Looking for some troubleshooting help, if possible.

Attempting to install Arch using the linux-zen kernel. Planning to encrypt root using dm-crypt.

Early on, after running

parted /dev/vda --script mklabel gpt

parted -a optimal /dev/vda --script mkpart "ptn-boot" fat32 2048s 1024MiB

parted -a optimal /dev/vda --script mkpart "ptn-root" btrfs 1024MiB 100%

on the disk.

i then enter

modprobe dm-crypt

modprobe dm-mod

I’ve done this procedure a lot of times before, but I think I’m missing something, bc when I run modprobe dm-crypt, i get

modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'dm_crypt': Invalid argument

I don’t get an error with modprobe dm-mod.

In /lib/modules/7.1.3-zen1-2-zen/kernel/drivers/md/, i have dm-crypt.ko.zst and dm-mod.ko.zst.

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    2·
    7 hours ago

    This is…confusing. Are you saying you’re in a LiveUSB environment while running this, or you’re inside a currently installed environment where this has previously worked?

    Confirm the current live kernel when running this command matches the lib modules you’re pointing out here. This sounds like a mismatch issue.

    • egsaqmojz@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
      1·
      6 hours ago

      yeah, i’ve built an iso using archiso (https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Archiso, https://github.com/archlinux/archiso). i’m running the 2 modprobe commands while booted into that iso (the live environment).

      i have the following packages installed on the live iso when building that image:

      • arch-install-scripts
      • base
      • base-devel
      • bind
      • btrfs-progs
      • cryptsetup
      • dosfstools
      • dracut
      • edk2-shell
      • efibootmgr
      • git
      • gptfdisk
      • inetutils
      • libfido2
      • linux-firmware
      • linux-zen
      • linux-zen-headers
      • lvm2
      • man
      • memtest86+
      • memtest86±efi
      • net-tools
      • parted
      • thin-provisioning-tools
      • usbutils
      • util-linux
      • vim
      • wge

      my next steps would normally be

      cryptsetup -v luksFormat /dev/vda2

      which asks for a passphrase, creates a key in slot 0, and seems to succeed in encrypting the partition.

      cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/vda2 map-root

      this asks for the passphrase to unlock, but gives the following response:

      device-mapper: reload ioctl on map-root (253:0) failed: Invalid argument

      and then my formatting step

      mkfs.btrfs -f -L "fs-root-btrfs" /dev/mapper/map-root

      clearly doesn’t work.

      “pacman -Q cryptsetup” yields “cryptsetup 2.8.6-1”

      “uname -a” yields

      Linux larch.domain.net 7.1.3-zen1-2-zen #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu, 09 Jul 2026 20:39:38 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

      i initially tried this on my laptop, bc i didn’t expect any trouble. but i’m working with a libvirt virtual machine now until i figure out the issue.