme0n1p1","path":"/dev/nvme0n1p1","pkname":"nvme0n1","log_sec":512,"size":"1024 MiB","pttype":"gpt","ptuuid":"41c1d575-02cd-400d-8370-2ced2e28cfd0","rota":false,"tran":"nvme","partn":1,"partuuid":"5ff8309e-3e6e-40c6-a778-d150b9a3e385","parttype":"c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b","uuid":"A97D-3A2A","fstype":"vfat","fsver":"FAT32","fsavail":null,"fsuse_percentage":null,"type":"part","mountpoint":null,"mountpoints":[],"fsroots":[],"children":[]}
[2025-06-15 15:45:27] - DEBUG - Formatting filesystem: mkfs.xfs -f /dev/nvme0n1p2
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - DEBUG - partition information found: {"name":"nvme0n1p2","path":"/dev/nvme0n1p2","pkname":"nvme0n1","log_sec":512,"size":"243172 MiB","pttype":"gpt","ptuuid":"41c1d575-02cd-400d-8370-2ced2e28cfd0","rota":false,"tran":"nvme","partn":2,"partuuid":"353eb12c-d448-4ce3-af78-a953af241fbe","parttype":"4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709","uuid":"6ee8d383-4e18-4301-879a-9a9962f6dd02","fstype":"xfs","fsver":null,"fsavail":null,"fsuse_percentage":null,"type":"part","mountpoint":null,"mountpoints":[],"fsroots":[],"children":[]}
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - INFO - Starting installation...
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - DEBUG - Mounting ordered layout
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - DEBUG - No lvm config defined to be mounted
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - DEBUG - Mounting partition layout
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - DEBUG - Mounting /dev/nvme0n1p2: mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
[2025-06-15 15:45:28] - DEBUG - Mounting /dev/nvme0n1p1: mount /dev/nvme0n1p1 /mnt/boot
[2025-06-15 15:45:51] - DEBUG - System is not running in a VM: ['/usr/bin/systemd-detect-virt'] exited with abnormal exit code [1]: none
[2025-06-15 15:45:51] - DEBUG - Optional repositories: []
[2025-06-15 15:45:52] - INFO - Installing packages: ['base', 'base-devel', 'linux-firmware', 'linux', 'xfsprogs', 'intel-ucode']
[2025-06-15 15:48:28] - INFO - Enabling periodic TRIM
[2025-06-15 15:48:28] - INFO - Enabling service fstrim.timer
[2025-06-15 15:48:28] - INFO - Setting keyboard language to fr
[2025-06-15 15:48:31] - INFO - Keyboard language for this installation is now set to: fr
[2025-06-15 15:48:44] - DEBUG - Setting mirrors on target
[2025-06-15 15:48:44] - DEBUG - Mirrorlist:
[2025-06-15 15:48:44] - INFO - Setting up swap on zram
[2025-06-15 15:48:44] - INFO - Installing packages: ['zram-generator']
[2025-06-15 15:48:45] - INFO - Enabling service [email protected]
[2025-06-15 15:48:45] - INFO - Installing packages: ['grub']
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - INFO - Adding bootloader Grub to /dev/nvme0n1p1
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - DEBUG - Installing grub bootloader
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - INFO - Installing packages: ['grub']
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - DEBUG - kernel parameters: zswap.enabled=0 rootfstype=xfs
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - INFO - GRUB boot partition: /dev/nvme0n1p1
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - INFO - GRUB EFI partition: /dev/nvme0n1p1
[2025-06-15 15:48:47] - INFO - Installing packages: ['efibootmgr']
[2025-06-15 15:48:48] - INFO - Installing packages: ['networkmanager']
[2025-06-15 15:48:53] - INFO - Installing packages: ['network-manager-applet']
[2025-06-15 15:49:16] - INFO - Enabling service NetworkManager.service
[2025-06-15 15:49:16] - INFO - Creating user hadean
[2025-06-15 15:49:16] - INFO - Setting password for hadean
[2025-06-15 15:49:16] - INFO - Enabling sudo permissions for hadean
[2025-06-15 15:49:16] - INFO - Installing audio server: PIPEWIRE
[2025-06-15 15:49:16] - INFO - Installing packages: ['pipewire', 'pipewire-alsa', 'pipewire-jack', 'pipewire-pulse', 'gst-plugin-pipewire', 'libpulse', 'wireplumber']
[2025-06-15 15:49:22] - INFO - Installing packages: ['sof-firmware']
[2025-06-15 15:49:36] - INFO - Installing packages: ['nano', 'vim', 'openssh', 'htop', 'wget', 'iwd', 'wireless_tools', 'wpa_supplicant', 'smartmontools', 'xdg-utils']
[2025-06-15 15:49:48] - INFO - Installing profile KDE Plasma...
