Arch Linux ARM not booting on Pi 4B

[akmin]

I'm attempting to install Arch Linux ARM on my Raspberry Pi 4B using instructions on https://github.com/phortx/Raspberry-Pi-Setup-Guide.

I first used an existing Arch Linux instance running on VirtualBox to handle disk partitioning, but there was no video output and the ACT LED was blinking 4 times.

To make sure it wasn't faulty VirtualBox virtual hard drives, I installed all the necessary tools on my Mac for installation (gtpfdisk, Paragon extFS, etc). There were some issues with the last step of moving boot files to the boot partition (step 1.3 on the instructions, sudo mv root/boot/* boot/) in which mv would throw `fchflags...Invalid argument` exceptions, but I eventually transferred all the files by drag-n-drop in Finder—perhaps some files were lost here. However I got the same result as before: no video output and 4 LED blinks. The Boot Problems sticky post says 0 long flashes and 4 short flashes indicates "start*.elf not found" on RPI 4B, but loading the SD card onto my laptop I can find start_cd.elf, start_db.elf, start_x.elf, start.elf, start4.elf, start4cd.elf, start4db.elf, start4x.elf.

What steps should I take to boot Arch Linux ARM?

Extra info:
* Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB, bought last week
* MacBook Pro running Catalina
* LG 4K HDR Display
* 32 GB Samsung SD Card
* Installed Raspbian as a sanity check using Raspberry Pi Imager—everything works fine

[fruitoftheloom]

I'm attempting to install Arch Linux ARM on my Raspberry Pi 4B using instructions on https://github.com/phortx/Raspberry-Pi-Setup-Guide.

I first used an existing Arch Linux instance running on VirtualBox to handle disk partitioning, but there was no video output and the ACT LED was blinking 4 times.

To make sure it wasn't faulty VirtualBox virtual hard drives, I installed all the necessary tools on my Mac for installation (gtpfdisk, Paragon extFS, etc). There were some issues with the last step of moving boot files to the boot partition (step 1.3 on the instructions, sudo mv root/boot/* boot/) in which mv would throw `fchflags...Invalid argument` exceptions, but I eventually transferred all the files by drag-n-drop in Finder—perhaps some files were lost here. However I got the same result as before: no video output and 4 LED blinks. The Boot Problems sticky post says 0 long flashes and 4 short flashes indicates "start*.elf not found" on RPI 4B, but loading the SD card onto my laptop I can find start_cd.elf, start_db.elf, start_x.elf, start.elf, start4.elf, start4cd.elf, start4db.elf, start4x.elf.

What steps should I take to boot Arch Linux ARM?

Extra info:
* Raspberry Pi 4B 4GB, bought last week
* MacBook Pro running Catalina
* LG 4K HDR Display
* 32 GB Samsung SD Card
* Installed Raspbian as a sanity check using Raspberry Pi Imager—everything works fine

Maybe try Manjaro (Arch) as it is available as an .img file ?? you can use software like BalenaEtcher to create a bootable SD Card from the zipped download:

https://manjaro.org/download/arm/raspbe ... de-plasma/

https://manjaro.org/downloads/arm/raspb ... pi-4-xfce/

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

[procount]

The official instructions for installing Arch on a Pi 4 are here -> https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv ... berry-pi-4 , on the installation tab.

Both Manjaro (KDE or xfce versions) and Arch4 can be installed by PINN.

[akmin]

Thanks for showing me what PINN is, works perfectly. This is off-topic, but do you know if there's a way to uninstall PINN afterwards and use a different bootloader?

[procount]

The only bootloader compatible with PINN would be NOOBS, but that's a bit of a backwards step.
And anyway, it's not really a "boot loader" in the usual sense, more of an "OS selector at boot".

What is your issue with wanting to change it?
Do you want a faster startup of Arch without PINN getting in the way?
Then see https://github.com/procount/pinn/blob/m ... -partition (set the boot_partition to 6).

[Lander1979]

Those instructions the OP has followed in the GIT are flawed and will end up in a corrupted installation. If you extract using TAR instead of BSDTAR, you will truncate all of the file and directory access permissions which Arch needs in order to function correctly.

For best results ONLY follow the official guide...
https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv ... berry-pi-4

[fruitoftheloom]

.

For best results ONLY follow the official guide...
https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv ... berry-pi-4

Yes that was pointed out a week ago:

viewtopic.php?f=53&t=272492#p1651829