[SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

ZImperator · 2026-01-11 03:24:10

I am trying to install Arch Linux with LVM on LUKS. I managed to get through the installation and install GRUB, but booting fails on loading the initramfs. The message shown is:

[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-root
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for /sysroot
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd Root File System
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Mountpoints Configured in the Real Root
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Initrd root device
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for File System Check on /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-root
You are in emergency mode. After logging in, type "journalctl -xb" to view system logs, "systemctl reboot" to reboot, or "exit" to continue bootup.

Cannot open access to console, the root account is locked.
Se sulogin(8) man page for more details.

Press Enter to continue.

I initially set up everything according to the wiki, but it kept failing, so I repeatedly changed the paths (tey all canonically lead to the same locations) mkinitcpio is also configured properly (I believe)

If it is important, I am attempting this install on a Thinkpad E15 Gen 1 Intel. I am trying to install this on a non primary, 430.1 GB partition (/dev/sda5) for dualboot. What am I doing wrong?

Last edited by ZImperator (Yesterday 22:57:56)

Scimmia · 2026-01-11 11:59:44

Post your mkinitcpio and bootloader configs.

ZImperator wrote:

on a non primary, 430.1 GB partition (/dev/sda5)

Is this a BIOS system booting from a DOS/MBR disk? GPT has no such thing as primary/non primary.

Lone_Wolf · 2026-01-11 12:53:36

An uefi system can boot from a DOS/MBR disk as long as the ESP has the correct filetype.

Please also add the full output of

# fdisk -l

Scimmia · 2026-01-11 15:16:26

Some UEFI system can boot from an internal DOS/MBR disk. It's not required by the spec.

ZImperator · 2026-01-11 21:40:15

Scimmia wrote:

Post your mkinitcpio and bootloader configs.
ZImperator wrote:
on a non primary, 430.1 GB partition (/dev/sda5)
Is this a BIOS system booting from a DOS/MBR disk? GPT has no such thing as primary/non primary.

I am saying non primary because it's not the first bootable system, but no, it is gpt.

For fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: WDC WD10SPZX-08Z
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 641B64AA-364D-4A87-94D2-BCB4384A52D2

Device          Start        End    Sectors   Size Type
/dev/sda1        2048    7814453    7812406   3.7G EFI System
/dev/sda2     8390656    8652799     262144   128M Microsoft reserved
/dev/sda3     8652800 1049374719 1040721920 496.3G Microsoft basic data
/dev/sda4  1049374720 1051580416    2205697   1.1G Windows recovery environment
/dev/sda5  1051582464 1953523711  901941248 430.1G Linux filesystem


Disk /dev/sdb: 114.6 GiB, 123048296448 bytes, 240328704 sectors
Disk model: Cruzer Glide
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x2822af79

Device     Boot   Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdb1  *         64 2491103 2491040  1.2G  0 Empty
/dev/sdb2       2491104 3005151  514048  251M ef EFI (FAT-12/16/32)


Disk /dev/loop0: 971.93 MiB, 1019146240 bytes, 1990520 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 /dev/mapper/cryptlvm: 430.06 GiB, 461777141760 bytes, 112738560 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-root: 64 GiB, 68719476736 bytes, 16777216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-var: 64 GiB, 68719476736 bytes, 16777216 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-tmp: 6 GiB, 6442450944 bytes, 1572864 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-swap: 10 GiB, 10737418240 bytes, 2621440 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes


Disk /dev/mapper/cryptlvm-home: 256 GiB, 274877906944 bytes, 67108864 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

I also believe that the grub module list may be a problem. For the option in the command grub-install, I used "${GRUB_MODULES}", which I specified in /etc/default/grub. I used the module list from the ubuntu install script, as specified in the arch wiki. However, I am not sure that this works. I used the tpm module (so CA keys, not shim lock), but grub still booted without secure boot. I also got no password prompt, just the error. For the kernel parameters(in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX:

rd.luks.name=3c4ad368-1d8e-4c5d-b266-8d1bf7c5c44c:cryptlvm root=/dev/mapper/cryptlvm-root

If it was not clear before, the second parameter seems to be causing the issue. Since the luks2 volume was not opened beforehand, the volume group is inaccessible. I also enabled cryptodisk in that same file. For the mkinitcpio hooks:

base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap sd-vconsole block sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck

in that order.
I am going to try manually reinstalling grub and specifying the modules in the command itself, to be absolutely certain.

Edit: After installing grub and maually specifying the modules, it now goes into rescue mode because it cannot find normal.mod. That means that the variable did in fact work, since it didn't do this earlier. Now I can narrow this down to the kernel parameter & mkinitcpio, & I believe that the former is more likely.

Last edited by ZImperator (2026-01-11 21:56:40)

ZImperator · Yesterday 22:56:49

I have managed to fix the issue. When I changed the kernel parameter to rd.luks.uuid, it worked without a problem. I also created and used crypttab.initramfs, but I'm not sure if that did anything.

Arch Linux

#1 2026-01-11 03:24:10

[SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

#2 2026-01-11 11:59:44

Re: [SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

#3 2026-01-11 12:53:36

Re: [SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

#4 2026-01-11 15:16:26

Re: [SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

#5 2026-01-11 21:40:15

Re: [SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

#6 Yesterday 22:56:49

Re: [SOLVED] Installation with LVM on LUKS fails to boot

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