[2025-06-15 15:49:48] - INFO - Installing packages: ['plasma-meta', 'konsole', 'kate', 'dolphin', 'ark', 'plasma-workspace']
[2025-06-15 15:52:08] - DEBUG - Installing GFX driver: Intel (open-source)
[2025-06-15 15:52:08] - INFO - Installing packages: ['xorg-server', 'xorg-xinit', 'mesa', 'libva-intel-driver', 'intel-media-driver', 'vulkan-intel']
[2025-06-15 15:52:18] - INFO - Installing packages: ['sddm']
[2025-06-15 15:52:19] - INFO - Enabling service sddm
[2025-06-15 15:52:19] - INFO - Activating systemd-timesyncd for time synchronization using Arch Linux and ntp.org NTP servers
[2025-06-15 15:52:19] - INFO - Enabling service systemd-timesyncd
[2025-06-15 15:52:19] - INFO - Setting password for root
[2025-06-15 15:52:19] - INFO - Updating /mnt/etc/fstab
[2025-06-15 15:52:19] - DEBUG - Disk states after installing:
{
"blockdevices": [
{
"name": "sda",
"path": "/dev/sda",
"pkname": null,
"log_sec": 512,
"size": "953869 MiB",
"pttype": "gpt",
"ptuuid": "3d397a04-2b1d-4f78-8f93-984a22d0c353",
"rota": false,
"tran": "usb",
"partn": null,
"partuuid": null,
"parttype": null,
"uuid": null,
"fstype": null,
"fsver": null,
"fsavail": null,
"fsuse_percentage": null,
"type": "disk",
"mountpoint": null,
"mountpoints": [],
"fsroots": [],
"children": [
{
"name": "sda1",
"path": "/dev/sda1",
"pkname": "sda",
"log_sec": 512,
"size": "1024 MiB",
"pttype": "gpt",
"ptuuid": "3d397a04-2b1d-4f78-8f93-984a22d0c353",
"rota": false,
"tran": null,
"partn": 1,
"partuuid": "0b503992-15b9-4ec3-92b4-6c4b75dc1211",
"parttype": "c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b",
"uuid": "B738-8BE8",
"fstype": "vfat",
"fsver": "FAT32",
"fsavail": 856309760,
"fsuse_percentage": "20%",
"type": "part",
"mountpoint": "/boot",
"mountpoints": [
"/boot"
],
"fsroots": [
"/"
],
"children": []
},
{
"name": "sda2",
"path": "/dev/sda2",
"pkname": "sda",
"log_sec": 512,
"size": "952844 MiB",
"pttype": "gpt",
"ptuuid": "3d397a04-2b1d-4f78-8f93-984a22d0c353",
"rota": false,
"tran": null,
"partn": 2,
"partuuid": "0ecb9551-a2dc-4c9c-a6d5-645edd4e4ee1",
"parttype": "4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709",
"uuid": "829cef8e-23e4-4115-99b9-0fb08e9e0804",
"fstype": "ext4",
"fsver": "1.0",
"fsavail": 852475097088,
"fsuse_percentage": "8%",
"type": "part",
"mountpoint": "/",
"mountpoints": [
"/"
],
"fsroots": [
"/"
],
"children": []
}
]
},
{
"name": "zram0",
"path": "/dev/zram0",
"pkname": null,
"log_sec": 4096,
"size": "4096 MiB",
"pttype": null,
"ptuuid": null,
"rota": false,
"tran": null,
"partn": null,
"partuuid": null,
"parttype": null,
"uuid": "6611e8f5-addd-4cea-bf04-e3c22900b301",
"fstype": "swap",
"fsver": "1",
"fsavail": null,
"fsuse_percentage": null,
"type": "disk",
"mountpoint": "[SWAP]",
"mountpoints": [
"[SWAP]"
],
"fsroots": [],
"children": []
},
{
"name": "nvme0n1",
"path": "/dev/nvme0n1",
"pkname": null,
"log_sec": 512,
"size": "244198 MiB",
"pttype": "gpt",
"ptuuid": "41c1d575-02cd-400d-8370-2ced2e28cfd0",
"rota": false,
"tran": "nvme",
"partn": null,
"partuuid": null,
"parttype": null,
"uuid": null,
"fstype": null,
"fsver": null,
"fsavail": null,
"fsuse_percentage": null,
"type": "disk",
"mountpoint": null,
"mountpoints": [],
"fsroots": [],
