I'm having a really tough time trying to set up a dual boot with Windows 11 and Arch Linux. This is my third attempt, and I'm feeling pretty lost. The first time I tried booting into Arch, I got an error saying, "root device mounted successfully, but /sbin/init does not exist. Bailing out, you are on your own now. Good luck." After that, I completely gave up, but I'm back at it again. On my second try, I ended up in the Lenovo setup utility with no idea how to proceed.
Here's what I did step by step:
1. Used Rufus to create a bootable pen drive.
2. Created and formatted the necessary partitions.
3. Installed Arch with `pacstrap /mnt base linux linux-firmware nano`.
4. Generated fstab with `genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab`.
5. Chrooted into the system and set up the locale, hostname, root password, and created a user with sudo privileges.
6. Installed additional packages like `dosfstools`, `os-prober`, `networkmanager`, etc.
7. Installed GRUB with the command `grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg`.
8. Finally, I rebooted with `shutdown -r now`.
I've summarized my process, but I might have missed something crucial. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Hey there! One thing to double-check is if GRUB is set as your default bootloader. Did you add Windows to the GRUB menu? After installing GRUB, you can check if it loads up fine when you start your PC. If you're having trouble with commands, I recommend looking up some beginner-friendly tutorials for dual booting. Arch is great, but it can be a handful without a bit of prior experience!
It sounds like you're having a rough start! If you're totally new to Linux, you might want to try something like Linux Mint or Ubuntu first. They tend to be more user-friendly for beginners. Once you are familiar with Linux, Arch will be easier to work with later on. But if you’re set on Arch, you may need to check that you’ve installed the GRUB package correctly before running the GRUB install command. Also, keep in mind that Arch can be tricky for dual booting—sometimes it's better to use a virtual machine for testing.
Thanks for the tip! I will make sure to check if GRUB is my default bootloader. I appreciate your advice about looking for more beginner tutorials too!