Arch Linux

nexus

Member

Registered: 2022-04-26

Posts: 12

timed out waiting for LVM on LUKS at boot [SOLVED]

I'm installing Arch on a new machine, following the wiki guide for LVM on LUKs with an encrypted boot partition with GRUB.

When booting, I enter my password successfully and decrypt the boot partition for GRUB, but then it times out waiting for the LVM partition.

Here are the outputs of
lsblk -f

NAME                  FSTYPE      FSVER            LABEL       UUID                                   FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINTS
loop0                 squashfs    4.0                                                                                
sda                   iso9660     Joliet Extension ARCH_202603 2026-03-01-10-44-11-00                                
├─sda1                iso9660     Joliet Extension ARCH_202603 2026-03-01-10-44-11-00                                
└─sda2                vfat        FAT32            ARCHISO_EFI 69A4-187B                                             
nvme0n1                                                                                                              
├─nvme0n1p1                                                                                                          
├─nvme0n1p2           vfat        FAT32                        2F69-3E3A                              1021.3M     0% /efi
└─nvme0n1p3           crypto_LUKS 2                            a213d192-fbfa-46f9-bed5-bf392dd4acc2                  
  └─cryptlvm          LVM2_member LVM2 001                     QPVOZj-ubtq-KqRE-E5Y7-cQgh-7BKk-Uxt9Yx                
    ├─MyVolGroup-root btrfs                                    d2420c55-a9eb-4063-8ccc-d39a873f5ca3     43.7G     8% /
    └─MyVolGroup-home btrfs                                    e33edcbc-4e12-4a7c-9122-b1c439af65e2    880.5G     0% /home

/etc/fstab

# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
# /dev/mapper/MyVolGroup-root
UUID=d2420c55-a9eb-4063-8ccc-d39a873f5ca3	/         	btrfs     	rw,relatime,ssd,space_cache=v2,subvol=/	0 0

# /dev/mapper/MyVolGroup-home
UUID=e33edcbc-4e12-4a7c-9122-b1c439af65e2	/home     	btrfs     	rw,relatime,ssd,space_cache=v2,subvol=/	0 0

# /dev/nvme0n1p2
UUID=2F69-3E3A      	/efi      	vfat      	rw,relatime,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=437,iocharset=ascii,shortname=mixed,utf8,errors=remount-ro	0 2

relevant section of /etc/default/grub (file is here)

# GRUB boot loader configuration

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR="Arch"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="loglevel=3 quiet"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="rd.luks.name=a213d192-fbfa-46f9-bed5-bf392dd4acc2:cryptlvm"

# Preload both GPT and MBR modules so that they are not missed
GRUB_PRELOAD_MODULES="part_gpt part_msdos"

# Uncomment to enable booting from LUKS encrypted devices
GRUB_ENABLE_CRYPTODISK=y

relevant lines of /etc/mkinitcpio.conf (file is here here)

FILES=(/etc/cryptsetup-keys.d/cryptlvm.key)

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

Last edited by nexus (2026-03-20 18:41:19)

5hridhyan

Member

From: Asia

Registered: 2025-12-25

Posts: 560

Re: timed out waiting for LVM on LUKS at boot [SOLVED]

HOOKS=(base systemd autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard sd-vconsole block sd-encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

?
try `sd-lvm2` instead of lvm2
try by adding `rd.lvm=1` to your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub, and rebuild grub, also mkincipto

Edit:
Also your fstab is kinda, like if you intended separate subvolumes, it should look like subvol=@, subvol=@home otherwise, / and /home are literally the same tree yeah not a boot blocker, but messy...

Last edited by 5hridhyan (2026-03-20 07:21:06)

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nexus

Member

Registered: 2022-04-26

Posts: 12

Re: timed out waiting for LVM on LUKS at boot [SOLVED]

try `sd-lvm2` instead of lvm2

Hook not found

try by adding `rd.lvm=1` to your GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub, and rebuild grub, also mkincipto

Didn't affect the outcome.

Edit:
Also your fstab is kinda, like if you intended separate subvolumes, it should look like subvol=@, subvol=@home otherwise, / and /home are literally the same tree yeah not a boot blocker, but messy...

The fstab is the default generated by genfstab following the wiki. I haven't tweaked it yet, just trying to boot up the system first.

5hridhyan

Member

From: Asia

Registered: 2025-12-25

Posts: 560

Re: timed out waiting for LVM on LUKS at boot [SOLVED]

@dipagupta07 I was lurking other forums to help OP, what did I actually share that helpful, in order you were thanking?

@nexus
ignore my earlier sd-lvm2 suggestion, that’s not a real hook on Arch, I was looking at a 6Y/O one my bad (I think it's deprecated rn)...
you're mixing systemd and busybox initramfs concepts, if you're using sd-encrypt, stick to systemd-style hooks entirely, if not, switch to encrypt + lvm2 (busybox).
rn the LUKS container is unlocked, but the VG isn't being activated, which is why it times out...

You can either:
- fix the hook consistency, or
- force activation with rd.lvm.vg=MyVolGroup

also worth reconsidering whether you actually need LVM here, since it adds another layer during early boot...

Edit2:
If still the same, add `rd.lvm.lv=MyVolGroup/root` (more granular, forces specific Lv activation...)
and also boot with `rd.debug`,  `rd.shell` for initramfs debug shell && manually run `lvm vgchange -ay` to see activation errors...

Edit3: Striked out redundant && re-wrote the post

Last edited by 5hridhyan (2026-03-20 18:54:10)

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nexus

Member

Registered: 2022-04-26

Posts: 12

Re: timed out waiting for LVM on LUKS at boot [SOLVED]

Fixing the hooks to match the busybox-based initramfs fixed it. Specifically, I changed to

HOOKS=(base udev autodetect microcode modconf kms keyboard keymap block encrypt lvm2 filesystems fsck)

and modified my /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="cryptdevice=UUID=device-UUID:cryptlvm root=/dev/MyVolGroup/root cryptkey=rootfs:/etc/cryptsetup-keys.d/cryptlvm.key"

Thanks!

As a note, I have done this before, but I don't think sd-encrypt was a thing at that time. The new hooks got me mixed up, as you pointed out. I appreciate the help.

Also, you're probably right about not needing the LVM. I'm considering that.