"children": [
{
"name": "nvme0n1p1",
"path": "/dev/nvme0n1p1",
"pkname": "nvme0n1",
"log_sec": 512,
"size": "1024 MiB",
"pttype": "gpt",
"ptuuid": "41c1d575-02cd-400d-8370-2ced2e28cfd0",
"rota": false,
"tran": "nvme",
"partn": 1,
"partuuid": "5ff8309e-3e6e-40c6-a778-d150b9a3e385",
"parttype": "c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b",
"uuid": "A97D-3A2A",
"fstype": "vfat",
"fsver": "FAT32",
"fsavail": 872714240,
"fsuse_percentage": "19%",
"type": "part",
"mountpoint": "/mnt/boot",
"mountpoints": [
"/mnt/boot"
],
"fsroots": [
"/"
],
"children": []
},
{
"name": "nvme0n1p2",
"path": "/dev/nvme0n1p2",
"pkname": "nvme0n1",
"log_sec": 512,
"size": "243172 MiB",
"pttype": "gpt",
"ptuuid": "41c1d575-02cd-400d-8370-2ced2e28cfd0",
"rota": false,
"tran": "nvme",
"partn": 2,
"partuuid": "353eb12c-d448-4ce3-af78-a953af241fbe",
"parttype": "4f68bce3-e8cd-4db1-96e7-fbcaf984b709",
"uuid": "6ee8d383-4e18-4301-879a-9a9962f6dd02",
"fstype": "xfs",
"fsver": null,
"fsavail": 243082887168,
"fsuse_percentage": "5%",
"type": "part",
"mountpoint": "/mnt",
"mountpoints": [
"/mnt"
],
"fsroots": [
"/"
],
"children": []
}
]
}
]
}
[2025-06-15 15:54:31] - INFO - Syncing the system...
[2025-06-15 15:54:31] - INFO - Installation completed without any errors.
Log files temporarily available at /var/log/archinstall.
You may reboot when ready.
At first i thought it was zwap line GRUB. SO I switched from BRTFS to XFS to see if the issue would persist.
Then found the culprit in last line of /etc/fstab. zram0 and system was instantly booting again instead of 1m30~~
Sry I just removed the mirrors that were duplicated. The rest is basically in full but here :)
Thanks for sharing, I'll try to reproduce it.
I see the version is missing, did you run from master?
I ran sudo pacman -Syu archinstall (then, archinstall) from my other arch disk, running latest 6.15.2-arch1-1.
[ 2.876572] zram: Added device: zram0 [ 2.954555] systemd[1]: Created slice Slice /system/systemd-zram-setup. [ 2.955065] systemd[1]: Expecting device /dev/zram0... [ 3.238292] zram0: detected capacity change from 0 to 8388608 [ 3.316189] Adding 4194300k swap on /dev/zram0. Priority:100 extents:1 across:4194300k SSDsc
From dmesg, my thought is is it possilbe the last line in fstab is simply redundant?
Back then I thought it was a me issue not knowing some details, but then I saw it had the same issue with xfs or btrfs (about a month ago, and just yesterday). When I found the culprit I thought this might help someone else or the devs themselves. Also testing on hardware, no VMs
Beautiful. Then when commenting last line of fstab, it kind of fixes itself magically. Yet swap still works But I'm not sure of the technicality behind archinstall code. Would love to hear more!
From a first testing, I think whats happening is that when generating the fstab for the installation target genfstab -uP /mnt it will also pick up the zram device /dev/zram0 from the local host. I imagine you run the installation from a arch host not the ISO?
Hey @svartkanin, forked my own version for testing and found this to work correctly:
genfstab {flags} -f {self.target} {self.target}
At least from a host installation