On 10/07/2026 05.20, David C Rankin wrote:
I downloaded a fresh 7/01 Arch install iso, dd'ed it to a USB and booted from it choosing the x86_64 install/maintenance entry. The init image loaded fine, but then the loading of Arch froze, in the same manner, appearing like a hardware freeze.
This suggest a hardware problem that was causing kernel-side freeze during boot. I have been using RAID1/RAID10 mdadm arrays on a couple of servers for over 15 years or so, where root and /boot (legacy and uefi) partitions are under mdadm and I've never had such problem. Experienced a lot of reboots in degraded mode, when arrays were in syncing or checking state - no problems. The worst case I had was a disk failure that caused whole SATA controller to be unresponsive. Then it was enough to disconnect failed disk and boot from the other mirror. So I do not think that it is mdadm related - a coincidence maybe - and may strike you back in the future.
Regards, Łukasz
