archinstall Keeps Crashing On the 16MB Windows Partition (Dual Boot)

pxelight · Yesterday 21:23:24

I’m trying to dual boot Arch Linux alongside Windows 10 on my single 500GB SSD, but I hit a massive roadblock. Every time I run archinstall, it throws a huge traceback error pointing directly at my 16MB partition (/dev/sda2, pretty sure it’s the Microsoft Reserved Partition).

Here is exactly what I did: I shrank my Windows partition to leave about 110GB for Linux. Then I booted into the Arch ISO, set up the internet, updated the keyring, and installed the latest archinstall. After that, I used cfdisk to create a 1GB EFI partition (/dev/sda4) and a 109GB Linux filesystem (/dev/sda5). I formatted them with mkfs.vfat -F32 and mkfs.ext4, and manually mounted them to /mnt and /mnt/boot.

Everything was going perfectly, but the second I launch archinstall, it just loses its mind over that 16MB Windows partition.

Just for context, I already disabled Fast Startup, System Protection, and Secure Boot. I also made sure to properly restart from Windows so the drive wouldn't be locked.

Do I really need to delete that 16MB partition to make this work, or will that completely destroy my Windows installation? Or maybe archinstall is just choking because I pre-mounted everything myself? I really want to use the script instead of going full manual, so any tips on how to bypass this error would be a lifesaver. By the way, I'm not really sure that the error is about the Windows MSR partition...

Thanks.

Here is the traceback:

[2026-06-11 16:45:07] - INFO - Fetching Arch Linux package database...
[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - DEBUG - Checking version
[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - DEBUG - Failed to check for package upgrades: archinstall
[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - DEBUG - No archinstall upgrades found
[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - DEBUG - Running from ISO (Live Mode)...
[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - DEBUG - Mounting /dev/sda2: mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/arch_btrfs
[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - ERROR - Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/utils.py", line 171, in mount
    SysCommand(command)
    ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/command.py", line 243, in __init__
    self.create_session()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/command.py", line 283, in create_session
    with SysCommandWorker(
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
    	self.cmd,
     ^^^^^^^^^
    ...<3 lines>...
    	working_directory=self.working_directory,
     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ) as session:
    ^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/command.py", line 111, in __exit__
    raise SysCallError(
    ...<3 lines>...
    )
archinstall.lib.exceptions.SysCallError: ['/usr/bin/mount', '/dev/sda2', '/mnt/arch_btrfs'] exited with abnormal exit code [32]: mount: /mnt/arch_btrfs: can't read superblock on /dev/sda2.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.


During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/main.py", line 154, in main
    rc = run()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/main.py", line 127, in run
    module = importlib.import_module(mod_name)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/importlib/__init__.py", line 88, in import_module
    return _bootstrap._gcd_import(name[level:], package, level)
           ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1406, in _gcd_import
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1371, in _find_and_load
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 1342, in _find_and_load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 938, in _load_unlocked
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap_external>", line 759, in exec_module
  File "<frozen importlib._bootstrap>", line 491, in _call_with_frames_removed
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/scripts/guided.py", line 9, in <module>
    from archinstall.lib.disk.filesystem import FilesystemHandler
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/filesystem.py", line 5, in <module>
    from archinstall.lib.disk.device_handler import device_handler
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/device_handler.py", line 626, in <module>
    device_handler = DeviceHandler()
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/device_handler.py", line 48, in __init__
    self.load_devices()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/device_handler.py", line 103, in load_devices
    subvol_infos = self.get_btrfs_info(partition.path, lsblk_info)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/device_handler.py", line 193, in get_btrfs_info
    mount(dev_path, self._TMP_BTRFS_MOUNT, create_target_mountpoint=True)
    ~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/archinstall/lib/disk/utils.py", line 173, in mount
    raise DiskError(f'Could not mount {dev_path}: {command}\n{err.message}')
archinstall.lib.exceptions.DiskError: Could not mount /dev/sda2: mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/arch_btrfs
['/usr/bin/mount', '/dev/sda2', '/mnt/arch_btrfs'] exited with abnormal exit code [32]: mount: /mnt/arch_btrfs: can't read superblock on /dev/sda2.
       dmesg(1) may have more information after failed mount system call.


[2026-06-11 16:45:08] - WARNING - Archinstall experienced the above error. If you think this is a bug, please report it to
[url]https://github.com/archlinux/archinstall[/url] and include the log file "/var/log/archinstall/install.log".

Hint: To extract the log from a live ISO
curl -F 'file=@/var/log/archinstall/install.log' [url]https://0x0.st[/url]

Last edited by pxelight (Yesterday 23:46:30)

cryptearth · Yesterday 22:06:36

just go manual instead of using archinstall

also- please use code tags

WorMzy · Yesterday 22:32:12

Mod note: moving to archinstall subforum.

pxelight · Yesterday 23:49:45

cryptearth wrote:

just go manual instead of using archinstall
also- please use code tags

Thanks, I'll try the manual way. And this is my first time posting on a forum, sorry for my rookie mistakes.

seth · Today 08:16:47

Why would the script try to mount the NSA partition?
And why would failing to mount a non-filesystem be a terminal error?

lsblk -f

Arch Linux

#1 Yesterday 21:23:24

archinstall Keeps Crashing On the 16MB Windows Partition (Dual Boot)

#2 Yesterday 22:06:36

Re: archinstall Keeps Crashing On the 16MB Windows Partition (Dual Boot)

#3 Yesterday 22:32:12

Re: archinstall Keeps Crashing On the 16MB Windows Partition (Dual Boot)

#4 Yesterday 23:49:45

Re: archinstall Keeps Crashing On the 16MB Windows Partition (Dual Boot)

#5 Today 08:16:47

Re: archinstall Keeps Crashing On the 16MB Windows Partition (Dual Boot)

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